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# NIMBYism and ignorance alive and well in SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/nimbyism-and-ignorance-alive-and-well-in-sm-editor/
- Published: 2006-09-20T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T21:25:09.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Sunset Park, #archive-import

*By Kathy Kartiganer Santa Monica*

Let there be no mistake: I have been a resident of Santa Monica since 1986\. I am a graduate of Santa Monica College; I was a substitute teacher in SMMUSD elementary schools for several years; my ex-husband owns a condo in the city; and my 19-year-old daughter, a member of Daniel’s Place, was born in Santa Monica Hospital, attended Santa Monica elementary, middle and high schools, and is now at SMC.

We are not the only Westside members of Daniel’s Place, which serves as a wonderful, comprehensive support program for young people with mental illness. In the parent support groups I have attended, I have met many families from Santa Monica and West LA, contrary to Mr. Bender’s assessment (SMDP, Sept. 12, page 4). But does this really matter? Is there really any hope for reasoned discourse with Mr. Bender and his wild-eyed, terrified crew? I’m enclosing an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to my husband, when I returned home after the Sunset Park meeting: “I went to support the proposed Daniel’s Place housing project tonight — a community meeting — and heard the insufferable attacks, NIMBY ignorance and reactionary vomit from the Sunset Park neighbors. I’m so glad I didn’t bring “S” (our daughter). One set of Westside parents and two of her male peers spoke so poignantly about their battle with mental illness and how they’d found a home at Daniel’s Place and most importantly, how well they were doing — stable, working, studying, educated, productive people. I was then shocked and horrified to hear the responses from the vicious, frightened neighbors. They shouted out from the audience, describing “these people”as if they weren’t in the room. I was truly ashamed to be a member of the Santa Monica community. We were in a church. These young people were guests. I felt like I was living a scene out of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery,’ or living in a racist ’60s neighborhood the first time an African American family tried to move in. And so it was nearly impossible to consider the neighbors’ concerns, which seemed based solely on the fear that the future residents — carefully screened young people, pursuing their college education, working part time, fully compliant with medication and case management — were hair-triggered psychos who at any moment might assault and perhaps cannibalize the local school children who walk by the house each day. I sat next to one of S’s friends from her Daniel’s Place women’s support group, who murmured, sadly, ‘My God, we’re mentally ill, we’re not pedophiles.”

I was heartbroken. “They don’t see you,” I tried to explain. “They’re operating out of fear and ignorance.”

Ironically, the most patient responses came from the kids themselves when I spoke to some of them at Daniel’s Place the next day.

“What if they came here and met us, and saw the program? Maybe they’d understand better,” one young man suggested tolerantly.

And speaking of tolerance... the one bright light of the meeting was a City Councilman I have opposed on just about every other issue in Santa Monica — Herb Katz. His honorable, no-nonsense response to his neighbors’ vulgarity was wonderful.

It’s ironic that Mr. Bender finds Herb’s behavior a reason to force his resignation. As a supporter and mother of one of the “dogs” and “ponies” that Mr. Bender is skeptical about, I can only say: They are our children. They are our neighbors. Educate yourself. There has been groundbreaking work in the area of early intervention in mental illness — these young people will never be wandering the streets of our cities, as long as Daniel’s Place and the other similar programs that are blossoming around the U.S. and internationally are allowed to grow. I have tried to look beyond the cruelty and think about what legitimate issues the neighbors bring up. I hope, therefore, we can meet again, but this time with firm, ethical boundaries that demand a commitment of respectful behavior on the part of the only crazy people I witnessed that night: The neighbors.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 20, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092006.pdf?ref=smdp.com)