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# Pearl Street: Pedestrians only?
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/pearl-street-pedestrians-only/
- Published: 2003-09-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:51:40.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

and John Adams Middle School. Brown said SMC hasn’t been in any recent discussions with the owner of that house but the goal is to one day buy it. There is another house on the corner of Pearl and 17th streets that is owned by a church. SMC spokesman Bruce Smith said the newly acquired house will probably be used for the business offices that handle some campus operations, like the bookstore.

“We’re so jammed for space,” Smith said. “Space is always an issue.”

Smith said despite that SMC’s enrollment is among the highest for city colleges in the state, the physical size of the campus is the smallest. The main campus is a mere 38 acres and auxiliary areas, like the Madison Campus, don’t make up the difference, he said.

> “Believe or not, it’s the normal real estate price.” — – GREG BROWN Director of facilities planning

The other five properties currently house the college police, the police annex, the distance education office, which handles online classes, the international student house and the “Eco House,” which has an environmental center for the school that works in conjunction with City Hall.

Smith said another reason the college is interested in buying the Pearl Street properties is because City Hall in the past has discussed the possibility of one day closing Pearl Street to ease traffic.

“It would be like a walkway, kind of an open space so we could have more of a mall,” Smith said. “We wouldn’t have to worry about the danger of people going back and forth — our students and the kids down at John Adams. It’s a long shot, but it’s a possibility.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 5, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)