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# Power to the People
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/power-to-the-people-2/
- Published: 2006-02-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:10:10.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

*ICONOCLAST*

*By BLAST BY SETH BARNES*

Forget about Iraq. Forget about the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, Ford Motor Company’s plans to lay off 30,000 workers, or even the fact that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are on the verge of eliminating world poverty. In fact, forget about any of the newsworthy topics that usually fill these opinion pages because there’s a hard news story right here in Santa Monica that can’t be beat.

On January 24, Santa Monica Daily Press reporter Kevin Herrera filled us in on the swift actions taken by City Hall to choke off an audacious scam that has been fleecing city taxpayers for over five years. Herrera writes that city officials recently “cut the power to electrical outlets placed on lamp posts along Ocean Front Walk.”

The outlets, which are over 10 feet above ground, were being exploited by enterprising freeloaders willing to climb the posts like King Kong to plug in electrical devices. Before City Hall evaporated the practice with their brave and decisive actions, the scoundrels made off with watts upon watts of electricity that belonged to you and me.

Thank God for our local government. This is why we elect our best and brightest citizens to fill these bureaucratic positions. City Hall is standing firm on this issue, sending a strong message that every penny counts to the City of Santa Monica. Even if it, literally, is only a few measly pennies.

I think we have to assume that most of the offenders are the much-maligned homeless. Those of us fortunate enough to have a roof over our heads have wide access to electricity, and wouldn’t risk a fractured skull for a few hours of electric juice on the city’s dime. And while I hate to join the chattering classes who foist off all of the city’s problems onto our delirious, drug-addled transient population, the accountant in me wants to scream out, “just how much money did these low-lifes drain from Santa Monica’s coffers?”

Well, to start, one eyewitness asserted that he hadn’t seen anybody scaling the lamp posts in “like two years.” Second, while I know my personal observations are only anecdotal, I’ve spent many hours on the Santa Monica oceanfront, and never, ever have I seen a homeless person swinging from the top of a lamp post like Sly Stallone in “Cliffhanger.” Finally, we must consider what I call the Mom-Nagging- You-to-Turn-Off-The-Damn-Light-If- You’re-Not-In-The-Room theorem. This mathematical proof states that while it certainly seems frugal and cost-efficient to curb use of minor electrical appliances like lamps and radios, the actual savings gleaned from such an undertaking is nil, nada, next to nothing. And please, don’t confront me with the yippy “but if we all pitch in, each conserving and cutting back a little, we’ll all save the world!!” argument. It’s never going to amount to anything significant. Seriously, never. So just give it up.

Given this analysis, the monies saved by City Hall in this power pilfering scam pale in comparison to big-ticket expenditures like our new $74.5 billion dollar library or the $6 trillion dollars the city devotes each year to the construction of senseless bus and bike lanes that choke our city streets. But I think the move is symbolic. After all, we live in a world where fat cats rule. Greedy corporate executives rip away pensions and benefits every day, politicians in the highest echelons of government regularly trade favors to enrich themselves while screwing the little guy. So the desperate folks trying to steal a little electricity need to learn: there’s no such thing as a free ride.

But all is not lost for the average guy or gal who’s used to crawling 10 feet into the air to charge their cellphone. It takes entrepreneurial wherewithal to shimmy up a lamp post to siphon electricity from the city. It requires a certain tenacity and dedicated vision that doesn’t come naturally to the average citizen.

In fact, there’s a place that would be perfectly accommodating for this type of skill set. It’s a big building in the center of town surrounded by a manicured lawn. There’s plenty of free electricity and they siphon off oodles of taxpayer money every day.

And hey, you don’t have to climb a 10 foot pole to get into City Hall. (Seth Barnes is a writer living in Ocean Park.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 2, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/020206.pdf?ref=smdp.com)