By Deborah Klein Santa Monica
Your article (SMDP, Aug. 17, page 1) about the brouhaha and lawsuit over the little boy’s playhouse is just but another example of the city of Santa Monica, its City Council and city boards, going out of their way to unfairly persecute homeowners and small business owners.
You have reported about homeowners being threatened by the city because of their hedges, about small business owners being threatened over harmless business signs, and about the long and unreasonable delays and arbitrary decisions faced by homeowners and business owners in the planning process and at the planning department.
In this case, it was the city going after a little boy because a neighbor who is connected to Councilman Ken Genser didn’t like the little boy’s playhouse. The neighbor got her friend to intervene, and she apparently was able to dictate colors and other design features, and later was able to find a way to get the city to declare the playhouse illegal.
This is just another sorry example of the city interfering with the rights of homeowners and children by allowing well-connected neighbors to arbitrarily decide what their neighbors can do. Instead of persecuting our children and trying to destroy their playhouses, the city should focus on getting the homeless out of our parks so that our children can actually use our public parks.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 19, 2004. Read the original PDF.