✆ “I suggest funds be allocated for an annual audit of all costs related to the homeless population in this city. This should particularly include all police costs, as well as those extra costs for sanitation, health care, shelters, social agencies, the legal department and administration. Tracking all of the dollars spent by the various departments and agencies would enable the citizens to consider more effective ways of allocating funds in the future for our seemingly insolvable homeless problem. As part of this audit, the police department should also track the number of actual contacts and/or complaints dealing with transients as compared to the department’s total operation and reveal what has been the hidden costs that have resulted in allowing an intolerable situation on our streets.” ✆ “Bum removal, both on the streets and at City Hall. Pure demolition. Save $2.5 million a year. Pothole repair, repave streets and alleys. New and brighter paint for street lanes and crosswalks so you can see better on rainy nights. Traffic signals, left-turn arrows at every major intersection. Remove the bus lane in downtown. Prune all city trees. Re-landscape the God-awful Palisades Park so you can look at the ocean. Mini-parking structures for employees of businesses on major boulevards. Cut all supposed nonprofit civic expenditures by 60 percent. Help provide funding for school district homeschooling and provide ear-muffs and nasal spray for all Santa Monica residents visiting the mall.” ✆ “A trolley or a cable car that goes up and down Wilshire to the beach to UCLA for the students. A trolley that goes up and down Arizona for the old people that can’t drive. A trolley that goes parallel or right along Third Street Promenade, and to Montana and Main Street. Put some money into it. Make it look great.” ✆ “Put some more police back onto the Promenade. It’s just a mess down there. It’s dirty. It stinks. They’ve got all these lay-abouts and no one really wants to go down there. The residents don’t want to go down there anymore. I was thinking if they have any extra money left over, they could send the City Council to a psychiatrist because evidently they can’t even see what is going on in this city anymore.” TELL SANTA MONICA WHAT YOU THINK! WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR EMAIL TO: OR FAX TO (310) 576-9913
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 22, 2006. Read the original PDF.