I’ve noticed a lot of rancor in community dialogue lately. Everybody seems to be angry.
Cal State Northridge Professor Elias Serna wrote an opinion piece (SMDP, March 18-19, page 5) about how everyone at a Virginia Park Advisory Committee meeting in January “overwhelmingly advocated for the presence of Pico Youth and Family Center at the park.” The PYFC, now at Ninth Street and Pico Boulevard, is a city-subsidized program provider for young people between the ages of 16 and 24.
I have no position on whether the PYFC should be in Virginia Park, however I was a taken back by what seemed to be racist comments in Serna’s piece. Two men who spoke against the PYFC at the VPAC meeting were described as “anglo.” Another speaker was identified as “black.” Did it make any difference? If I described persons as “black” or “anglo” in this space, I’d be criticized and rightfully so.
I look at community problems of discrimination, poverty, crime and lack of equal opportunities as all of us being in the same boat despite our ethnicity. Playing the race card creates barriers and impedes progress.
A Dec. 5, 2005, letter from the Pico Neighborhood Association to Barbara Stinchfield, the city’s director of community and cultural services, said, “Our older youth will not find any structured programs so they will end up hanging out at the park for months... This can lead to an array of problems that can include harassment of youth by the police as well as conflicts among youth, which in the past has led to violence.”
Is the PNA suggesting that 16-to 24-year-olds can’t enjoy a public park just for its recreational, athletic and cultural amenities? That young adults are incapable of finding constructive and fulfilling things to do with their free time? That police harass youth for just “hanging around?” Do Serna and the PNA have so little regard for our young adults that without “specially structured programs” in Virginia Park, they’ll become violent and confrontational?
Serna said, “City officials (Stinchfield and the Santa Monica Police) have made it a point to exclude the PYFC mainly through miscommuni-cation, delay and criminalization — creating a climate of fear, they accuse the center of associating with gang members.” I’ve got news for Serna: City Hall routinely delays and miscommunicates to most of us.
City Hall’s priorities aren’t always in the service of its citizenry regardless of our neighborhood, color or income. Nowhere are City Hall’s misplaced priorities more obvious than with the resources expended on vagrants and transients. If some of the $20 million squandered annually on the “homeless” were directed to Santa Monicans with needs, we’d have a much stronger and safer community.
Serna’s acrimonious suggestion that the City Council’s approval of changing the paint on SMPD vehicles from blue and white to black and white “to resemble the more notorious LAPD” is con-frontational and reinforces negative images.
All of this seems way over the top to me. But I’m a gabacho or “anglo” in the words of Serna. Therefore, I’m incapable of understanding what minorities experience.
A close friend of mine is Jewish and was born in Mexico City. “I can look at a room full of people and pick out 99 percent of the Jews,” he said. I replied, “I couldn’t and to do so wouldn’t cross my mind.” He responded, “After centuries of persecution, Jews have developed an awareness of who is around them. Our survival depends on it. It’s not important to you because you’re not Jewish.”
I find it hard to believe that police and city staff have set out to marginalize and criminalize persons because of color. But I am concerned that demands and inflammatory rhetoric will lead to even more exclusion and isolation.
If we’re to get anything done, we all have to stop sabre rattling and work harder at getting along.
The City Council on Tuesday will look at two items that could dramatically increase development — including the size and density of buildings in and adjacent to our residential neighborhoods.
Item 7A allows auto dealers to expand their facilities including building on residential lots. Item 7B allows more bonus densities — bigger, taller buildings — for new multi-family residential projects with minimal low income housing units. For details, see the March 28 City Council agenda posted on the city’s Web site, santa-monica.org. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer. He)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 27, 2006. Read the original PDF.