This past week, Q-line asked: “What do you think deserves financial priority in the city next year? Why?”
Here are your responses: ✆ “Those bright lights on our City Council that selected gang violence with all of its terrible ramifications and an end to homelessness and vagrancy as the top issues for the coming fiscal year have hit the nail on the head, at last. It’s about time. One can only wonder why they waited so long until the issues have become monstrous. Oh well, better late than never. We need the city to return to peace, safety and cleanliness. Especially, get the freeloaders out of this city.” ✆ “There is no hope for the city of Santa Monica. Santa Monica will always suffer from the influx of tourism, especially during the summer months. Regardless of the financial priorities of the city’s administration, the city will remain a quagmire of traffic congestion, pollution and overcrowding.” ✆ “They should have more money for the police and the jail system. That way, they can go out, find a bum doing something illegal like loitering, going to the bathroom in public or stealing and arrest them. Of course, the only problem is they’ll have to spend a few extra million dollars on soap.” ✆ “As an ex-captain of a homeless feeding program in Santa Monica, I think they should put attention on our streets. They need repaving. A lot of them do. And especially if you walk down Wilshire, it’s a world-famous boulevard, so I think it should be repaved. We have a lot of new people coming here... Spend the money on good things, not porking up their salaries.” ✆ “Homelessness and gang violence deserve the utmost attention of the entire community. With regard to financial priorities, this is something else again. Right now, finances are available for quelling gang violence in an eastside neighborhood and addressing homelessness throughout the city. The finances are there but the logistics are not. If they really, truly want to rid the city of homelessness and eastside violence, they will sit down and analyze the problems. Solve the problems without throwing money at the problem. They can do it. All they have to do is use their common sense.” ✆ “One hundred people who donate $5 per month, that’s a dollar and a quarter per week, contribute $500 per month to any common cause. Promoting, learning about the power and use of the budget group would be a good first priority financial investment for this or any other city. The financial power for all community members should be respected. For example, it can continuously provide funds for discount bulk food purchases for a neighborhood’s children, making it possible for a neighborhood to fund its own free group meals. $10 per month from 1,000 parents provides $10,000 per month for their common family needs. That is the power of the budget group. Each family is a budget group. Each classroom is a budget group. Each city block of residents is a budget group. Just benevolence and coop-eration are needed to form and use budget group financial support.” ✆ “The problems in this city — gang violence, homelessness, parking, traffic — are all due to the inattentiveness of the City Council, present and past. We need to take a sizable portion of the budget and get rid of the City Council and vote in people who have lived here longer than Santa Monicans For Renters Rights, when this city was a beautiful place to live. Get rid of these Marxist urban planners and get some people in with common sense who will come up with solutions to make Santa Monica a better place to live. And while you’re at it, get rid of the school board, too.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 19, 2005. Read the original PDF.