By Flo Ginsburg
Editor: Society fluctuates in relatively computable cycles. At some point, this neighborhood will once again be populated with enough school-age children to warrant the re-opening of the Madison School site as an elementary school.
Only 54 years remain on the lease to Santa Monica College. The estimated cost of the proposed theater project is $15 million. Divide by 54 (or 53 or 52, by the time it is built, for years of use left on the lease). The SMCC district will spend $277,778 per year for its use, and then possibly lose it when it is re-claimed by the Santa Monica-Malibu School District, with this lovely capital improvement for which they did not have to pay. Wouldn’t we all accept someone else providing such a grand capital improvement on our property?
SMC only recently paid to re-surface and stripe the current parking lot, install concrete medians, and plant the landscape. According to the proposed diagram, it was a waste of funds, as the parking spaces and landscape will be completely re-figured, requiring a total change in all of the above.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 12, 2002. Read the original PDF.