By Donna Block Santa Monica
I see that the city council is trying to do something about the homeless issue. Linking feeding programs to social services, now that’s a good idea.
Prohibiting loitering and sleeping in doorways, what a clever way to discourage transients from camping on the streets. The downtown and Main Street districts are a start, but the new ordinances must be expanded city-wide to really solve the problem. Who will champion that effort?
Who represents your neighborhood and will be accountable to you when the transients end up in you backyard?
Because it’s an election year, Santa Monicans For Renters Rights was publicly forced to take some action on one of the city’s oldest problems. Up until now, every effort the community ever organized to deal with this problem was thwarted by SMRR council members. In the past, they have routinely chastised us when we pleaded for help. After Nov. 5, the SMRR council will go back to business as usual unless VERITAS, measure HH, is passed. Remember all the talk about traffic during the last election? Traffic has only gotten worse.
The mayor even wants to change the social services review so it doesn’t ever trouble or distract the voters again during an election. I guess he thinks we should focus on important things like what’s on his agenda instead of ours. Our mayor was appointed by his SMRR super-majority to promote its agenda. VERITAS will allow us to vote for our own mayor. A mayor who promotes our agenda. That’s a novel idea.
Councilman Bob Holbrook is the only viable council candidate who supports VERITAS. He believes that our community is worth fighting for. As an independent candidate, he will run against the political machine SMRR on Nov. 5 for a seat on our city council.
If you are looking for a candidate who will promote your agenda instead of his own, vote for Holbrook and VERITAS to insure that more candidates like him will come along in the future.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 17, 2002. Read the original PDF.