By Mike Rosenfeld Santa Monica
This is in response to your query, “Fed up with violence in the Pico neighborhood?” I fled the crime in the Oakwood area of Venice after a resident of the low-income housing projects committed a murder near my house. This was a quiet neighborhood 22 years ago when I moved here. Then Santa Monica Renter’s Rights conspired with Community Corporation of Santa Monica to duplicate the Yonkers, N.Y., policy of over concentrating low income housing projects in a minority neighborhood.
With each new housing project, crime has increased. But there is a solution. There are two homes for sale on 17th Street, across from CCSM low-income housing projects. The executive director of CCSM and the director of the Santa Monica Housing Authority should each buy one of these homes and move in.
They can then 1) resign from the board of directors of the Not in My Back Yard (NIMBY) Association. When the gang members and drug dealers start shooting they 2) can demand city resources be directed to the Pico neighborhood to eliminate crime in and around the low-income housing projects (see the HUD Report, In the Crossfire) and 3) having to live with the consequences of their policy of over concentrating low-income housing projects in a small area near their own homes will result in change.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 31, 2004. Read the original PDF.