It appears Santa Monica is rolling in the dough. Thanks to a strong tourism base and real estate market, as well as unexpected money from the state, city financiers have uncovered an extra $2.5 million to spend this year.
But discerning just where and how to spend it may prove much more difficult than actually earning it. Over the next 30 days, the City Council will ponder how the money should be doled out — and there are million and one ways to do it. Elected leaders heard this week from dozens of residents who gave their thoughts on how the surplus should be spent — a city-sponsored foosball league, a dog beach, crosswalks, traffic lights, the arts — you name it.
We here at the SMDP often suggest to City Hall where it is wasting taxpayer money, but we are equally capable of suggesting how to spend it. The expenditures must be noticeable, reasonable and should improve the quality of life here.
Whenever it’s brought to light publicly about some misstep elected leaders have taken, a common excuse coming from City Hall is a lack of funding. And while we could search our archives for examples, we’ll take two immediate needs that require attention: Downtown alleys and lighting at the Cove Skatepark at Memorial Park.
Skatepark lighting: While it cost $550,000 to build, apparently the City Council didn’t budget enough money so the public could actually use the Cove.
Park users last fall complained that it’s only open two hours a day because there are no lights to illuminate it at night. Because the skatepark lacks lighting, users can only bike or skate until the sun goes down. Until there’s staffing available to extend the hours, City Hall won’t be adding any lighting.
At the time, City Council members said there wasn’t enough money to hire another staffer to man the park for extended hours, but they would look into it. Whether they have followed up on it remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain — it should be put at the top of the priority list when considering how to spend $2.5 million in the coming months.
There’s no point in spending more than a half million dollars on a new park if people can’t use it.
Alleys: Since only a small portion of the surplus would be spent at the skatepark, the rest of it should be invested in the alleys off of the Third Street Promenade — one of the first places tourists see after parking their cars in the public garages.
Downtown officials try to mask the fact that these main thoroughfares are really just alleys by calling them “passageways.” But their odors and conditions are dead giveaways that they are an integral part of the gritty city.
The alleys smell like urine and feces. They also smell like garbage. That’s because the alleys are full of both. First impressions are everything, and if we want to continue to compete with destinations like The Grove and Pasadena for visitors, we had better clean up our act.
While $2 million would only make a dent, city officials could start by putting in more lights, painting the exteriors of all of the parking garages, adding more cleaning crews and patrols, enclosing the trash rooms and repaving alley surfaces.
Councilwoman Pam O’Connor said on Tuesday that the guideline for spending the surplus has to be based on themes presented by the public. Priority No. 1 is quality of life for residents. So, however our surplus is inevitably spent, it should improve our lives here.
We should feel very fortunate that we are a city so financially well off that our elected leaders face these types of problems. It must be a welcome change for Lamont Ewell, Santa Monica’s new city manager who came from San Diego — a city embroiled in major budget problems that is cutting public services.
If the City Council finds itself not being able to make a decision on the surplus spending, we could always throw a gigantic community party and blow it one fell swoop. The memories might last longer than whatever else $2.5 million would buy in this town.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 17, 2006. Read the original PDF.