By Steve Keats Santa Monica
Why does SMC get away with having such a huge (approximately 625 square-foot) sign? As per Judy Rambeau, a sign can have no more than one square foot for each foot of building frontage. The sign, in this case, is on the north side of the auditorium on Pico at 20th Street, which has a frontage of approximately 115 feet. That sign exceeds the standard by almost 6 to 1. Ah, but I am also told that SMC is exempt from this regulation, so that they can freely flaunt this visual blight in the faces of their neighbors.
If you or I had a sign or, for that matter, didn’t have the correct sign, the city would be swarming all over you with some division of their massive cadre of code police or other monitors of political correctness. What other laws is SMC exempt from? Well, they aren’t exempt from the laws of good taste, and this sign flat sucks. They talk about public process, and yes they listen, but do they hear? When was the last time they forthrightly addressed your concerns, or even took the time to answer your mail?
During the upcoming campaign they will spend tens of thousands of dollars to make you forget what kind of neighbor SMC is, or isn’t, so that they can shove more traffic, more pollution, more noise — and if the sign in question is any indication — more blight down our throats. Never forget.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 24, 2004. Read the original PDF.