By Evelyn Jerome
■ I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, but here I’ve been, spouting bunk about personal responsibility, lower taxes, and government belt-tightening. Where did that come from? After three months of reading Todd Flora’s columns, I’ve realized that I’m wrong. You won’t hear any of that again — I’m a born-again Liberal.
How could I not have noticed — big developers and homeowners really do run this town! Multi-million dollar monster mansions and cookie-cutter townhouses have run roughshod over renters in Slanta Monica. Greedy developers stand on the sidewalks, salivating over the few apartment buildings that remain. And the pitty clownsil, which you’d think would represent renters better (what with all that support from Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights), has done nothing but pave the way for new development.
And the business community, well, don’t get me started. All they do is whine about wages, the homeless, and parking meter prices. Clearly businesses are doing fine — everyone comes to Santa Monica to shop and eat! They can afford to pay higher wages, and we should demand that they do. Skill level and education shouldn’t factor into how much workers get paid —– they should be paid because they have families to feed.
I’m a new convert to the living wage concept. After all, immigrants come here to live the American Dream, which is all about equality of outcome, and being well paid.
And local businesses should help solve the homeless situation, since they will benefit from its being solved. They should form a development corporation, build low-income housing and provide jobs for homeless people. The fee for the city’s low-income housing fund that’s included in the cost of a building permit has clearly not done enough. You’d shop at a store with homeless employees, right? Businesses are lucky to be here, and they should step up to be good corporate citizens.
As far as our state and city budget situations are concerned, what was I thinking? There’s no way to balance the budget with just spending cuts, so don’t cut spending at all. Let’s raise taxes on the rich corporations and millionaires. I mean, if you live in a monster mansion north of Montana, you must be rich. You can afford it! And this state is full of rich movie stars! Pony up! Let’s coast for a few years on tax revenue from people who’ve made it. Businesses always threaten that they’ll move elsewhere, but it’s California! Where are they gonna go?
Evelyn Jerome is the past president of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats, and she holds an honorary membership in the Young Neanderthals of America. To reach her or comment on this column, e-mail
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2003. Read the original PDF.