By Vivian Rothstein
In the interest of the “full disclosure” that Shutters Hotel general manager Klaus Mennekes called for in a recent letter to your paper, I would like to explain in detail why I, a 20-year resident of Santa Monica, am now working for the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union.
From 1982-87 I worked as part of the City of Santa Monica’s management team which decided to encourage the development of the city’s tourism industry.
We felt a thriving tourism trade would take advantage of the city’s natural beauty, would bring needed revenue into the city government, and would produce minimal negative impacts on the community in terms of traffic and pollution.
To further the aim of promoting a successful hotel industry, the city council rezoned the beachfront area, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in promoting the city as a tourism destination, and over the years renovated the pier, the beachfront, the Promenade and Palisades Park with taxpayers’ money.
Our economic planning was on target. Santa Monica’s tourism industry is hugely successful and has amongst the highest hotel occupancy in the entire state, generating upwards of $750 million in business every year.
Yet, as I learned through my volunteer involvement with Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, thousands of the workers in our luxury hotels, many of whom have worked there since the hotels opened, do not earn enough money to pull their families out of poverty. Despite their hard work, they still live below the poverty line and do not have health coverage for their children.
I feel that I personally have played a role in creating this unjust situation and that I have a responsibility to correct it. Therefore I have decided to devote myself, together with hundreds of other Santa Monica residents, to promoting and defending our Santa Monica Living Wage Law.
Mr. Mennekes, you may have come to Santa Monica to run a business which turns a profit, there is no harm in that. But those of us who live in this town also want to make sure that the people who work in your business earn a living wage. I urge all Santa Monicans to vote yes on the Living Wage, proposition JJ, on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 5, 2002. Read the original PDF.