When Santa Monica recently announced a fiscal crisis, it was largely due to legal settlements for the actions of one man, who abused innocent children and far too many of them. However, there’s another perpetrator of our municipal misery, and unfortunately, it’s our state legislature.
Back in 2019, the year Jeffrey Epstein was arrested, it might have seemed like a moral no-brainer to pass Assembly Bill 218, which extended the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual assault. AB 218 allowed victims the opportunity to seek financial compensation for their pain and suffering, and it naturally led to a slew of lawsuits. But you can’t put a price tag on justice.
However, it turns out that you can, and it’s currently around $8 billion and growing. That includes the $230 million paid by Santa Monica in addition to the $4 billion by Los Angeles County (to which Santa Monica residents will also be contributing). Numerous other municipalities have been hit, and there’s an estimated $3 billion of claims against the state’s school districts.
Don’t get me wrong. AB 218, was well-intended legislation, but the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
While there’s no question that the law has helped thousands of Californians, it has also harmed millions. Children are suffering from drastically reduced budgets for schools, parks and libraries, and many Santa Monica residents have expressed anger that a formerly wealthy city no longer has sufficient funds to repair our streets and sidewalks or hire more police officers. No doubt that COVID and retail malaise have contributed to the city’s shortfall, and one can’t ignore the impact of crime and homelessness. But what city can survive a $230 million blow to its budget, with another $100 million anticipated?
Somehow a law envisioned to help victims has created an exponentially greater number of them. One could write it off as unintended consequences, but when lawmakers craft legislation based on best-case scenarios without considering potential negative outcomes, the results seem less like unintended consequences than deliberate sabotage.
And AB 218 is just one example. Another one is AB 1287, which attempted to address affordable housing. Legislators deserve credit for their willingness to tackle the problem and take action, but they seem more concerned about the credit than the results, including numerous high-rise buildings proposed for Santa Monica, with some over 30 stories. As a reference point, the condo canyon on the Wilshire Corridor in Westwood doesn’t have any buildings taller than 23 stories.
I spent many years living in New York City, and much of Manhattan’s appeal is living amid soaring towers that define the city’s energy and ambition. Being part of that energy draws people there despite the way the buildings block sunlight and fresh air. But when you put tall buildings in Santa Monica, the shadows don’t fall across one of the most vital urban centers in the world but on a beach town dependent on revenue from tourists looking for R&R.
The irony is that AB 1287 would have far less negative impact if Santa Monica hadn’t already been confronting the housing shortage by increasing permitted building height to 90 feet (or 8 stories) in downtown and Bergamot. AB 1287 put that effort on steroids by granting automatic 50% “density bonuses” to any property providing 15% low income units—and 100% bonuses if 15% moderate income is also included. So a 100-unit building proposal can increase to 200 units, but the percentage of required affordable housing is based on the original size of the building, not the new enlarged size (with additional height bonuses from “builder’s remedy” laws, also compliments of the state legislature). And the city has no authority to say anything.
“We don’t review any housing projects anymore,” said Planning Commissioner Nina Fresco. “We don’t shape our own cities anymore. It happens from Sacramento now.”
Regardless of whether one supports the housing goals, as Fresco does, it’s unsettling for the state government to be bulldozing or eliminating local jurisprudence. It’s also baffling given the Trump administration’s similar stance towards the state’s jurisprudence. While the President covets a peace prize for his effort in the Middle East, he’s at war with California, and Newsom is bemoaning the behavior while imitating it.
At a time when we should be solely focused on the creeping authoritarianism coming from right-wing culture warriors, we’re being distracted by the overreach of progressive ones. Santa Monica is facing too many challenges to also have to worry about friendly fire from Sacramento, and if there’s one thing people in California know, friendly or not, fire kills.
Devan Sipher can be reached at Unmuted.SMDP@gmail.com