Bill Bauer Has Passed. Now, Who in Santa Monica Will Tell Us The Truth?

Dear friends: My friend and champion of the people, Bill Bauer, has passed. Our city will not be the same without him. I know I will miss him dearly. He was one of a kind.

Bill knew our City and loved our City. In his weekly "My Write" column in the Daily Press, Bill took on the phony politicians and exposed their hypocrisies like an old style journalist. He told the truth and we needed to hear it. He is irreplaceable.

It's ironic that even as Bill was forced to discontinue his column because of his fight with cancer, the powerful forces he had always so ably exposed began to gain strength. Without Bill on the scene, their outrageous lies went unchallenged. The powerful who control our city were able to spread their influence from City Hall to all institutions that seek to curry favor with City Hall.

Without Bill speaking out to stop them, the powerful machine that seeks to exploit our city for their own political or financial gain is now unharnessed. We are currently witnessing a terrible manipulation of the truth for the sake of profit. And without a free press - which is the state Santa Monica finds itself in today - the fight for democracy is a very rough one.

A $1 million developer machine is in the process of buying our city. They have stopped most local papers from allowing columnists and reporters to write the truth about what is happening. They have stopped any real reporting about Measure LV.

If Bill were with us he would speak out. He would tell us to fight back.

We must not allow our neighbors to believe the lies. We must not let the developers buy our city.

Below is a photo Bill gave me of himself in London with street artist Stik. Bill loved London and he loved Stik. It was wonderful that before his death he was able to make one more trip to London, his favorite city.

Now - with Bill gone - what becomes of Santa Monica is up to us.

Tricia Crane