Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 456
It should be no surprise that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has a Sustainability Coordinator. This is Santa Monica (and Malibu). Of course we would employ someone to focus on sustainability (whatever that means) in the school district. What surprised me was to learn the Sustainability Coordinator had no staff. "I'm the only one," Caroline Coster, SC for the SMMUSD told me. "And I have no budget." Without dedicated funds and, perhaps, lonely, Coster applied for and won a...
Ralph wants your shoes. Ralph Hattenbach doesn't head any famous national charity organization. He doesn't earn a five-to-six figure income in order to devise means of persuading you to donate to any cause. He's just a guy who tries to do the right thing in his spare time. This year, Ralph is collecting shoes, in good to very good condition, in order to distribute them to the homeless during the Westside Thanksgiving dinner. His goal is at least 125 pairs. Ralph plans to follow Jewish tradition...
Nine schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District have won Energy Star Certification for 2018. To be certified, a building must earn an Energy Star score of 75 or higher. This indicates the building performs better than at least 75 percent of similar buildings nationwide, taking into account different operating conditions, regional weather, and other considerations. These standards are set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA claims that Energy Star-certified building us...
The Santa Monica Airport Commission, agreeing with the concerns of residents, voted unanimously on November 19 to oppose the city's plan to 'temporarily' move some of their services to the Santa Monica Airport. The fact the city would unilaterally and without any public process begin constructing facilities for themselves on airport land should be deeply troubling to those concerned about city officials' eventual plans for the airport, which is slated to close at the end of 2028. The Airport...
The canyon of construction that Lincoln Boulevard has become near the 10 Freeway onramp is going to receive a new addition to the mess this spring. The current surface parking lot between Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway, once a block of one-story shops, will be demolished in turn to allow construction of a five-story mixed-use building at 1430 Lincoln Boulevard. The developer of the building is WS Communities - isn't that a nice name? Sounds so friendly. But WS Communities is actually an...
The protesters blocking the access road for construction of a new Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii are only the latest in a long line of protests regarding the dormant volcano. All of these protests have had ample cause for frustration and anger. The volcano, designated a conservation district in 1964, has been exploited since that time with unpermitted construction, toxic waste, spilled sewage, and uncollected trash - all under the eyes of Hawaii's...
Protesters have camped at the foot of Mauna Kea, a dormant 14,000-foot volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii for a week now, blocking the access road and demanding the halt to construction of a $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope. Mauna Kea is one of the best places on the planet, and certainly the best in the northern hemisphere for astronomical research. The shape of the volcano and its distance from urban light sources create unrivaled conditions for viewing outer space. At the same time, the...
After three years of preparation, construction began this month on the modernization of the 14.7-acre Santa Monica City Yards located adjacent to Bergamot Station on Michigan Avenue. The City Yards hosts the city's maintenance and industrial services, such as water operations, street maintenance, and fire training. Until last month, the Yards also hosted a recycling center. The recycling center, operated by private contractor Allan Company, was closed by the city in June in a purely financial mo...
The Santa Monica City Council approved a nearly $1.6 million budget for 2019-2021 on Tuesday. This is $108 million less than the previous two-year budget, a decrease of 7 percent. While cutting 29 jobs, now vacant, allegedly lowering administrative costs, and trimming some childcare programs, the city will still be funding - or even increasing funding - on some controversial matters. Funding for homeless services will be boosted, despite a distinct lack of evidence that the money already spent...
A bill proposed by Santa Monica's State Senator Ben Allen would repeal Article 34 of the California State Constitution. On June 4, Allen's bill was approved unanimously by the California State Senate's Housing Committee. It will now move to the State Senate floor. If approved there, the proposal to change the State Constitution will be put to the voters on the 2020 ballot. Article 34 was passed in 1950 as Proposition 10. The legislation requires a local ballot referendum to approve any...
In a third strike against Monsanto, maker of the weed-killer Roundup, an Alameda County jury awarded over $2 billion to a Livermore couple who each contracted non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The couple, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, received $55 million for compensatory damages and $1 billion each in punitive damages. Punitive damages are related to the goal of punishing the defendant for their malicious behavior rather than to the goal of compensating the plaintiff for injuries sustained. Previous awards...
City staff are asking the Council to contract with an outside consultant to manage their homeless tracking system. In order for the City to receive federal funds for homelessness, they are required to maintain a standardized Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Until 2014, the City used its own employees to man the system but then decided it would be more effective to hire outside help. The "scope of work and necessary expertise was not suited to the level of the budgeted position,...
Community Corp. of Santa Monica (CCSM) will be holding a public hearing this month on their proposal to build 55 affordable housing units on 14th Street, across the street from Woodlawn Cemetery. The public input hearing will be held on May 21 at 6:30 at Virginia Avenue Park. The project will demolish an existing natural pet food store, a dog grooming facility, and an automotive repair business. It is a block from the Santa Monica Freeway overpass and three quarters of a mile from the nearest...
Housing prices and sales are falling in California, according to a report by the California Association of Realtors. Although the statewide median home price is up a tiny 0.2 percent, at $565,880, home prices are down in half of all California counties. And home sales across the state are down 6.3 percent. Hardest hit is Los Angeles County, where the median price of a house fell 0.7 percent from last year, to $525,520. Worse than this, though, are the number of house sales. Those are down 13...
Charges have been filed against a homeless man who allegedly set a number of fires near Sepulveda Boulevard and Getty Center Drive on Easter Sunday, April 21. Steven William Adkison, 31, now faces four felony counts of arson of a structure or forest. A good Samaritan saw the defendant setting the fires and struggled to restrain him until police and firefighters could arrive. This brave citizen, unnamed in the LA County District Attorney's Office press release, undoubtedly saved many structures a...
The Santa Monica city's blog page sought to remind us this Earth Day that our elected leaders are so good and saintly as to be constructing a "global environmental statement" in the form of a 50,200 square-foot annex to City Hall. The three-story building that will centralize all city workers is projected to open on Earth Day next year, in 2020. "City leadership has embraced the CSB [City Services Building] as an opportunity to make a global environmental statement." Okay, we'll take that bait....
The funeral home in the style of an English country house, situated conveniently down the block from Saint John's Hospital, once prepared the remains of former President Ronald Reagan. It had been a Santa Monica fixture for 75 years. But the place has been empty for years now, with a sign announcing it's for sale. So what happened to Gates Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy, the only funeral home servicing Santa Monica and points north? Where are we supposed to go for this service we will all...
A Venice neighborhood group has initiated a legal fight against plans by the City of Los Angeles to erect a 154-bed homeless shelter on a former Metro bus yard, a few blocks from the beach. The shelter was approved by the LA City Council last December and is to be funded from Mayor Eric Garcetti's A Bridge Home initiative. The site is supposed to provide 'transitional' housing, with the residents eventually moving on to more permanent housing. Officials claim residents will also receive support...
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to oppose a proposed bill in the California State Senate, SB 50, which would offer waivers and other encouragements to housing built close to urban railway stations. The bill would override local zoning and allow structures up to five stories tall in areas currently populated with single-family homes. It would also allow waivers for parking, with less than 0.5 parking spots required per unit. An apparently far-reaching law with many prongs to it -...
President Donald Trump swept through Los Angeles last Friday after a trip to Calexico to discuss the situation at the border with Mexico. Multiple roads throughout West Los Angeles were closed at various times during the afternoon and early evening - peak rush hour - causing delays and frustration for motorists. As other presidents, such as President Barack Obama, have done, Trump landed at Los Angeles International Airport, helicoptered to Santa Monica Airport, and from there took a motorcade...
On Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council voted to institute an emergency ordinance that would require sidewalk vendors to acquire licenses and permits. They would also be barred from operating in certain high-traffic zones, including the Santa Monica Pier, the Third Street Promenade and Transit Mall, Santa Monica State Beach, and Palisades Park within 500 feet of the Pier. The council portrayed the law as humane and inclusive. It is largely in response to a new state law, SB 946, the Safe...
On April 3, Brunei put into effect Islamic Sharia laws that allow for amputation for theft and stoning to death for adultery and homosexual sex. These laws have been on the books since 2014 but were only put into effect on Wednesday. Even before 2014, homosexuality was punishable by a jail term of up to 10 years. Brunei is a sultanate located on the north coast of the Island of Borneo off the South China Sea. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has held his regal position since 1967. He is listed as one of...
Ground broke on Tuesday for a new structure, dubbed the Discovery Building, at the Santa Monica High School campus. Its function is to replace the Science and Technology buildings which were demolished last summer. The building will form a U around an interior courtyard. Planned to open at the end of 2021, it will contain 38 classrooms, offices for the M and O houses, 3 multipurpose rooms, some common areas, and a full kitchen and cafeteria. A rooftop garden will serve as another classroom and...
The LA County District Attorney's office announced yesterday that they had secured a two-year sentence for the so-called "Bomber Robber." Robert Abalov of Los Angeles was initially charged with attempted robbery, criminal threats, malicious possession of a false bomb with intent to cause fear, false imprisonment, hit and run, and grand theft. This week, Abalov pleaded no contest to one count of attempted second-degree robbery. Second degree robbery occurs if the perpetrator causes injury to anyo...
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors banned the use of any glyphosate-type weed killer on county property pending more information about the chemical's potential health and environmental effects. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the popular weed-killer Roundup, a product of Monsanto. To date, two California juries have determined that glyphosate caused the cancer alleged by plaintiffs. In 2018, Dewayne Johnson was awarded $289 million for the terminal cancer he asserted had been...
