Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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It seems apparent that the Trump Whitehouse was not told in advance of Saturday's announced closure of the Santa Monica airport, as of 1/1/2029. That's because Donald Trump would never have agreed to it. At a hastily called Saturday meeting, the City Council approved a settlement with the FAA restricting SMO's use until 2029, followed by its closing and turning over of the land to the City. The timing of the announced settlement, one week after the swearing in of a new Republican President, is...
Santa Monica Airport is the oldest airport in Los Angeles County and at 110 years old, the fifth oldest in the State of California. It would appear that this afternoon, the City Council has negotiated with the FAA for the authority to close the airport on New Year's Day, 2029. Closing the airport has become a popular cause in Santa Monica. Airport opponents point out that due to the airports unique history as the Douglas aircraft headquarters until 1972, nowhere in America is an airport runway s...
Update: Coach Kampmann's Memorial is set for Feb. 4, 2017 at 11 am at University High School's Stivelman Theater. 2/23, 2 pm PST: With deep sadness, this message is to inform you that Coach Dick Kampmann passed away this afternoon at 2:12 p.m. at his home in Santa Monica. He was with family at the end and at age 92, lived a full and meaningful life. He and Deb are now once more united, forever. Bill Stimming is now busy making the necessary arrangements and there will be a memorial service for...
Susan "Spooky" Schueler, 51, taught high school English at Culver City High. But in 2015 she left the public education system in order to become a professional psychic medium. While a psychic involves herself in a soul to soul connection with people in order to help them with life issues, a medium connects people to their loved ones on the other side, according Schueler. All mediums are psychics, but not all psychics are mediums. She is both psychic and medium and always has been. Even before...
One year ago, the City of Santa Monica launched a program to add a strip of concrete down the center of 75 alleys. This allows rainwater to percolate through the strip and into the groundwater, then out to sea. The problem is, that center strip visibly wears out more quickly than the surrounding black asphalt. The City launched an "Alley Renewal Program" which, over 20 years, will "improve the condition and functionality of 75 of the City's most worn alleys. Project work includes everything...
Update: Coach Kampmann's Memorial is set for Feb. 4, 2017 at 11 am at University High School's Stivelman Theater. Coach Richard Kampmann, University High School's beloved track and cross country coach who later coached track and cross country distance running at Pepperdine University, is near death, says his son, Bill Stimming. He was (and remains) a role model for hundreds of boys and girls over the years. Kampmann was the coach from 1962 to 1987 at UniHi. "They just dedicated the athletic...
The Tuareg people inhabit the Sahara desert, in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. It is one of the world's most remote and little known countries. Santa Monica Dance Studio's Benedicte Schoyen Clark recently travelled to Niger to visit Leslie Clark, Ned Clark's aunt, and the founder of The Nomad Foundation. Bringing their friend, Cooper Bates, the three of them completed a 4-week journey into the poorest, hottest and most...
Dr. Karen Belkic MD is a clinical scientist with a PhD in neuroscience and physician specialist in internal medicine. On Sunday, December 8th, 2017, she delivered the Gloria Freedman memorial lecture on ovarian cancer to Temple Beth Shalom Sisterhood. Gloria Freedman was her mother. Among women worldwide, Breast Cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer A critical factor impacting survival is the stage at which Breast Cancer is diagnosed. Survival after diagnosis is related to when it is...
After all other forms of treatment had failed, Ricardo Miranda, L.Ac.cured a little girl of eczema. She was cured primarily through the use of acupuncture, says Miranda. The three year old girl presented with eczema, said Miranda, 49. Her mother, Norma Alcontara, said that they had been to doctors, dermatologists, pediatricians and dieticians. The family had tried everything. "Eczema is a skin condition, she was covered from head to toe with rashes. Whole arms and face," said Miranda. "I...
When I bring home something I find in the alley, everyone makes fun of me for dumpster diving. But when three highly educated recent college grads do it, apparently it's research. I ran into three such women in an alley in the heart of Santa Monica's swank North of Wilshire neighborhood, where pretty much everyone drives a Prius. The three women are inspired and employed by Global Green USA to dig through trash in order to save the Planet. The Santa Monica Non-profit pays college grads to sift...
NORMS Restaurant on Pico and Camden Avenue is closing after 47 years. Christmas Eve will be the last day. The large parking lots and one story googy structure will be replaced by "high end condos and multi-use retail, what else?" said David Bowman. He said that their 50 year lease had been bought out three years early. Bowman is a NORMS manager, but not at this location. Like others in the NORMS organization, he had volunteered to help out at the overflow crowds. Many diners, like myself, were...
We wondered about the fate of Mountain Lion P-39's three cougar cubs. Their mother's death occurred on the 118 freeway east of the Rocky Peak exit on the evening of Saturday, December 3, but NPS heard about the accident a few days later. Jeff Sikich who works for the National Park Service, found the collar and knew the animal had been killed. Her body was collected by sanitation workers, said NPS' Kate Kuykendall. "Navigating our complex road network is a major challenge for mountain lions in...
In a civil case involving NMS Family Living Trust, and Margot and Neil Shekhter, Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bruguera found that NMS Properties and its owners, fabricated evidence, and destroyed or hid electronic evidence from the Court and the opposing parties. For this reason, she entered a judgment imposing "Terminating Sanctions" against NMS, meaning that they lost the lawsuit and now have a default judgment against them. Terminating sanctions are unusual, though not unheard of, in civil...
Update, 12/2: Judge Bruguera today ordered NMS properties to cede control of its Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and West Hollywood "LUXE" properties, to AEW Capital Management. She also imposed attorneys fees against NMS. We previously reported that the LA Superior Court (Judge Suzanna Bruguera), found that Neil Shekhter, the principal behind NMS Properties, had engaged in evidence tampering. We are told that next week's City Council Agenda 13C, reads: "Request of Councilmembers McKeown and...
Can you feel left out even if you own the latest iPhone 7? You can if you're Frankenstein's monster. The computer giant has released a 2 minute commercial on their youtube page which shows Frankenstein's monster (Brad Garrett), descending into a town to sing "Home for the holidays." He is encouraged by a little girl, who recognizes that he just needs to feel included. The whole town joins in on the caroling. The ad switches rapidly back and forth from the 19th Century to the 21st, but then that'...
It's an open secret that Santa Monica Police officers and other City employees are the best paid in the world. TransparentCalifornia.com hopes to rip off the mask on why. In Newport Beach, a city about the size of Santa Monica, 13 employees make more than 300,000 per year. In Long Beach, a city six times the size of Santa Monica, 13 employees make more than $300K a year. In Santa Monica, 105 employees make more than $300,000 per year. So says www.Transparentcalifornia.com, A CBS 2 investigation...
Proving that the Santa Monica electorate really, really likes intensive development; local voters returned all 4 incumbent City Council members to Santa Monica City Council. In voting for Terry O'Day, Gleam Davis, Tony Vasquez and Ted Winterer, the voters rejected SMMUSD School Board member Oscar de la Torre and Armen Melkonians. Melkonians ran an outside campaign connected with Measure LV, which would have greatly restricted the size of new developments in San- ta Monica. Some residents are con...
Maria Rita D'Orsogna is a theoretical physicist by training, who teaches mathematics at Cal State University Northridge. She is also a well known environmental activist in Italy. I ran into her in front of St. Monica's Catholic Church one Sunday morning, picketing in support of Measure LV. It would greatly restrict the size and scope of construction projects in Santa Monica. LV is a very contentious issue, with strong feelings on both sides. So I asked the obvious question: What was a nice...
Lines were around the block at Christine Emerson Reed park on Lincoln and Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica. Young people who work in offices waited in lines, trying to register their votes before their morning commute. Separately, an incident was reported on Facebook in which a local jogger tripped over "No on LV" signs that a paid solicitor had placed on the median on San Vicente Blvd, where many people go jogging. Signs there are illegal, but since none of the No on LV solicitors actually live...
Update, 10/31: We received another appeal last week as well. The adoration of the neighbors and the charm of the tree, the urban forestry division has decided to leave the redwood standing at this time. The tree is in decline and has significant dieback. We will re-inspect the tree in March 2017. At that point we will reassess the health and its overall vigor.--Peter Provenzale, Urban Forest Supervisor, City of Santa Monica The old, beautiful redwood tree in front of my Santa Monica home is...
At $350,000 per year, City Manager Rick Cole is the best paid City manager in the state, maybe the world. City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren earns $189,000 per year. 105 Santa Monica City employees earn more than $200,000 per year. The average Santa Monica policeman or fire fighter makes $94,000 per year, spitting distance of six figures. Cops and firemen get to retire at 55 with a full pension. But are residents happy? Hmmm .... let's spend $325,000 and find out!! If the City wants to know how i...
$3000 in bicycles were stolen from the ElectroBike store last night, on the 2600 block of Main Street, Santa Monica. A brick was apparently thrown through a window, sometime around 2 AM. The thieves made off with three bicycles worth approximately $1000 each. Police would not say whether there was security video. Some residents say that local crime has increased since the advent of the Metro Rail in May, 2016. Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrook says that crime here has increased only marginally,...
I must admit I'm fascinated with Greenland. Maybe it's the idea of man against the elements. Maybe it's the colorful towns and villages, painted pastel against an icy landscape. To this day, the generous Danes give $5 billion in grants to the Islanders every year. Which is somewhat surprising, since Greenlanders have voted no less than 3 times over the last 30 years, that they want to be more independent. $5 billion a year is about $90,000 for each of 56,000 Greenlanders. They are about 80%...
If you follow what goes on in Santa Monica City Hall, it's really been pretty much the same since 1982. The City grants massive development permits to favored developers. The City Staff grant developers permits to build huge buildings that are not in the best interest of residents, because they generate traffic, noise, density, trash, without generating jobs or money for local residents. Every 4 years, residents return the same City Council members to office, because they have SMRR following...
An instantly iconic photo of four workers posed on top the 1100 foot high Wilshire grand center, is making the rounds on social media. The building's developer assured everyone that the workers were strapped into harnesses and climbed up the stairs in the center of the spire. The spire has not generally been permitted on Los Angeles buildings, because they are required to have helicopter landing pads for potential earthquake evacuation. The building was granted a variance. "Saturday's...
