Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 112
Tuesday evening February 20th I attended the Santa Monica City Council's Audit Sub-Committee Meeting. The Audit Subcommittee is not a City commission or board. It is supposed to provide an alternative way for employees, taxpayers or other citizens to confidentially report suspected illegal, improper, wasteful or fraudulent activity and provide periodic review and selection of external auditors. It is supposed to act in an 'advisory' capacity and review all City audit reports,...
I am writing in opposition to Item 5G ("Discussion of Potential Resolution for Charter Amendments for Additional Tenant Protections") on the Agenda for the February 13 meeting of the Santa Monica City Council, l and any proposal to adopt by Initiative, Ordinance or otherwise any proposal to condition eviction for nonpayment of rent on the nonpayment of any more than the rent that is past due, which in the case of a month-to-month tenancy would ordinarily be one month's rent. T...
Thursday, February 15, 2024 The Santa Monica Coalition announced it has filed a lawsuit against County Health Director Barbara Ferrer, the Los Angeles County Health Department, and the Venice Family Clinic as a real party of interest, in connection with the ongoing Needle Distribution Program which has been conducted for a period of approximately four (4) years at all three parks in Downtown Santa Monica. The lawsuit is the first of its kind to be filed by a resident and busin...
Editor's note: John Alle owns and operates a building on the Third Street Promenade. The grandson of immigrants, he is also a survivor of a violent assault by a homeless man. Based on information received and observation of the situation, the Observer believes the City today actively encourages intolerable conditions in Downtown Santa Monica e.g. runaway homelessness in order to force local landowners to sell their land cheap. The city can then announce that "retail in Santa...
These Observer pages have long chronicled decades of mismanagement by Santa Methica's governing bodies, the accumulated misdirection and incompetence having led the city to the death spiral in which it currently finds itself. However, there is likely agreement among not only Observer regulars, but, residents and tourists alike, that there is at least one thing in which Santa Methica has always excelled: terrorizing all who dare to drive a car here, by handing out very expensiv...
December 19, 2023 - In an email, John Alle of the Santa Monica Coalition, supplied comments from Santa Monica residents regarding the proposed ten percent increase in the salary of City Manager David White, and they are not in favor. The Santa Monica Coalition is a group of residents, property owners, and businesses that advocate restoration of safety, cleanliness, and prosperity to the city. The proposal to be considered at tonight's city council meeting is to raise White's s...
Email to City Manager David White and Lori Gentles Dear David and Lori. You have generally been highly responsive to inquiries from me, so I believe you will reply to this urgent email today. The issue of the increase in David's salary comes before Council only 6 days after it was announced in yesterday's Council meeting Agenda for Tuesday., so time is extremely of the essence. The public and media should know your thoughts now on an issue that might be significant( both on...
December 5, 2023 - REI announced last week that it is closing its location in downtown Santa Monica. The store replaced the previous tenant, Toys 'R Us, in 2006 at the two-story location at Santa Monica Boulevard and 4th Street. The Santa Monica REI location will close on February 29 of next year. Statements from the company about the reason for the store closure vaguely refer to "the positive impact of the store, our market presence, and external factors" as reasons for the d...
Just South of Santa Monica City Hall is the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The historic building, where the Academy Awards were conducted in the 1950’s, is in derelict condiction as politicians debate what to do with it. "I took these photos in the link below and others,” writes John Alle, a local resident and business owner. "Addicts drinking, doing drugs, smoking and having sex between the building and the hedges...It is a fire hazard. No fencing and no exterior security cam...
John Alle of the Santa Monica Coalition investigated the LA Metro Exposition line at night over summer of 2022. Hear and see what he experienced....
September 22, 2023 - John Alle, the Santa Monica activist, business owner, and founding member of the Santa Monica Coalition who was attacked by a drugged homeless individual on Tuesday, wrote us to clear up some misconceptions that have been circulating in other news outlets. Below is his statement: 1) The attack occurred DURING THE DAY between 2:30 and 3 pm. 2) I was not filming the suspect or anyone in particular. I was taking a break from work and decided to walk the...
September 27, 2023 - An individual apparently jumped from the top of Parking Lot 2 into the alley behind Sephora in the 1200 Block of the Third Street Promenade this afternoon. Photos taken by John Alle, local business owner and anti-crime activist, on his first day back at work after his own assault in Palisades Park last week, show a bloody sheet covering a body surrounded by police. A police officer indicated the roof of Parking Lot 2 as the suspected mode of death. An...
I'm always thinking about the next topics to address in my periodic submissions to the Observer. Upcoming candidates include the insanity of the road diet, the hulking, creepy "The People Concern" campus on Cloverfield, and the ridiculous and unacceptable amount of emergency vehicle siren/air horns noise in Mid City. Look for those submissions soon. Monday night, Sept. 18, I took a walk downtown for the first time in weeks. Those walks commonly provide me with ideas to be...
John Alle is the man who put up the now famous sign saying "Santa Monica is Not Safe" on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. Tuesday at 3 pm he was beaten in Palisades Park. The assailant broke Alle's jaw in two places, gave him a concussion and broke two of his teeth. Authorities transported Alle to the emergency at Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center. Alle says that he was walking North within Palisades Park, North of the Camera Obscura. He came across two men. Alle is not...
August 10, 2023 - A new sign warning tourists and shoppers on the Santa Monica Promenade was erected today by the Santa Monica Coalition, a group of property and business owners dedicated to restoring law and order to the troubled city. "Santa Methica is Not Safe," reads the sign, pointing out the dominant drug of choice among the near-thousand homeless individuals who inhabit the public and some private spaces in the city. "Our city manager Supports the Needle & Meth Pipe...
Dear Mayor Davis and Members of the Santa Monica City Council, I am writing to express my deep concerns over the proposed plan to address our homelessness issue by constructing multi-million-dollar accommodations in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. Not only is this approach economically imprudent, it would likely be ineffective in achieving our overarching goal: providing safe and stable housing for every homeless person in our city. I would like to...
August 9, 2023 - The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health appears to have given up on getting addicted residents off of drugs. In a recent press release warning of the potential presence of the veterinary anesthetic xylazine in illicit drugs, the Department included one sentence in a 700-word press release that advised people not to use illicit drugs. The next six paragraphs described ways to "minimize the risk." Nowhere in the press release did the Department list p...
Police have arrested a suspect for the attemp[ted murder of a homeless man. A librarian found the victim Wednesday night outside the public library in Ocean Park, as he closed the library. That Andrew Carnegie library is over 100 years old, and features a children's reading room. Due to Prop 47 and other progressive ideas that promote drug addiction and homelessness, it seems incongruous to have a reading room or a library at all in Santa Monica. But anyway, here's the press...
A pre-dawn fire scorched the sculpture at the entrance to the California Incline, connecting Santa Monica to the Pacific Coast Highway. The blaze, which may have been intentionally set, occurred at the sculpture Beacon Overlook (2000)] by Jody Pinto, near California Incline. This is at the terminus of California Avenue, as it descends to PCH. While the cause of the fire was not immediately known, dozens of homeless people reside in Palisades Park and on the cliffs that...
June 23, 2023 - Early this morning, John Alle, founding member of the Santa Monica Coalition, was at his property on the Third Street Promenade after a call from his security team. While there, he became aware another overdose had occurred in Palisades Park. The victim was found directly across from the Shore Hotel and Blue Plate Oysterette Restaurant. The Santa Monica Coalition is a group of Santa Monica residents, business and property owners concerned about safety and...
June 6, 2023 - On Friday afternoon, three members of the Santa Monica Coalition and one journalist observed Los Angeles County-contracted workers hand out hypodermic needles, synthetic meth, and other alleged health aids to whoever was in the public park, including offering the kits to non-drug users who happened to be sitting in Reed Park. The Santa Monica Coalition, a group of local business owners and leaders who are concerned about humanitarian, public safety, and crime...
May 28, 2023 - At a meeting with member of the Santa Monica Coalition, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer defended her program to distribute needles to drug addicts in public places in Santa Monica even as she was unable to answer questions about the program's effectiveness or safety. The Santa Monica Coalition is a group of local business owners and leaders who are concerned about the humanitarian, public safety, and crime issues present in the city....
On Saturday evening, May 28th, a criminally insane person went on a stabbing spree on the Santa Monica Pier. He stabbed several people before being apprehended by the SMPD's Harbor Patrol. The 100 year old pier is a major tourist attraction for Los Angeles County, ranking with the Hollywood sign and Griffith Park Observatory as among the biggest draws in LA County. "Crime Depravity Outdoor Mental Asylum! Santa Monica is not safe." say signs above PCH, directly below fires set...
April 21, 2023 - Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department reportedly declined to help a young woman who was threatened by an apparently homeless man while she was taking a tennis lesson at Reed Park. In an email sent by the girl's mother to the Santa Monica Tennis Collective, she described a man who approached the court fence and screamed obscenities at the girl. He reportedly told her to "get the fuck out of [his] park" and added, "don't think I won't rape you." He...
April 12, 2023 - Citing out-of-touch leadership and mismanagement of funds, 54 business and property owners on the Third Street Promenade have hired an attorney to create their own business district, apart from Downtown Santa Monica Inc, with no city government participation. Currently, DTSM operates the downtown area, including the Third Street Promenade and from Second Street to Lincoln Boulevard and the 10 Freeway. They are to maintain the area, keep it secure, and...
