Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 111
This week, the biggest local story is that the County of Los Angeles' needle exchange program for addicts operates in several Santa Monica parks. These include Tongva Park, Palisades Park and Reed Park, among other locations. Giving needles to addicts so they can shoot heroin and other drugs seems inconsistent with family life. So we asked Councilmember Phil Brock to comment on the issue. "We have known about this program since November," said Brock, a former Parks and Recreation commissioner. "...
Director BARBARA FERRER, Ph.D., and her 4th in command at the County of Los Angeles Public Health, Gary Tsai. M.D., are at it again, this time in Santa Monica. The City has acknowledged that without the knowledge of its Police Department, residents and businesses, it has funded and allowed over a year for the County and the Venice Family Clinic to administer a clandestine needle and synthetic drug distribution program in one of the City's largest parks (Reed Park), adjacent to the Children's...
March 9, 2023 - In an email to the Library Board, Santa Monica business and property owner John Alle included dozens of sobering photos and video clips illustrating the unsafe and unclean conditions at the main library and downtown generally. "GOOD GUARD SECURITY is the new security guard firm the City hired to replace ALLIED UNIVERSAL SECURITY. Good Guard Security is doing a lousy job, worse than Allied Universal Security," Alle wrote. Alle had attended the Library Board's meeting the previous...
Back in September 2005 I was walking down the main drag of Auckland, New Zealand, when I spotted a travel agency's breathless window ad for a dream package trip to "glamorous" Los Angeles-Hollywood-Santa Monica (!!!). The ad featured a composite photo of both the Hollywood sign and SM Ferris wheel. I chuckled, feeling smug. This little window sign served to confirm my growing confidence that the 1996 timing of my departure from Marin County/San Francisco, in favor of sunny Santa Monica, was...
January 25, 2023 - Citing a budget that is heavy on salaries and failed programs, incompetent leadership, and the economically and physically depressed state of the Third Street Promenade, property owner and business leader John Alle is calling for the disbanding of Downtown Santa Monica Inc (DTSM). DTSM is a "private" non-profit organization that is supposed to work with the City government to manage services and operations in downtown Santa Monica. The 13-member board of DTSM is made up of 6...
January 19, 2023 - The luxury beachfront hotel, Loews Santa Monica Beach, has announced it is "temporarily" suspending operations effective March 4. The 320 workers at the hotel will be laid off. The hotel, which opened in 1989, replaced an earlier low-profile motel, sits cater-corner to Tongva Park and two blocks from the Santa Monica Pier. Both of these locations have been plagued by crime and violent incidents over the past few years. For example, in October, 2018, a homeless man was...
Courts & Rulings Challenge to alleged corruption-tinged decisions untimely The Court of Appeal for this district held yesterday that even if projects approved by the City of Los Angeles were tainted by the corruption of former Council members Mitchell Englander and Jose Huizar, it's too late to bring a suit to block the affected real estate developments from going forward. Both of the discredited former city lawmakers were members of the Planning and Land Use Management ("PLUM") committee which...
December 20, 2022 - For nearly three years now, Santa Monica property and business owner John Alle has been copying the Santa Monica Observer in numerous emails he has sent to the city's manager, parking manager, council, attorney, and the Downtown Santa Monica Inc business district board about the problems caused by drug-addicted, mentally ill, and destructive vagrants residing in the downtown area. These individuals make drugs in the parking garages, start fires in the dumpsters and even in...
October 12, 2022 - Lana Negrete was appointed to the Sant Monica City Council in June 2021 to replace longtime councilmember Kevin McKeown who had resigned. She is now running for a place on the council in her own right. Why are you running for Santa Monica City Council? "To continue the work I started!" Negrete immediately answered. When she was appointed a year ago, "I told myself if I can effect change, I will get on the council and work for change." What are your priorities in your present...
Santa Monica's great lie. The Mayor has said: "(...) the benefits we enjoy here, from our pothole-free streets to our glorious beachfront to our wonderful schools." The oft-repeated mantra is that we should all suffer horrific sales taxes, weak policing (not the fault of the police, but of city hall), overdevelopment of rentals and a dearth of affordable home-ownership, that leaves our residents permanent rent-slaves, is justified because Santa Monica is such a lovely place to live. In reality...
Dear Chief Batista, I am pointing out the activities shown in the following photos contained in the link below, asking for your help. Since you say you have a full staff at night from 12 midnight to 7 am, would you please authorize your officers to patrol these areas? The photos and video clips are not in order, but tagged with date , time and location. And I have more images showing disgusting and illegal activities. We need your attention Chief, and City Manager David White and our City...
Hi Santa Monica City Government, You are exercising government overreach. Stop the mandates. You are city servants. Not health dictators. You do not have the right to force city employees or law enforcement to be guinea pigs for drug companies. When you started the mandating game it was "in a state of emergency" and "just to keep the hospitals from overflowing." Right? Now what's the excuse? The hospitals are not overflowing. We're not in a state of emergency. Everyone who got "vaccinated"...
15: NASTEC - a private security pitched services to DTSM's board meeting Tuesday morning. Arthur Jeon, Ann Maggio, John Alle, Denise Barton, Elaine Golden-Gealer and the SMPD all attended, among others. "Homelessness is not a crime" said an SMPD officer, reminding the meeting of what we all know. "So we can't remove homeless people from doorways. The officer said that in Reed Park, various well intentioned charitable groups are bringing food to the homeless every day. This creates a magnet...
August 24, 2022 - At the Santa Monica City Council meeting last night Santa Monica Police Chief Ramon Batista vigorously disputed what he called the "falsehood" that there are no police officers working at night. SMPD works "around the clock," he said and then displayed a slide showing the first names of 48 officers who he said "work at night." Another slide showed 34 officers had overtime assignments that "work most often at night, and a third slide showed 30 other officers, including command...
If Arthur Jeon truly is running for SM city council, he needs to be honest and truthful. His letter in your July 25-31 issue was neither. SM voters -- who are mostly renters -- must know he clearly has an anti-renter agenda. Mr. Jeon threatens the very existence of rent control which protects so very many low- and moderate-income SM renters/voters. Mr. Jeon is wrong when he says the mayor's property tax measure would benefit only the homeless. In addition to our schools, the mayor's ballot...
August 2, 2022 - City officials were warned of dangerous conditions on the grounds of the central Santa Monica Public Library well in advance of the fatal stabbing Friday evening in the north courtyard of the building. Santa Monica property and business owner John Alle has been recording the takeover of the city's downtown by vagrancy and crime since the start of the Covid-19-related lockdown in 2020. On July 8, 2022, roughly three weeks before the library stabbing, he emailed city officials...
7/31: Santa Monica Police announced today that they have arrested a suspect in the stabbing death of a homeless man at the Santa Monica Public Library. The stabbing occurred in the North Courtyard of the library, rather than inside the building itself. The North Courtyard is immediately next to the main entrance to the library. The Suspect is Quade Larry Colbert, 34. The SMPD press release, written by Lt. Erika Aklufi, SMPD public information officer, reads as follows: On July 29, 2022, at...
If you have walked our iconic bluffs overlooking the ocean, you will find discarded cans, old backpacks, blankets and clothes on the other side of the concrete railings that spoil the otherwise majestic ocean view. While the rest of Palisades Park is kept up beautifully, the bluff's rim is riddled with trash. I asked a Parks employee about it and he said they weren't allowed to go over the fence to clean it up because it was too dangerous. So that's it? Are we out of ideas on how to safely...
June 30, 2022 - On Tuesday night, the City Council narrowly voted to appoint three business property owners to the Downtown Santa Monica, Inc board instead of the previous council-connected outsiders. DTSM is a "private" non-profit organization that is supposed to work with the City government to manage services and operations in downtown Santa Monica. The 13-member board of DTSM is made up of 6 members appointed by the City Council, 6 members elected by the dues-paying property owners in the...
June 24, 2022 - The City of Santa Monica abruptly halted continuing its planned demolition of Parking Structure 3 downtown amid allegations it was not sufficiently protecting the public against exposure to asbestos and other contaminants. Residents and business and property owners have been noticing large amounts of dust in the air from the city's demolition of its own parking structure. According to local property owner John Alle, air dust samples taken by his environmental engineers showed...
June 15, 2022 - Pools of urine, tagged walls, drug addicts, and homeless squatters greeted downtown Santa Monica property owner John Alle as he arrived early to work the morning following the City Council meeting that approved extending the contract with Allied Universal Security. The security company is charged with patrolling the seven public garages and associated alleyways overnight until 6 am in the morning. The Block by Block Ambassadors take over patrol duty at 6 am, but often show up at...
June 16, 2022 - Yesterday evening, a specialty store located in the 1300 block of the Third Street Promenade was robbed of nearly $20,000 in gold by a group invading the store. The robbery occurred at approximately 7:30 pm when it was still light outside. Property owner John Alle was right outside the store when he saw the robbery. The store owner is a friend of his. Alle says he saw a Safety Ambassador walk directly away from the situation when he realized something was happening. Recently,...
June 14, 2022 - An editorial in the Santa Monica Mirror by Santa Monica College Board of Trustee Vice-Chair and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. Chair Barry Snell advocating the continuation of the Downtown Ambassador program was met with a scathing retort from property and business owner John Alle. Snell claimed that DTSM, the quasi-governmental body charged with upkeep and promotion of the Third Street and Promenade, was "fully aware of concerns regarding public safety" in the agency's area of...
May 26, 2022 - Property owners surrounding the former downtown Santa Monica parking structure 3 noticed that the lights attached to the building were permanently shut off on Tuesday evening, May 10, by Southern California Edison. These lights illuminate the alley behind the parking structure for about 225 linear feet. . In addition, 8 city light poles from Arizona to Santa Monica Boulevard are out. On top of the lack of light at night, the construction site is left unlocked at night. In letter...
May 13, 2022 - The Ambassador program is a waste, and in the words of Councilmember Phil Brock, DTSM, Inc. itself must be dissolved. We need real law enforcement during the hours of 11 pm and 8 am. Private security has not worked and puts us all at physical and legal risk. The following was witnessed and photographed from this morning. 1) Ambassador following a City Maintenance street sweeper and power washer, with small broom and dustpan in hand (IOW redundancy of effort - editor note) 2)...
