Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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December 12, 2024 - Santa Monica is at a crossroads, and the choices we make in the coming months will shape our city's future for decades. The airport property, long slated for closure by December 31, 2028, is a prime example of how complex and urgent our challenges have become. On one hand, our city grapples with a massive budget crisis-hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance, settlement obligations, and pension costs, all exacerbated by the pandemic's lingering financial...
This was on the way to Santa Monica's wonderful Christmas Tree Lighting on the 3rd Street Promenade. But our Mayor, City Council, newly elected Council Members and DTSM, Inc. CEO walked right past this guy and others lying on the sidewalk. This man may have accidentally flipped over, had serious mental issues, or been high. Have we become that numbed? Too many untraced checks are being written by City-funded 'non-profits' to have this continue. The tree was lit, the speeches were made, and the...
The relatively unknown music store owner Lana Negret was appointed to the Council in June 2021 after a nomination by her friend, Council Member Christine Parra, who is a member of the Change Slate. During the vetting process preceding the appointment it is reported that Negrete expressed to at least one member of the Change Slate her support for the city switching from at-large elections to district elections where each district elects one council member only. This was an important declaration...
AMCHA Initiative is proud to announce the launch of our national campaign to combat faculty antisemitism, beginning with efforts to stop Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), a network of 170 faculty chapters established after Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The primary mission of FJP members is to exploit their academic positions and departmental resources to actively promote the academic boycott of Israel (academic BDS) by engaging in actions to rid their campuses of Zionism and...
New research appears to have found the proverbial "free lunch" economists have long been searching for. States that grant nurse practitioners "full practice authority" -- that authorize them to provide care independently, without the supervision of a physician or other provider -- reduce total healthcare costs for people with diabetes by 20% in urban areas and drive down rural usage of advanced medical services by people with diabetes by about 10%. And there doesn't appear to be a trade-off....
November 13, 2024 - Well, you win some and you lose some! Congratulations to new council members Raskin, Snell, Zernitskaya, and Hall for your victory. And to Santa Monica United and the Safer Santa Monica Slate-you put up a great campaign, gaining a lot of ground, and I see you as a strengthening movement that focuses on resident priorities. But the political campaign, which was bruising at times, is over. It's now time to clear the air, pull together as a city, draw the right conclusions, and...
Friends of SMU: Well I write with a heavy pen to inform you that the "Santa Monicans United" endorsed slate lost. While the election was spirited and close, it seems that the renter's rights issues (false claims that The Establishment Slate wished to abolish rent protection) and other scare tactics predominated with the mostly (65-70%) renter population. While our polling showed safety and crime the key issues, The Establishment Slate (aka SMRR Slate) used fear, misinformation, and false...
Jewish families and individuals in the city of Santa Monica were callously targeted with antisemitic propaganda this past Monday, October 28th. Shocked recipients stated that their non-Jewish spouse or partner were spared the hateful election hit piece which caused heightened concerns. The fabricated defamation came from an organization hiding behind the name "Center for Excellence in Public Education" operating as a 501 (c) (4) but also utilizing PAC 527 status. Prior to the shocking singling...
Well, this exhausting season is almost over. No matter what the result, I trust that we will muddle on and things will settle down. But I want to comment on last week's City Council meeting, which reached new lows, disrupted by two members of our community: Jon Katz and Jason Mastbaum, who left right before being escorted out by the police. Both are out-of-touch SMRR dead-enders and Santa Monica Democratic Club stooges, and they, like all people defending the indefensible in terms of policy, res...
Dear friends and neighbors, I want to be sure you read Councilmember Oscar de la Torre's letter published in the Santa Monica Daily Press, which is below. Oscar writes in response to an accusation by a political figure - school board candidate Jon Kean - that he is antisemitic. I have known Oscar for decades, beginning when I was a reporter for NPR and I interviewed Oscar, fresh out of college, about his work with the youth of the Pico neighborhood. Oscar then created the Pico Youth & Family...
October 27, 2024 - The following are our common-sense, law-and-order, family-value recommendations for how to fill out your Santa Monica ballot before election day, November 5, 2024: Santa Monica Member of the City Council (4 votes): Oscar de la Torre Vivian A. Roknian John Putnam Phil Brock The Safer Santa Monica slate are the only candidates who have all the correct answers to questions about funding the police, getting rid of needle distribution to addicts, keeping our neighborhoods intact...
As everyone is aware, we are in a critical time to change the trajectory of Santa Monica. We need to make sure the right people are in office to run our city council and course correct the path our city is on to bring it back to its glory. There are basically two PACS (contingencies ) running and we want to VOTE in the SAFER SANTA MONICA PAC. It will really take the entire PAC being voted in to implement real change. This is who we want to vote for: SAFER SANTA MONICA includes: John Putnam,...
It seems anymore like not a week goes by without news of a stabbing, shooting, assault, rape or home invasion. And there are undoubtedly countless more less-serious crimes, many of which go unreported, like car break-ins, store theft, public drug usage, and harassment of residents and visitors by homeless wanderers on our streets. Santa Monica wasn’t like this 10 years ago. Crime continues to get worse and clearly we need to make changes in order to reverse this trend. The causes of increasing c...
Wow, it's a bore to keep deconstructing the desperate confabulations of SMRR and their puppeteers. But somebody's got to do it! The latest is from Ted Winterer, who presided on the City Council from 2012-2020 (and as the Mayor 2016-2018), and has written a truly hilarious SMDP op-ed in which he wonders why the two incumbents running (Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre), haven't yet created safer streets in their 3 years in office when they've been in control for 40. This is also a theme in SMRR...
A number of my good friends and family have been surprised about my decision to support @realDonaldTrump for president. They have been surprised because my political giving history has been mostly to Democrats, my voting registration has typically been Democrat (in NY, you must be registered to the party in order to vote in the primary, and usually the Republican candidate has no chance to win), and many of our philanthropic initiatives have supported issues that are consistent with Democratic...
In 2002 a man broke into Gloria G.'s home. He raped her at knife point and committed several other types of horrific sexual assaults. He threatened to kill her son. He was convicted and sentenced to over 100 years to life in prison. However, because of a change in the law, the man who raped Gloria, who is now over 50 years old, qualified for an elder parole hearing. Because George Gascon has banned prosecutors from attending parole hearings, Gloria, like so many other victims, had to attend the...
As Santa Monica faces rising concerns about crime and public safety, it's more important than ever for voters to understand which candidates genuinely prioritize safety and security for our community. This election, we strongly endorse the slate of Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, John Putnam, and Dr. Vivian Roknian for Santa Monica City Council. These candidates have consistently shown a commitment to tackling the city's safety challenges head-on, standing in stark contrast to their opponents...
September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough. I have spent countless hours studying Hezbollah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible. This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the la...
There seems to be a laughable attempt by SMRR to intentionally muddy the waters this election. In a case of moral confusion and cynicism, SMMR is trying to position themselves as the "change slate," because after 40 years of their establishment politics, affecting everything from overdevelopment to the destruction of the downtown, they are saying the Change Slate elected 4 years ago needs to be... um... changed by them! You see, anti-police SMRR, which appointed our city manager and almost the...
The Dems plan to steal the 2024 Presidential Election for Kamala Harris through the use of overseas ballots. This according to a X.com post from Joel Berry, Managing Editor of the Babylon Bee. Elon Musk retweeted the post. The post appears below: "Some fun facts about the Democrat plan to steal elections using "overseas" ballots: -Through the UOCAVA/overseas program, you can register to vote online without providing ID, SSN, or proof of citizenship/address. -You can register in any state, at...
DEAR SANTA MONICA If housed residents knew what's it like to be homeless in Santa Monica, they'd be pissed off and lose any respect you might have for the everyone in control, and the police don't help homeless people, they lie, intimidate, criminalize and ignore them but voters already know it's only getting worse regardless of who they vote for Same old bs, nothing new to see here folks The city approved nonprofits like " step up" move the worst of them into luxury apartments, yet leave the vu...
September 16, 2024 - Since I was called out personally, I'm finally writing in response to the letter Jon Katz, President of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, wrote in the SMDP on August 20th about my "Anybody But SMRR" letter. Jon titled his response "Playing Politics," which was appropriate, because it was full of half truths, outright lies, straw man arguments, and misrepresentations of my views-in short, a case study of playing politics from the president of an organization completely out of...
As Ryan Erlich highlighted in April, George Gascón's administration continues to reveal a troubling double standard regarding accountability. This double standard is particularly evident in the case of Diana Teran. Diana Teran, who was appointed by Gascón to serve as the "Ethics and Integrity Advisor" to the largest local prosecutorial office in the nation, is currently charged with six felonies. Despite a judge finding probable cause to support these charges, Teran remains on the public p...
LEGISLATIVE ALERT: MULTI-FAMILY, SINGLE FAMILY AND CONDOMINIUM HOUSING There is one statewide proposition on the California November 2024 ballot that I am very concerned about. It is Proposition 33, which enables extremely restrictive rent controls on a state-wide basis. These Proposition 33 proposed rent controls, including homes, condominiums, as well as multifamily complexes, could turn California into a nightmare scenario like NYC after WWII or Santa Monica or West Hollywood for the period...
Dear Council, et al: I live on 9th street, a block from three boulevards-Wilshire, Santa Monica, and Lincoln. This means I'm literally surrounded by 8-story "stack and packs," while being told the fiction that this grotesque sop to developers "won't affect the neighborhoods of Santa Monica" and will help "solve homelessness." Ha! This is, like so much that we hear from SMRR, a lie flown in on the wings of money-in this case Hedge Funds (Cypress Equity, I'm looking at you). While we were sleeping...
