Editor:
Looks like we have our council members putting on their "nervous Nellie" hats, spewing propaganda on how good the Hines project will be for Santa Monica ("Defending the Hines vote," Your Column Here, March 1). It actually sounds like the plot from the Erin Brockovich movie, in which PG&E told their victims that the chemicals used were actually good for them, when in fact, they were lying.
Then we have Kevin McKeown writing his own diatribe on how the majority of the council knuckled under to Hines, fearing that they would walk away ("Calling for more housing from Hines," Your Column Here, March 4). Kevin (trying to distance himself from the gang of four) has hinted at the notion that he would have approved the project if it had more affordable housing. Is Kevin nervous, too?
Several letters have been written in about how great Pam O'Connor is. Why are people coming to her defense prophylactically? This woman has been the head instigator in the ruination of Santa Monica for the 19 years that she has been planted on the council. Pam O'Connor has taken an alarming amount of political contributions from every developer with a checkbook. Conflict of interest doesn't even begin to touch on her being a total sellout to whomever will fund her recent campaigns, or pay off her old ones.
There was a letter from a resident, stating how hard the council works for little pay and into the late hours.
Of course they "work" into the late hours. That's how they accomplish selling out the residents and constituents when no one is looking.
There must be something terribly wrong with the agreement with Hines for them to be so insistent that it go through, as is. It's like 1602 all over again, in the words of the Bard, "the lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Lori Emerson
Santa Monica
