Sometimes, 34 times
And in these perilous times, maybe that’s enough. For now. Because we need hope. We need to know that no matter how tough the task, we can prevail, it can eventually turn out okay, we’ll be alright. It’s not the Pollyanna side of me that says that, it’s the pragmatist, that tells the idealist occasionally to hush, for a moment of clarity, and action. Globally, nationally, and in Santa Monica, we are going to be alright. But "God helps those who help themselves."
History is my holy book, because history is a collection of facts. Despots try to rewrite it, to mark a false path that benefits them. History tells us where we have been, where we come from, and you need to know that to decide how to get where you want to go. Our master of history, national treasure Ken Burns, had some moving words in his recent undergraduate commencement address to the students of Brandeis University, and I will turn to them in my next column (June 19), for clarity in how our nation can get through this existential crisis.
It is well worth the 20 minutes to listen to the entire speech. Pieces of it have been showing up on walls and sidewalks in New York, it was reported.
Here in Santa Monica
We can find words of wisdom, common sense and hope. Other than mine, I mean. Some people try to make me out to be an impossible-to-please nostalgic malcontent who only wants Santa Monica to be that sleepy beach town of the ‘50s. First of all, although my family did spend some summer vacation time here in the ‘50s I was too young to know where I was. When I made the move to LA in 1980, while exploring the sprawling urban mass I stumbled upon SM, and that was it, love at first sight. It took six years, in other parts of LA, for the best schools for my son Chris — I know we all think SM has a lock on that, but it’s not so, and wasn’t then — but I finally made it. And became, after an arduous four-year process, an owner of a condo I could never otherwise afford, through Santa Monica’s TORCA program, now dismantled.
It’s so wrong that our Council leaders over the decades have not focused on home ownership (generational wealth building), keeping longtime Santa Monicans in their homes, and owning those homes, instead of only the quick fix of rent control, that keeps people renters-not-owners for life. And also, not incidentally, makes for a political party (SMRR) with an iron grip on things. And now they are backing the overdevelopment that is ruining the long standing world-famous character of Santa Monica, also foisting the fallacy that building thousands more "affordable units" will get people off the streets. What a scam we have been sold. It does increase the number of renter voters though, doesn’t it?
What have we gotten right lately? Well, the approval of a bid for revitalization of our legendary concert venue, the Santa Monica Civic, is quite a big deal. It’s a conglomerate with good cred and deep pockets, and the deal is the taxpayers of Santa Monica, already stretched so thin, will not have to pony up a penny. It’s a bit of a miracle, but one that fits perfectly into the narrative, well-supported but up until now little recognized, that Santa Monica is and should be known as, a mecca for the arts. I have been beating that drum for years, as has Phil Brock since I met him 12 years ago. That was actually an issue of sports, with the folks in Cultural Affairs stonewalling me on why a basketball court at Joslyn should not be closed. But, sports, arts, they’re both resident oriented.
We blew it on the Sci-Fi Museum that was supposed to go into the old Sears Building, because no one on city staff checked enough to find out the guy behind it is a convicted child molester. And no one picked up the ball to lobby for the location of the new Meow Wolf artscape, so cool, in Santa Monica, and so it will be built in Westchester. Close, but no cigar. A real loss. Here, we do need a master plan, to promote Santa Monica as a City for the Arts. Is destroying the Bergamot Art Center a good idea?
I chided Brock
For not taking a stronger stand in the beginning on saving the Civic, but he always indicated he would vote to keep it, and did. I don’t always agree with the politics Brock plays, but there is no question the well-being of residents here is his primary motivation, and no Council member has put in more hours, in every area of our civic concerns. We need more trips to DC where the power and money for Santa Monica is, and fewer dreams of Vienna.
And don’t ever forget, especially as you vote in November: our School Board fought to take over the Civic and turn it into a basketball gym, after misspending tens of millions of dollars on faulty and unneeded buildings at Samohi, and demolishing a building that did not need to go, the History Building. I believe that is a stain those elected members will carry to their graves. I mean, "The History Building," the iconic center and heart of Samohi going back nearly a century, and they didn’t need to tear it down, and they brushed aside all community outrage and pleading, and professional studies to the contrary. They had their master plan, and nothing could get in the way. And I’m betting they will be asking us for even more bond money, maybe another quarter billion, above the more than $1.1 billion we have already given them, because they have not yet completed that Samohi master plan.
This is way more than enough is enough. Santa Monica is a gem, and deserves much better leadership and decision making, on Council and on the School Board. Please become informed. It’s easier than you think, and so important, if you love this little city. Ask a trusted friend who you know does understand all this. Then VOTE.
I got all wound up
Again. And will have to delay the observations of others who care, like Houman David Hemati, Lana Negrete, and Ken Burns. Stay tuned, every other Wednesday.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 38 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else.
