Dear Editor,
Our city council seems to want Santa Monica to be ever more trashy and financially struggling, rather than classy and financially sound.
Thanks to a well-deserved reputation for crime and rampant shoplifting, Santa Monica is failing as a tourist destination, and many stores on Third Street are empty. (REI leaving 4th Street broke my heart.) Landlords are bleeding cash and are desperate for anyone willing to rent their spaces. It seems like the only tenants they can get now are tattoo parlors, massage parlors and cannabis stores.
Century City Mall is bursting with high end stores and paying customers. Why? It is not because it lacks massage parlors or pot-stores. It is because they get the basics right. A safe, clean place where stores are not being killed by shoplifting.
Our council seems to be caving in to the short-sighted lobbying of struggling landlords, and fatally cheapening our city. It is safe streets and less shoplifting that will ultimately lead to higher rents and better retail tenants. Other cities are thriving. But by not taking a long-term view, by giving in to misguided businesses and not fixing the basics, our city is destined to spiral into tawdry cheapness and despair.
A race to the bottom in retail is like an alcoholic begging for one last drink before promising to dry out. It just ends up making things worse. In all seriousness, I am predicting that strip clubs and massage parlors will open on Third Street before long.
Peter Borresen, Santa Monica resident
