• Name: Susan Hartley
• Age: 65
• Occupation: Tenant/employee attorney
• Marital status/children: Single/25-year old daughter
• Your neighborhood? How long have you lived there?: Sunset Park for nine years; south of Montana Avenue for two years; north of Montana for four years
• Your mode of transportation/model, make and year of your ride?: 2005 Toyota Prius
• Own or rent?: Mortgaged to the hilt for eight years. Previously, renter for 37 years
• Do you support Measure Y, the half-cent sales tax increase? If so, do you think half of the money generated by the increase should go to local public schools?
I do not support Measure Y. I am not for more taxes. These are hard times for everyone. As [Mayor] Bobby Shriver has said, there is no guarantee under Y and YY that any of the money generated will go to the schools. Instead, I support the City Council allocating the proposed $6 million to the schools from its over half-a-billion-dollar budget. However, should Measure Y pass, I would demand that half of the projected $12 million go to the schools whether or not YY passes. This is in line with my commitment to listen to residents. As a former teacher and parent, continuing to provide an excellent education to Santa Monica youth is a top priority of mine.
• What are you reading?
Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” I personally relate to her being the founder of the environmental movement, a woman, and a fellow breast cancer victim.
• Do you believe there is enough parking Downtown? If not, what do you plan to do about it?
No. Existing parking structures should not be destroyed as planned. Any new building in Downtown should be required to have enough underground parking to satisfy the building’s users. For example, the proposed mega-AMC Theater Project and its resulting 570 net new theater seats will have no underground parking. This project calls for the destruction of Parking Structure 3 and the construction of another parking structure at a different location. That is ridiculous. Keep Parking Structure 3 and make the AMC Theater developers put in underground parking. City Hall needs to remember that we can drive to the Westside Pavilion or the Marina and park underneath or near the theaters for free.
• Now that the Broad museum is out of play, what should City Hall do with the Civic Center Parking Lot?
Designate part of the property for the Santa Monica Archival Museum as Bruria Finkel suggested. The remainder of the property should be a park like Clover Park, including soccer fields and tennis courts. There should be underground parking, diagonal bikeways and pedestrian walkway loops.
• When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An inner-city teacher fighting social inequality by bringing equal educational opportunity to my students.
• Local businesses provide the majority of the city’s general fund revenues, yet Santa Monica has a reputation for being a difficult place to do business. How would you entice more businesses, different businesses, to open up shop? How can City Hall help those businesses that are struggling in the current economy?
I would not build up Lincoln and the east-west boulevards as called for in the LUCE. The small businesses there are doomed under LUCE. Businesses know this and will understandably go elsewhere. City Hall can help struggling businesses by not raising the sales tax, driving customers to neighboring areas.
• L.A. recently greatly reduced patients’ access to medical marijuana. Do you support medical marijuana dispensaries in Santa Monica?
No. There appear to be sufficient dispensaries in neighboring cities. If the need arises for a medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Monica, it should be closely monitored and housed at a local hospital.
• Should smoking be banned within apartments?
Yes. The ban should be through attrition only. No existing tenant who smokes should be evicted. When smoke seeps into neighboring units, landlords should be required to mitigate so that no tenant has to breathe their neighbor’s secondhand smoke. Units and then buildings could gradually over time be designated “No Smoking Apartment Buildings.”
• What would you do to make Santa Monica more bike friendly?
Every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. restrict Broadway (Centinela to Ocean) to bicycles, skaters, skateboarders, and pedestrians only so it becomes a safe conduit for residents all over Santa Monica to ride to the beach and Downtown. Paint bike lanes green. Create more bike lanes so there is a real bicycle network throughout Santa Monica.
• What’s the biggest threat facing the quality of life in Santa Monica?
All the development and resulting traffic. We’re busting at the seams. Where will we get the water to sustain the development? Where will the development’s sewage go?
• Downtown properties owned by City Hall. Should parking be the top priority or should housing come first?
Neither. Downtown is already over-developed. The City Hall-owned Downtown properties should become open space, possibly with underground parking.
• Do you support the closure of Santa Monica Airport in 2015? If so, what would you like to replace it with and how would you make up for the loss in revenue generated by airport operations, lease agreements?
Definitely yes. It’s a Love Canal in our midst. L.A. and Santa Monica residents should not be subjected to the daily pollution, noise, and crash risks. There will be no revenue loss to City Hall. The airport actually drains money from City Hall. Revenues generated by the airport are solely used to maintain the airport and its staff. When airport maintenance funds are insufficient, City Hall kicks in additional revenue to maintain the airport, such as $1.227 million this year for runway resurfacing and inspection. The airport should be converted to a great park like at El Toro and in Berlin. The golf course that used to be there should be returned. A solar and windmill farm should be installed to help make Santa Monica totally energy independent.
• Do you believe in pension reform and should Santa Monica employees contribute more toward their healthcare and retirement benefits?
Yes. Everybody else does.
• When it comes to getting public benefits from developers, what should be the top priority: affordable housing, public art, cash money, bike lanes or carpooling?
The top priority should be reduced height and density so that we can see the sky, the horizon, the ocean, and the mountains. We don’t need developments higher than two floors. All developments should have setbacks around the perimeter to eliminate the “canyonization” of Santa Monica. We don’t want to become New York with palm trees. Every new development must be energy self-sufficient. Adequate parking for the development’s users is mandatory. The best public benefit for Santa Monica is for developers to go elsewhere.
• Would you support placing a limit on the amount of time council members can speak on a particular item during meetings?
Yes. There is too much pointless rambling. Council members would be required to show respect to people making public comments, not insult them.
• When was the last time you rode a bike or took Big Blue Bus?
Today.
• Does the housing-first model work for addressing the homeless issue or should we focus on building more emergency shelters to get people off the streets immediately?
Both are proven to be equally essential.
• Free form: What’s putting a burr under your saddle?
Pointless wars. Every Sunday when I volunteer at Arlington West I am appalled at the number of our military killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, how young they are, how much potential they had, and how many loved ones mourn them. I am appalled at the number of Iraq and Afghanistan civilians killed. I am appalled at the money being spent on destruction when it could be used here in America for our schools, infrastructure, and people.
