DOWNTOWN — You could say Santa Monica had a little bit of everything in 2010.
From the bizarre — like the revelation back in March that celebrated local sushi restaurant The Hump was illegally selling whale meat — to the heartwarming — like the successful grassroots effort to save the financially challenged Twilight Dance Series concerts last summer — there was hardly a dull moment.
The city was also visited by epic public spectacles like the popular art event GLOW and the L.A. Marathon.
The economy dominated the national discussion for much of the year, and it was a local focal point as well in 2010. All in all it was a mixed economic bag for Santa Monica, with the long-awaited reopening of the Santa Monica Place mall providing a high point, but with many local businesses continuing to struggle and the state’s fiscal crisis leading to the first Big Blue Bus fare increase in years. The City Council, for the first time in memory, passed a budget that included reductions in grants to social service providers, though big cuts, layoffs and furloughs were avoided.
At the Daily Press, we stayed busy and had a good time telling Santa Monica’s tales. Here are our picks for the 10 biggest local stories of the year:
Community unites to save schools
Back in June, the mood among public school boosters was glum. Facing a $12 million budget gap and more than 60 layoffs at the district, a well-financed campaign to pass a $198 parcel tax to help stave off the cuts had just failed by a narrow margin. But in the wake of the defeat, a new plan emerged — one that brought together school advocates and the electoral might of City Hall’s municipal unions. Known as Measure Y, the half percent sales tax increase proposal needed only 50 percent of the vote to succeed (instead of the two-thirds required by the parcel tax) and passed with a landslide on Nov. 2. Expected to raise $12 million per year — half for City Hall and half for public schools — the passage of Measure Y was a sweet victory for school advocates who had worked the entire year to shield district programs from cuts. It also showed the worst recession in decades was no match for a united front put up by Santa Monica’s traditional power brokers. Even kids got into the act, setting up “Lemon-aid” stands to help raise funds for the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation. Local restaurants and retail outlets also donated proceeds to the foundation, which raised $1.2 million as part of the 60-day Save our Schools campaign.
Misleading mailers cap campaign season
With five City Council seats up for grabs in November, voters had an unprecedented chance to, as the saying goes, “throw the bums out.” Instead, they issued a ringing endorsement of the status quo by handing each of the five sitting members an electoral victory. Only one challenger, Planning Commissioner Ted Winterer, came close, losing to six-term incumbent Bob Holbrook by a scant 56 votes. The campaign season came with a heavy dose of acrimony, as Santa Monicans for Quality Government — a group many called a front-organization for developers — bank rolled a series of controversial political mailers. The mailers particularly irked the low-growth Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, which took its own barbs for financing attack ads on several incumbents. The story of the 2010 election may not yet be completely written, as SMCLC continues to insist SMQG broke the law by dodging financial disclosure rules. Stay tuned.
Furor over SMO flight path
Noise complaints reached an unprecedented level at Santa Monica Airport in 2010, as nearby residents reacted to what they said was an unacceptable nuisance caused by a shift in the takeoff routes of some low-flying propeller planes. The new route was a six-month experiment the FAA said was aimed at reducing airplane pollution and reducing regional takeoff delays. For residents of Sunset Park and Ocean Park, it was simply a headache. There’s no word yet on whether the agency will seek to make the route permanent. But City Hall, with an eye toward pushing for change at SMO when an important agreement between City Hall and the feds expires in 2015, is taking the issue seriously, hiring a lobbyist to pressure the FAA and commissioning RAND to study the airport’s impacts. Look for SMO to remain front and center in 2011.
School board member investigated
A police department scandal? In Santa Monica? It happened in 2010. Santa Monica Police Department investigators spent four months gathering evidence against school board member and youth center director Oscar de la Torre, arguing he committed felony child endangerment by allowing a fight between teenagers to continue on his watch. Then, in July, county prosecutors promptly declined to file charges, setting off a flood of criticism that the case may have been a politically motivated witch hunt from the beginning in an effort to tarnish de la Torre’s reputation. To calm the storm, City Hall took an unprecedented step and ordered a probe of the police department’s work on the case by the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review. Their report has yet to be released. Will it find fault with SMPD investigators’ work, or will it exonerate them? We’re just as curious as you are.
Smoking ban extended
The City Council continued its crusade against tobacco use in 2010, extending the ban on smoking to include private balconies and patios in multi-unit residential buildings. Some saw the move as an attempt to dictate a person’s private life, but the passion of anti-secondhand smoke advocates convinced the council that the ban was a necessary step to protect public health. Could banning smoking in apartments be next?
LUCE is finally approved
It took seven years, but the City Council finally revised its general plan for Santa Monica. The long-range planning document, known as the Land Use and Circulation Element, will guide development over the next 20 years. The next step is putting the principals of the LUCE — neighborhood protection, transit-oriented development, and better use of alternative transportation modes — into effect with specific rules. The first test of the document’s force: the massive Hines project planned for a 7-acre parcel across from the future site of the Expo Light Rail Station at 26th Street and Olympic Boulevard. Hearings on the project in 2011 are sure to spark controversy as residents in Sunset Park and the Pico Neighborhood have already expressed their opposition to the project, citing concerns about increases in traffic congestion.
Agony and ecstasy for Samohi sports
It was the highest highs and lowest lows for Santa Monica High School sports in 2010.
The year began strong for the Vikings as the girls’ basketball team, led by senior guard Thea Lemberger, won the school’s first California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section title in the sport in early March. Samohi took home the crown by dispatching Summit, 69-63.
On the heels of that triumph, the school’s athletic program suffered a devastating loss. Popular athletic director Norm Lacy passed away just weeks later in May due to a heart attack. His funeral, held at St. Monica, was well attended as the community mourned a legend of the local sports scene.
In another twist, Lacy’s death came just days before the softball team won its first ever CIF-SS title in the sport. In a fitting tribute, then head coach Debbie Skaggs, a longtime friend of Lacy’s, had her team observe a moment of silence before the team’s next playoff game. The softball team was joined by every student athlete at the school. The Vikings won that game before an overflow crowd on their way to the title.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we play the game,” Skaggs said at the time.
City Hall admits it dropped the ball
In 2010, the topic of development agreement compliance came to dominate the conversation at City Hall for months. The City Council routinely authorizes large-scale buildings after extracting “community benefits” — things like affordable housing, park space or public art — from the developer. But, it turned out, annual reviews of the agreements weren’t taking place, and projects had been built while many of the so-called benefits had never been provided. Some litigation ensued, including a suit against the owner of The Plaza at the Arboretum, the largest single affordable housing provider in the city. That suit has been settled, but City Hall spent much of the year wrangling with other parties who hadn’t followed through on their obligations. It was City Hall, though, that came in for the most heat for failing to enforce its own rules for decades.
Losing a leader
The year started off on a sad note, with the death of mayor and longtime Councilmember Ken Genser, 59, in January. Genser was hospitalized for months, his condition a closely kept secret. A fixture on the dais since 1988 — and a prominent part of civic life for years before that — Genser was a beloved Santa Monican, as the packed house at his Barnum Hall memorial service attested. Terry O’Day was later appointed to fill Genser’s seat on the council, and Bobby Shriver briefly replaced him as mayor, until the council in December chose Richard Bloom as the city’s figurehead for the next two years. Those close to Genser remembered him for his dedication to his work as both an elected official and city planner who loved architecture, music and dinner with friends.
“He shared with us all a brilliant intellect and a bulldog's tenacity and a compassionate spirit and the heart of a mensch,” Bloom said during Genser’s memorial.
Too many taxis?
Making good on a long-standing threat, the City Council this year limited the number of cabs allowed to operate in Santa Monica to 300 (there had been more than 460 on the streets at last count) and barred all but five companies from doing business in town. The move was aimed at improving service and lessening traffic. But it was a big change for the cab industry, and set off criticism from companies who were shut out of the market, culminating in a lawsuit filed this month alleging discrimination against Armenian-Americans during the selection process. The stakes will be high as City Hall goes to court early next year to argue the case should be thrown out.
nickt@www.smdp.com
Daniel Archuleta and Kevin Herrera contributed to this report.
