Editor:
Us homeless, we do not get much of a chance to speak up about the things Daily Press writers write about but now that some old blabbering woman by the name of Brennan made her racism known to everyone I want to bring up that there are other types of racism here in Santa Monica that everyone should pay attention to but don't.
The Daily Press prints stuff from a group of writers called SMART who yap on and on about heights and depths and landmarking and shadows and open space of buildings being built in Santa Monica. While I don't got no education like your SMART writers that don't mean I got no set of brains to figure out what they be talking about. I think that SMART writers are using code words to make sure that there are no buildings being built for the homeless, the poor, the peoples of color and the new immigrants to live in here where I be in Santa Monica.
First of all I got I lot of experience about "open space" because I'm in it a lot more often than not. If the SMART writers are hankering for "open space" leave the move to Wyoming and befriend buffaloes. Buffaloes like "open space." Us homeless don't like "open space" because it means that we got no roofs over our heads.
Also the SMART Writers write about not wanting to live in the shadows. Boo hoo! Boo hoo! The rich who live in the rich peoples city that is Santa Monica don't want to live in shadows! What about the homeless, the poor, the peoples of color and the new immigrants? All of us have been living in the shadows for years and years and year! There might be one hundred million people living in them shadows in this country and maybe some groundhogs too. The SMART writers worry about living in shadows. What nerve!
And then the SMART writers talk about landmarking. Have you seen the broken down dump they want to landmark? There's some auditorium building down at Main and Pico that looks too ugly even to be a warehouse. They got these apartment buildings on San Vincente that look ready to be torn down but they want to save them. I don't need to know anything about architecture to know that when you landmark dumps then you can't build something larger and better to fill the real housing needs of people and landmarking is just a racist way of blocking people they don't want living in Santa Monica from living here.
Now what the SMART Writers don't tell you is that President Obama, the USA Attorney General and HUD plan to bust open rich people's cities like Santa Monica with their schemes and code words to keep the homeless, the poor, the peoples of color and the new immigrants from living here. In New York City, Mayor De Blassio is putting housing for the poor and the homeless right next door to rich peoples homes. I hear in Brooklyn Heights where a lot of Wall Street Crooks live housing is going up right next to building with $5-10 million condos and $10-20 million dollar town homes. Us homeless got equal rights to live where its best to live and Mayor De Blassio would never put up with the ways the SMART Writers are trying to block the homeless, the poor, the peoples of color and the new immigrants from living in Santa Monica.
How do we get lots of housing built quickly in Santa Monica? New York City got its own income tax and Santa Monica should have its own city income tax. I am suggesting a 20 percent income tax on people making between $50,000 and $100,000 and a 40 percent income tax on people making more than $100,000 and a 60 percent income tax on people making more than $250,000. Also, Santa Monica sits on land that was once Indian tribal land. Once the City of Santa Monica makes its peace with Native Americans lots of money can be raised for housing with the building of a bunch of Indian casinos. All that Wasted open space in Santa Monica, parks for lawn bowling, parks with tennis courts, the decrepit auditorium warehouse building at Pico and Main, the parking lots at 5th Street and Arizona - can all be turned into housing faster than fast. There should be no height limit on housing for the poor and the homeless and buildings 20 -25 stores high would be fair shadows be damned.
I think City Manager Rick Cole said that he wants Santa Monica to be a City of Social Justice. We can do it. Let's get it done.
Horace Elijah Souther
Santa Monica
