Editor:
I don't always agree with Bill Bauer, but in Monday's column he mentions Jeffrey Tumlin's resume (the author of the now-infamous parking and transportation report), which describes Santa Monica's political history with what Bill calls "disdain" and in this case I wholeheartedly agree ("Lincoln Blvd bus lanes another planning disaster," My Write, Feb. 25). Mr. Tumlin's resume is posted on his company's website, and here's a quote from it:
"For decades, Santa Monica politics had been dominated by NIMBYs who used traffic fear as their primary tool for stopping development."
Is that what has dominated Santa Monica politics for decades?
What about residents' real and legitimate worries with projects that are totally out of scale with neighborhoods, or that block views or sunlight? Or, for that matter, what about those projects that would increase traffic unbearably in areas that are already thoroughly choked — are these not legitimate areas of concern for our town's voters? These things are all cavalierly dismissed by Mr. Tumlin's NIMBY description, and indeed by the very title of his report, "Getting from NIMBY to YIMBY: Santa Monica's Radical General Plan."
Of all the projects and locations that Mr. Tumlin details in his resume, Santa Monica's residents are the only ones described that way. Presumably the politics of Abu Dhabi, also detailed in Mr. Tumlin's resume, are far more honorable, since that country's Pearl Rating System, which Tumlin "refined," "accommodates Arab values and the country's hot, humid, desert climate." Well, what about accommodating our values? Apparently Mr. Tumlin knows better what is good for us.
Why are this city's increasingly-stretched tax dollars going to hire someone who sees many of this city's residents as objects of derision, and is, moreover, proud to describe us that way in his resume? Who hired him? Does that person share Mr. Tumlin's view of Santa Monica voters?
We have enough problems in our community without the addition of hired consultants who view many members of our town with utter contempt. This man and his company should be fired, and the person who hired him brought to public account.
Dan Jansenson
Santa Monica
