Editor:
Both City Council candidates Gleam Davis and Shari Davis support expanding multi-family, low-income housing projects to their north of Wilshire neighborhood, from Wilshire to San Vicente boulevards. The Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR) platform "seek(s) to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing and maintain the historic and ethnic and economic diversity of Santa Monica." The SMRR platform also "supports breadth, diversity, and equity in educational programming and facilities to achieve social and economic justice for all students."
According to a recent report from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District the three schools serving the Pico Neighborhood are segregated (majority of the students are a minority ethic group), while the Montana Avenue schools are overwhelmingly white. Last week the Daily Press reported the schools serving the Pico Neighborhood failed to meet federal student achievement bench marks.
If we elect Gleam Davis and education activist Shari Davis we can end the so-called "achievement gap" for the minority students. These two candidates will replicate the pattern of city developed low-income housing in the Pico Neighborhood (at least one low-income housing project on each street, and some streets have as many as 100 low-income housing units), flooding their own neighborhood with multi-family, low-income housing projects.
Developing the area from Wilshire to San Vicente with hundreds of low-income housing units will result in the desegregation of the Montana Avenue elementary schools. With the minority students attending the best performing schools instead of the worst performing schools we will end the "achievement gap" and achieve SMRR's goal of "ethnic and economic diversity in Santa Monica … and … social and economic justice."
Mathew Millen
Santa Monica
