Dear Editor,
In last week’s letter, "Anyone but SMRR" (page 7 of the weekend edition) former council candidate Arthur Jeon attempted to smear four council candidates with falsehoods and conspiratorial accusations. The record must be corrected.
I, too, am a 9th Street resident, one block away from Santa Monica Blvd, Wilshire Blvd, and Lincoln Blvd. Arthur and I must be neighbors! Therefore, I know he knows his letter is all about playing politics and not reflective of the actual character of our neighborhood.
I am not involved in the leadership of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, but I have been a member for over a decade because I believe in the organization’s mission to create opportunities for people of all income levels, but especially the least fortunate among us, to be able to live and thrive in Santa Monica.
My family and I were able to rely on the stability provided by our City’s robust rent control policy to save up over the course of many years to eventually afford a down payment on our first home, right on the very same block Jeon claims has become unaffordable due to overdevelopment.
Just a few pieces of misinformation from Jeon’s letter:
• The laughable accusation that SMRR has taken money from Cypress Equity. In fact, SMRR and the Democratic Club both voted to formally *oppose* Cypress Equity’s attempted ballot measure which would have exempted multi-family buildings from the City’s real estate transfer tax, thus incentivizing more of the development Jeon and his friends on Council claim to oppose. Thanks to the efforts of these two groups, the measure failed to qualify for the ballot this fall.
• The conspiracy theory that SMRR only supports our RHNA goals because it gives the organization more power. We hear the same disturbing accusations from MAGA Republicans who claim that Democrats support immigration in order to accrue more voting power. In fact, most Santa Monicans support meeting our RHNA goals because *they are mandated and enforced by state law.* We understand the contempt that MAGA and Trump have for following the Constitution, but now we are seeing the same reflected in our local government. Maybe I’m just a far-left lunatic, but I believe our City should follow the California laws on the books. If we don’t like the laws, we lobby our state legislature to change them.
• Blaming SMRR for all of the City’s current problems. This age-old line is undermined by the fact that Jeon’s friends on the Change Slate have held a solid majority on City Council for nearly four years. Has anything changed for the better? Or does Jeon assert there is a SMRR Deep State working to undermine the conservative majority on Council?
• The accusation that home ownership is made more difficult by building more housing. We know this is false, which is why Vice President Kamala Harris announced this week that her housing platform includes building three million more housing units. She understands that the best way to increase public safety and decrease homelessness in our cities is to create more housing. In fact, what makes home ownership so difficult for so many is the NIMBY politics embraced by Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre that oppose any new housing production, thus drastically increasing the cost of housing. Fighting the creation of supportive housing, of course, also means that the “deeply ill people” Jeon complains about will remain on the streets.
Rather than blaming a tenants rights organization, Jeon should turn his ire on the conservative council majority. Thanks to their unwillingness to adhere to (and apparent ignorance of) state law, and repeated threats to sue the state, our Housing Element went out of compliance long enough for the so-called “Builder’s Remedy” to take effect, meaning over a dozen high-rise buildings became automatically approved without any local control at all. At least two of those skyscrapers are in the immediate pipeline for development now.
This November, voters will remember the contempt for following the law that Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, and their “Change Slate” allies demonstrated when they played politics from the dais and threatened our City’s character by playing chicken with our state government.
Jon Katz, President, Santa Monica Democratic Club
