The Human Rights Watch Student Task Force (HRWSTF) club at Samohi backed the Cloverfield Commons group's plan for the Santa Monica Airport space on Apr. 15 at a rally outside City Hall to create more affordable housing in the city.
The Santa Monica Airport (SMO), located next to Clover Park, could close in 2029 after much negotiation between the City and the Federal Government. The push to close SMO has largely been driven by residents who want to convert the location into a “Great Park” but a push for housing at the site has been gaining traction.
Students at Samohi are supporting all sides of the debate.
Samohi’s Team Marine have come out in favor of the park and others would like to see the airport preserved. However, HRWSTF at Samohi is siding with the Cloverfield Commons group. Some students in the club spoke at the rally in favor of the Commons.
“The impact that this development can have is not limited to the house housing crisis or houselessness crisis. It will strengthen our community as a whole. I know many teachers that work in Santa Monica, but do not have the option of living here. Instead, they have to drive up to two hours to go to work. With developments like this one, that doesn't have to be the case,” said Maya Muñoz, a sophomore at Samohi.
The Cloverfield Commons group is advocating for about half of the property to be used for affordable housing, while the other half would be converted into a park. This plan would have a range of very low income housing to median income housing, making it accessible for many different citizens in Santa Monica, especially city workers.
A part of the Commons plan is to restore housing that was taken from Black and Hispanic families with the building of the I-10 freeway and the deconstruction of the Belmar neighborhood. Vivian Rothstein, a co-founder of the Cloverfield Commons group, told the Daily Press that some units of the housing would be specifically for descendants of displaced families and would be available for limited equity ownership.
The gathering outside City Hall featured a list of speakers to argue for the necessity of more accessible housing. Some local citizens expressed their personal experiences and why this plan is important.
“Doing the right thing can often be so much harder than doing the popular thing, even when the popular thing is poorly informed and profoundly prejudicial. Building the Great Park alone will ignore some stark and painful realities,” said Rene Buchanan, a formerly homeless citizen of Santa Monica. “How can we realize our dream of a great park for which we really have no budget, while bringing relief to our rent burdened and excluded neighbors? Well, the answer is simple. We build both.”
The plan isn’t fully worked out due to different budgeting restraints–the funding for the project would depend on what exactly the Commons is asking for and what they can achieve in the plan to create accessible funding. The idea is to create a city owned building with 3000 units with restrictions and guidelines for how it is to be used.
“I don't think [funding] is so much of a challenge with housing … I know people are trying to come up with all kinds of money making deals like an outdoor entertainment venue and things like that that I don't think are consistent with what people want to have,” said Rothstein.
While Team Marine and the HRWSTF are both in favor of the closure of SMO, the Aerospace Engineering club at Samohi disagrees with both plans for the airport.
“The airport was established in WWI, and it played a significant part in WWII, where it served as an important ground for aircraft production and pilot training. It was also used to help fight the Palisades Fire as a landing site for firefighting aircraft that protected homes and saved lives. If the airport closes, people will lose their jobs, and we’ll lose a critical emergency landing site for planes. Even if the airport closes, pilots won’t stop flying. That traffic will just shift to already crowded airports like Hawthorne, Van Nuys, and Burbank,” said Charlie Cohen, the club’s president. “The city’s ‘great park’ plan feels misleading, it seems more like a push for more high-rise housing, which would further crowd the area. This decision is reckless, dangerous, and entirely profit-driven.”
By Devyn Hamilton, SMDP Intern
