ACTION Apartment Association

Interim Police Chief Says Mayor Crimes in Santa Monica Up but Low by Historic Standards

03/09/2018 11:05 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

March 9, 2018 -- With a string of violent crimes stoking community fear, Santa Monica Interim Police Chief Kenneth Semko on Thursday said major crime had risen 6 percent in the first two months of 2018, adding that police have been re-deployed to provide “an immediate” impact on both crime and the community’s “perception of safety.”

The 5.8 percent increase in crime in January and February is roughly equal to “one additional crime a day over last year,” when serious crime jumped 12.5 percent, Semko said in a message to the community posted on the City’s website.

“Troubling as these trends are to all of us in the Police Department, the number of annual crimes in Santa Monica remain well below historic rates of crime from 1965-2000,” he said.http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/March-2018/03_09_2018_Interim_Police_Chief_Says_Major_Crime_in_Santa_Monica_Up_but_Low_by_Historic_Standards.html

Santa Monica Considering “Tiny House Village” and other New Shelter for Homeless

03/07/2018 1:49 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

March 7, 2018 -- Although the City has already done “more than its fair share,” Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole says concepts such as erecting a “Tiny House Village” for the rising homeless population are being discussed.

Cole said the City would consider creating a community of micro dwellings only as part of a region-wide effort to place such small homeless neighborhoods in other areas as well.

Curious City: As The World Terms by Charles Andrews

03/07/2018 8:58 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The President has term limits. Congress doesn’t but here are good arguments pro and con. Most Governors do (38 of 50); ours does. All our elected state officials except the Insurance Commissioner do. Most cities in California have them for their city councils. And here in Santa Monica we have term limits for just about everyone, even volunteer commission and board members — but not for our City Council. You have to ask, why is that?

Or maybe you don’t have to ask. In many cities where term limits were established, it was their city council who initiated the process. I’d say those are cities with representatives more concerned with serving their constituents by perpetuating good governance and limiting possibilities for corruption, than in personally getting re-elected, over and over and over.

Santa Monica Homeless Count Shows Four Percent Increase

03/07/2018 8:55 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

· The 2018 point-in-time homeless count total is up 4% from 921 individuals in 2016 to 957.

· Within the street count, individuals sleeping in vehicles/encampments increased to 104 people, up from 92.

AND

http://smdp.com/santa-monica-sees-11-percent-increase-in-unsheltered-population/164776

AND

http://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2018/March-2018/03_07_2018_Santa_Monicas_Homeless_Population_Continued_to_Rise_in_2018_but_at%20_Slower_Pace.html

Long-Awaited Santa Monica Early Childhood Center to Break Ground

03/07/2018 8:50 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

March 6, 2018 -- Three decades after it was first proposed, an early childhood education center will break ground at the Santa Monica Civic Center this month, officials from Santa Monica College (SMC) announced last week.

Slots also will be open to the children of those who work in Santa Monica, including employees of the City, SMC and RAND, which participated in the planning and provided funding.

In California, Momentum Builds for Radical Action on Housing

03/07/2018 8:48 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The origins of and potential solutions to California’s housing crisis, explained.

Over the past several years, California has not only produced too little housing, but too little of the right kind of housing. Between 2009 and 2014, the state added 77,000 more households than housing units. The housing it has produced is often located far from jobs and transit, or is too expensive for low and sometimes even middle income people to afford.

“It’s a desperate situation right now,” said Dowell Myers, an urban planning professor at University of Southern California. “We really have to rethink everything.”

Council will learn homeless count results tonight

03/06/2018 7:47 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The City Council will learn the scope of the current homeless crisis Tuesday when City Manager Rick Cole reveals the numbers from this year’s January homeless tally during their first meeting in March.

A new public/private partnership to brainstorm new ways to tackle the homeless crisis also gets off the ground this week. The City’s new Homeless Steering Committee (SMHSC) will meet for the first time Wednesday, March 7 at 6 p.m. at Roosevelt Elementary Auditorium at 801 Montana Avenue. The committee is a gathering of more than 50 public and private partners from local businesses, churches, service providers and elected officials to develop strategies to address homelessness.

Audit Subcommittee Discusses Independent Draft Compensation Study

03/05/2018 8:50 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

At its meeting last night, February 28, the City of Santa Monica Audit Subcommittee met to review the draft staffing and compensation study from the firm Moss Adams. The study, which began in June 2017, reviews policies and practices related to City employee compensation and staffing levels.

Santa Monica Slow-Growth Group Shifts Focus to Crime

03/05/2018 8:37 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

March 2, 2018 -- It wasn’t long ago that one of Santa Monica’s most aggressive grassroots organizations was best known for challenging the City’s powers that be over the amount of new development it allowed.

But check in with the Facebook page for residocracy.org these days, and a change is evident:

Concern about crime and violence is starting to dominate posts there, pushing aside -- for now, at least -- the anger over new building that gave rise to 2016’s Measure LV, which sought public votes for most development taller than two stories.

Armen Melkonians, who founded residocracy.org in in 2014, said the increasing focus on crime is a natural evolution for the organization as concern about the rise in violent crime intensifies in the community.

California’s housing crunch has turned liberals against one another

03/05/2018 8:02 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

BERKELEY, Calif. — A median-priced one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco rents for nearly $3,300 a month. In the Silicon Valley community of San Mateo, the median home will set you back almost $1.4 million. Even in semi-rural Petaluma in Sonoma County, at least an hour drive from the city, rent for a one-bedroom can reach $2,000 and more.

To afford a place to live in the Bay Area, stressed workers and students are moving farther and farther out, commuting for hours a day from what used to be farm country. Others pile two and three to a room. In Los Angeles, San Diego and along much of the coast, the picture is much the same.

But now the need for more affordable housing is provoking an intense ideological struggle, and in this left-leaning state, one that pits liberals against liberals.