Other
Letters

City Officialdumb and Speculation City

January 10, 2001

Dear Editor,

(Regarding Mayor Michael Feinstein's quote, " A solution in the Pico Neighborhood can't include just enforcement" in today's edition of The Lookout) What enforcement? You like the rest of Santa Monica officialdumb remain blinded by your own hubris. Jerk! City Hall counts revenue and we in PIco count bodies!

$5000 reward for information leading to the successful recall of any elected Santa Monica official. Or for that matter for information leading to the dismissal of any department head. The lights are on (Have been for weeks in broad daylight in Palisades Park!) and no one is
home.

Jeers!

Steven G. Keats
Santa Monica

January 8, 2001

Dear Editor,

I see where the city cannot figure out what to do with the $53 Million property it purchased. Let me see if I understand this correctly. The City used earthquake recovery money (absconded taxpayer money) to purchase prime beachfront RAND property under the auspice of a much needed expansion of the "civic center". I will leave it to the reader to determine where the
earthquake fits into this equation.

Unsurprisingly, they have realized they don't know what to do with the property but are exploring options. How much do you want to wager that the list of consultants hired to explore options is the same list that contributed to the campaigns of the current city council? Is this the way government is supposed to work? Spend our hard-earned taxpayer money to purchase undeveloped real estate then try to find ways to justify spending more of it after the fact? Most development projects I have been involved with spend at least as much on the improved portion of a project as they do on the raw land. Where is the next influx of cash coming from?

Why does City Hall do everything it can to stop private speculative development and then become a speculative developer itself? Does anybody else see the irony and blatant hypocrisy? Does anybody really care? Is Santa Monica City Hall such an omnipotent dictatorship that the masses just go along with anything the "leaders" advocate? Do our so-called "leaders" have
a moral duty to be responsible to the taxpayers for their decisions? Is speculatively developing property a proper role of government?

I suppose if private developers were able to go over budget on their projects and then allocate themselves more money from a bottomless taxpayer pit, all of the barricades the city has implemented through zoning ordinances and the formidable and arbitrarily wielded weapon known as the historic landmark commission would not be so devastating.

Even though it has been proven time and time again, government entities are inefficient and wasteful as developers because they are not held accountable for fiscal mistakes, we are witnessing a mammoth violation of the proper role of government. If you don't believe me, there is a convenient physical manifestation in the form of a gigantic crater in City Hall's back yard that wonderfully proves my point. It is there because of poor planning and the City "leaders" ignoring the will of the voters in its effort to control more and more aspects of our lives.

S. Forest King
Santa Monica