MICHAEL FEINSTEIN

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

1. Who are you? Describe yourself in 100 words or less.

Greek orphan, adopted by wonderful American Jewish parents as a four-month old. Raised in St. Louis Park, west of Minneapolis, in state’s best school system.

Fled snow, bitter-cold and mosquitoes to California in 1982. First lived in Palm Springs area. Was first sales representative for Rollerblades in California (went to high school with the inventor) and helped start the trend. Moved to Santa Monica (Ocean Park) in 1984 for natural beauty and liberal culture.

Got into local politics because I love this city, and love learning from every part of our community, because that is only way to make good policy.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Food?

Favorite book:

Three Books –

• The ABC of Relativity, by Bertrand Russell (read December 1979 while backpacking in Quintana Roo, México)

• Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig (read October/November 1979 backpacking through Florida, Texas and northern México)

• The Rape of the A.P.E. (American Puritan Ethic), by Alan Sherman (read in 6^th grade, 1969)

Favorite movie:

Three Movies-

"Kooyanisqatsi" (Hopi word for Life Out of Balance, Phillip Glass soundtrack, Godfrey Reggio director) www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php

"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" (1962) with Betty Davis and Joan Crawford

"Yessongs" Close to the Edge Tour, Yes 1976

Favorite food:

One Food:

Brown rice with broiled and braised tofu and broccoli (and maybe mushrooms and red pepper), with my sauce of squeezed lemon and Bragg’s Amino Acids with a base of organic canola oil.

3. How long have you lived in Santa Monica?

Twenty years.

4. Describe your history of community involvement, if any, in 75 words or less.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

Please choose the statement with which you agree most. Feel free to explain your answer in 50 words or less.

5. Tourism is one of Santa Monica's most important industries and has been almost since the city's founding. Yet, especially in the summer and on weekends, Santa Monica can appear downright crowded. Ignoring the economic benefits, with which statement do you agree more:

A. Tourism creates a major inconvenience for Santa Monica residents.

We may be world-renown, but ‘inconvenient’ weekend and summer time traffic is not primarily from international or even out-of-state visitors -- rather from Los Angeles, Westwood, West Hollywood and West Covina.

We have great public spaces and are well off because of them. Hence, we have a responsibility to be stewards and treat those who visit respectfully – while not overrunning our residential neighborhoods and local businesses.

When it comes to traffic:

A. The most important thing is to protect neighborhoods by slowing down and discouraging cut-through traffic.

B. The most important thing is to find ways to speed up the flow of traffic.

C. Protecting neighborhoods, together with proper fire protection access, are the most critical and go hand and hand. The traffic isn’t
supposed to go through neighborhoods – that should be on the bigger streets.

I support measures that promote pedestrian safety and neighborhood quality, while ensuring adequate response time by public safety personnel. (In this regard, we have developed an entente with the Fire
Department that we will not change any major arterials in Santa Monica.)

We also need to plan our land use to minimize the need to drive, through job/housing balance and promoting neighborhood serving small business.

7. Over the past decade, more than a thousand apartments have been built or approved in downtown Santa Monica in response to City incentives. With which statement do you agree more:

A. Santa Monica needs more housing to be built, downtown is the best place to build it and the City should encourage more housing to be built there.

B. Downtown is too crowded already and the City should do what it can to discourage more housing development there by increasing regulations and/or downzoning.

The State mandates we must plan for new residential growth I support focusing it downtown to accomplish complementary goals protect scale of existing neighborhoods, preserve existing tenancies, increase public transit corridor density and create a more walkable environment.

Next is how to combine green buildings, courtyard design, appropriate heights and neighborhood serving ground floor retail.

8. It's generally acknowledged, within and without City government, that navigating the building and development permit process in Santa Monica is a nightmare for developers and homeowners alike, and much more complicated and time-consuming than in other local jurisdictions. With which of the following statements do you agree most:

The major cause of the problems with the building process in Santa Monica is:

A. An incompetent bureaucracy suffering from high turnover and bad training and supervision.

B. The Planning Commission, which has demoralized planning staff and made them fearful of approving projects and has slowed down the approval process itself by applying vague and varying standards.

C. The City Council, which over the years has enacted an overly complex set of laws governing zoning, environmental review and building standards.

The Council has responded to the rapid pace of growth (that has come as a result of spiraling local land prices) with a series of protective ordinances. We will resolve the inconsistencies and conflicts that have developed when we revise the General Plan. I look forward to implementing recommendations of the Matrix report and the community.

9. Preferential parking districts are controversial in Santa Monica. With which statement do you agree more:

When it comes to street parking in residential neighborhoods located near commercial districts or boulevards,

A. The rights of the residents come first, and no resident should have to compete with a non-resident for a parking space on a resident's street at any time of day.

B. In designating preferential parking districts, the City needs to be more cognizant of the needs of employees and customers.

C. The streets belong to everyone, and the City should get out of the business of designating preferential parking districts.

I put first priority on residents, while reminding of our competing values -- parking next to one’s home, while preserving parking-poor apartments and small businesses. We must contour each zone to the neighborhood broadly defined, taking care of residents first while experimenting with excess capacity to accommodate friends/visitors, shoppers and small business employees.

10. True or false: The Third Street Promenade has become primarily a destination for visitors and does not cater to local residents. Explain in 50 words or less.

I’ve been proactive to protect economic diversity, including CUP requirement for frontages longer than 50ft and moratorium on restaurant to retail conversion. I support regulating the amount of formula retail.

11. Pick one and explain in 50 words or less:

A. The City’s policies attract an influx of homeless who would not otherwise come to Santa Monica.

B. The homeless come to Santa Monica for reasons outside the City’s control.

C. It is federal policy that has people in the parks.

It is not producitive when various groups blame others or another for a problem. It's time to focus on effective regional solutions which I have advocated for my entire time in office.

12. With which of the following statements do you agree most. Santa Monica's traffic problems are the direct result of,

A. City policies approved by the SMRR majority, including traffic calming, the development of the Promenade and the fostering of tourism.

B. Major developments -- such as the large office complexes in the city's industrial corridor -- approved in the mid-1980s by councils controlled by non-SMRR pro development factions.

C. Regional growth outside the control of the City Council.

The primary driver is B, as much of what is wrong with the City on development was approved in the mid to late 1980s. The second factor is C – and that is why we are fighting Playa Vista.

13. With which statements do you agree. You can choose more than one.

Affordable housing:

A. Creates blight.

B. Pays back hotel and restaurant union workers for their political support and creates more tenants to vote for Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights.

C. Addresses a legitimate need, especially in Santa Monica.

I agree with C, 100%.

14. With which statements do you agree. You can pick more than one. Community input in planning and building design,

A. Improves Projects

B. Is overly skewed towards pleasing nearby neighbors as opposed to meeting the interests of the community as a whole.

C. Unreasonably slows the process and is a way for opponents to eliminate new development.

D. Needs to be streamlined.

I primarily agree with ‘A’, although I believe the process can be abused. This year when we discussed public input as it accompanies design standards, I supported hearing from the public earlier through neighborhood meetings. Compatibility issues are best addressed by hearing from residents up front.

15. With which statement do you agree most. Santa Monica tenants in rent-controlled units,

A. Need more protections from harassment by landlords eager to re-rent units at market rates.

B. Are being subsidized by landlords who can't charge fair rents and make
a profit.

C. No longer need strong rent control policies because vacancy decontrol has given landlords more opportunity to make a fair return.

Everyone deserves security in their homes, as long as they ‘and respect the place and the people they live

D. Should not have majority control of the City Council.

16. In the past two years, the number of laws passed by the City Council has increased from 32 in 2002 to 41 last year. This is:

A. A reasonable response to the concerns of residents.

B. A council that tries to please everyone.

C. A council that believes it knows what's best for the City and likes to impose its will.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

17. What would you do to improve Santa Monica? (50 words or less)

In addition to all of the other platform stances I have taken throughout this campaign ad infinitum, I will simply add that we need to improve our electoral process through enacting Ranked Choice Voting (www.smrankedvoting.org) and public financing of local elections.

18. What is your "wish list" for Santa Monica? (Maximum of 5 items)

-Major increase in parks & open space

- Solar city getting off city the energy grid

- Light rail really soon

- Effective measures to reduce homelessness

- Gain municipal control over the SM Airport

And two personal ‘wishes’, which don’t have much to do with policy-making

1. Warmer water in the ocean for longer in the year, so I can swim comfortably more of the time!

2. No more light pollution, so we could see the stars at night (for the first few nights after the 1994 quake, the sky was incredible, almost like Yosemite)

19. What is the best thing about Santa Monica?

Our beautiful natural environment of wind, sun, beach, mountains, ocean, sunsets (see #21 below – ‘favorite place’)

20. What is the worst thing about Santa Monica?

When the marine layer stays for two weeks at a time and we never see the sun and it feels like we are living inside a cloud.

21. What is your favorite place in Santa Monica? Your least favorite place? In 30 words or less give your reasons.

Favorite place:

The continuum of beach, ocean, Pier, bikepath, Palisades Park, then also bikeway up and back along San Vicente and down Adelaide. A natural work-out area in water, sand, rollerblades, bike, skateboard, passing through staggering natural beauty, while getting healthier.

22. A measure on the November ballot calls for increasing the City's hotel bed tax. Do you support or oppose the measure?

I enthusiastically support Measure N, which is necessary to ensure continued essential services in Santa Monica.

23. Do you support the $135 million Santa Monica College bond measure on the November ballot?

I am generally supportive of education bonds. On this measure, the City Council is awaiting further elaboration of what partnerships the College is interested in regarding field space and other joint projects, including actually cooperating at the Madison site. So that I could make a recommendation as a Councilmember, I asked for the information weeks ago and still require it to make a decision.

24. An analysis by The Lookout found that Santa Monica spent $1,906 per resident to provide basic services in fiscal year 2003-04. By comparison, Culver City spent $1,349; Pasadena spent $1,244 and Torrance spent $1,005. Do you think the City can cut back on its spending or is spending the right amount? (See analysis)

Our annual resident surveys suggest the overwhelming number of Santa Monicans are generally happy with the services they receive. Should we continually look to be better? Yes. Are there things that could be rethought? Yes. At the same time, direct comparisons are skewed by Santa Monica having a visitor population (and Pier, Promenade, Beach, etc.) that far outstrips the others (except maybe Pasadena on Rose Bowl day).

25. Over the course of more than a century, Santa Monica has had many personalities, usually more than one at any given time depending where you are standing. A tony resort and haven for the rich and beautiful; a honky-tonk beach town known for the Pier and P.O.P. and Muscle Beach for everyone else; a blue-collar factory town and arsenal of democracy; the wide-open "Bay City" of Phillip Marlowe; a "leafy suburb"; a working-class city of dingbat apartments and little bungalows; a conservative bastion run by real estate and business interests; the "Peoples' Republic of Santa Monica"; and other historical realities you can probably think of, not to mention today's reality of regional center for retail, entertainment and white-collar employment. What historical era or personality of Santa Monica do you most identify with, and how does that relate to your vision of Santa Monica's future?

I moved to Santa Monica in 1984, nearing the end of what some called the ‘sleepy beach town’ era (before the renovation of the Promenade, the RVC zoning to allow all the luxury beach hotels and rezoning and construction of the ‘Special Office District’ where the Water Garden and other developments now lay).