Anywhere but Santa Monica

October 22, 2001

Dear Editor,

In response to Ellen Brennan's letter . . . I am in complete agreement with everything Ellen Brennan wrote. ("The C Word," in Letters, Oct. 22). As one who lives in (58 years) Santa Monica, but prefers to shop in Century City, Pasadena, Long Beach, Thousand Oaks, Fashion Island, and South Coast, I find these places much more friendly to their customers.

I can park in CLEAN structures that are very accessible to the stores. Traffic flows and moves in the directions I am going. I don't pay to park and frequently park in front of the stores I shop in.

I am not intimidated by people hanging out in these shopping areas. If I want to sit down and rest on a bench I can do so without being bothered or worried that I am going to be approached and accosted. Walkways are kept clean and neat.

I try to be positive about my city of birth, but it is very difficult. The planning committees for the city of Santa Monica are constantly reducing and narrowing the infrastructure of our city; while allowing more and more cars and people to occupy the small square footage that our city comprises.

Droll, indeed and very sad.

Sincerely,

Barbara O'Meara
Santa Monica

October 22, 2001

Dear Editor,

Fabulous letter in the Lookout. I just howled. Ellen Brennan hit the nail on the head.

Here is the City government suggesting that people drive downtown when their goal is for a "vehicle free downtown."

Brennan is dead on when she says, "They wanted this to happen." I've been saying for years how all of this is designed to force us out of cars and onto bikes, busses or our own feet. The traffic calming is a major part of their efforts to discourage driving.

And, on the planning side, they write the codes so that commercial buildings will be under-parked so as to not encourage "too much" driving. Even the outbreak of "PPZ flu" (Preferential Parking Zones) is designed to remove on-street parking near commercial streets, which eliminates convenient parking, which discourages driving.

The problem is that, now, most of my friends and associate are shopping elsewhere. It is just too exasperating and if the powers that be don't soon figure that out soon, downtown Santa Monica will turn into another Hollywood Boulevard -- with lots of empty storefronts, junky souvenir shops and scuzzy street kids.

Only, here we will also have all the bars and restaurants (with all the liquor licenses) that the Bayside Corporation and Planning Department are trying to load up on because they think a that's the answer for bringing in business.

Santa Monica is not worth the hassle. Leave the Third Street Promenade to the tourists and teeny-boppers. I encounter more people every day who have "given up" on Santa Monica. Between the traffic, transit mall, hideous urine-smelling parking garages and the panhandlers, street-kids and vagrants, just about anywhere else is preferable to downtown Santa Monica to shop, dine or go to a movie.

Bill Bauer
Santa Monica

October 22, 2001

Dear Editor,

City Manager Susan McCarthy, who comes across as little more than a public relations representative for the extremist, anti-business City Council, said she is going to give up Bloomingdale's and shop in Santa Monica this holiday season. ("No Magic Solutions for Strapped Bayside Merchants," Oct. 16.)

Maybe if McCarthy had been shopping here in Santa Monica, rather than Century City, she would actually see how filthy the Promenade really is.

She would be tired of being panhandled by bums that smell so bad it turns your stomach. She would be tired of having to hide the eyes of our children while the bums urinate and defecate in doorways, or when the bums are passed out drunk on the sidewalk. She would be tired of being stuck in traffic because traffic lanes have been eliminated.

I, like most Santa Monica residents, will not be shopping at the Promenade or Santa Monica Place. I will take my family and business elsewhere, where it is clean, safe and accessible.

Sincerely,

Katherine Marie Anderson