A Definition!

As I start to define myself as a candidate I wanted to share a few words with you. I'm not a Politician and I never want to be one. I'm a life long Santa Monica resident who tries to be a good citizen, a good neighbor and one who cares deeply about the city I've been fortunate enough to call home for 60 years.

I won't speak out of both sides of my mouth, I won't profess to be for my neighbors and then ignore them when it's time to vote. We've had enough of that. It's time that the Council listen to it's neighborhoods, that Council Members only vote for responsible developments that offer real, tangible benefits to the neighborhood they will be built in.... without being a burden to our entire city. 

Our renters and our owners both need to be heard. Rent Control is sacrosanct in our city but this election isn't about rent control. It's about regaining our control of our city from outside interests, from developers who are willing to break our style of living to make a sweet buck and from our employees in City Hall who act as if they are working for the developers instead of the citizens of Santa Monica.

It's time to relieve the angst and dissipate the cynicism that is pervading our city. I'm a citizen candidate. I'm still idealistic and optimistic about our collective future.

I believe we must protect our beach community way of life, that we can't burden our environment by adding over sized developments that will bring more traffic to our streets, that we can't afford more council members who won't listen to residents and we must protect our current residents (both renters and owners).  We must not spend our taxes to add to a developer's profit margin. We must protect and use our natural resources wisely.  We must recognize that our green spaces are the lungs of Santa Monica and not only protect them but enhance them. We must use common sense to solve our problems, balance our budgets and...we must set firm zoning laws in Santa Monica that cannot be bent or broken.

We are Santa Monica. We don't want high rises on Ocean Avenue, We don't want towers of condos in our city or a canyon of buildings on each of our boulevards. We need to celebrate our small businesses and incubate more of them.

 And, we do need to have compassion for all of our citizens. We can do better than abandon our citizens, whether they live in low income housing or even in a trailer park. We can do better than let a hotel pop up in a residential neighborhood. We can provide better transportation for our citizens (including those who travel to high school each day). 

Yes, we can do better. We must do better.