Hometown Hero: Tom Cleys

Tom Cleys               Photo credit Dennis Davis

The Santa Monica Conservancy held its annual meeting, January 23, 2011, at the historic Church in Ocean Park.  The sanctuary was filled, bringing together Santa Monicans of many interests and opinions, but with a shared commitment to historic preservation.

“The City of Santa Monica is a mix of historic architectural styles and new buildings. Our challenge is to respect the past and to build the city in a way that respects our history as we build the future,” said Tom Cleys, the founding president of the Conservancy.  “We need the new energy that comes from integrating the new with the old.”

Cleys helped to shepherd the Conservancy in its beginning years.  He served as president in 2002 and 2003 and has been the organization’s treasurer every year since.  “I was happy to be able to provide some leadership and to help solidify the organization in the beginning, but it is the energy and ideas of all involved that made it happen.”

Cleys had been living in West Los Angeles, but he wanted to replicate the sense of neighborhood he had experienced as a child.  “What I liked about Santa Monica was that people seemed to really care and so many people were so involved.”  His parents had set the example for him of what if meant to be part of a community.  “You live in a community, you want it to be a good community, and you work to make it a good community and to make a difference.”

He decided Santa Monica was the right place for him.  In 1998 he bought a two-bedroom, one-bath, 1926 bungalow on 23rd Street in Sunset Park.  He spent four years renovating the house, doing as much of the work as he could himself, but hiring plumbers, electricians, and other trades when he needed expert help.  He’s still working on the house and is currently restoring original windows.

“Rehabbing my own home was my one opportunity to do a rehabilitation project and it was a heck of a learning experience and added another 50 or more years of life to my 1926 bungalow,” Cleys said.

Cleys’ appreciation for historic buildings started in his childhood home of Chicago.  He grew up in a simple Queen Anne style house, originally built in the 1890s, in a neighborhood of old houses. Cleys remembers, “I grew up with the architecture in the neighborhood and I was fascinated with a beautiful building with a moss green, extraordinarily detailed, terra cotta façade.  As an adult, I went back to visit Chicago and saw the building had been landmarked. On the landmark plaque it listed Louis Sullivan as the architect.

“Chicago is a great city for architecture,” said Cleys. “We lived in a great neighborhood and we went downtown to great parks and great buildings.  I saw the John Hancock, the Sears, and the Standard Oil of Indiana Towers, being built.

“My view on architecture and good design is that it creates the stages for our lives. People may not know the architect, the architectural design style, or be educated in architecture, but they value well-designed, well-proportioned spaces. The job of the Conservancy is to help the community to understand what they intuitively know.”

When the 2011 Annual Conservancy meeting was over, Cleys helped to put away the chairs, to sweep the floor, and he talked with the people in the room while he was cleaning up.  He was happy with the meeting and the success of the Conservancy. 

“It will continue to be successful because it is a good fit with Santa Monica thinking and because there are so many good people committed to the Conservancy.  It is interesting to be here over time and see the success of the Conservancy and of the Santa Monica History Museum and the California Heritage Museum.  It bodes well for the future of historic preservation in Santa Monica.

“But there will always be people who think differently,” Cleys noted. “Yet I feel confident saying that the community as a whole has the right to keep historic buildings from being torn down by creating the opportunity for reasonable re-use and allowing owners to adapt and to upgrade, but with the integrity of the old structure and style.  It creates such an interesting environment for the entire city.  We’re a great city and we deserve great architecture.”

What Say You: Traffic City or Bicycle City ?

Photo by Linda Jassim    Bicycle Sharing in Paris

 Santa Monica’s iconic image is well deserved.   Is that image now in danger of being replaced with the image of an impassable downtown?   All too often the downtown scene is one of cars circling for parking places in the public garages, long waits at intersections, and extra time added for any car trip passing through the downtown.   Always, any proposed development is under considerable added scrutiny because of the traffic problems.

Enter the “Bicycle Salon.”   Santa Monica bicycle advocates, including City Council Member Kevin McKeown, got together at the studio of Arts Commission Member Linda Jassim and Planning Commission Member Gwynne Pugh to hear a presentation on the French VELIB  bike-sharing program and how it has transformed Paris.

VELIB (Velo Libre/Bike Freedom) had its Paris debut in 2007, with Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe leading the way.  Ten thousand, identical, sturdy bicycles, were located in 750 automated rental stations throughout Paris.  The program has almost doubled the number of bicycles and stations in three years and the VELIB program is now the largest bicycle-sharing program in the world.

The VELIB system locates bike rental stations approximately 1,000 feet apart and there are about 15 bicycles at each station.  Fees vary, with yearly rates, weekly rates, and daily rates.  The basic fee of 5 euros (about $6.50) gets one into the system for a week.  Then rates are varied and are designed to encourage the use of the bikes for short trips within the city.  Reducing the number of short car trips was determined to be the way to bring the highest environmental benefit to the city. VELIB is designed as a traffic reduction program.

Here is how it works.  If you’re going to lunch, for example, you use your credit card to ‘unlock’ a bike from the nearest bike station, ride it to the restaurant, and dock it at a bike station near the restaurant.  If the ride is less than a half hour – which is almost always the case if you are going from place to place in Paris – there is no charge over the basic fee you have already paid.  After lunch, you go to the closest station and reverse the process, getting a new bike.  Again, if your return trip is less than a half hour, there is no additional fee.  The fee schedule is set to make it easier, more economical, and more fun to take the bike.

VELIB has proven successful in Paris.  The program has reduced traffic congestion. It has had environmental benefits, such as the reduced use of gasoline, reduction in car emissions, and limiting the land needed for parking.  Riders get the health benefits and the pleasure of seeing the city as they ride. To protect bike riders, Paris has carefully and cleverly implemented new rules and painted clear signage on the streets.  This has made bicycle riding safer in Paris than it had been before VELIB.

Paris may have the largest bicycle-sharing program, but bicycle-sharing programs have been implemented in more than 238.  Minneapolis, Minn.; Denver, Colo.; Washington D.C.; London, England; and Copenhagen, Denmark, are a few of the cities where you can find similar programs. 

Speaking to the Santa Monica City Planning Commission, Charles Gandy, the coordinator of the City of Long Beach Bicycle Program, told the Commission, “The City of Long Beach has publicly set itself the goal of being the most bike friendly city in America.”  Using mostly department of transportation grant monies, Long Beach has redesigned streets to create separated bike lines; used paint to create safe bike lines on shared streets; educated children and adults, public officials, police officers, transit officials, and business owners on bike usage and safety, as well as the advantages of cycling for the business districts, the environmental benefits, and the personal health and enjoyment benefits.

Santa Monica is proud to be a sustainable city.  But it lags behind hundreds of other cities when it comes to creating real opportunities for people to safely and easily use the bicycle as transportation.  Yet we know it is a viable way to reduce traffic congestion, reduce the need for parking spaces, improve air quality, benefit personal health, and have a good time while doing good.  In London all the bikes are blue.  The bikes in Paris are gray.  The bikes in Denver are red.  Santa Monica, what color will your bikes be?