Hometown Hero: The CALIFORNIA LIST and Bettina Duval

Hometown Hero:  The CALIFORNIA LIST and Bettina Duval

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

February 22. 2013

Duval started The CALIFORNIA LIST (http://californialist.org/) in April 2002.  Her mission?  To create opportunities for women to run for public office and the election of pro-choice, democratic women to the California State Senate, Assembly and Executive Branch.  “I started The LIST because it was a way for me to meld together my experience and my passion.  I’m proud and honored to be as involved as I have been,” said Duval.

Bettina Duval
President and Founder
The CALIFORNIA LIST

“In California we think we’re ahead of the game because we have representing us three very powerful women in national public office.  Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer and Congresswoman Pelosi.  The role of The CALIFORNIA LIST is to help create the pipeline for our next generation of women leaders.  Attorney General Kamala Harris is a rising star in California political life.  Debra Bowen, Julia Brownley, Karen Bass, and Judy Chu are wonderful examples of women holding public office.  Early in their political careers The CALIFORNIA LIST encouraged and supported these office holders.

“Thankfully public perspective has changed during my growing up years and now most Americans have favorable views of women who run for office and there is a continually increasing expression of a comfort level with women holding public office.”

Duval credits the 1972 Title IX Act,  “a watershed moment for women as changing higher education in the United States and, under the laws of unintended consequences, also contributing to broader, societal changes in the perception of women in public life,”

Duval was raised by a strong, independent and loving single mom and loving grandparents.  They were a family of four and lived in Davis CA.  Duval went to Berkeley for college.  She studied rhetoric and considered becoming a lawyer.  At Berkeley she ran for student government and lost but that got her the position of Commissioner for Student Elections. 

She was introduced to the League of Women Voters when she needed to bring in credible outside monitors for the student elections.  Her introduction to legislative politics had started earlier, at Davis Senior High School, where she was on student government and the first student representative to sit on the Davis Board of Education.  When she graduated from Davis Senior High School she received the Gordon H. True Cup, a coveted award for service to the school.

Duval recounts an early ‘aha’ moment when she was an intern for then State Assemblyman Vic Fazio and Senator John Dunlap and was sent to Sacramento on a work errand.  “In 1978 I was in the Galley at the State Capitol and looked down at the floor.  It seemed to be all men.  No, there were 38 men and 2 women.  It made an impression on me and was a catalyst for my future work.”

Duval has a list of accomplishments on her path to starting her own organization in support of electing women to public office.  After graduating from Berkeley she moved to DC to work at the law firm of Covington and Burlington.  It was there she realized she didn’t want to pursue a career in law.  One of the partners was part of the Mondale/Ferraro campaign and she went to work for them as an advance person.

That brought her to San Francisco where she met Glenn Duval.  They married in 1985.  He is part of a family owned Cable Television Company in LA and that helped them to decide to move to the Hollywood Hills after their marriage.   Duval became active in the Junior League of Los Angeles in 1986 eventually becoming League President.  Her position required her to be out in the community essentially full time and was a great introduction to Southern California for her.

In 1990 they decided to move to Santa Monica, which they saw as “a great community and a wonderful place to raise our children.   My husband is a Republican and that makes for lively dinner table conversations!   Those conversations, along with my work, spiked the interest of our children.  Our oldest son formed his own political party at UCSB, “Better Our School System” (BOSS), our eldest daughter has been part of Student Government at Johns Hopkins, another daughter is at Berkeley and is on the crew team, and our youngest is applying to Boys State.  All are very politically aware and understand that political decisions impact them as individuals as well as impacting the world they live in.”

In Santa Monica, Duval became active in local campaigns, another major catalyst for her.  She then decided to go to work as the Southern California Director for Emily’s list.  It was 2002 and there were 34 women elected to state public office, 24 in the State Assembly and 10 in the State Senate.

Now, as the President of The CALFORNIA LIST, Duval continues to look for ways to support women running for public office.  “What’s happening with women, I think, is that they are not running for office in the numbers they could be and so we are actively seeking to understand how to help women decide to run for office.  We also continue working with the women who have run for office, whether they won or lost.  We are looking at new ways of fundraising.  And, of course, the Internet has allowed us to change and grow in wonderful ways.”

Bettina Duval ended our interview saying, “It is wonderful when you are supporting a great candidate.  There is something very wonderful about watching the achievements and contributions of the women I’ve helped to win elective office and I’m excited about continuing this work.”

What Say You. The Development Agreement Conversation

What Say You.  The Development Agreement Conversation

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

February 9, 2012

Development Agreement (DA) is the buzzword of the day when talking about new building projects in Santa Monica.  Although the City entered into its first DA in the 1980’s only a handful have been processed since.  Now the City has a whopping 31 DAs in the pipeline. And that’s what the conversation is all about.

A development agreement is a tool in the planning toolbox.  It allows a city and a developer to enter into a negotiated contract for an exchange of rights and benefits not covered by other, standard planning tools such as conditional use permits and variances.  It is a tool that allows greater flexibility.  Note however that, by law, all Development Agreements must be consistent with the LUCE.

The LUCE, adopted in 2010, is a blueprint for the build out of the City for the next 20 years.  The Zoning Ordinance must conform to the LUCE as it lays out development rights.  The new Zoning Ordinance is in progress and a draft will go to the Planning Commission this coming spring and to the Council for final approval at the end of 2013. 

The Planning Department currently lists 48 pending applications, a mix of DA requests and Administrative Approvals.  Four are hotels: the Miramar, the Courtyard Marriott, the Hampton Inn and 710 Wilshire.  Two are for auto dealerships.  One is for a Science Classroom Building.  One is Bio Tech Research and Development.  The rest are for residential development.  Some are residential only and some ask for ‘mixed use’, which is a combination of residential and office and/or commercial.

The two largest projects are ones that, due to their size and their complexity, would be DA applications even after the new Zoning Ordinance is adopted. 

One, The Miramar proposes to “redevelop a mixed use hotel with new food and beverage facilities, spa, banquet facilities, retail space along Wilshire Boulevard and condominiums on the upper floors of new buildings and the retention and rehabilitation of the existing Palisades Building and the preservation of the Landmark Moreton Bay Fig Tree.” 

At issue are the design changes to a locally and internationally known hotel, the increased size and scale of the proposed project for a new total of 565,000 sq. ft., the addition of new condominiums, and the addition of affordable housing on 2^nd Street property owned by the hotel. 

Central to the discussion are the community benefits being offered by the hotel and/or requested by the City as part of the negotiation of the DA contract.  The Miramar has had two ‘float up’ hearings in front of the Planning Commission and one ‘float up’ hearing in front of the City Council.  

The largest requested DA is located on the old Papermate site in the Bergamot District.  It is proposed to be a mixed use Creative Arts/Residential and Neighborhood Commercial for a total of 766,000 sq.ft.  That includes 498 new residential units in 361,000 sq. ft.; creative arts spaces in 375,000 sq.ft.; and neighborhood commercial in 30,000 sq.ft.

The 766,000 sq.ft. currently being requested is a significant reduction from the original application.  The proposal has met with community opposition to both the proposed scale and to the design.

Both projects have been in the pipeline for several years with community meetings and planning meetings. Further meetings for both projects are on a to be determined basis and there will be much discussion on each of these projects in the community and at public hearings.

But what about the projects that are not grabbing public attention? The greatest number of projects on the Planning Department list is residential.  Planning Director David Martin said, “This increase is the result of several factors including: LUCE policies that encourage the construction of mixed-use residential projects along transit boulevards and near light rail stations, a CEQA exemption for mixed-use housing projects with 100 units or less located within one half mile of a major transit stop, an increase in the number of rental housing units being proposed and constructed in the Los Angeles region, historically low interest rates, the strong demand for housing in Santa Monica, the stability of Santa Monica as a place to invest, and the overall desirability of the city as a place to live.

Reading from the list of pending applications we see, for example, 32 units in a total of 31,717 sq.ft.; 55 units in a total of 33,137 sq.ft.; 100 units in a total of 54,280 sq.ft.; 100 units in a total of 54,942 sq.ft.; 100 units in a total of 55,064 sq.ft.; 100 units in a total of 37,200 sq.ft.; 498 units in a total of 361,000 sq,ft.  These are seven examples of the proposed 40+ projects that include residential development.

Do the math and you will see that what is being proposed is mostly studios along with some small one bedroom units.  Perfectly wonderful as part of a larger mix, but of concern if all, or most, are in this low end of the size range.

Housing of this size and type is traditionally temporary in nature.  It is designed for students or for starter housing.  It could be used as a weekend or vacation getaway for someone with a house elsewhere.  It could have many uses but it typically has one, sometimes two, occupants and a relatively high turnover.

We could change the demographics of our population if all of the proposed residential development were approved as proposed.  We could have a less permanent population and therefore perhaps one that is less involved in the City.  Yet much of our dynamism as a City comes from the sense of ownership of the City that is felt by so many.  

Analyzing the size of residential units to understand their impact on the future of the City is an essential part of the complex decision making process that should go into every DA negotiation. 

The LUCE identified Santa Monica as needing more housing and it identified affordable housing as a community benefit. Building smaller units is one way to create affordable housing but there are other ways.  Affordable housing for families, for people who work in the City but can’t afford to live here are also identified in the LUCE as a community benefit.

Each project needs to be looked at with an understanding of how it will enhance or detract from the character of the City. Will it bring the kind of benefits identified as we went through the LUCE process? What are the traffic impacts of the project? What are its impacts on schools and parks and City services?   What benefits will the project bring to the City? 

The hard part for everyone, through all this dry reading, is to be able to “see” the changes each project would make to the future life of the City.  But it is that understanding that the Council will ask for as they review the list of projects in the pipeline again at its February 12 meeting.

We want good applicants.  Their projects are a part of what makes Santa Monica a dynamic city.  As we approve new development let’s remember why the City is so desirable and let’s make decisions protective of the character of the City even as it grows and changes.

What Say You? 

Honoring Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
   Courtesy Photo

SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

Georgia. Summer 1965.
 

There were 17 of us walking in an orderly line, as directed by the Deputy Sheriff of Baker County. I recognized some of the faces from church and some were new to me. No one was talking. We didn’t know what to expect. We were all nervous and all wanting to appear strong. 

 

Just a few moments earlier we had been on the sidewalk in front of the Baker County Georgia Courthouse walking carefully and singing freedom songs quietly. Some of us, I among them, had attempted to walk into the courthouse with the people who were going to try to register to vote.

I was a white, 18 year old college student from California working with the Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee. I was there to give witness and to support the people trying to register to vote.

Newton GA, the capitol of Baker County, was a poor town. It’s red brick courthouse sat in the center of a small city block of unhappy grass, a telephone booth on the front lawn, and not much else.

We had been arrested for ‘disturbing the peace’ and ‘creating a public nuisance.’ The jail ahead of us was a concrete box with openings where the windows were meant to be. The cells were metal bars of walls, divided into four, inside the concrete block structure.

Typically for the time of year the day was hot, dusty, and without a breeze. I looked at the others, looking for clues as to how to act. And I looked at the Sheriffs, wondering what they were thinking and worrying that, as the only white person, I would get singled out for ‘special’ treatment, which might be worse than the others or it might be better, but in either case it would isolate me from the others and I didn’t want that.

We weren’t booked right away. Instead we were put directly into the cells. In the cell I was in people were curious about me. They all knew there was a white girl come to be a civil rights worker, but they didn’t all know me.

One woman, a very large and solidly strong black woman called AJ, was put in a cell by herself. She was known to the sheriffs and I thought they were afraid of her. I’d heard her speak in church and had heard her say she could paint a house in a day and pick cotton better than any man.

Our cell was crowded. We took turns lying down on the dirty, uncovered mattresses. June bugs, huge beetles, came in through the openings where the windows should have been and competed for room in the cell. The toilet was a hole in the corner. I thought not eating was a good idea and eagerly joined in when a hunger strike was called.

Each morning the Deputy Sheriff would come in with a plate for each of us with a large spoonful of grits, one slice of wonder bread and a tin cup of dark water he labeled ‘coffee.’ Each evening he again brought a plate for each of us. Beans replaced the grits in the evening meal. Everything else stayed the same. That made it real easy to stay on the hunger strike.

But not AJ, she ate the plate of food brought to her and then we passed our plates through the bars to her and she ate most of ours.

We sang, we tried to sleep, and we talked. It was the beginning of my conscious understanding that while we all lived in the same geographical world and at the same time in history, there are a multitude of cultural worlds in the United States.

At first I did more listening than talking. There was so much to see and to hear and to think about. It was all consuming.

On about the third day my hair, which I had put up on my head and tied a scarf around, came down. I had no brush, no way to put it back up.

The Deputy Sheriff came into the jail with our usual morning plates and practically dropped the plates when he saw me. “You're white!” he said.

I hadn’t realized he hadn’t known this already. It was an ‘aha moment’ for me as I realized his prejudiced belief system had interfered with his ability to see the person who was right in front of him.

“I don’t have another cell. What am I going to do?” he was genuinely concerned. I think for me, because from his point of view, how could I be okay with sharing a jail cell with ‘n…s.’ (The word all the sheriffs used when they talked to any of us.) And concerned for himself as he was sure to get into trouble with his boss, Sherriff L Warren Johnson.

L. Warren Johnson was a man so mean it was hard to believe. He used to boast that he’d killed 49 people. When he was younger he was part of a posse that had brutally tortured and then hanged a black man. That lynching trial went all the way to the Supreme Court in the notorious Screws Case.

I answered the Deputy’s worries and said I would stay in the cell with my friends but that he needed to bring us food we could eat. I asked for fresh water with ice, for apples and, still being a teenager, I asked for cookies.

Unbelievably, he started to bring better food and he brought the water, the apples and cookies. I talked to him and was as friendly as I could be and still be honest.

During the time I was in jail my parents were understandably terrified. My mother and her friends decided they would call the Congress in Washington every day. Their message was, “Susan is in Baker County GA in a jail cell because she is doing the work the American government should be doing. What are you doing to keep her safe?”

One Congressman set up a daily telephone call with me. At noon the Deputy Sheriff would take me out of the cell and walk me across the street to the lone telephone booth in front of the Courthouse. I would wait outside, in the noontime sun, for the phone to ring. The routine was the same every day. He would answer the phone and then he would get me and tell me to go into the phone booth and that I should tell the Congressman I was okay. He would then walk me back to the jail.

The news of these daily phone calls got out and I became a spectacle for some of the local, white men. They would wait for the Sheriff to bring me out and then they would say terrible things to me.

Like in fairy tales, they looked as evil as they were mean. One stringy elderly man had stained teeth and mouth from chewing tobacco. Brown spittle would drool down his face as he was jeering me. Another, father and son I think, both had huge bellies that hung over their belts, belts that were needed because they had no hips and spindly legs.

The jeers were usually sexual. In any case, that’s all they talked about to me. Following civil rights/non-violence training I kept silent and didn’t engage with them in any way.

Then there was a day when the talk became menacing and violent, “you are going to end up at the bottom of Flint River and no one will ever find you.”

When I went back to the jail cell I thought about what I might do. I decided to talk to them. I was not putting anyone but myself at risk.

I had the confidence of a young woman who had been respectfully treated all her life and I thought, that if I really talked to the small group of miserable looking men who had been taunting me for days, it might make a difference.

Something about all the hatred was so wrong. Not wrong in the moral sense, which, of course it was, but wrong in the sense of being ‘off.’

How could it be that people of color could be trusted to raise white babies, be the nannies to white children, cook and care for white families in sickness and health, be on such physically intimate terms and still not be ‘clean’ enough to share a public bathroom or drink at a public drinking fountain, or eat in a public restaurant.

The rules of Jim Crow were not only immoral they made no sense. To me it was a surreal world. I didn’t know most of the ‘rules’ and so was forever doing something ‘wrong.’

The next day at noon the taunting started again. I was ready to do something else that broke the surreal rules of the Jim Crow South.

“You’re hurting my feelings,” I said in a soft and sad voice.

“We are?” I had startled them. I had broken my silence. My voice was unhappy but not angry. In that moment I began to make myself a person to them.

They were curious about me, in a bad way. They began to ask personal questions about my life. Mostly mean questions.

I talked about going to college and how I loved reading. I talked about California and movies and museums and beaches and parks and restaurants – all things they didn’t have in Baker County.

I told them black people could register to vote in California without any problem of any kind. In fact everyone was encouraged to vote.

At that moment I realized that, yes I could teach people how to read and I could walk with them into the courthouse to register to vote, but my real value was I was able to show everyone in the South, black and white, the possibility of a different world.

I do know that, in 1965, not one person of color was registered to vote in Baker County GA. As much as we demonstrated and sang and called Washington and went to jail, we never could get anyone registered to vote in that summer of 1965.

I also know that, in 2008, half of the registered voters in Baker County GA were African-American and that Obama carried the County when he won the Presidential election.

What Say You: Marion Davies Celebration

Nicole DeSilva and Dylan Regalado
Photo courtesy Bart Bartholomew

SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist
Santa Monica Mirror


The Annenberg Community Beach House was a really fun place to be on Sunday, Jan. 6. About 300 people were there to celebrate the anniversary of the birthday of Marion Davies. It was a party but it was also serious. We were there to honor our City history, the buildings of Julia Morgan, the success of the new Beach House and the famous Santa Monica resident Marion Davies.

The Santa Monica Conservancy hosted the party. The Guest House, designed by the renowned California architect Julia Morgan, was filled with people in period costume listening to stories of Marion’s life.

As guests sat on comfortable sofas they looked out at the Pacific and listened to Ruthann Lehrer, the Chair of the Conservancy Program Committee. She portrayed Marion’s mother, Rose. Speaking as Rose she said, “Marion was a generous spirit who loved her family. She also loved pranks and could be very silly and she wasn’t interested in school. However she excelled at ballet and tap. With older sisters in vaudeville, Marion decided to do the same. Tall, blue eyed, slender, and vivacious she became a celebrated showgirl with the Ziegfeld Follies.

“William Randolph Hearst was 52 and married with five sons when he spotted Marion on stage,” she said. “She was 18 and dancing with the Ziegfeld Follies and he was smitten. He was to love Marion for his entire life.

“Marion was already an experienced actress when Hearst became interested in the movie business. He started a film company with Louis B. Mayer and Marion Davies became his leading lady.

“In 1924 he bought 750 feet of prime beach frontage, hired Julia Morgan to design the mansion, the guest house and the pool. He built a dream house and he gave it to Marion. He was always giving her fabulous gifts and some would say it was to make up for never being able to marry her.”

Charlie Chaplin met Marion Davies when she was a Floradora girl with the Ziegfeld Follies and starred in “The Floradora Girl.”  The talented Phyllis Bernard ably played Chaplin.

“I soon became her good friend,” said Bernard speaking as Chaplin. “We went to parties and dinners together. We made comedic home movies with our neighbor Harold Lloyd. Our friendship pleased Hearst but it also made him jealous. One time he hired a private detective to spy on us and Marion was so angry that Hearst and she nearly separated.

“Hearst was a conservative, a powerful conservative. One out of four Americans got their news from a Hearst source. Louis B. Mayer was a conservative.  I lived in America but I was a British citizen and I was a communist.  They would talk politics and Mayer would get mean but Hearst stayed polite.  Apparently it was okay to disagree politically but Hearst wouldn’t allow any other man to be romantically interested in Marion.

“And of course, many other men were interested. She was so pretty, so fun and so kind. We used to go to the Pier, ride the carousel and the roller coaster. She and Gable and I used to love to drive the bumper cars.”

Marion Davies also loved to dance and, in her honor, swing dance lessons were offered in the new beach house, designed by Fred Fisher to be both modern and yet refer back to the original Julia Morgan design.  All the partygoers got together in the new Beach House to toast Marion with champagne and to share birthday cake.

Marion Davies was a talented and beautiful woman. She was also a good businesswoman and a loyal friend. Throughout her life Davies was a generous philanthropist and would often give money without letting anyone know she was the donor.

Davies lived in a different era and her own times were not always kind to her. She was Hearst’s mistress and that was a scandal. He only published rave reviews of her work and she felt that diminished her as an actress. It contributed to her ending her acting career. Although by that time she had made 29 silent films and 16 talkies.

Carol Lemlein, the President of the Santa Monica Conservancy, said, “Marion Davies frequently gets a bad rap. Yet she was a wonderful person, generous to her family and friends and a great philanthropist.”

I say it’s time to rethink our view of the life of Marion Davies.

What Say You?

The Gift of Music: SMYO and Shab Fasa

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SUSAN CLOKE

SMYO Concert December 16, 2012 Virginia Avenue Park

Columnist
Santa Monica Mirror
January 4, 2013

The audience was hushed and proud with good reason.  They were the parents, family, friends and supporters of the student musicians playing the first Holiday Concert of the new Santa Monica Youth Orchestra. (SMYO)

All Santa Monica students are welcome to join the orchestra.   To be a member of SMYO you need to be a student at a Santa Monica public school, private school or live in Santa Monica and be home schooled.  The founder of SMYO, Shabnam (Shab) Fasa, said, “We don’t audition.  We take everyone.  We don’t ask anyone to pay.”

SMYO is based on El Sistema, a government sponsored program of music education in Venezuela.  Los Angeles Philharmonic’s beloved conductor Gustavo Dudamel is originally from Venezuela, had studied with El Sistema, and made starting a youth orchestra in Los Angeles a part of his contract with the LA Philharmonic.   El Sistema music education goals are to teach students to make and love music and to become members of the international community of music.  Fasa had the opportunity to work with Dudamel at the Youth Orchestra of LA and that gave her the confidence to start the SMYO.

Shab Fasa works as a Manager for Community Corp in Santa Monica.  She studied at SMC and then went on to get a degree in Ethnomusicology from UCLA.

She was born in Iran.  Her mother, who had studied at Berkeley, left Iran because of the revolution and brought her family to Denmark where they were granted political asylum. 

In Denmark, as part of her schooling, her mother gave her a choice, “Study the piano or study the violin.”  She chose the violin because she wanted to be able to carry her instrument and because she fell in love with the Brahms Violin Concerto.

“The cool thing about the symphony for kids is that they become part of a collaborative body of sound.  You are dependent on everyone else in the orchestra to be able to make a great sound.  It makes you humble and it makes you proud at the same time.” said Fasa.

“I felt part of the community in Denmark because I was a violinist.  The feelings of togetherness in an orchestra bring people together across boundaries.”

She and her family moved from Denmark to the US in 2002 and, after trying a few other places, landed in Santa Monica.   Fasa said, “I did my research and Santa Monica is where I wanted our family to live.”

In January of 2012 she and Julius Carlson and Damian Berdakin, the original music mentors of the SMYO, held their first rehearsal.  “We invited 400 kids and 9 kids showed up!”

There are now 49 student musicians in the SMYO.  Their conductor, Clarinetist Ryan Dedenbostel, recently came to Santa Monica from his job at New York's Manhattan School of Music.  Shab Fasa is the founder of SMYO, a violinist and the violin instructor.  Bassist, cellist and luthier Gabriel (Gabo) Golden mentors the cello students.  He studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and at the USC Thornton School of Music and performs with Les Surprises Barogque and with Tessarae.  Musicologist and classical guitarist Julius Reder Carlson mentors the students and teaches the history of music.  He studied at the University of Chile and at UCLA and is the editor of UCLA's Ethnomusicology Review.

With their conductor in front of them and their mentors interspersed among them, the students began an almost 2 hour rehearsal.  It got off to a cacophonous start and I watched with admiration as Dudenbostel gently, carefully, charmingly and with demanding expectation brought the students together into an orchestra.

The concert opened with a holiday medley of Joy to the World, O Come All Ye Faithful, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Silent Night.  They then played “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Gustav Holst and closed the concert with selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. .

As a treat for the students and audience alike the conductor and the mentors brought out their own instruments and played a gorgeous interpretation of Rock of Ages.

The gift to the students is the gift of learning music.  Through music study they learn focus and concentration, learn about the music of their own and other cultures, and as Fasa thoughtfully said, “The students learn to access their own inner world and to have respect for their own imagination and for being able to be with each other.”

The people working to make all this possible are Board Members Dorothy Chapman, Deborah Bogen, Betsy Hiteshew, Melissa Sweeney and Irene Zivi, the Cultural Affairs Department of the City, the Boys and Girls Club and the families of the student musicians.

The afternoon was a gift of music for all of us in the filled to capacity Thelma Terry Center at Virginia Avenue Park.  It is a gift of generosity from the teachers and mentors and supporters.  It was a gift of inspiration to take with us into the New Year.

What Say You? The Downtown Specific Plan

SUSAN CLOKE

Clock Tower Building Downtown Santa Monica
Photo courtesy City of Santa Monica

Columnist
Santa Monica Mirror

“This is my city and...”  It’s what you hear at public meetings as person after person speaks on behalf of the city they love.  Their passion for the city is part of why I love Santa Monica.   Now they are helping to shape the future of the downtown.

The Santa Monica Downtown Specific Plan Workshop, held in the East Wing of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on December 5, 2012, was the 3^rd in a series of planning workshops. People were invited to:
 “learn about how the plan is shaping up and give feedback on unique experience, places and buildings that make downtown so special and (learn about) our deas for creating a walkable and complete downtown filled with great buildngs, public spaces, an exciting downtown for residents and visitors.”(http://www01.smgov.net/planning/DowntownSpecificPlan/upcoming.html)

Neal Payton, a principal in the architecture firm of Torti Gallas and Partners, told the 160 or so people in the audience that the LUCE is the “bible” for the development of the downtown.  He listed goals for the plan including creating: “a great walk” with wider sidewalks and great destinations; authenticity to be achieved by creating the right spaces for events and activities that could only be in Santa Monica; downtown neighborhood parks, the possible readaptive use of the post office building as a public space; and to “ensure that new buildings are of a quality that enhances and enriches downtown.” 

In his presentation of what makes a downtown great Neal Payton also talked about identifying “opportunity sites.”  Places where the City would consider exceeding height and other zoning requirements in exchange for community benefits.  “These opportunity sites would be sites, he said, for “iconic architecture.”

Danilo Bach, a long time Santa Monica resident, said of the idea that one cannot predict a building will become iconic.  “I think it’s a clumsy concept.  A building only becomes iconic over time and because of what it means to the community.”

Payton lost the audience when he started talking about the 275 feet high One Wilshire building.  He thought it had admirers in the City.  From the audience reaction, if there are admirers of the building, they weren’t in that room. 

Newly elected Council Member Ted Winterer would like to see the workshop more directly address people’s major concerns.  “Look at all these people here.  They want to talk about scale and height of the buildings.  They want to talk about traffic and how to solve the traffic problems of getting around downtown and through downtown to other parts of the City.  Instead we’re being asked to talk about gateways.  For 160 people to give up their Wednesday evening they want it to be meaningful.”
 

On September 27, 2011 the City Council voted to approve a contract with Torti Gallas and Partners for $655,500 (includes a 15% contingency) “to provide land use and urban design services, transportation planning, economic analysis, architectural and urban form studies, circulation and parking analysis, and community outreach services related to the preparation of the Downtown Specific Plan.”  (http://www.smgov.net/departments/council/agendas/2011/20110927/s2011092703-J.htm)
 

A successful downtown is essential to the well being of the City.  Most of the contract monies will go to the consultants doing data gathering, research and analysis.  Only a portion will go to Torti Gallas.  Whatever that portion is, to earn it, they need to convince us of their understanding of the city we love.   

Many good ideas were presented at the workshop.  Wider sidewalks, more parks, historic preservation, cultural activities and careful attention to building design are an important consideration for any Specific Plan.  What we need to know is that this plan will be specific to Santa Monica and will protect the scale and character of the City.

What Say You?

What Say You? Thought For Food. "Localicious"

What Say You?  Thought for Food. Localicious

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

The Santa Monica Annenberg Beach House glowed in the early evening dark.  ‘Localicious’, www.goodfoodfestivals.com/localicious a partnership of farmers and restaurateurs, created a menu of local and delicious tastes of California  seasonal foods for several hundred happy eaters. The event was a fundraiser in support of FamilyFarmed  www.familyfarmed.org

All the food was local, but the politics of the Good Food Movement are national and international.  Food is on the way to becoming a new force in politics.

Will Allen (yes, the former basketball star) is now an urban farmer, the founder of Growing Power www.growingpower.com and the author of “The Good Food Revolution.”  He writes about how good food can transform communities. 

“My vision,” Allen said, “is to have a world where everybody has access to good food.  Growing Power, Inc, is a non-profit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds and the environment in which they live by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food.  This mission is implemented by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.  Growing Power has farms located in Wisconsin and Illinois.  Some of our farms are in urban neighborhoods and other farms are in rural settings. “

Growing Power is part of the “good food movement,” dedicated to promoting locally and sustainably grown food.   It’s a big tent movement with farmers, communities, restaurateurs and community markets, health care providers, environmental organizations and health care organizations, all united by the idea that industrial food production is in need of reform.

Cheap food has long been a goal in the United States.  But it is no longer an uncontested one.  Cheap food is now being understood as having severe public health and environmental consequences.  Put simply, the real costs of cheap food are too high.  

Michelle Obama is the most prominent advocate of the good food movement.  Her work to end childhood obesity and to promote healthy eating has already had a profound effect on the new, national dialogue on food.  "In the end, as First Lady, this isn’t just a policy issue for me. This is a passion. This is my mission. I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids think about food and nutrition."

In fact every one is a participant in this dialogue because we all eat and that means we all make decisions about what we eat and where we get the food we eat.  As Will Allen said, “Food is the most important thing in our lives.  It is the very core of our being.  It puts all people on an equal level.”

Count yourself a member of this movement if you support schools providing healthier school lunches and snacks, if you buy food that has labels such as, organic or cage free or pesticide free, if you voted for the ballot measure to label genetically modified crops; if you buy produce at the Farmers Markets. 

A challenge the good food movement is taking on is the charge of elitism.  Activists for sustainable farming are tackling the related problem of hunger and poverty and working to come up with solutions.  In Pasadena, at the inner city John Muir High School, Mud Baron is teaching his students to be farmers.  Because of the farming they do, the students are able to bring food home to their families.  This brings them the double reward of being able to really help their own families and to grow their own self-esteem as they grow their crops.  Edgar Hercila, an Iraq War veteran, works with homeless vets to teach them sustainable farming in order to reintegrate them into a productive life. 

Environmental organizations, such as the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) have added their voice as they warn us that the current food system (the farming and the distribution of food) is not sustainable.  The food system in the United States uses about a fifth of the total American use of fossil fuel energy and emits more greenhouse gas than is sustainable.  We have to address food production and distribution if we are to address global warming and climate change

The most direct motivation for being part of this movement comes from wanting to be a healthy person.  We know that eating sugar and fat added processed foods greatly increases the probability of getting type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancer.  These diseases create personal suffering on a huge scale and add economy-threatening costs to our health care system. These are preventable diseases and linked to the standard post WWII American diet.

Oprah Winfrey has joined Will Allen in the good food movement.
In speaking about his appearance with Winfrey he said, "It is wonderful to see that this good food revolution has become so mainstream and so inclusive.  As the message spreads, the demand for better food grows. So when someone as popular and as influential with people’s lifestyle choices as Oprah Winfrey picks up the banner, we know we have come a long way.

“The thing I would want to add, though, is that we still have a lot of work to do. We have won over the hearts and minds of the public: all generations, all cultures and all classes. Now we have to win over the food industry and the government, to see that supplies of better food meet this growing demand. And we have to ensure that this occurs equitably, so that it is no longer just a lifestyle choice for some but a life necessity for all.”

What Say You?