What Say You? Saint John's Open House and Health Fair

Saint John's Health Center
Rendering Courtesy of Saint John's Health Center

  “When you move to a new house you call your friends and neighbors to come see what you’ve done.  We happen to have a lot of neighbors and we’ve invited them all, all the people of Santa Monica and we’re going to have fun,” said Sister Maureen Craig of Saint John’s Health Center, speaking about the Saint John's Community Open House and Health Fair. The Open House will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2013, from noon to 4 p.m.  

John Robertson M.D., the Medical Director of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Saint John's and the Chair Elect of the Saint John’s Health Center Foundation Board of Trustees, enthusiastically talked about the Open House, saying, “Visitors will be able to tour the hospital, including the open-heart surgery and orthopedic operating rooms, the Women’s Health Center, and the Chapel.  I will be there, along with Saint John’s medical staff to meet guests and provide information about services and departments at Saint John’s.  Special activities for children include face painting, arts and crafts and, of course, healthy snacks.”  

http://www.smmirror.com/articles/seven-days/Saint-Johns-To-Host-Community-Open-House-Health-Fair-Oct-5/38510

The 1994 earthquake that caused severe damage in Santa Monica and in Los Angeles also severely damaged Saint John’s Hospital.  After almost 20 years of rebuilding, using the rebuilding as an opportunity to incorporate the new technology in health care, construction of the new hospital is complete. 

The idea to build a new hospital in Santa Monica began in 1939 when a group of Santa Monica doctors went to Kansas and asked the Sisters Of Charity to come to Santa Monica to help start a hospital.

The nuns came and their first task was to go door to door in the City to get the money to buy the land for the new hospital.  It was a difficult time because of the war but the city wanted the hospital and it was built with charitable donations.

Supplies were also hard to get and couldn’t just be ordered.  In response a group of women in the community formed the Women’s Guild of Saint John’s.  The Guild made sheets for patient beds, curtains for the rooms and bandages for burn victims.

Saint John’s first opened its doors on October 26, 1942 with 52 beds.  By 1952 they had to add another wing to the hospital.  It was the end of the war and the hospital was serving a greater number of patients and the many doctors who had come home from the war and joined the Medical Staff at Saint John’s.

Fifty years later, as part of the Jubilee Year Celebration in 1992, almost a thousand people attended a community open house very much like the one planned for the celebration on October 5, 2013.  Medical Staff were there to meet and greet, to explain services and equipment, and visitors toured the hospital.

“One thing that hasn’t changed is that whenever a baby is born we play Brahms’s lullaby on the PA.  If twins are born it is played twice.  People just stop wherever they are and smile,” said Sister Maureen.

“In the early days of the hospital where was a different relationship between doctors and patients, maybe because people had to stay in the hospital for longer periods, maybe because people knew each other from being part of the same community.

“The Open House is a sign that we want to continue to make people feel welcome, at home, and that we care about our neighbors and the City.  Our mission is to make everyone feel at home,” said Sister Maureen

In the last few years Saint John’s has also gone through a change of ownership. The storied hospital received competing bids from UCLA Health System, Ascension Health Alliance and Dignity Health as well as a bid from Patrick-Soon-Shiong, a bid made with the support of the local Archdiocese, and from Providence Health and Services.

Saint John’s now will be part of Providence Health and Services, based in Washington, Providence Health owns other hospitals in California, Oregon and Washington.  The CEO of Providence Health will be at the Open House to help welcome visitors to Saint John’s.

John Robertson M.D.

Dr. John Robertson was keen to have the Open House and to make sure everyone felt welcome.  “This is a way for Saint John’s to open our doors and invite people to see how beautiful the new hospital is.  It's a say to say thank you to the public for being there for us through all the years of construction and all the problems that created.  We are back better than ever. We’re excited about being with the Providence Group.  We are one of the top 50 hospitals in the country and we plan on getting better every year,” said Dr. Robertson.

Sister Maureen Craig SCL

Underscoring Dr. Robertson’s invitation to the community, Sister Maureen said,  “Our venue may have changed, the technology may have changed, but our values have remained the same – great care in comfortable surroundings in a community we love.”

Among the many reasons we have to be grateful for living in Santa Monica is the excellence of the health care in our city.
We are truly fortunate.

What Say You?

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Janet Salomonson M.D. FACS
photo credit:  Susan Cloke

St. John’s announced with great sadness the death of Dr. Janet K. Salomonson.  They said, “our beloved Medical Director of the Cleft Palate Services and gifted plastic surgeon, passed away yesterday, September 10th after an illness. While an intensely private person, she was known throughout Saint John’s and the surrounding community, and internationally, for her deep devotion to her patients, their families and her associates.

“At Saint John’s, she held the position of Section Chief of Plastic Surgery and served as a member of the Surgery Committee, the Pediatric Committee, and the Surgical Value Analysis Team.”

There will be a memorial mass at Saint John’s on Thursday, September 26th at 12:00 p.m. in the Sister Marie Madeleine Chapel. 


Donations may be made in her honor to the St. Johns Cleft Palate Institute, Faces of Hope and Rotoplast.

In 2011 Dr. Salomonson agreed to be interviewed for the Hometown Hero column.  She wanted people to know about the problem of cleft palate and  that it was a solvable problem.
What follows is the reprint of the 2011 column.

Hometown Hero: Janet Salomonson M.D.
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, the Mirror
April 29, 2011

Santa Monica plastic surgeon Janet Salomonson will be in Guatemala this coming summer performing operations to correct the birth anomaly of cleft palate.  “We never turn away any child who is healthy enough to go through the operation.   I stay for one or sometimes two weeks in the host country and typically perform about five operations every day.  We work until the work is done,” said Dr. Salomonson.

“For reasons we still don’t know, even though the human genome has been mapped, normal structures don’t form in the lip and palate and children are born with cleft palate.  Not only is cleft palate disfiguring, it’s important to have the structures in place as early as possible so the child can learn to speak correctly.  It’s best to do the operations in stages.  We do the lip first, especially with a child under 10 months and then return to repair the palate.

“If the cleft palate is not corrected when they are very young the child can still learn to speak, but often they can’t speak clearly and can have difficulty being understood.”

Salomonson has been to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and the Philippines to perform cleft palate surgeries. This is her tenth year of working with Faces of Hope and Rotaplast, two Rotary sponsored groups, which arrange trips for teams of medical professionals to work internationally donating their much-needed medical skills.

“We go with a spirit of humility and with respect for the local culture.  We work with the local people.  Their knowledge is helpful to the success of our work.  We partner, whenever possible, with local physicians and are always on the look out for local physicians who want to be trained in cleft palate surgery.

“We bring the supplies, everything from sutures to anesthesia, our own scrubs, antibiotics, so that we are not taking from the local facility.” Doctor Salomonson noted.

The visits of the medical teams are announced on the radio, in the newspapers and on banners and flyers.  The radio seems to be the way most people learn about the program.

The organizing group goes ahead of the medical team and scouts out the situation in the host country to make sure that the basic requirements for operating and achieving good surgical outcomes can be met. They also make the arrangements for lodging and meals for the medical team members.

The daughter of Swedish immigrants to Minnesota she has the famous Midwestern straightforward manner and self –deprecating style.  Her mom was a stay at home mom and her dad worked on road construction. They wanted the American dream of education and a better life for their child.

Her parents had originally met when her mom was a ‘summer child’ on a farm.  It is a typical Swedish custom, kind of the Swedish equivalent of sending your kid to camp, for city children to go to farms in the summer.  On the farm she was given a kitten, the food was great and she had a wonderful time.  She liked the entire farm family, including the older son.  Years later, they met again and decided to marry.

Salomonson’s path to studying medicine was incremental.  She knew when she was in Maplewood High School in St. Paul, Minnesota that she was drawn to math and science.

This took her to the University Of Minnesota as an undergraduate to study Chemical Engineering.  Many of her professors worked in the field of bioengineering and medicine.  Salomonson admired their work and decided she would apply to medical school and become a medical researcher.

In Medical School, also at the University of Minnesota, she fell in love with the clinical work and decided that, as much as the research meant to her, it would mean more to work with patients.   One more incremental move took her to UCLA for a surgical residency, starting in general surgery and then specializing in plastic surgery.

She holds the hard earned and well deserved prestigious title, Janet Salomonson, MD, FACS, Plastic Surgeon/Medical Director of the Cleft Palate Center at Saint John's Cleft Center.

At the invitation of a beloved former teacher, Salomonson went back to Minnesota to give the commencement address at her old high school.   She told the graduates, “You won’t remember for long who won the super bowl or even the Nobel Prize, but you will remember the teachers who taught you about the world and the people who were important to you.  Fame is not what is important.  What is important are the people in our lives.”

Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights To Hold Annual Membership Convention

 

Evening Outlook Front Page SM Rent Control Wins
  photo credit: Outlook Archives

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, the Mirror

Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) began 34 years ago. They will hold their Annual Membership Convention this Sunday at 2 pm at the Church in Ocean Park. 

SMRR has enjoyed 34 years of political dominance in Santa Monica electoral politics. In anticipation of the upcoming SMRR Convention, today’s column features an interview with Patricia Hoffman, co-chair of SMRR. Future columns will feature political leaders in Santa Monica with other points of view.

What was the impetus for forming/organizing SMRR?

A group of local senior citizen retirees, calling themselves the Santa Monica Committee for Fair Rents, was alarmed at the rapidly rising rents and condominium conversions that had begun to plague the Santa Monica renter community.

They were chaired by Santa Monica Housing Commissioner Syd Rose, and initiated the first rent control measure in 1978.

When the 1978 measure failed the organizers redoubled their efforts and supported the April 1979 Proposition A.

It was our first victory. Rent Control passed. SMRR candidate Ruth Yannatta Goldway became the first SMRR candidate to win a seat on the Santa Monica City Council. Cheryl Rhoden won a seat in the following November.

Rent Control came about because of a few things. The speculative market for property in Santa Monica, the ease and frequency of evictions of long time tenants and the belief that everyone should be secure in his or her home.

Did winning mean that SMRR held a majority of the Council seats?

In April of 1981, Ken Edwards, Dolores Press, Dennis Zane, and James Conn were elected for the first SMRR majority on City Council and Ruth Goldway became the first SMRR Mayor.

However, Goldway lost her seat and SMRR failed to win two other seats in the 1983 election.

In June of 1984, Santa Monica voters approved a measure to change the local elections from April of odd years to November of even years.

That November, Edwards, Zane and Conn were reelected but Press, who was a write-in candidate and got more than 13,000 votes, was replaced with Herb Katz. The SMRR majority was restored in 1988. And have mostly, but not always had a majority since then. 

Why did SMRR decide to focus on issues other than rent control?

Rent Control has always been the number one issue in SMRR. The Rent Control Board was established as part of the implementation of the Rent Control Law and is crucial to making sure rent control is implemented as intended by the people.

However, SMRR has always been a big-tent non-partisan organization. This has been both an asset and a challenge. The organization has one of the best platforms of any organization. It is a progressive document that looks at real needs of real people.

The only means of holding people accountable to the platform is the electoral process. This includes the democratic endorsement conventions to select SMRR candidates and the general citywide elections.

Do SMRR elected officials vote as a bloc?

SMRR-endorsed candidates often disagree on how to implement the platform. This has led to some fractionalization within the organization from time to time.

What is most important to you about Rent Control?

Since Rent Control, there are many more tenant protections from harassment and evictions. Rent Control was an important step in making Santa Monica child friendly. Before Fair Housing laws and Rent Control, tenants could be evicted for having children.

Why does SMRR run candidates for School and College Board elections?

The answer is simple. We care about education.

Renters knew that they were likely to be able to raise their families in place. That meant that they could participate fully in the schools. It also helped stabilize the existing decline in enrollment in our public schools. Rent control was, and is, good for the schools.

Santa Monica renters vote heavily in favor of school measures, both parcel taxes and General Obligation Bonds. Renters pay a significant share of these taxes.

Just as it is with City Council candidates, the School and College Board candidates are selected at the SMRR Convention. Their questionnaires and interviews are focused on education issues.

Do you, does SMRR, have regrets about things done in SMRR’s name?

It is hard to have too many regrets about a democratic process. There certainly have been candidates whom I did not support who won the SMRR nomination. There have been elected officials who have left something to be desired.

But we have also selected and elected some of the best officials Santa Monica has had.

I especially miss the leadership and guidance of Ken Genser. He didn’t start out as one of our best council members but he grew on the job. His death has made it much more difficult for the City to move forward with a coherent plan.

What will happen at the 2013 Convention?

The main business of this convention/annual meeting will be electing the SMRR Steering Committee. The focus of this meeting will be Rent Control and Housing.

How are other issues discussed and decided?

The Steering Committee conducts SMRR business between general meetings and addresses local issues of concern and statewide issues of importance to SMRR.

Quality of life issues have always been important to SMRR, as they have been to most of the people of Santa Monica.

There is significant disagreement on how to best protect and enhance the quality of life, though. It would help if we could have a common vision of what Santa Monica should look like in 5, 10 and 20 years. Unfortunately, the LUCE is too broad and doesn’t provide enough guidance.

What are the major challenges facing the City today?

There are a number of challenges facing Santa Monica today. Many of the worst have regional components but we also have local issues. We are suffering traffic congestion problems that are both local and regional. We have not completed re-writing the zoning codes necessary to implement our most recently adopted Land Use and Circulation Elements. We have too many Development Agreements in process and we are currently fighting a lot of battles about height and density of new development.

You have lived in Santa Monica since 1979, you are married to the physician Gene Oppenheim, and you have three children; Jonas, Lucas, and Jed. Why did you get involved in local politics? Why SMRR?

Growing up in Van Nuys made living in Santa Monica seem almost perfect. I was excited about having the seats of government almost in my back yard. Participation was natural. It was exciting to be able to participate in a progressive movement. There were different groups meeting each week to discuss issues such as Rent Control, Social Services, the Arts, and Education. It was a wonderful time.

For more information about Sunday’s convention, visit www.smrr.org/news/2013Convention.html

What Say You?

What Say You: Martini Anyone?

La Posada Hotel Winslow AZ

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

Route 66. La Posada Hotel, Winslow AZ.  Built between the railroad tracks and Route 66, La Posada Hotel was originally built in the late 1920’s by the Santa Fe Railroad and the Fred Harvey Company for the people riding the Super Chief on the Chicago-Los Angeles route. Through the good work of Allan Affeldt it has once again become a destination hotel.

In the first half of the 1900’s Harvey Company built hotels and restaurants along the routes of the railroads in the western United States.  Fred Harvey is credited with being a leader in promoting tourism to the Southwest.  Samuel Hopkins Adams’ novel about the Harvey waitresses, The Harvey Girls, was made into a film of the same name starring Judy Garland.  Her song from that film, On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, won an Academy Award.

The famed Mary Colter was the architect for La Posada Hotel.  Colter designed the hacienda style Spanish Colonial Revival La Posada in 1929.  She designed the hotel, the 6-acre gardens, the furniture, the china, even the hotel uniforms.  El Posada was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Colter may be most widely known as the architect of the 1922 Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the cabins on the rim of the Canyon and Hermit’s Rest.  

Colter also worked for the Santa Fe Railroad where she designed the Turquoise Room Dining Car and the now highly collectible Mimbreno china and flatware for the Super Chief Chicago-Los Angeles rail service.  

In the 1930’s and 40’s the Santa Fe Super Chief was the classiest train between Chicago and Los Angeles.  The idiom of the day was “I just chiefed in from the Coast.”  

One of her last designs was the Streamline Moderne cocktail lounge at Union Station in Los Angeles, which now can be seen on Los Angeles Conservancy tours.

The Santa Fe railroad closed the hotel in 1957 and used the facilities as offices, wrecking havoc on the interior of the building.

Along came Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion.  They bought the hotel with the intention of restoring it.  “Our friends thought we were crazy,” said Affeldt who calls himself a “serial eccentric entrepreneur”.  He is married to Tina Mion, whom Ed Ruscha called the “foremost figurative artist in the Southwest.”

Work on the hotel restoration is ongoing.  Also planned are the converting of the old train station to an Art Museum, planting a vineyard and making wine, a sculpture garden and a potager.  James Turrell is designing a “sky space” for La Posada and when Turrell’s Roden Crater opens La Posada will be the embarkation point for visitors. 

Allen Affeldt bought La Posada in 1997 and began work on the restoration of the original Colter design.  He said,  “I believe we save great buildings in the same way we save families, cities and nations: one day at a time, with constant investment and courage, undaunted by naysayers and long odds.  I believe in the sacredness of place, and in the power of great architecture to inspire creativity, kindness and civic responsibility.”

You too can “chief in” from the Coast.  This time on an Amtrak train.  You can still disembark at the front entrance of La Posada and enter the restored hotel and have a great meal at The Turquoise Room.  Named for the dining room on the Super Chief.  The Turquoise Room at La Posada is run by James Beard nominated chef, John Sharpe. 

Sharpe is developing a menu of Native American inspired foods such as cornhusk wrapped and baked salmon or locally sourced churro lamb for the squash blossom and lamb sampler platter.  Breakfast might be corn polenta with fire roasted tomatoes, fresh spinach poached eggs and corn salsa or waffles and pancakes served with locally produced prickly pear or mesquite syrup.  He brings the idea of eating locally and sustainably grown produce and products to the La Posada kitchen.

Each of the fifty-three rooms in the hotel is named for a famous hotel guest.   Presidents Roosevelt and Truman; actors Mary Pickford, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper; aviators Amelia Earhart and Pancho Barnes; Albert Einstein; all were guests at La Posada.

My thanks to Meaghan McNamee, the bartender at the Martini Lounge at La Posada, for her stories about the hotel.  A local resident, the daughter of a Scottish Irish father and a Navajo mother, she calls La Posada “a magical place.”

Martini Anyone?  On the Super Chief a martini was 30 cents.  Today, at the hotel they are a little more! 

What Say You?

What Say You? Shakespeare Santa Monica

Shakespeare Santa Monica Twelfth Night Players
Reed Park 2013
Photo Credit: Natalie Fong

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

“Shakespeare is as much an attribute of summer as ice cream and BBQ,” commented Jessica Cusick, Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Santa Monica, when talking about Shakespeare Santa Monica at Reed Park.  

I think the Bard himself would have been pleased with the sounds of merriment coming from the laugh out loud audience at the Shakespeare Santa Monica performance of Twelfth Night. 

Twelfth Night is a classical shipwreck romantic comedy. 

The grown twins Viola and Sebastian are separated when their boat is shipwrecked.  To survive until she can be reunited with her family Viola pretends to be a young man and goes into the service of the local duke, Orsino.

Viola promptly falls in love with Duke Orsino but he is in love with Countess Olivia.  As part of her responsibilities Viola is

required to woo Olivia on behalf of the duke when she would much rather be the one he wooed.

The complications of mistaken identity and the audience knowing the truth create great humor as the dramatic twists and turns of the play bring about its rightful end with the matching of the lovers.

Vincente Cardinale directs Twelfth Night.  John Copeland plays Malvolio to the hilarious delight of the audience.  Elizabeth Godley and Chelsea Brynd share the role of the enchanting Viola.

We see Copeland again in The Taming of the Shrew, this time

as Hortensio.  Lillian Beaudoin is Kate.  Her suitor, Petruchio, is played by Tim Halligan.

“The Taming of the Shrew is typically known as a battle of the sexes,” the play’s director, John Farmanesh-Bocca said, “Kate is a wounded bird – fighting for liberation.  And the story is one of two people, each of whom is given to trouble and how they become paired.  It is a case of a mischief maker finding another mischief maker and making a match.” 

John Farmanesh-Bocca, who is also the Artistic Director of Not Man Apart, the parent company of Shakespeare Santa Monica, said, “ To give perspective on the plays, in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s when these plays were first performed was also the time when the New World was being discovered and explored.”  He went on to say,  “Taming of the Shrew was an early play, simplistic, its adolescence is right there whereas Twelfth Night is a complex and heart centric play.”

Not Man Apart Physical Theatre Ensemble is known for use of athleticism and dance to tell their story. They communicate character and plot through intense movement.  All performers are both dancers and actors.  Not Man Apart has produced plays at the Getty Villa, the Kirk Douglas Theater and the Los Angeles Theater Center.

Every year they hold a “Fortnight Training”.  Louis Schneeder, Chair of the Classical Studio at NYU and Jean-Louis Rodrique, Chair of Master’s Acting at UCLA join Farmanesh-Bocca in guiding the actors’ workshop and to form the ensemble for Shakespeare Santa Monica.

When the Shakespeare plays were first performed The Lord Chamberlain’s Men were the players.  Often plays were staged in grass tennis courts with torches to light the action.

Shakespeare Santa Monica carries on the tradition by holding performances in the tennis court at Reed Park in Santa Monica.

The last two shows of this summer’s season are this weekend with Taming of the Shrew playing August 30 at 8:00 and Twelfth Night  August 31 at 8:00.   Suggested donation is $20 and 18 and under have free admission. For more information go to:    www.shakespearesantamonica.com

I think and hope the physicality and athleticism, the antics and high jinks used in the telling of these enduring plays will make you laugh out loud in this fun romp through Shakespeare.

Let me know!

What Say You? Rem Koolhaas in Santa Monica

Koolhaas/OMA proposal for 4th/5th Street and Arizona
Copyrighted Photo Courtesy of OMA

 SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror

Rem Koolhaas is not a household name in Santa Monica.  But that is about to change.  Koolhaas, a Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate (think Best Picture/Best Director/Best Actor/Oscar) is the lead architect for the design of the public/private project at the 4^th/5^th and Arizona Street site.

Thomas J. Pritzker, President of the Foundation said,  “Koolhaas has been called a prophet of a new modern architecture.”   The Koolhaas firm, OMA, (http://www.oma.eu/oma) has built projects all over the world.  In the U.S. OMA may be most widely know for the design of the Main Library in downtown Seattle.

When the Koolhaas firm OMA was given the commission for the Main Library in Seattle the City was warned that they needed to “brace for a wild ride with a man famous for straying outside the bounds of convention.”  While it is true that the library is not conventional it is also true that it is a beloved public destination in the heart of downtown Seattle.  A beautifully conceived and executed space comfortably accommodating and welcoming large numbers of library users of all ages and an exemplar of green design.  

Looking at OMA’s conceptual proposal for the Santa Monica site we see how this proposal is specific to Santa Monica.   Specific to the climate, specific to the site, specific to the cultural of creativity and innovation that has been an historical tradition of Santa Monica. 

The open and porous building is designed to capture ocean breezes, offer spectacular views, express sustainable architectural principles, meet practical requirements such as parking and provide for restaurants and shops and housing at various income levels and more.   The oh so popular ice rink is included within a grand outdoor activity area designed to be programmed for markets and concerts and dinners and festivals and performances.  Koolhaas and his partner at OMA, Shohei Shigematsu, don’t live here but one gets the idea they know the City.

Santa Monica is in the midst of yet another building boom period.  Light rail, new parks, the Colorado Esplanade, many new hotels, Bergamot, the old Paper Mate site, Santa Monicans are discussing and arguing over size and scale and community benefits.  Under all the discussion and argument is the constant theme of how Civic identity is defined and protected.

It seems Koolhaas is offering a way to both build the City and to keep faith with the existing character of the City.  The building’s design expresses Santa Monica’s spirit of creativity, the high standards the City sets for itself in sustainability, and the identity of a City as an easy and fun place to live.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be discussion and argument.  The current proposal is conceptual.  One where the scale is human and understandable even though the building proposed is the 12 stories currently being discussed in a City-wide reassessment instead of the previously allowed 6. 

“OMA was chosen,” said John Warfel of the development company Metropolitan Pacific Capital (MPC) because we knew we needed to have a great piece of architecture.  The site deserves it and it will be welcomed in Santa Monica.  It couldn’t be just good, it had to be great and it had to be done right.”

MPC and its partner, Clarett West, will be before the Council at the August 27 meeting to seek approval to enter into exclusive negotiations for development of the 2.5 acre parcel which is currently the site of the Ice Rink, B of A, Chase Bank and Carlson’s.

City of Santa Monica Director of Housing and Economic Development, Andy Agle, said, “the City purchased these properties starting in the early 2000’s with the idea that we needed ancillary parking and other amenities to support the Downtown.  Soon after the properties were purchased we began the Community Visioning Process to set goals for the development of the properties.

“The Ice Rink had to stay, there was consensus on that.  We needed to meet public objectives for a very active public use of the site.  We needed to provide substantial public parking. 

“The City purchased these properties with Redevelopment Funds,” said Agle. “ Even though the State has now ended Redevelopment funding, previous contracts continue to be honored.  The City will own the land and the developer will build and run the project.”  City Documents, Staff Reports and developer proposals are available at: http://www.smgov.net/Departments/HED/eddContent.aspx?id=31664

2018 is the estimated move-in date.   There will be an ongoing public process.  Questions of scale, height, and the edge conditions of the property will be vigorously debated.  Programming of the property, the public uses and the public benefits will be vigorously debated.  Financial agreements should also be given great consideration.  Transparency is a keyword as this is City owned property. 

This City is changing.  In fact all cities change over time, for better or for worse.  It is up to Santa Monicans to make sure that the coming changes will continue to make Santa Monica an interesting, compelling and fun place to live.

Santa Monica City Hall displays signs boasting, “We Do the Right Thing Right.”  They are setting standards for their work and asking for public feedback.  That same motto could be applied to the Koolhaas proposal.  The OMA submittal to the City offers Santa Monica an opportunity to do the right thing right.   Great architecture needs a great client.  Koolhaas has made the offer.  Now it’s up to the City.

What Say You?

Hometown Hero: Lifeguard Captain Remy Smith

Lifeguard Captain Remy Smith

SUSAN CLOKE

Mirror Columnist

July 26, 2013

Why be a lifeguard I asked LA County Lifeguard Captain Remy Smith.  “I love going to work,” he said.  “Having to be ready to perform every day and having the chance to work with so many different people.  I love that it’s proactive work.  Our goal is to stop the bad things from ever happening.  We are there to help people, to make the beach safe for everyone, and to prevent accidents, injuries and deaths.”

Remy Smith was born in Australia in 1967 and grew up in New York, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.  “When I lived in LA I went to Area H Alternative School in Highland Park,” said Smith talking about his childhood.  “My friends and I would ride the bus to the beach on the days we weren’t playing baseball or football. 

“We usually went to Tower 26.  It was where the ‘cool kids’ hung out.  We rode boogie boards and we body surfed.”

In the 1990’s Smith went to SMC.  He’d been a baseball player but had to give it up because of a sports accident where he’d hurt his hand.  He wanted to stay in shape and he knew he could swim, even with a hurt hand.

“I joined the swim team and the water polo team,” Smith said. “I was the worst guy on the team starting out but in a couple of seasons I was the fastest in butterfly, individual medley and breast stroke.

“The team head coach was John Joseph, a legendary coach and the most winning coach in Junior College history.  Whether you were the fastest or the slowest he respected and cared about all his team members.  Stuart Blumkin, himself a star athlete, was our second coach and he and Coach Joseph made a good tag team.”

Smith said, “I had never thought about being a lifeguard but SMC has a long tradition of producing lifeguards.  Many swimming team members became lifeguards after graduating and would come back to train with the team.  The lifeguards who swam with the team inspired me to become a lifeguard.”

Being a lifeguard is a highly competitive position.  To be selected for an interview applicants must first race in a 1000 meter open water ocean swim.  Typically about 300 to 400 people participate.  The top 100 finishers are then interviewed.

Smith was 23 the first time he competed in the 1000 meter open water ocean swim and he didn’t make it.  The 54 degree water was too much for him.

In preparation for the next open water ocean swim he practiced over and over in cold water and even took ice baths to get his body accustomed to cold-water temperatures.  “For me to make it,” Smith said, “I had to put my mind in another place.”

Smith finished in the top 100 the second time he competed and secured one of the coveted interviews.  In the interview he told them, “I am a relentless person and I will really apply myself to this job.”

That got him the job and in 1991 Remy Smith became the sixth black person to be hired as a full time lifeguard.  When he was hired there were four black lifeguards and one black Section Chief, Russ Walker.

At that time there were 140 full time and 800 recurrent (part time) ocean lifeguards working for the County.  Everyone starts as a recurrent ocean lifeguard.   Before being able to become full time a lifeguard has to log 200 days of work, take a swim test and a written test, and be appraised for performance and knowledge.  Certification for lifeguards is an ongoing process and permanents continue to be tested twice yearly and recurrents once per year. 

Lifeguards are also part of the LA County Fire Department and Smith was at the Encinal Fire on June 22.  “Lifeguards help with all emergencies,” Smith said, “fires, car accidents, cliff rescues.  We do whatever is needed.”

Smith stated, “Being a lifeguard makes you grow up fast because you are responsible for people’s lives.  In the time I have been a lifeguard there have been over 1000 rescues by LA County Lifeguards at LA County Beaches.

“On one day in Zuma we made over 300 rescues.  It was 110 degrees in the Valley and over 150,000 people had come to Zuma Beach that day.

“Usually we get to people so quickly that they are more scared than hurt.  But at the end of that day at Zuma we had a boogey boarder who hit his head.   When we pulled him out of the water he wasn’t breathing and we couldn’t feel a pulse.  Thankfully we were able to bring him back.”

Smith said, “It takes special training to take care of the children we rescue.  One day a few other off-duty lifeguards and I were training on jet skis.  A 2 year-old boy had been pulled out to sea by a rip tide.  He was almost 300 yards off shore when we got to him.  We were just in time to save him.  I will never forget that rescue.”

Smith hopes to prevent accidents from happening, guarding the water and the beach.  He advises parents that, “Swimming is a life skill, everyone should learn to swim.”  He laughingly adds, “but teach them to swim in warm water because they’ll learn better when they’re comfortable.  And when you come to the beach make sure your kids know the number of the lifeguard tower where you are on the beach and teach them that lifeguards are their friends.”

Remy Smith has been on the job 22 years.  He was made a permanent hire in 1997 and promoted to Captain in 2006

“I didn’t realize it I was going to feel the way I did when I came back to Santa Monica but I felt I’d come home,” said Smith.

It was an understandable feeling given that Remy Smith’s great grandfather came to Santa Monica in 1908.  He was the Presiding Elder at Phillips Chapel on 4^th Street in Santa Monica.  Smith’s grandfather, Hilliard Lawson served on the Santa Monica City Council and his grandmother, Bernice Stout Lawson, was a well-known music teacher in Santa Monica.

Remy Smith 
photo credit Ruben Pena

For Smith home is Santa Monica and the ocean.  “Being a lifeguard is a lifestyle. Surfing is by far the most challenging way to stay in shape.  The waves are always changing.  It’s a mental and physical challenge.  When you catch a wave you’re walking on water and there’s no better feeling.  

“The most important thing to know,” Smith tells everyone, “is that the ocean is always in charge.”