What Say You?
Patricia Bauer talks about the “Council Disconnect”
Part of a series of columns featuring Santa Monica
political thinkers.
SUSAN CLOKE, Columnist
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| Patricia Bauer Co Vice-Chair NOMA |
“Despite the
unanimous opposition of every one of the neighborhood associations, as well as opposition
from the Recreation & Parks Commission and the Landmarks Commission, the
Council chose to allow commercial fitness trainers in Palisades Park. We’re very disappointed. NOMA will be continuing to discuss this
issue,” said Bauer. “Personally,
I’d like to see the Council reopen the conversation about the parks ordinance
and remove Palisades Park from the list of parks in which commercial training
is permitted.
“Speaking in a
general way,” she said, “there seems to be a disconnect between the Council and
the neighborhoods. This leaves many people in the community to wonder whether
the Council cares much about what the neighborhoods and the residents have to
say.
Patricia Bauer was
born in Detroit, went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, worked at the
White House Press Office during the Carter Administration, and went on to work
at the Washington Post. After she
and her family moved to Santa Monica, she worked at the Los Angeles Times.
“We came here for the
schools and the fresh air, and we fell in love with the town.” Bauer said.
Bauer was pulled into
local politics when the City proposed to replace the iconic Palm trees in her
neighborhood, on an as needed basis, with Sycamore trees. Bauer loves Sycamores
but this was not the right location. The Palms are
the signature tree of her neighborhood. They were part of the identity of the
neighborhood and Patricia Bauer, as she would learn later, was only one of many
neighbors opposed to the plan.
Bauer turned to her
neighborhood organization, NOMA, the North of Montana Association, one of the
seven major neighborhood organizations in the City, but the organization was
almost inactive at that time.
Support for keeping
the iconic Palm trees was high and the neighborhood pulled together to save
them. Their efforts were
successful and “the City reversed course and agreed to replace palms with palms
on the historic palm streets,” said Bauer. “Then we went on to work together to
revitalize NOMA.”
Now, as Co Vice-Chair
of NOMA, Bauer is a leader working with NOMA to actively oppose the commercial
use of Pacific Palisades Park by fitness trainers, whose presence in the park
has grown in recent years. In their
letter to Council Members NOMA wrote:
We
are now faced with the prospect of city-authorized private businesses using
Palisades Park land for profit-making purposes that directly contradict the
original intent of our founders. If the ordinance is enacted as currently
written, private businesses will be free to use taxpayer-supported lands as
their private fiefs, interfering with the public’s use and enjoyment of the
historic lands that make up Palisades Park.
“All the neighborhood organizations are talking with one another on this
and many other issues.” Bauer
adds, “On development. NOMA has gone on record calling for the Council to slow
down its rush to develop the city. Our residents are happy with the size and
scale of our built-out city, and are concerned about growing traffic and
congestion around town. They strongly question whether the intense development
that is contemplated now will worsen the quality of life for everyone.
“Voters wonder:
Where’s the accountability, and why did the Council vote down a measure that
would have them disclose their campaign connections before voting? Why is it okay in Santa Monica for
Council Members to vote on measures that are backed by the campaign
contributors who put them in office? Why are the developers’ voices heard so
much more strongly than the voices of taxpayers, residents and voters? Whose
interests are really being served here?”
“Follow the money,” famously said the
investigative journalist Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men.” It was advice Patricia Bauer often
heard him give when she was a new reporter for the Washington Post. Now Bauer is asking that question about the Santa Monica City Council.
“When you look at
Mayor Pam O’Connor’s campaign contributions, as publicly reported, both before
and after the recent elections her campaign was heavily financed by
developers,” Bauer said. “Ms.
O’Conner had campaign debt from her 2006 election. In March of 2008 people associated with one developer paid
it off. That developer is Hines, the company behind a massive project that is
currently proposed for the Bergamot property. People have begun to wonder about
the Mayor’s close relationship with that developer.
“It’s interesting to
note that something similar also happened in March of 2005, following Ms.
O’Connor’s election to Council. Her campaign debt then was also paid off by
people associated with a developer who had a pending development proposal in
the city: Macerich.”
“I have a sense, and am hearing all over town that
others share my sense, that people feel the Council is ignoring the wishes of
the residents. Anger is building.
People are feeling ignored. When voters get angry, they speak with their votes.
So Says Patricia
Bauer of NOMA
What Say You?
