The members of SMart wrote a credo for Santa Monica in late 2013. The majority of the original members were architects, a profession whose purpose is to facilitate development. As long-term residents of Santa Monica, the architects were dismayed by the direction our city’s sunlit image had taken. Their city’s future had always seemed bright, but there was a dark turn on the horizon. An enormous prospective development loomed at 26th at Olympic (Hines) that would upend thousands of lives. Seven thousand car trips a day; intersections jammed from Brentwood to Mar Vista and no benefits for existing residents. Citizens pulled together to mobilize and beat back this unwanted development. 

As they beamed with pride over their victory, SMart realized that Hines wasn’t the only pending project of alarming density. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2020/07/you-are-the-heart-of-the-city/