The population in Los Angeles County will grow by more than one million people over the next twenty years, according to a preliminary forecast by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG).

About twenty cities in Los Angeles County currently meet their housing needs, including the City of Santa Monica. In fact, in the previous cycle, Santa Monica built 233 percent of its SCAG allotment.
SCAG allocated 1,674 housing units to Santa Monica for the housing cycle from 2014 to 2021, instructing that 58 percent of those should be affordable.

Read More: http://smdp.com/lawmakers-push-for-building-boom-ahead-of-population-growth/163184

By Tricia Crane
Chair, Northeast Neighbors

The City of Santa Monica just sent out a "survey" to residents and workers who live outside the city titled Your City, Your Voice... The survey begins by stating it's about "what's important to you personally and how we can make Santa Monica even better." But then what unfolds is an effort to manipulate your perspective.

The survey asks you to describe Santa Monica by rating these words on a scale of one to ten: caring, inclusive, diverse, thriving, equitable, neighborly, affordable, supportive, innovative, forward-thinking. But there is not one question in this survey concerning rising crime. Nowhere is the word "development" mentioned. And "traffic congestion" only appears once as a possible response (#8).

Instead, reality in our small city is being reframed. We are being "taught" to use City jargon instead of real words. Traffic is out; mobility is in. Over-development is out; affordability is in.

Read More: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2017/11/07/opinion/latest-city-hall-survey-is-yet-another-cynical-effort-to-manipulate-local-opinion/3181.html

Santa Monica City Council members eared income from a variety of sources in 2016 -- from running their own consulting firms and working for Fortune 500 companies to owning stocks.

Except for Tony Vazquez the six other council members listed the range and source of their earnings, stock holdings and gifts, including travel.

Vazquez -- who is a candidate for the Board of Equalization in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties -- said he had mistakenly reported no earnings on his Statement of Economic Interest (SEI). The board administers and collects state tax fees.

Following is the information listed in the SEI forms filed by the six other candidates.

Read More:   https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/November-2017/11_03_2017_Santa_Monica_Council_Members_List_Varied_Sources_of_Income%20.html

AND

https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/November-2017/11_03_2017_Santa_Monica_Councilmember_Tony_Vazquez_Has_Reported_Earning_No_Income_Since_His_2012_Election.html

Survey Includes not one question about "rising crime," "development," or "traffic congestion"

The City of Santa Monica just sent out a "survey" to residents and workers who live outside the city titled Your City, Your Voice... The survey begins by stating it's about "what's important to you personally and how we can make Santa Monica even better." But then what unfolds is an effort to manipulate your perspective.

Read More: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2017/11/03/opinion/latest-city-hall-survey-is-yet-another-cynical-effort-to-manipulate-local-opinion/3181.html

AB 2565, passed in 2014, was designed to encourage wider use of electric vehicles and protect building owners at the same time. But when my friend looked into it, he found a catch: the bill exempts rent-controlled buildings...

An effort to change the Municipal Code to fill in the gap in the state law may present some legal challenges. Santa Monica has faced these kinds of obstacles before, and solved them with creativity and ingenuity. This may be an ideal project for City Council and the new City Attorney to take on, as it is likely to enjoy widespread support in the community, and little opposition.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2017/11/smar-t-electrifying-proposal/

City Program Offering Subsidies for Elderly Poor Renters in Santa Monica to Survey 'Wellbeing'

A delayed pilot project that provides “last resort” City subsidies to help elderly Santa Monica seniors pay their rent is querying the applicants about their “wellbeing.” City Subsidies for Elderly Poor Renters in Santa Monica on Hold as 'Wellbeing' is Surveyed
  
The program, called Preserve Our Diversity (POD), was approved by the City Council in late July to address fears that the escalating cost of living could force seniors out of their homes ("Santa Monica Council Approves Experiment in 'Last Resort' Subsidies for Elderly Poor Renters," July 28, 2017).

The City has allocated $200,000 for the subsidies, which is enough to help 26 households in such dire straits they live on cat food or eat only every other day.

Another $100,000 is earmarked for administrative costs.

Read More:   https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/November-2017/11_01_2017_City_Program_Offering_Subsidies_for_Elderly_Poor_Renters_in_Santa_%20Monica_to_Survey_Wellbeing%20.html

The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco

Rebecca Diamond† , Tim McQuade‡ , & Franklin Qian§ October 11, 2017 

Abstract

In this paper, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in the assignment of rent control in San Francisco to study its impacts on tenants, landlords, and the rental market as a whole. Leveraging new micro data which tracks an individual’s migration over time, we find that rent control increased the probability a renter stayed at their address by close to 20 percent. At the same time, we find that landlords whose properties were exogenously covered by rent control reduced their supply of available rental housing by 15%, by either converting to condos/TICs, selling to owner occupied, or redeveloping buildings. This led to a city-wide rent increase of 7% and caused $5 billion of welfare losses to all renters. We develop a dynamic, structural model of neighborhood choice to evaluate the welfare impacts of our reduced form effects. We find that rent control offered large benefits to impacted tenants during the 1995-2012 period, averaging between $2300 and $6600 per person each year, with aggregate benefits totaling over $390 million annually. The substantial welfare losses due to decreased housing supply could be mitigated if insurance against large rent increases was provided as a form of government social insurance, instead of a regulated mandate on landlords.

Read Report:   http://conference.nber.org/confer//2017/PEf17/Diamond_McQuade_Qian.pdf

Santa Monica continued a trend last year that left California cities with similarly sized populations far behind: It ranked number one in property crime.

The seaside city had more property crime than a dozen cities roughly the same population total of 93,921 people, according to an analysis by The Lookout of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report released last month.

Santa Monica experienced 4,039 reported incidents of property crime in 2016, easily surpassing small, well-off cities like Santa Barbara (3,060 property crimes) and unaffluent counterparts like Compton (2,528 property crimes).

Read More: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2017/October-2017/10_30_2017_Santa_Monica_Number_One_in_Property_Crime_Among_California_Cities_of_Similar_Size.html

The Board of Supervisors has passed a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn and coauthored by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl which will examine the feasibility of a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Rad More on page 3: http://backissues.smdp.com/102817.pdf

Phil meets with Michael Levine, author, celebrity publicist and Santa Monica, California resident to address concerns about the recent upsurge in the homeless population in our city.

See video: https://smmirror.com/2017/10/brock-block-homeless-santa-monica/