City Council finished its first round of interviews for Santa Monica’s next city manager this weekend, meaning the search for the city’s first permanent manager since Rick Cole resigned in April 2020 could soon be completed.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/city-manager-selection-process-begins/204941

After breaking ground earlier this spring, construction crews are now beginning to work on a four-story building at 2903 Lincoln Boulevard.

The project, spanning the entire east side of the block between Ashland Avenue and Wilson Place, will feature 47 units of housing on top of 16,755 square feet of ground floor retail. The apartments will be a combination of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, including four reserved for extremely low-income tenants.

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2021/05/construction-underway-for-mixed-use-lincoln-boulevard-development/

A proposal to convert several local beach lots into temporary housing cleared its first hurdle this week when the City of Los Angeles’ Committee on Homelessness and Poverty voted to authorize a feasibility study in a 4-1 vote.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/la-to-study-homeless-housing-at-will-rogers-beach/204873

We are fortunate in Santa Monica that we have a choice to purchase our power from two sources. We can buy our power from SCE which generates their power from a mix of about 50% renewable and 50% fossil fuel sources OR, for slightly more cost,  from the Clean Power Alliance (CPA) which is essentially a power brokerage that buys its power from renewable clean power sources such as photovoltaics (PV), windmills, hydroelectric,  geothermal, etc.. The CPA then sends this “clean” power to you via the same power lines and transformers that SCE uses. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2021/05/sma-r-t-column-power-to-the-people/

Anti-development advocacy group Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City calls it a "final victory"

Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2021/05/12/news/the-controversial-plaza-project-proposed-at-arizona-and-4th-street-on-public-land-is-dead/5631.html

After dire warnings of multi-year shortfalls just last year, City Hall has released a new budget that projected no deficits in coming years.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/city-budget-rebounds-from-pandemic-losses/204800

While rents for single-family homes have experienced big increases as renters and buyers compete for the same limited quantity of homes on the market, apartment rents haven't increased as swiftly.

Read More: https://patch.com/california/santamonica/rent-estimates-santa-monica-area

Millions of poor and middle-class Californians would get tax rebates of up to $1,100 under a proposal unveiled Monday by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, as part of a broader pandemic recovery plan made possible by an eye-popping $75 billion budget surplus.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/california-governor-proposes-tax-rebate-as-virus-relief/204744

The FY 2021-23 Biennial Budget

Read More: https://www.santamonica.gov/blog/introducing-the-proposed-fy-2021-23-biennial-budget

Gov. Newsom today announced his intent to pay rental housing providers 100% of rent that’s gone unpaid because of COVID-19.

Read More: https://caanet.org/gov-newsom-announces-plan-to-pay-rental-housing-providers-100-of-rent-owed/