March 28, 2024 Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

Letters to the Editor:

Two victories for residents

To the editor:

Last Tuesday, the City Council was faced with two important decisions affecting the redevelopment of Santa Monica Place. The first — to remove it from the Civic Center Specific Plan so that decisions about the mall’s future, including its appropriate height and scale, would be on its own track, as it should be. The second — to require the developer of Santa Monica Place to conduct a separate environmental review of traffic and other environmental impacts of any proposed mall redevelopment.

The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) alerted the Council to the Coalition’s concern about the potential stealth impact of approving the environmental impact report (EIR) for the Civic Center Plan without first clarifying that this was NOT an approval of an EIR for Santa Monica Place. In response, the City Council did make it clear that Macerich was not entitled to rely on the Civic Center EIR and voted to require the developer to have a separate traffic study of the impacts of any project proposal, as well as other appropriate environmental studies.

As a long-time Santa Monica residents, we realize how important it is for us to all stay alert and active in ensuring that our government represents residents first and foremost and that our community remains livable.

Bea Nemlaha

Susan Giesberg

advisers to SMCLC

New plan needed

To the editor:

Now that we have finally begun having meaningful conversations about the Iraqi war, we have to be sure that we begin with the correct facts.

Although Saddam Hussein was a sworn enemy of Washington, there was no Iraq-Al Qaeda axis, therefore no connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States. This administration insinuated there was and continues to hide behind 9/11 when questioned about the war.

The Iraqi war has not made the world, or our nation, safer from terrorism. In fact, the breeding ground for terrorists used to be Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia; now Iraq has become the breeding ground for terrorists!

The administration continues to hide the truth, claiming that the war is on track and going according to plan. Every day our newspapers refute such rosy assertions. With thousands of our brave soldiers killed and maimed, and thousands of Iraqis killed and maimed, we desperately need a change in plan!

Esther Jaffe KaplinskyBrentwood

in Uncategorized
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