Dear Mr. Rosendahl,
The wooden stairs located between Almalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades and Adelaide Drive in Santa Monica are in need of some repair due to a few planks rotting out.
These wooden stairs are heavily used, and provide excellent low-cost cardiovascular exercise. I personally have been using them since 1980 and even Governor Schwarzenegger has used them.
Back in about 2003, the lower half was repaired thanks to Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski.
The upper section is now in need of repairs, approximately 10 to12 of the wooden treads need to be replaced. I have included a picture of one of the worst ones. Fortunately these repairs do not cost much. I have determined that a plank of treated lumber from Home Depot measuring 2”x12” x12ft (sufficient for two treads) will cost $26. I am certain that the LA City can easily beat this price with its purchasing power and also by using untreated lumber (which was used on the lower section).
Please do not use as an excuse to close the steps or take months to repair. One person can replace the treads in one day. If entire section were to be replaced proper project planning can accomplish this in under a week. Remember the 10 Freeway was re-opened within 3 months.
Sincerely,
Martin Kappeyne
Santa Monica
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Dear Editor,
As I’ve stated at Council, the City may be justified in banning these super-efficient polyehtylene bags, about which Staff refuzed to reveal the actual, fraction-of-a-penny cost for Albertson’s e.g., *only* because their “tensional integrity” is so great, as to pose a real problem for beach communities: backing-up the storm drains, by catching all sorts of other roadside flotsam & trash. But, the legislative effort at simply imposing a (say) 3-cent charge per bag is far-enough along to preclude this ban; perhaps, though, it should be more, near the ocean (say, 4 cents? So, Samohi’s Teen Marine should, perhaps, aim at bigger targets, because most of their documentation is apocryphal, hearsay, oxymoron, PC/party-of-a-color, Teal.
Tom Elias says that mere access to money-bags is inadequate to win an election; very true. But, he misses the most awesome flow of money, from the ever-morphing financial services industry, which is effectively a vote-unto -themselves, and may particularly accrue from the HMO lobby. On the national level, exemplified by the dual wing-nuts of Move-on-dot-org and SwiftBoats4truTh.org, the 527 Cmtes. were launched to lobby for the Financial Services Modernization Act of ’99; after the unanimous passage in both houses in December, and the effective legalization of cross-marketing the services of the banking, brokering & insuring companies, the 527s “zero-converted” into a soft-money slush fund. These committees advertize on TV, over the heads of their presumed, national candidates, polarizing any debate that might already be occurring. (Presumably, there are such things at the state and local levels, three.)
–R. Brian Hutchings,
Santa Monica, Ca
