In what could be described as a year of big ups and downs for Santa Monica, here is The Mirror’s run-down of the top headlines from the year.
Please note that some of the following stories took place up to a week before or after the publication date, depending on whether it was a recap or preview piece.
December 6
• The Santa Monica City Council began providing input on the Pier Bridge Replacement Project at its Nov. 26 council meeting. The pier had been deemed “structurally deficient and functionally obsolete” by the Los Angeles County Public Works Department.
• The Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved Nov. 26 a resolution modifying term limits for some boards and commissions, opening the door for appointed officials to serve a third term on a body where appointees have a specific professional expertise.
• Those with Santa Monica roots who served and fallen in the military might soon be honored daily as the Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved Nov. 26 a war memorial to be built at Woodlawn Cemetery in 2014.
• Willis Ware, a man who worked as an engineer at the RAND Corporation in the 1960s who forecast the role personal computers would play in our lives and the challenges they posed to individual privacy, passed away aged 93 on Nov. 22.
December 13
• The Santa Monica Council unanimously selected Metro Pacific Capital Dec. 10 to enter an exclusive negotiating agreement for the right to eventually build a project on City owned property between Fourth and Fifth Streets south of Arizona Avenue.
• In what could be one of the most significant proposals to be developed within Santa Monica this decade, the Planning Commission narrowly recommended Dec. 4 the Hines/26th Street development agreement proceed to the City Council.
• Santa Monica College was the number one in transferring its students to the University of California, according to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, which recently released the 2012-13 data for community college students transferring to the University of California and to the California State University systems.
• Congressman Henry Waxman (Dem-33rd District) on Dec. 11 wrote to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe about the lack of on-site customer parking at the Santa Monica Carrier Annex – the new USPS location after the branch at 5th and Arizona closed in June.
December 20
• The renovated Parking Structure 6 at 1431 2nd Street (between Broadway and Santa Monica Boulevard) in downtown Santa Monica opened to the public at 2 pm on Dec. 19.
• Christmas came early for dozens of pediatric patients at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica at 1250 16th Street on Dec. 19. Nearly a dozen off-duty Santa Monica firefighters, along with Santa himself, distributed dozens of gifts.
• The Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved the 2013-2021 Housing Element on Dec. 17.
– The Santa Monica City Council voted on a resolution establishing interim uses and fees for the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which could help infuse some cash and life into the Civic Auditorium, which has been dark since June 30.
