In the continuous quest to create a more perfect City, it is a pleasure to put down all the hope, the dream, the dismay, the anger, and even the cynicism to experience the simple pleasure of gratitude. The pleasure is to stop and consider those things we are grateful for. S.M.a.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) is most grateful for you, our readers. Through thick and thin, for more than ten years you, the reader, have stuck with us and we hope you have been well served by our ideas, rants, insights and perspectives. And it’s not just those readers who agree with us, but we are also grateful for those who don’t and thus stimulate a debate which is always helpful in sorting out the thorny paradoxes and dilemmas that bedevil our City. In fact, we often do not even agree among our selves about our articles and enjoy the debates we have internally before going out for publication. Dissenting opinions are always valuable and often lead to enlightenment.
The gratitude in a newspaper relationship is not just between writers and readers but extends beyond that relationship to include others who contribute to the experience. We are grateful for our editor, Dolores Quintana, who patiently puts up with our wonkiest screeds and last minute changes. We are also grateful to the publisher of the Santa Monica Mirror, Mirror Media Group, that gives us a weekly platform for our articles. And finally we are very grateful for those readers (you know who you are) who regularly repost our articles to their circle of neighbors, family, friends, and colleagues. By reposting you increase our range and influence. You also possibly increase the number of people who are willing to engage and participate in the countless organizations which support, through volunteerism, the civic health of our City. Thank you, reposters, for your valuable help.
S.M.a.r.t. hopes you have had a grateful and gracious Thanksgiving and can look forward to the upcoming holiday season.
By Mario Fonda-Bonardi AIA
S.M.a.r.t. Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow
Mario Fonda-Bonardi AIA, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Architect, Dan Jansenson, Architect & Building and Fire-Life Safety Commission, Samuel Tolkin Architect & Planning Commissioner, Michael Jolly, AIR-CRE, Marie Standing. Jack Hillbrand AIA Landmark Commissioner
