Saturday, 10-18-2025, BE THERE
CuriousCity: SANTA MONICA SELL OUT
By CHARLES ANDREWS
Only one CURIOUS CITY column in the last year. It’s good to be back. Thank you, TJ, and Dolores. But first, this important message: Now in The Mirror, every other Friday. The best way to see it every time, along with my weekly NOTEWORTHY music and arts calendar column, is to subscribe, free, to my substack MUSIC, POLITICS, LIFE, at –
Usually, we don’t know a date has significance until after it happens. Dec. 7, 1941. Nov. 22, 1963. July 20, 1969. Sept. 11, 2001.
I fervently hope the date you see above, tomorrow, Saturday Oct. 18, 2025, becomes a day of history, the day when millions and millions of Americans took peacefully to the streets to show the world we are still a great people, kind, generous, freedom loving, patriotic to the ideals of America, and willing to stand up and be counted for everyone in the USA, no matter what the color of their eyes, hair, hats or skin, no matter what their “legal” status. You do know, being here from another country “without papers” is a misdemeanor. Yet more than 70% of the people seized by our Gestapo ICE have not been convicted of any crime. Hardly “the worst of the worst.”
(As the real first Americans remind us, no one is illegal on stolen land. Historical note: millions of them died, 96% of their population, from 1492 to the early 1900s, from Euro-American expansionism.)
There is another recent date that may become notorious in the history of Santa Monica:
OCT. 14, 2025
Last Tuesday. That was the date of the City Council meeting (technically, the villainous vote was taken after midnight) where by a 4-3 tally, our elected officials gave away a golden opportunity, declared our most famous, landmarked building not worth saving, even though its restoration would be an economic, cultural and arts driver to great economic revitalization for our “broke” city.
The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is one of the most famous performance venues in the world, especially for its modest size. Who has performed there”? Easier to ask, who hasn’t? The Beatles, Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Emmanuel Ax, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Ella Fitzgerald, Prince, The Supremes, David Bowie, The LA Philharmonic, Frank Sinatra, The Clash. The Eagles recorded their live album “The Long Run” there, and George Carlin recorded his landmark “Class Clown.” “Cabaret,” “Hello Dolly,” “Auntie Mame.” And the Oscars were held here, eight years in a row. The list is much longer.
But wait! The restored building would have made an amazing tourist attraction even if it had just been turned into a museum. With all the bells and whistles, of course, that Hollywood magic could add. It had sat so long, though, barely maintained, and needed so much very costly earthquake retrofitting because of new state regulations, that I held out little hope it could be brought back to performing life.
And then, a small band of well-connected locals did the impossible: they got a consortium of entertainment giants, the RPG Group, to take it on and come up with a plan to return it to performance life AT NO COST TO THE CITY OR RESIDENTS. Hard to believe!
But they came up with a plan, and on Tuesday, they were asking the City Council only for another six months to fine tune their numbers. And four Council members said no, we think it might be better to knock it down and put up a hotel and lots of housing, some of it “affordable.” Let’s scrap the RPG plans and put it out for proposal again.
I will give you more details in the future, because this is the most egregious political blunder in our city’s history, with the exception of when another City Council voted to demolish The Pier. A vote quickly reversed. A thousand people showed up to express their outrage, and every member of that Council was turned out.
Here are the names of those who voted to reject the RPG offer. Remember them, in case you ever see their names on a ballot again, for any office.
JESSE ZWICK, CAROLINE TOROSIS, NATALYA ZERNITSKAYA, DAN HALL
I know all this can be unfamiliar territory, but think of it this way. You graduated from college but with a burdensome student loan debt, so you study for and pass to get your real estate license. That might keep you afloat.
You’ve got an Uncle Charlie, great guy, who has made a fortune in real estate. He takes you aside and says, son, you’re smart and ambitious, and I know you’re going to succeed, but you can’t be meeting clients driving that beat up Corolla and expect to sell them a million dollar home. So I have leased a new Lexus for you, take care of it, don’t wreck it, and I will take it back whenever you are able to afford your own. No cost to you.
And you say, well Uncle Charlie, I think I’d rather get by with the beater car. I think I will be OK. Uncle Charlie thinks, I know he’s smart, so he must have some other agenda. But he’s a fool to pass up this offer. It will not come along again.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 39 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
