SM.a.r.t, Author at SM Mirror

Opinion

SMa.r.t. Column: Ode to the Future of My City

August 8, 2022 SM.a.r.t

How sad it is to journey to Santa Monica and I can’t find it.The open blue sky hides behind canyon...

News, Real Estate

SMa.r.t. Column: Fantasyland Is Not Limited to Theme Parks

July 30, 2022 SM.a.r.t

By now, most residents have heard of Santa Monica’s 8,895-unit overall mandate and the 6,168-unit affordable housing subset. This general...

News, Opinion

SMa.r.t. Column: Why Native Gardens?

July 22, 2022 SM.a.r.t

Voltaire said it best at the end of his 1759 novel Candide: “We must cultivate our own garden”. This simple...

Opinion

SMa.r.t. Column: We’re All Wet – Not!

July 15, 2022 SM.a.r.t

Don’t you think that if you heard, or read, statements from controlling government agencies that said you were threatened by...

Opinion, Real Estate

SMar.t. Column: Has the Promenade Turned a Corner?

July 8, 2022 SM.a.r.t

In large complex systems with dynamically balanced forces, it’s paradoxically often hard to tell when something has actually happened, For...

News, Real Estate

SMa.r.t. Column: A Tale of Two Cities

July 2, 2022 SM.a.r.t

The City of Santa Monica is surrounded on three sides by the City of Los Angeles. Therefore, while the jurisdictions...

Opinion, Real Estate

SMa.r.t. Column: It’s Time to Look at the Facts of Santa Monica’s Housing History

June 30, 2022 SM.a.r.t

The Narrative: Santa Monica’s decades-long housing construction “shortage” The Narrative endlessly repeats the refrain that for decades Santa Monica has...

News, Opinion, Real Estate

SMa.r.t. Column: The Mansionization of Santa Monica

June 17, 2022 SM.a.r.t

Editor’s note: This column originally appeared in print in 2016. In the 1980s, Santa Monica’s single family zoning code was...

Opinion, Real Estate

SMa.r.t. Column: The Sound of Silence Is Big & Tall

June 3, 2022 SM.a.r.t

All too often these days we find ourselves wondering how we could have been so correct about so many planning...

Opinion, Real Estate

Affordable Spaces for Small Business

May 27, 2022 SM.a.r.t

Los Angeles County recently proposed a program providing financial incentives for certain “Legacy” family businesses in their original historical location....