November 23, 2025
Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos

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

Editor’s note: This column originally appeared in print in 2016.  In the 1980s, Santa Monica’s single family zoning code was rewritten and modified to prevent the “mansionization” of small homes on small lots, from being […]

Affordable Spaces for Small Business

Los Angeles County recently proposed a program providing financial incentives for certain “Legacy” family businesses in their original historical location. They have been facing financial hardships for a variety of reasons like COVID, gentrification, and […]

Is Gelson’s Our Future? Bigger Is Not Better!

It’s appalling to see what’s happening in our city – projects recently built or about to be approved – in downtown, along the boulevards, and throughout our multi-family and single-family neighborhoods! A tsunami of these […]

SMa.r.t. Column: Gelson’s, Boxed-In

This week we are re-visiting an article from 2018 regarding the Miramar project, by simply replacing the word “Miramar” with “Gelson’s”, and striking thru some of the irrelevant text. We sadly reflect on how the […]

SMa.r.t. Column: Failure to Plan…

Over the last approximately two years your City has been busy trying to respond to new California laws that are completely destroying the urban fabric and quality of life of our City. Specifically, the State’s […]

SMa.r.t. Column: Planning The Real Future

In the 1970s, renowned USC architecture professor Ralph Knowles developed a method for planning and designing cities that would dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels, while retaining the qualities that people find most attractive […]

SMa.r.t. Column: Tunneling for Mobility

Editor’s note: this is an April Fools Day column and is intended to be satire.  Starting this year permits from the Santa Monica Planning Department will require a  new additional fee called “Travel Demand Forecasting […]