Good morning Santa Monica! In last week’s article we discussed what and who controls our city. It’s not the city council and certainly not the residents – it’s technology, corporate capitalism and their hired developers. […]

Following residents’ longstanding concerns regarding mansionization and neighborhood character, the city is reviewing development standards in the R-1 single-family areas, which incidentally represents about one-half of our city’s total area. This led me to a […]

Last year our article “Santa Monica Must Prepare for the Future” outlined eight important areas on which the city needed to focus, as it prepares to meet future challenges. A year later, how is the […]

With shouts of “19” echoing across the stage, the Santa Monica High School Class of 2019 flipped their tassels from right to left and exuberantly took their final steps as high school students, This was […]

There are a host of civic benefits which need to be funded, managed and evaluated by the general public. Most people would agree that police and fire services, primary and secondary education, social security, the […]

Revisiting SMa.r.t.’s 4-year-old article on sustainability, important themes then have become critical today: In 2013, Santa Monica was named the nation’s fifth-most sustainable city according to a prominent national organization dedicated to sustainable development and […]

(This article was published three years ago this month. SMa.r.t. believes its relevance has withstood the test of time. It has been edited for brevity).  Three weeks ago Dr. David Revell gave a presentation outlining […]

Two weeks ago SMa.r.t. (Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow) wrote about the dangers of SB50, a complicated State bill whose purpose was to create Wall Street profits for mega-developers but whose real consequence […]

The Architectural Review Board met this week to review several apartment projects in different parts of downtown, including 1238 7th Street–6 stories, 37 units and no parking. The staff report says: “The project site is […]