October 29, 2025
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S.M.a.r.t Column: Five Saving Historic Santa Monica

Our beloved City is surrounded by many threats, from sea level rise to homelessness, to housing affordability, to cancerous overdevelopment, to  crime, to the four apocalyptic collapses: water supply, school population, municipal finances, and mobility […]

S.M.a.r.t Column: Gelson’s Looms Large

Our guest column this week is by SMCLC (the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City). SMCLC is a well-established group of concerned residents that have successfully been involved for many years in addressing and […]

S.M.a.r.t Column: Top Toady Town

Throughout history, from the ancient Romans and Assyrians to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, siege warfare has served as an effective weapon against municipalities resistant to conquest. Even with complete capitulation, conquered cities are subject […]

S.M.a.r.t Column: The Sunset of Home Ownership

We are watching the sunset of our historical and cultural American dream of home ownership as we now are crossing over what was a welcome mat of opportunity to a lifetime of indentured tenancy for […]

SMa.r.t. Column: B(U)Y RIGHT

“By Right” state housing laws that give developers, in certain projects, the ability to ignore codes ‘by right.’ Well, that is the lovable jargon developers have jumped in bed with at the State level to […]

S.M.a.r.t  Column: Serf City

Homelessness is a problem in California, and nowhere is this more evident than in our fair city, where the unhoused population has skyrocketed with the completion of the Expo Metro Line that tacitly offers free […]

S.M.a.r.t  Column: Bond Fatigue

Last week’s SMart article,  described two critical problems faced by our Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD): the declining enrollment and the tendency to inexorably increase the bond debt burden on the City’s businesses […]

S.M.a.r.t Column: A School District Conundrum

As most of you who drive on 4th or Pico Avenue or use the 4th Street freeway on-ramp know, the whole Santa Monica High School campus has been a construction zone for almost a decade. […]

S.M.a.r.t Column: On the Clock with Mayor Brock

I became Santa Monica’s Mayor on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, following a simple “switch of the chairs” transition with outgoing Mayor Gleam Davis during the first hour of last Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. I […]

S.M.a.r.t Column: SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL 2024

Position:Seeking Santa Monica City Council Candidate(s) Introduction:Exciting opportunity for the right candidate(s) to work with like-minded Council members committed to preserving and protecting the history, culture, and integrity of our iconic beachside community. Background:Nestled between […]