By Tom Elias, Columnist It’s happening. Despite the best efforts of California’s highly ideological, developer-financed state legislators, the solution to this state’s widely acknowledged housing shortage is coming fast, driven more by market forces than […]
There is a general, and growing, discomfort in the relationship between the residents and their city. People who live here are asking themselves and each other – who does the city work for? Those few […]
By Tom Elias, Columnist It was inevitable from the moment Gov. Gavin Newsom in mid-September signed this year’s two most important housing bills into law: There will be a rebellion. Not only did poll numbers […]
The inevitable sea level rise in our area has prompted a number of groups and organizations to look at possible solutions and mitigation measures. As the Los Angeles Times pointed out in recent articles, doing […]
In August, after the first closure of Main St. for a weekend of…something, the general consensus of our inquiries to a dozen or so retail & service (not bar/restaurant) businesses was “ Please do not […]
By Tom Elias, Columnist For more than 40 years, Democrats in Sacramento have talked fervently about reforming the 1978 Proposition 13 and some of its landmark limits on property taxes, but time and again they’ve […]
They say that every seven years all the cells in your body renew themselves. Likewise, seven years ago SMart published this article about adaptive reuse which, as is typical of our many topics, is still […]
What happens when a City runs out of water? You have already heard of the torture endured by communities in the Central Valley that ran out of water, but we already have had a recent […]
To the Santa Monica Community – it is with tremendous excitement that today I begin my first day as your City Manager. Over the past two weeks my wife and I have made the journey […]
Last week we revived our previous discussion, from six years ago, about the notable advantages of a low-rise city composed primarily of buildings no higher than 4 stories. Among the advantages of low-rise buildings previously […]
Brentwood-Based Program Needs Help Delivering Meals During the Holidays Meals on Wheels West Los Angeles is urgently seeking additional volunteers to...
Read moreYIMBY Law Challenges Governor’s Order Allowing Cities to Restrict SB 9 Housing in High Fire Hazard Zones The housing advocacy...
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