Part II: The Stakes Along the Shore  Pull up the City of Santa Monica’s official Coastal Zone map, and the stakes become clear. The red-shaded area stretches from the northern city limit to the Venice […]

Part I: The Bill Nobody Voted For On February 11, 2026, a National Park Service official logged onto a virtual meeting to discuss something extraordinary: whether the federal government should extend its protective reach over […]

By John Cyrus Smith, SM.a.r.t Guest columnist Someone smarter than a parks commissioner like me once said that if you want something done, just throw down the challenge, and good things will happen. True or […]

By CHARLES ANDREWS THESE ARE… THE BEST OF TIMES? Another typo, he meant the beast of times. Or, uh oh, Charles is on drugs again. Hallucinogens, it would seem.  How can I even have that […]

How Solo Living Is Shrinking the Functional City SMa.r.t.’s article last month referred to Santa Monica’s collapsed school enrollment of 8,900 students. The figure arrives despite the addition of thousands of new apartment units over […]

Santa Monica’s housing debate is no longer just about zoning, density, or state mandates. It has become a test of basic political ethics—and of whether residents can trust how major land-use decisions are being made […]