By Thomas D. Elias For many years, Californians have heard “experts” (read: folks who figure to profit by touting the theory) claim their state suffers from a lousy business climate and is steadily losing middle class population […]

For this week’s article, and in the context of the Downtown Specific Plan, we provide a few thought-provoking observations by well-known architects and urban philosophers. Peter Calthorpe “Traditional urbanism has three essential qualities: (1) a […]

By Steve Stajich   Actor Martin Landau has passed and I think his life and career say quite a bit about the term “working actor.” I’m recommending that actors and especially my own actor friends […]

By Steve Stajich   The news from last week’s G20 Summit seemed to demonstrate that even that union of nations can have a hard time sustaining a sense of global community… especially when one of […]

By Harrison Held   I saw two terrific shows this weekend…. First up Saturday night was the opening of the mind-blowing Danny and the Deep Blue Sea starring Tanna Frederick and Robert Standley directed by […]

By Barbara Bishop   In the last year, so many hotels have been built in Santa Monica. I’m going to an opening of one in Santa Monica this week, and I’ve been to several others […]

By Steve Stajich   Baby Boomers may someday tally-up their impressive list of accomplishments as a generation. It would certainly make a good six-part series for CNN: “Earth goes Boom!” might possibly be the title […]

One of the most important decisions our City Council will make this year could be approval of our new Downtown Community Plan (DCP). What is the DCP? It is the master plan that will define […]

By Jerry Rubin and Marissa Rubin Paul Conrad’s 26-foot tall nuclear mushroom cloud peace sculpture ‘Chain Reaction’, which has now been fully refurbished, is still  standing in the Santa Monica Civic Center, where it has been […]