A opinion piece published in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Date: October 1, 2024
I am responding to Barry Snell’s assertions in the Sept. 26, 2024 SMDP guest opinion piece titled “Beware of the Sell Out Slate” which was a reprint of his press release.
The bottom line, Barry, it’s clear that the Establishment’s jig is up.
When you have policies and no leg to stand on, you mislead the public and go into full misinformation/disinformation mode. And that is exactly the case, Mr. Snell.
Santa Monica is a Charter City. Rent Control is in the City Charter. The council cannot end rent control. It would have to be put on the ballot and the voters would need to vote on it. That’s not happening. Democrats for a Safer Santa Monica Slate staunchly supports rent control. This time-worn fear mongering of using rent control, simply shows how far out of touch Barry Snell and his Establishment slate is regarding the real crisis and the real issues Santa Monica’s residents are concerned with — and their complete lack of ideas on how to fix those issues.
Increasing homelessness has been ongoing throughout the entire tenure of the Establishment’s control over the city. It’s only because the Democrats for a Safer Santa Monica Slate has decided that enough is enough — has the Establishment’s candidates even admitted it’s a problem. The Establishment’s policies over the past four decades have directly created this resident and entrepreneurs’ crisis. You can thank Davis, Tororis, and Zwick’s group who are the “Establishment” — the real group that has created the homelessness crisis in this city, and allowed it to grow out of control. With the election of some or all of the Establishment slate of Snell, Hall, Raskin, and Zernitskaya, the only known fact is that the city will get worse. They don’t want to fund the police. They have been completely ineffective against County policies regarding needle distribution, which they call needle exchange and harm reduction, which if you live in the real world, you know is just the opposite. And, they ignore what the end-of-line homeless disembarkment of both the county train and bus services are doing to our city. The list goes on and on. If you think it’s bad now, with them, it will only get worse. BTW, this Establishment slate is supporting the worst Los Angeles District attorney in the history of Los Angeles, George Gascon. That should tell you all you need to know.
The first thing our Democrats for a Safer Santa Monica Slate, Brock, De La Torre, Roknian, and Putnam are going to do is review all the money that is now being wasted on expenditures that have no links to actual outcomes. It’s beyond funny that the Establishment slate is accusing the Democrats for a Safer Santa Monica Slate, who are educated business people, of potentially wasting money, when that is exactly what they are and have been doing for years, with their misguided policies.
It should also be noted that the Establishment Slate of Snell, Hall, Raskin, and Zernitskaya has accepted the endorsement of Abundant Housing LA, the lobby group that worked with the Establishment group in 2019 to foist a completely made up 9,000 units of housing onto the city of Santa Monica, without any consideration of the impact to the city’s environment, finances or livability. They are also being supported by the Streets for All lobby group that tried to shut down the 90 freeway in favor of development — and had to be (successfully) battled by the many neighborhoods that would have become gridlocked in the process. The Establishment slate is working against what the residents and businesses want.
Voters, this Establishment group has been hiding behind rent control, which is not going to change. The Democrats for a Safer Santa Monica Slate supports rent control. The door to door walkers for the Establishment slate are actually going out and lying to the public about rent control. Let’s stop pretending rent control is going away or it will be harmed and look at the mess the Establishment has created with all their misguided policies. This city is a complete mess because of their policies. Just look at the city with your own eyes.
We have had the majority on the council for less than four years. Yet the Establishment is blaming this majority for not fixing the problems that they allowed to fester for decades and which are only getting worse. It takes more than three quarters of a council term to undo the counter-productive policies that have been thoroughly embedded throughout the city administration for all these many years. Supporting, and doubling down, on policies of ongoing failure is not what real Democratic clubs do. And that’s because it just so happens that both the Santa Monica and Westside Democratic Clubs are controlled by the same Establishment that has destroyed this city for the past four decades.
The people that are donating to the Democrats for a Safer Santa Monica Slate, Brock, de la Torre, Roknian and Putnam know that the only way to save this beautiful little city from these people with radical policies that have created the existing nightmare situation is to Elect, Brock, de la Torre, Roknian and Putnam. Read their platforms.
They hear you and they know how to fix this city.
Barbara Tenzer
Safer Santa Monica
To read the original piece, please see HERE.
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