RAND Corp.’s Plan for Civic Center
The Santa Monica City Council and RAND Corp.’s Civic Center “Titanic” have just collided with the iceberg of public opinion. The excuses and rationalization have just begun. It will be interesting to see who survives.
After 4 1/2 years of repeated warnings, the council’s fifth consecutive major development defeat calls into question the very legitimacy of the city’s at-large election process. How can a City Council be so misguided and isolated?
On the 2,500th anniversary of the establishment of democracy as a form of government, 8,500 voters of Santa Monica (not such a small minority) took time out from their holidays and families to say once again that they want a dramatically different development philosophy, and they want a real public process, not a charade, not name-calling, not half-truths from an arrogant City Council.
MERRITT COLEMAN
Santa Monica
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