Election: Better Information on Civic Center Plan Is Urged

It’s more than a little disingenuous for Eric Siss (Letters, May 15) to complain about how much Santa Monica must spend for the Civic Center election when we are having the election because opponents of the plan, including Mr. Siss, 1) refused to accept the results of a long public process that led to a rare, unanimous vote from the usually fractious City Council (including, of course, those members who are most skeptical of development), and 2) obtained enough signatures to put the plan on the ballot with a campaign of falsehoods about the plan that continues to this day.

Of course, the opponents of the plan do not want the voters to have the opportunity to read the plan. Their whole strategy, as evidenced by the techniques they used in gathering signatures, is to reduce a sophisticated plan that involved compromises by all parties to a few negative and false slogans. Now that we are having an election, the opponents don’t want the electorate to be informed.

The truth is that the plan converts an urban dead zone into a suitable, moderately developed mixed-used neighborhood. Traffic and other environmental impacts will be mitigated. Asphalt will be converted to grass. Family-friendly housing will replace boarded-up buildings. Read the plan and then vote YES on D and E.

FRANK J. GRUBER

Santa Monica