Guest Commentary
This Black History Month, It’s Time to Take the Next Step Towards Justice in Santa Monica
Before it became a liberal and progressive beacon under the leadership of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights and the Santa Monica Democratic Club, the City of Santa Monica officially promoted terrible policies of exclusion. Decades-long efforts by the Committee for Racial Justice (“CRJ”), historian Nina Fresco, and other community organizations and activists have brought to light the City’s use of eminent domain to target Black and Latino families and business owners in the Belmar Triangle and the Broadway and Pico Neighborhoods. As a community, we have since been on a path of learning, healing, and restitution with the ultimate goal of justice.
Culver City Releases Plan to Reimagine Public Safety; Will the City Council Bury It?
It has been ten years since the vigilante murder of Travon Martin inspired the Black Lives Matter Movement and three and a half years since the police murders of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor, and numerous others brought hundreds of thousands of Americans of all backgrounds into the streets to demand change.
Culver City Council Majority Paves Way to Remove Dissenting Voices from City Committees
At Monday’s City Council meeting, a seismic shift in city governance occurred, though if you blinked, you may have missed it. Buried inside a list of seemingly mundane proposed changes to the city’s committees, boards, and commissions (CBCs) was a clause to enable the removal of a CBC member “with or without cause... upon a majority vote of the City Council.” The previous policy required a 4/5 vote, a much more difficult threshold to meet.
The Racist Tapes: What I Heard
On October 9, 2022, the LA Times and Knock LA reported on a secretly recorded conversation between three of my City Council colleagues and a powerful labor leader. They made appalling, racist remarks about various groups and people, especially about Blacks and including about my young son. A year later, as people look back, they keep asking me for my thoughts. I’ve written about what I heard, what I felt, and what I think was missing from the discussions sparked by the scandal.
This Black History Month, It’s Time to Take the Next Step Towards Justice in Santa Monica
Before it became a liberal and progressive beacon under the leadership of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights and the Santa Monica Democratic Club, the City of Santa Monica officially promoted terrible policies of exclusion. Decades-long efforts by the Committee for Racial Justice (“CRJ”), historian Nina Fresco, and other community organizations and activists have brought to light the City’s use of eminent domain to target Black and Latino families and business owners in the Belmar Triangle and the Broadway and Pico Neighborhoods. As a community, we have since been on a path of learning, healing, and restitution with the ultimate goal of justice.
Culver City Releases Plan to Reimagine Public Safety; Will the City Council Bury It?
It has been ten years since the vigilante murder of Travon Martin inspired the Black Lives Matter Movement and three and a half years since the police murders of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor, and numerous others brought hundreds of thousands of Americans of all backgrounds into the streets to demand change.
Culver City Council Majority Paves Way to Remove Dissenting Voices from City Committees
At Monday’s City Council meeting, a seismic shift in city governance occurred, though if you blinked, you may have missed it. Buried inside a list of seemingly mundane proposed changes to the city’s committees, boards, and commissions (CBCs) was a clause to enable the removal of a CBC member “with or without cause... upon a majority vote of the City Council.” The previous policy required a 4/5 vote, a much more difficult threshold to meet.
The Racist Tapes: What I Heard
On October 9, 2022, the LA Times and Knock LA reported on a secretly recorded conversation between three of my City Council colleagues and a powerful labor leader. They made appalling, racist remarks about various groups and people, especially about Blacks and including about my young son. A year later, as people look back, they keep asking me for my thoughts. I’ve written about what I heard, what I felt, and what I think was missing from the discussions sparked by the scandal.
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