Living Wage and Playground Policy

May 25, 2001

Dear Editor,

The LA County Coroner considers death on the side walk of a 46 year old man in the richest city in the world due to "natural causes."

Dying on the sidewalk, at 46, is natural. I guess it is in our 'compassionate conservative' world of George Bush's.

Randy Walburger
Santa Monica

May 24, 2001

Dear Editor,

(Re: "Council Approves Historic Living Wage," May 23)

Is anyone taking bets on how quickly the city will be sued over the living wage ordinance?

Joe Weichman
Santa Monica

May 24, 2001

Dear Editor,

(Re: "Council Approves Historic Living Wage," May 23)

Okay.

Let's make a spreadsheet with three columns: the names of the businesses affected today, the number of employees today, and the number of employees from this day forward. This is so easy to track. And if it's publicly posted, SM residents would have an opportunity to support the affected businesses.

If it was a good idea, then the number of employees will stay the same or rise. If it was a bad idea, the number of employees and businesses will decline.

One side predicted one result, the other side another. Starting now, we'll get to find out.

Oh, how about a fourth column? A running total of the amount of money the City is spending on defending the ordinance and the cost of the Living Wage Enforcement Board bureaucracy -- kind of like the national debt clock.

Where should the chart be posted so we all can see it?

Michael Sieverts
Santa Monica

May 25, 2001

Dear Editor,

In a series of public meetings held last week, City and school district staff unveiled a "school playground community access plan" that severely restricts citizen access to the playgrounds.

While current school district policy requires playgrounds to remain unlocked, the new plan would:

• Lock schoolyards
• Greatly reduce hours of community access on weekends and in summer
• Completely eliminate access after school hours during the school year
• Ban residents over age 12 unless accompanying a young child
• Build new bathrooms using valuable space and attracting non-neighbors

This announcement immediately galvanized the members of the Save Our Playgrounds coalition, which three years ago fought successfully to keep schoolyards open after school for recreational access for all children.

At the May 17 SMMUSD School Board meeting, representatives of Save Our Playgrounds presented their concerns. The Board responded with strong leadership as they acknowledged the community's need for open space and directed staff to revise the proposed plan in order to 1) Expand hours of access and 2) Not restrict access to children 12 and under.

School Board member Maria Leon-Vazquez stressed the need for the City to come up with more funding to make the plan work, proposing we "adjust the hours so that the playgrounds open when it's light and close when it's dark."

Says Save Our Playgrounds member Abby Arnold, "We have already demonstrated that these playgrounds play a vital role in the quality of life in Santa Monica. In many of our neighborhoods they provide the only open space where families who live in apartments without yards can go to play."

The City of Santa Monica published a study -- the "Open Space Element" -- that supports this analysis: "Santa Monica is a unique community within California because of its density. Seventy five percent of our residents live in multifamily housing without private backyards and gardens."

While Save Our Playgrounds supports the creation of improved field space, we believe that the locking of the schoolyards is too high a price to pay for some bathrooms and nicer grass -- especially when City and district staff point to a need to "let the grass rest" as the main reason for locking the public out. We believe it would be preferable to enforce rules that would forbid adults with cleats and to close the fields on rainy days.

Save Our Playgrounds is also concerned about the lack of public notice regarding the proposed playground closures.

As stated by Save Our Playgrounds founding member Donna Block: "None of the notification materials they sent out indicated that the plan would result in shutting down the schoolyards. There has been no true public process because the public has been kept in the dark. Now they say the program has to be approved within the next few weeks or we will lose the funding. That doesn't seem fair to the community that was not included in the process."

It is the position of the Save Our Playgrounds coalition that preserving access to open recreational space is paramount. With this in mind, we call upon the School Board and City Council to reject the implementation of any plan that requires the schoolyards to be locked during daylight hours.

According to Save Our Playgrounds founding member Tricia Crane, "This is a landmark opportunity for the citizens of Santa Monica. The City has long sought to develop a partnership with the school district in order to provide more open space for residents. We now have a School Board that is embracing that partnership. The City must seize this opportunity, and provide the funding necessary to keep these playgrounds open to the community."

Sincerely,

Save Our Playgrounds Coalition

May 22, 2001

Dear Editor,

This is in regards to Bruria Finkel's letter to the editor about the living wage. As you know, I don't trust Frank Gruber that much, but I trust Bruria even less.

The people who stand to benefit from this living wage are overwhelmingly not Santa Monica citizens. This is a naive way of thinking: give a person a pay raise, and they'll move closer to where they work. That is not true.

The saddest part of this whole situation is the socialist SMRRs have forgotten about those that are struggling to pay their rent in what rent-controlled apartments we have left. These people are being forgotten about and the Bruria's are out there advocating for persons who do not even live in the city.

I also must remind the public of a statement judge David Finkel once made in the early 80's. I'm assuming this is Bruria's philosophy as well. He said he felt that there should be no privately owned property in this city. Now, if we had this system, how could we move these low income people into an already congested city, unless Bruria is advocating for another 300 units of low income union housing on the RAND property?

Bruria, get with the program. You've turned your back on the already struggling low-income seniors and working poor in Santa Monica. What makes you think you're the champion for people who commute to Santa Monica from East L.A., Huntington Park, and other cities, when you have not been able to do a good enough job for those of us already here?

Chuck Allord
Santa Monica

May 18, 2001

Dear Editor,

(Re: Frank Gruber's column "Living the Living Wage.")

The main problem with a "forced" wage is that if a person works at a low pay job and has 4 kids does not speak English and has been in this country for over five years (as some of the workers at several City Council meetings admitted through an interpreter), why does the government have to give a wage
increase to someone that has not done anything to deserve one? Just being in the same job for a number of years and having a family does not entitle anyone to a "living wage."

The Santa Monica proposal of a set geographic limit is "racist" at best. If you're doing the same job washing dishes etc. several blocks away from the "prime zone" you don't qualify. And how do you pay the dishwasher $10.69 an hour and not increase the kitchen manager/line cook etc. by an amount equal to the increase of the dishwasher. And if the dishwasher is in the tip pool, what then? Is the amount adjusted/included?

Any wonder the restaurants are leaving.... and it's not just the rent and the price of a basic meal. Even in an upscale restaurant there are limits on how much folks will pay to dine out. That has been proven. McDonald's is not successful because of the food, it's the price. Change the formula and it's not McDonald's anymore.

Yes, labor is the largest expense in most small businesses and many large ones also. The tax expense is also increased as you know. To force a wage amount on a private business will be defeated in court and you know that already. You may wish there was a way around it but you know it will be defeated.

Remember the promenade before it was "built." Westwood was very "alive & successful" once also and thought it would never end..... things change.