By Jorge Casuso

January 3, 2011 -- In 2011, Santa Monica may have made more national -- and international headlines -- than any city its size in the country.

From a mobster nabbed in its confines and a spat between atheists and traditionalists to a racial incident at the local high school and the bombing of a synagogue, the beachside city of 90,000 was in the news all year long.

There were other stories, likely more lasting, that mainly garnered local attention -- from the groundbreaking ceremony for the Expo Light Rail line and the opening of the nation's biggest bike center to an identity makeover for the Downtown and a new gift policy for the School District.

Here, in no particular order, are The Lookout's choices for the top stories of 2011:

The Grinch that Stole Christmas

Call it an edited version of the Christmas story without the bands of angels, shepherds and wise men. Atheists this year managed to nudge out 11 of the 14 life-size nativity scenes that for 57 years had graced Santa Monica's Palisades Park.

A battle mounted by atheists for permitted display spaces left the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee with only three spaces shoehorned onto a patch of grass near Santa Monica Boulevard. The new displays -- which include images of devils -- mainly consisted of words on large poster boards denigrating religion.

"I don’t have a problem with Christmas, if it’s Santa Claus and elves," said Damon Vix, who displayed a Thomas Jefferson quote declaring that “religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.” "But there are a lot of people who live in Santa Monica who are not Christians.”

Under First Amendment rights, the City was helpless to stop the new displays, which showed no artistic merit. "If you’re hell bent on making yourselves look like jerks, at least make an effort so that you don’t look like lazy jerks," wrote Lookout columnist Frank Gruber..

Santa Monica's Most Wanted

All along he was walking among us, rubbing shoulders in apartment hallways, sipping a beer in the next bar stool, reading a book in a nearby desk at the public library.

Then, on June 22, 2011, we learned the true identity of Charles Gasko. He was in fact James “Whitey” Bulger, the fugitive Boston mobster wanted in connection with 19 slayings and assorted other crimes who had spent nearly all of his 16 years on the lam living in the same Santa Monica apartment.

Residents speaking to reporters following the arrest said they had no idea that the quiet, elderly couple who lived on the third floor of the Princess Eugenia apartments on 1012 Third Street was actually Bulger and longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.

Managers of the apartment building described the 81-year-old Bulger and Greig, 60, as model tenants, who always paid the rent on time and in cash. The apartment was under rent control and cost the couple $1,145 a month.

The Gift of Learning

The local school district triggered a region-wide debate in 2011 when the Board of Education proposed a centralized fundraising plan that would level the playing field by barring Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) from raising money to pay for teachers or other personnel.

On November 29, the board voted unanimously to move forward with the controversial plan, which was vocally opposed by many Malibu parents. The plan will create a centralized organization to pool the money collected by local PTAs and redistribute it among all the schools in the district.

The plan will not affect donations for school supplies or other materials, such as computers. PTAs can still raise money for field trips, as well. “My job is to ensure that all students in our district have equitable access,” said Superintendent Sandra Lyon.

Point Dune Marine Science School spent $1,096 per student of private money on “instructional personnel” in the 2011-2012 school year, compared to $36 per student at Will Rogers Elementary School, the lowest fundraising school in the district. “We have two communities” divided along class lines, said Board member Nimish Patel.

Naming Downtown

2011 was the year Downtown Santa Monica became officially known as, well, Downtown Santa Monica. After two decades as the Bayside District, a new era dawned on July 6, with the official launch of Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM).

The new brand introduced Downtown and its popular Third Street Promenade as a vibrant choice for both residents and tourists, a destination that invites an egalitarian mix of families, singles, visitors, merchants and artists to celebrate the commercial center for its inherent fun.

“It’s not just for shopping and dining out, it’s for living," Mayor Richard Bloom told the crowd gathered at the official launch. "This is our city’s living room.”

The new brand name was approved by the old Bayside Board on January 27, after officials considered a number of options. In the end, the marketing team decided that more could be said with less. "We really focused on simplicity," said Debbie Lee, Vice President of DTSM. "We went a little more modern and moved away from pure nostalgia."

Wrestling with Racism

Santa Monica's image as a tolerant, progressive city helped fuel national headlines when Virginia Gray complained to officials that on May 14 students locked her son to a locker and shouted “Slave for sale!,” then posed a human-sized dummy used by the team for practice with a noose.

District officials acknowledged the incident took place but said that they couldn't verify the racial slur and that the victim reported he didn't hear it. The two students who bullied the victim were suspended and received sensitivity and diversity counseling.

On November 28, LA Sheriff's investigators announced they had cleared high-ranking Santa Monica High School officials of allegedly intimidating the victim and/or witnesses and destroying evidence to cover up the incident.

"After a thorough inquiry," said Police Department spokesman Richard Lewis, "it was determined there was no probable cause to believe that any staff member or employee of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District participated in any activity, or acted in such a manner, that supports an allegation of criminal misconduct."

Coming 'Round the Bend

After decades of debate and planning, there were visible signs by mid 2011 that the $1.5-billion Expo Light Rail project connecting Culver City to Santa Monica was headed Downtown for its scheduled 2015 arrival.

Work crews began pre-construction on and under the city's streets in June, and the City Council approved nearly $2.5 million in contracts to design an esplanade connecting the future Light Rail Station at the former Sears Automotive site to the various gateways of Downtown and the Pier.

But the clearest signal was the groundbreaking ceremony September 12 attended by a “Who’s Who” of state, local and regional government dignitaries. The following day, the council got down to the nuts and bolts, directing staff to get the project up and running in cooperation with the Expo Metro Line Authority, while negotiating for the kinds of design and construction details they said the people of Santa Monica wanted.

“We have been striving for decades to move this project forward and it is simply amazing to be at this point,” said Mayor Richard Bloom. “We really can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Pedaling the Future

Santa Monica set the pace for cycling towns in 2011 after the City Council approved an ambitious bike plan and opened the largest full-service bike center in the country.

The plan includes new bike lanes, bicycle parking facilities, guided tours and programs, while the center -- located in Parking Structures 7 and 8 at Santa Monica Place -- offers secure parking, showers and lockers, repairs and classes.

The center is a key component of a strategy to ease the traffic crunch Downtown by encouraging commuters to take alternative forms of transportation to work. The hope is that all of these offerings will encourage Santa Monicans to give cycling a try by making it a reliable and comfortable alternative to driving, City officials said.

Santa Monica still faces the challenge of making cycling safer and more convenient. Though the details are still being worked out, the bicycle plan sets a general framework for working with businesses to boost the number of people riding to work.

Cashing Out

The year ended on a tenuous note for Santa Monica after the California Supreme Court on December 29 ruled that the Legislature can dissolve redevelopment agencies across the state. That means $267 million worth of capital projects in the beachside city could be jeopardized.

Santa Monica has been reaping about $60 million a year since the City Council rushed to declare two-thirds of the city an earthquake recovery district after the 1994 Northridge earthquake caused some buildings to be condemned.

Since then, the City has collected property taxes normally earmarked for social services and used the cash for a bevy of projects, including the purchase of the RAND property, affordable housing, new parks at the Civic Center and refurbishing the Civic Auditorium.
Shortly before the decision, the council approved moving the funds from the Redevelopment Agency to the City's General Fund. City officials said the move was not an effort to quickly tie-up redevelopment funds before the State tries to end redevelopment agencies as a way of finding revenue sources to bridge its $1.7 billion budget shortfall.

“We started last September, way before the budget proposal by the governor,” said Gigi Decavalles-Hughes, the City's acting director of finance. “This is basically a clean up action.”

Goodbyes

Santa Monica lost some model citizens in 2011 and saw some big changes at the top of key City departments, as well as at the School District, Community Corporation and RAND.

In March, Planning Director Eileen Fogarty announced she was stepping down after ushering the City's Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) through an extensive process that resulted in a document that will shape Santa Monica for the next two decades. She was replaced by David Martin.

In April, Stephanie Negriff announced she was stepping off as head of the Big Blue Bus, but not before she oversaw construction of the Downtown Transit Mall, made bus fares either free or less expensive for students and converted the entire fleet to alternative fuels. She was replaced by Edward F. King, formerly the executive director of the San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority,

In October, Police Chief Timothy Jackman, who promoted his passion for community policing by example and saw crime drop to record lows, announced he would be retiring after five years leading the department.

A month later, Barbara Stinchfield -- a leading force in shaping Santa Monica's public spaces -- announced she would retire from her post as the City's director of Community & Cultural Services (CCS). Stinchfield has been replaced by Karen Ginsberg, who was second in command.

Not all the big changes were at City Hall. In April, Sarah Letts took the reins as Executive Director of Community Corporation, the non-profit organization responsible for developing and managing most of the city’s affordable housing. She replaced Joan Ling, who is now a professor at UCLA.

Also in April, James A. Thomson announced he would be leaving after 12 years as President and CEO of RAND Corporation, which he helped transform from a Cold War think-tank into an international organization grappling with major national and global issues.

Last year also saw the death of two Santa Monica leaders. In May, four months after retiring as superintendent of schools in Burlingame, former Santa Monica-Malibu Superintendent Dianne Talarico died of cancer at her home in Pacifica. She was 53.

And in August, longtime Santa Monica activist Millie Rosenstein – who championed the rights of the elderly with boundless youthful energy – died at the age of 96.