As background, I have lived in Santa Monica for almost 50 years and served on the Board of Friends of Sunset Park neighborhood group for over 10 years in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Back then, we felt that developers might overrun the city with projects to the detriment of the residents. Never could I have imagined the current state of Santa Monica.

Until January 11, 2022, I had never attended a community meeting about a development (Zoom or Live) that limited the time and amount of people in attendance, started late, ended early and had sound issues. On January 11, 2022, the developer held what they said was a community Zoom meeting regarding the “Lincoln Center Project”. I was one of the 100 people allowed to attend the meeting (including the development team). I recall a time that the City needing to use the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium when more space was needed for meetings. From what I could tell, center seemed an appropriate name as most of the “neighborhood friendly” aspects looked designed for the residents of the project not the neighborhood. Replacing a neighborhood market with a market centered in a 500+ apartment complex doesn’t seem neighborhood friendly.

Back in the day, many people referred to Santa Monica as the “People’s Republic of Santa Monica” for slow growth and rent control. Looking around the city and seeing what has happened and is continuing to happen - the current slogan should be the “Developers Republic of Santa Monica”.

Jane Dempsey, Santa Monica