OUTRAGEOUS GOINGS ON AROUND TOWN

Time is going down hill at a rate faster than the speed of gravity. It is March 2001, and we have nothing to say of any merit for these first few months. There have been some important cases decided on a state wide level dealing with rent control which we will discuss later on. Locally in Santa Monica, the rent control war is getting pretty cold. It’s like the phony war between Germany and France in 1938. Both sides just sit there and look at each other waiting for the other side to give up.

The real (and new) war is now between City Hall and the city car dealerships. As if one needed to fight with car dealerships at all. The City is angry at them because they park their new and used cars on the streets which upsets the tenants no end. The tenants want the streets for their cars and so the war over parking started. Neighborhood groups have organized and sought from the City Hall preferential (restricted parking zones) on city streets which are reserved for residents of the neighborhood. Thus businesses cannot use the city streets for their or their customers’ use. It’s one more move the City is pushing to aid their tenant support base. The car dealerships are threatening to leave town ala Martin Cadillac. If you have been around long enough you will remember the Martin story. Martin used to be located in Santa Monica and used to pay thousands of dollars to the City in sales tax (each time a car sells, sales tax is due the city). Not content with Martin’s money, the City proceeded to harass the company over every little thing, and finally Martin picked up and simply moved a few blocks east to its present location in West Los Angeles.

Is the City becoming too stuck up for its own good? Is it pushing too many businesses out of town? What does the city think it will live off of when all the big ticket item businesses leave? On Starbuck coffee stores? Well you read it here first, many articles ago. The City is bullying itself into a fall from economic grace in the eyes of wall street bond raters. It has suffered a series of poor choice decisions such as (a) the purchase of Rand property 11 acres at $53,000,000 (it will stay an empty lot / economic loss for many years to come); (b) the big hole behind City Hall (new police building at a $55,000,000 price tag and a $15,000,000 overrun -- the project was rejected by the voters at the polls, but the City Council felt it knew better than the voters who put them in office); (c) attack on all building trades -- resulting in a major shut down of new and renovation type construction this city belongs to the tenants and the buildings can just rot where they stand); (d) pushing out the car sales businesses and their high tax rates); (e) spending large sums of money on exorbitant salaries for city employees, including but not limited to police and fire personnel. And it goes on and on.

Do you remember when Ocean Towers used to be for people? Remember when it used to be a residential building. Now its just a semi-empty, twin story warehouse of sorts. Most units are off limits to residential occupancy because the city’s Building and Safety division has decided that the old building codes (i.e. 3 years ago) just aren’t as good as the new ones. It seems the Towers got into trouble after the earthquake when the owners sat around and fought instead of getting a repair plan together. Then they made a mistake when instead of just fixing the building, they decided to use their $60,000,000 insurance proceeds to improve the aesthetic nature of the building. Finally, the real problems hit home when in the middle of reconstruction / remodel with all owners out of possession, the City rolls into its new Building and Safety administration regime. New employees of the B&S decide that more expensive repairs are needed. What, no money left to do the new required work in the budget? Well, after $20,000,000 in construction cost over runs and two years in construction delays, the Ocean Towers is still struggling with loans, foreclosure threats, construction lawsuits, internal fighting for control of the Board of Directors (no, not everyone is happy with the past construcion management efforts), and everything else that can be fought about. The City is only making matters worse, and there is an outside chance that the City will empty the building of residents one again. How long can this go on? And jsut what would the City do with two empty towers if they don't let the owners move back ever? Those are interesting questions. The city turned the old beach club into a private and exclusive party hotel for its own employees. Maybe they City will turn the Ocan Towers into a housing project for its employees (with mandatory 15% low income units, too). We guess Ocean Towers better get serious, the City is not far behind.