LEADERSHIP FOR
A SPECIAL CITY
In the 1970's, Santa Monica fell victim to the amazing Los Angeles Real Estate boom. Speculation in apartment buildings was brisk and condo conversions hit the city in force. The Santa Monica City Council turned a deaf ear to the pleas of tenants as skyrocketing rents forced many out of their homes.
In response to the crisis, tenants, neighborhood groups and local political organizations joined forces in 1978 to form Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR).
In April, 1979, SMRR wins passage of the Strongest rent control law in the country.
SMRR elected officials insure that the City of Santa Monica's legal staff defends the rent control law from constant landlord attacks. On nine separate occasions, our rent control law has been upheld at the state appellate and supreme court levels.
In local elections; SMRR has defeated landlord propositions Q and M, and in Sacramento SMRR has lobbied successfully against state legislation which would have destroyed Santa Monica Rent Control.
SMRR is tough on development.
In 1988, SMRR regains a majority on the City Council, and in 1989, adopts a one year moratorium on all commercial development, repeating the 1981 moratorium adopted by SMRR's first City Council majority.
SMRR continues to push for downzoning of many areas of the city, restricting both commercial and residential building height and scale. SMRR believes strongly that developers must provide financing for parks and recreation, traffic mitigation, affordable housing, child care, schools, and other public amenities in return for being allowed to build in the city.
In 1981, SMRR helps win passage of Proposition A, a crime fighting measure which increases the size of the Santa Monica Police force and helps establish more neighborhood watch groups.
SMRR elected officials are responsible for a tough toxics disclosure ordinance, the city's innovative and effective recycling program, the industrial waste water ordinance, an environmental enforcement unit and an experimental storm drain project to eliminate the toxics that flow into our bay.
SMRR provides leadership on a wide range of issues and projects, including the restoration of the Santa Monica Pier, the Third Street Promenade revitalization, cleanup of the Pico Kenter storm drain, and the development of the Arts Commission, which is making Santa Monica a center for the arts. SMRR elected officials have helped enact programs that provide more than 400 new units of low and moderate income housing and have rehabilitated over 200 such units.
Under SMRR's guidance, Santa Monica has created social service programs to assist the elderly, the poor, the homeless, and the disabled, which extend far beyond those of any city its size in the country