This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Circulation Needed to Bring Plan to Life

Lack of Circulation Leads to Unconscious Planning

Using mindsight, hindsight, and foresight might help decision-makers see the shortcomings of the Bergamot Area Plan they are considering this week. Daniel J. Siegel, in his book Mindsight, describes people as being so caught up in their personal narratives that they are distracted from seeing the reality around them. Furthermore, because our brains are programmed by our interactions with those who raise us, most of us are carrying on the same scenarios created by our ancestors when communities were developing in Medieval England. Because the past is prologue to the present, a little hindsight might offer us foresight when deciding which path to take.

Same as it ever was, only different

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Ken Follett describes the development of Kingsbridge in two of his novels, Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, that describe England as it existed before the Canterbury Tales were written. Lords, seeking the favor of the king, would go abroad to engage foreign cities in battle. If city leaders were foolish enough to fight back, these lords could take hostages to be ransomed while their soldiers reaped the rewards of rape and pillage. Those who were successful in such exploits were often rewarded by their king, who might put them in charge of a town or shire, ruling the lives of the inhabitants as they collected taxes for the king. Because their skill-set was instilling fear, they had little regard for their subjects. If residents of Santa Monica feel that they are not being heard, their programming from their ancestors have conditioned them to expect this.

Exploits are no more than exploitation

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For those residents who recently were held for ransom by Time-Warner Cable so that CBS would have to pay for our return, hindsight shows that many contract negotiations are based on this model. [See Getty Museum's painting "The Ransom" by John Everett Millais to see how the past relates to the present.] Developers, like marauders of the past, seek to engage cities in a battle of negotiation to exploit the resources so that money might be funneled back to corporate offices and their investors. Like marauding armies, they often abandon projects once completed, leaving them to managers, while they invade another town for profit. Sometimes, as with Village Trailer Park, people are held hostage while negotiations proceed. Sometimes, as with Fresh & Easy, investors see little profit from prolonged conflict and take their armies elsewhere. People engaging in this process have also been conditioned by ancestors to follow the pathways laid down by history.

Brute Force vs. Genius

Though history is made up of people getting away with stuff, Ken Follett reminds us that sometimes this is the stuff of genius. Besides being programmed by our environment, we are programmed by our genetic make-up. While brute force has its way with the world, so does the force of genius. While the Medici Family was getting away with stuff, so was Michelangelo. As J. Edgar Hoover got away with stuff, so did Martin Luther King. The social reality of the world we are born into is the result of people doing whatever they could get away with. Though “getting away with stuff” sounds negative, it is no more than the flip side of what Robert Frost told us in “The Road Not Taken”: Years and years hence, we will say the road we have taken has “made all the difference.” Though this sounds positive, it is just how we justify the choices we make.

Take a big breath and be mindful

With that as a context, those who sit on City Council and the Planning Commission know that everyone speaking before them on this subject will be trying to get away with stuff and will be promising the them that going down the path they would have them follow would make all the difference for the City and community of Santa Monica. And, in that regard, they are all telling the truth as they see it. But one must see it with hindsight and with foresight. If people pause and take a deep breath and resolve not to believe everything they think, they would create a space in which they could take in the reality around them.  This is what those making decisions for Santa Monica need to do.

Pictures fail to convey the reality of our situation

Despite everyone's good intention, the Bergamot Area Plan is more of a series of pictures of possible land use, but these pictures are no more substantial than a house of cards in that no proper consideration has been given to the circulation element. Distracted by the narrative of vibrant dreams, we have failed to consider the genius of those who see things differently.

Brainstorming vs. Choosing Options

For all the community meetings the City has held while considering how best to take advantage of our potential for growth, these were always controlled sessions with limited choices being discussed by a mixture of people that always included a good number of architects, contractors, lawyers, and investors seeking to move certain projects forward. What did not happen was bringing together a focus group of people whose businesses might be adversely affected if wrong decisions were made. Christopher, who would be sitting at the Genius Bar of Busy-Bee Hardware if there were one, told me that the survival of that business, regarded as a Santa Monica institution, is threatened by rising commercial rents and a circulation element that has limited parking all over the city. Chico Fernandez, owner of the Santa Monica Music Store, Christopher from Busy-Bee, and others from home-grown establishments lining the main corridors of Santa Monica were never invited to brainstorm with City Planners to consider solutions to the problems they face. When I asked Christopher about the Chamber of Commerce raising such concerns, he said the group being run by developers and their lawyers worked against merchants' interests being heard. But you can guess that the restrictions on parking and the possibility that commercial landlords, in the midst of commercial development, would give into the temptation to raise their rents concerns them greatly.

Wearing blinders restricts our vision

The circulation element and the “morally correct”–what defined “politically correct”–thinking of the church created problems for commerce in the times that Ken Follett described. Though the church and the community helped each other grow when the promise of a cathedral drew people to the market and those selling goods contributed time to building the cathedral, once the building was complete and the success of the town seemed assured, the church became more restrictive in its thinking, more controlling of contracts offered to members of the guild, and less forthcoming in rebuilding bridges on a larger scale to accommodate bringing more people into the town.

Can't leave town: The new "Buy Local" plan?

Peter James, when addressing the concerns of local merchants, says that reduced parking around the Expo will discourage Santa Monicans from leaving town with their wallets and spending their tax dollars elsewhere. But, what about a plan that offers enough parking for the Expo that people who don't live in Santa Monica might bring their wallets here?

Bring wallets to Santa Monica: A New "Buy Local" Plan

Supposedly, the LUCE policy of no net new trips has effectively taken this off the table. But as one person fighting for the rights of commercial interests said to me, “Although it has been is Metro's general policy to provide transit-rider parking at the new stations in order to maximize ridership and the resulting reductions in regional traffic, pollution and gas usage, it is my understanding that they were told by City of Santa Monica that such parking would not be welcome here. That is why they decided to move ahead with only minimal transit-rider parking in Santa Monica. This is a huge loss in terms of our contribution to regional problem-solving, and robs Santa Monican's and our nearby neighbors of much of the convenience of riding the light rail.”

Park in Santa Monica without driving on our streets

But, there would be no net new trips if people could park their cars straight off the freeway without ever entering the streets of Santa Monica. I spoke to someone at the Hazardous Waste Facility, now closed, about the viability of extracting the hazardous waste that had been buried in the clay-lined landfill right next to the freeway so that an underground parking garage directly accessible via the freeway exit ramp might receive cars without there ever coming onto our streets. She thought it was a great idea and wondered why no one in the City had considered it. Instead, they are testing the ground under the site for waste disposal to see how dangerous it might be to build on top of it. No public discussion has ever focused on this idea. And no alternative scenario has ever been explored to determine what effect allowing people to park near the Expo their tax dollars have paid for might have on our community. While it is deemed politically correct to reduce greenhouse emissions on the streets of Santa Monica, no one acknowledges that this same principle should guide our actions for the sake of those who have paid for the Expo with that purpose in mind. Of course, because hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue, those on the Planning Staff who are carrying out our City's policies have no reason to see themselves as being any less than virtuous in carrying out their assignments.

Freeing Up the Big Blue Bus

With street parking so limited that businesses are suffering and no effort being made to allow outsiders to park for the Expo, the only major resource the circulation element has is the Big Blue Bus. However, at the community meeting recently held at the Santa Monica Library, we were given the news that routes were being cut, service was being cut back, and transfers were being eliminated. A survey seeking suggestions from those who attended asked only one question related to service: Which was more important to them? (1) Keeping up service at the cost of raising fares, or (2) Keeping fares low at the cost of cutting back on service. My suggestion that increasing ridership might provide the funding needed to provide more service was not one of the choices listed. Because the City is not allowed to directly fund the bus service for the city, people need to consider new forces for funding.

Circulation Integration for Expo needs input

Still, Peter James plans to have a public transit layover area at the Bergamot Station. Meanwhile, Timothy McCormick has been hired to put together an Integrated Expo Plan for the Big Blue Bus. So, something could still happen to improve public transportation in this city. Unfortunately, those plans have yet to be formed.

We have the talent~Now we need a game plan

Given all the problems Santa Monica has not addressed in its Circulation Element, it seems inappropriate to cast the City's land-use plans in stone. When I talked to Ed King, Director of Transit Services, Timothy McCormick, BBB's new Transit Planning Manager, and Suja Lowenthal, Transit Government & Community Relations Manager, about their vision for the future of the Big Blue Bus as part of a complete multi-modal transportation system, facilitating travel to, from, and around Santa Monica as development of the light rail and various areas of Santa Monica move forward, Ed said there were probably three different answers in the room. However, no answers were offered. My concern is that even though we have three genuises capable of engaging commercial and residential focus groups in brainstorming sessions on this issue, the sessions that actually take place would offer attendees a limited range of options to choose from, as appears in BBB's latest Monkey Survey. In this survey changing to one-way streets with angled parking to create more lanes and facilitate traffic flow was not listed as a choice. Instead, the options are for eliminating lanes or reducing the amount of parking available on streets. The word is out that people want Santa Monica-centric public transit but not on their street. I disagree. Efforts must be made to make that attractive. Money must be spent.

"Any Line, Any Time" is Mighty Fine

Though development agreements are not allowed to fund the operating costs of the Big Blue Bus system, the City could ask developers to buy new equipment, such as buses, vans, and shuttles. Already, the City is subsidizing transportation for workers willing to share a van to work. The City could also ask developers to subsidize those who would be riding the bus. Kevin McKeown offered a plan, based on Santa Monica College's funding of the “Any Line, Any Time” free pass for the Big Blue Bus given to students, workers, and staff. He thought that kind of support for transit-riders could be extended to all Santa Monica residents. Fees from parking in a lot for the Expo could also be used to pay for public transit for those coming here and parking in underground lots accessed via extensions off the freeway exit ramps near Bergamot. Paying for parking could give people a pass for free use of our public transit system. If we would remove the blinders that politically-correct thinking has placed upon us, we could even consider offering residents an “Any Street, Any Time” parking permit for Santa Monica to help pay for free transit passes for seniors. I have heard that some funds come to the Big Blue Bus based solely on ridership, not on what riders pay. In that case, increasing our ridership would also help fund such a system. In offering these suggestions, I am not saying my ideas should be your ideas. After all, I have cautioned you not to believe everything you think. But, I am saying that, when you don't have to believe everything you think, you allow yourself to have more thoughts to throw in the brainstorming pot. We need a fresh approach to transit if it is going to be a vibrant component of a multi-modal circulation element for Santa Monica.

If it doesn't work, don't buy it!

Which brings me back to my thesis: It would be irresponsible to sign onto land-use plans and agreements when our circulation plan is in such a shambles. A plan must be fully integrated and purposeful. I see littIe energy being put into getting newcomers to come to Santa Monica, circulate to the various commercial areas of our city, and explore the various cultural venues available to them.

Serious thinking required

I respect the efforts made by Peter James and others on the planning staff. Many of them are excellent. But some seem build on a wish and a prayer. I hear that under the present plan the rent that the Santa Monica Art Museum would have to pay might force it to shut down. For all the support offered to the arts in that area, I see not enough space for food and entertainment, such as exists at LACMOA, to encourage people to do any more than look at the art and leave.

Is NMS the canary in the coal mine?

I hear that NMS has withdrawn its application to build just west of New Roads School on the Olympic Boulevard portion of the Bergamot Area. While this may signal that developers just don't want to be required to pay for the community benefits to make Olympic a walkable boulevard, it also raises the question of who will end up paying for this plan if developers don't. Negotiations with developers comes down to each side trying to get away with stuff. This is the struggle that goes back to Medieval times. But there is stuff worth getting away with and there is stuff that we never use. Good planning has the spark of genius that gives a project the energy it needs to survive. A town or a body without proper circulation to connect all of its elements will not grow as it should.

Circulation connects the dots

A good circulation plan would strengthen all the elements of the land-use plan now being offered. It would connect the dots. Without it, an unexpected wind of travelers coming into our city with nowhere to park would blow this house of cards apart. And the stillness of no wind blowing money into our town would make our city a commercial desert.

Ages and ages hence

The road we take makes all the difference.

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