Talk:Santa Monica, California

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[edit] History

I wrote the two history paragraphs, which focus on two individual events. They are not intended as a comprehensive history. I'm working on one and will post it soon. Willmcw 02:55, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Okay, why delete the stuff about 'Bay City' and the gambling ships? Frankly, they were the most interesting parts. --Calton 08:25, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Glad you like that story. Don't worry, I'll post it back in a minute. Willmcw 08:30, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Demographics section image

Quick note: in the demographics section, the image is bleeding over the line of text above it (the second line of text in the section for me)... I have no idea how to fix this, but someone should. Thanks!! aubrey 06:48, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Geography

Where do these statistics come from? There's no way to calculate Santa Monica's area that makes it 48% water. I found an equally absurd number in an article on another city. Willmcw 22:12, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What about [(link edited out - it was to the blacklisted tiny url dot com, if you still want to access it, it was tiny url dot com slash 3zdb9) this map]? It looks like the city is going into the water by quite a bit. I know that's not the best map, but perhaps this is how area is calculated in census area calculations. -- Ilya 00:55, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Yes, I think that you have found it. Moving west, I see that Malibu, just a narrow strip of land, is shown with borders extending far out into the ocean, explaining its 84% water statistic. (Not knowing the best place to initiate this discussion, I also posted to the Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Let me copy your reply there so that others can see it. I suspect that the area and water% are wrong for every coastal community. Willmcw 01:49, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

FYI, it was discovered that the figures include the 3-mile limit. Legally, that section of the ocean is included in the city limits. -Willmcw 23:41, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Weather

I tried to cleanup some of what 24.226.210.63 entered under the weather category, but I did not do any verifications of the numbers, which probably needs to be done. gK ¿? 07:47, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the cleanup. User 24.226.210.63 has a history of posting inaccurate edits so it bears checking. And the whole thing is way too long. Since it applies equally to all the communities along Santa Monica Bay, to a general LA Area climate section or article -Willmcw 23:39, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Bus Fares

The City of Santa Monica runs its own bus line, the Big Blue Bus, which also serves much of the Westside and UCLA. It is generally considered to be one of the best run bus lines in California, as evidenced by the fact that it did not raise its regular fare above 25 cents until 2002. In contrast, most public bus lines in California were charging fares of a dollar or higher well before the year 2000.

I'm pretty sure 2002 is when the fares were raised from fifty cents to seventy-five cents.

[edit] Attractions and cultural resources

Just a simple edit, changed McCabes Guitar Shop to McCabe's Guitar Shop --Devon Rifkin 06:01, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Beef vendors?

Is that the same as butchers? Can anyone name some of these vendors? -Willmcw 15:18, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox City

I've filled out {{Infobox City}} for Santa Monica, but I didn't put it in the article because the layout looked weird. It can be found at /Infobox. If someone who edits this article more frequently could integrate my efforts, that would be cool. Mike Dillon 23:00, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

This infobox has long since been added to the article, so I have requested deletion of the subpage at /Infobox. Mike Dillon 01:27, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Beach pictures

Can we stop adding beach pictures? There are five in the article. That's more than enough. -Will Beback 05:47, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Essay

  • As the healthy air beachhead of the great metropolis of Los Angeles and its Hollywood mystique Santa Monica enjoys the benefits as a great place to live, work and shop for these that can afford it. As perhaps the most compassionate, generous, humane and environmentally correct place on the planet, the liberal leaning city council is on the leading edge in addressing the issues of homelessness, affordability and pollution. The homeless are feed on the lawn of the City Hall. Very strong rent control laws protect renters. Aggressive grants build hundreds of affordable housing units. Infrastructure improvements protect the bay from contaminated runoff. The voters support the agenda with an annual budget of about a half a billion dollars. They have the funds to do it as a result of immense local wealth generated by businesses and tourism. There are about 500 restaurants and several high-end shopping districts including Third Street Promenade, Montana Avenue and Main Street. Real estate is all very expensive. The zip code 90402 on the northern boundary is typically cited as the most expensive in Los Angeles County with houses selling for about $1,000 per square foot. That’s $4,500,000 for a 4,500 square foot house on a postage size 7,500 square foot lot two miles from the beach. With zoning limitations recently tightened, the city is quickly becoming “built out”.

This material isn't entirely bad, but it isn't entirely good either. The tone is a bit too promotional, there are no sources for the factual assertions, the opinions are just that, and some of it duplicates what is already written. If the author can fix those problems some of these points would be helpful. -Will Beback · † · 23:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

It could use some copy-editing too. e.g.: "The homeless are feed on the lawn ..."? (Hmm. They are feed? What eats them?) Jordan Brown 06:06, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disambig and redirects

Santa Monica was recently changed from a redirect to a disambig page. I'm not sure that's the right answer. Let's discuss at Talk:Santa Monica.

Jordan Brown 08:56, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Only one comment. Is there anybody else around with an opinion? Jordan Brown 05:53, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
Rearranged per Talk:Santa Monica (disambiguation). (Note that the link above no longer points to the discussion, because I moved the page.) Jordan Brown 04:23, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Businesses

The Businesses section was getting kind of awkward, and this edit isn't even a proper sentence... but I don't immediately see how to fix it in a way that doesn't make the section more awkward than I can stand.

It's tempting to turn it into a bullet list, but that's not very appealing.

Ideas?

Jordan Brown 05:23, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

If we keep the section we should make sure that the most notable companies in Santa Monica, past and present, are included. For example, Douglas Aircraft. Per other lists, only notable businesses (those with WP articles) should be included. -Will Beback · † · 22:18, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
Take a look and tell me what you think. Jordan Brown 04:21, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

Someone added the "Westside Persian Crime Mob" to the gang activity section. Sounds like racist vandalism to me. Remove? 76.80.21.253 19:54, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] People "from" Santa Monica

As with any section like this, it needs to be limited to people actually born and/or raised in the area. Adam Goldberg, Sean Astin, and Miguel Ferrer (of the ones I did spot checks of) all were actually born in S.M. Ben Affleck was not.RoyBatty42 23:00, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually, most sections like this are named "notable residents" to avoid limiting it to those born or raised in a place. I'd recommend changing the heading in this article to match the conventional usage. Since S.M. has two active hospitals, there have been many births in the city to parents who live in surrounding communities, so it isn't a pure criteria either. -Will Beback · † · 08:23, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SaMo

I have lived in Santa Monica for nearly 10 years, and have never heard the term SaMo until reading this article. I don't know where that came from, but I can assure you that no one here uses that term. Maybe the homeless? 76.167.145.143 02:19, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

It is used as a prefix in "SaMoHi". I think I have heard or seen "SaMo" used, perhaps as a jocular analog to "SoHo", "NoHo" "WeHo", etc. It's pretty rare though, in my opinion. However a Google search on [samo monica] brings up some results that might include a use in a reliable source. However it's not an important nickname. As far as this article goes, "SaMo" could go or stay. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 08:59, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
If you don't hang around kids, you're less likely to hear SaMo. Don Williams 03:45, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Environmentalism

While i think this article is pretty good, it lacks a well-known characteristic of the city: Environmentalism. Santa Monica is often compared to cities like Berkley or Santa Cruz for being very eco-friendly. Some interesting facts:

  1. Citywide water usage was reduced by 6.3% between 1990 and 2000
  2. Citywide greenhouse gas emissions were cut by 5.2% between 1990 and 1997
  3. They eveloped an environmentally preferable purchasing program which has been copied throughout the world
  4. The number of publicly assisted affordable housing units in the city increased by 47% between 1990 and 1998
  5. The total amount of public open space in the city increased by 10% between 1990 and 2000

Source: http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/greenla/santamonica.html

There's also a huge amount of info (including an annual 'sustainable city' report card) at http://www.smgov.net/epd/

Shouldn't some of this be mentioned in the article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.168.67.104 (talk) 12:11:13, August 19, 2007 (UTC)

I think the end of the "Environment" section sounds like advertising, especially the last line: "Add in the miles of beaches, extensive curbside recycling, farmer’s markets, community gardens, the city’s nimble bus system and Santa Monica is clearly more than just another bathing beauty." Istaro (talk) 06:21, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gangs and SAMO???

Why are there more than thirty lines devoted to Gangs, when this is mostly irrelevant is Santa Monica? Besides, refern to the "ganagsters" by their names seems like an unwworthy promotion to this small gangs and their followers. Finally, I have to agree with the person who wrot e about SAMO. I live in Santa Monica and I have never heard about SAMO (or Harvard-by -the-sea) by the way —Preceding unsigned comment added by Josea.sole (talk • contribs) 06:35, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gentrification?

"The city of Santa Monica is consistently among the most educated cities in the United States, as measured by the number of residents with graduate degrees, although this status is declining as gentrification continues."

First of all, the statistics for # or % of graduate degrees is uncited, and second of all, I don't see any evidence why gentrification would lead to lower education values. Either way, it's a subjective statement, so I'm removing the comment about declining education. Someone can add it again if they really want it in the article, but I would hope that they present compelling statistics to support the claim. (even if accurate statistics can be obtained, there are many factors that could effect this)

76.87.74.5 (talk) 09:55, 18 January 2008 (UTC)