Leave Santa Monica's Lincoln Boulevard Alone

December 13, 2012

Dear Editor,

Lincoln Blvd. on the south side of Santa Monica has attracted the eye of Sauron (i.e., City of Santa Monica). I just took the survey from the above mentioned article and am not very happy that Santa Monica wants to gentrify and sanitize this last, fast route out of town.

Do we really need more planter boxes? Do you really think it makes sense to have shared bike lanes on that busy boulevard? Do we need more low income housing on this side of town where the city has been pushing low income housing for decades? Why is the city madly in love with Liquidamber trees (you know them; the ones that have the large, round seed pods that we trip on and twist our ankles)?

I think we should be modest in our approach to Lincoln Blvd. Every community needs car washes, smog check stations and dry cleaners. They aren't glamorous and pretty but very important. For Santa Monica, Lincoln Blvd serves that purpose. So, lets just plant trees, clean the sidewalks more regularly, dump the trash, improve bus stops with covered benches (and benches that cannot be slept on, please), increase street, sidewalk and alley lighting, increase police patrols, and call it a finished project. Leave the businesses alone. If Santa Monicans don't want them, they will go out of business.  And this will save huge sums of taxpayer money, too.

Only in Santa Monica can I, a Democrat, sound like a Republican.

Leave Lincoln aLone!

Deborah Ford