TRANSCRIPT: PART II

FINKEL: "Let's talk a little bit about what happened to us along the road between 1981 and now. In 1981 the average median income for a family of four was about $10,500 -- I can't make adjustments in values -- but last year in 2002 it was $55,000. The significance of that is that organizations like HUD [Housing and Urban Development] changed their numbers between 1980 and 2002 with respect to what constitutes low-income housing, what constitutes very low cost housing, and the like.

"As a result of that, regardless of the translation of value between 1980 and 2002 dollars, the ultimate fact can't be escaped that life is more expensive in this city. And fewer and fewer working people, single mothers, college students, seniors living on fixed income, can afford prices which we call affordable.

"So what was affordable according to a rule of law is not affordable for many in reality. So what that has done is initiated a chain reaction which bound and determined and inevitably will change the character of this city. By 1981 we took a stand as the Santa Monica Democratic Club and the Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights saying that one of the things that was precious about the city of Santa Monica was its ethnic diversity… and it valued diversity.

"The thing that people loved about Santa Monica was that it was the center of debate. And the debate is not there today with the vibrancy that it once was. And so many people who moved to Santa Monica, young yuppies who bought their first house, to come to Santa Monica and be in an environment they felt was the greatest environment in the world because it was stimulating precisely because of what we did -- the debating and the arguing and the diversity -- the very things they came here to get, they're losing too.

"So it's not just low-income people who have been hurt. People who came here who are economically stable, they're going to be hurt to because they're not going to have a living environment which is the one they selected.

"Yes they have a beautiful beach. Yes they have a lot of nice movie houses, the Downtown and the Promenade. Yes there are a lot of things that are very favorable about the temperature when you go west of the San Diego freeway during the Summer time. But no we do not have the same cultural excitement and social diversity that we had before, and we're going to lose what we have now unless we do something about it.

"Now, the question is what can we really do? To control our environment to make it better for out brothers and sisters in the city in the future... 'Think globally act locally.' And by thinking globally and acting locally what we do is we articulate the need for us to see the entire world, not being afraid to look at issues outside our borders and to articulate on those issues on the grounds that (they are) our local issues. So now we have a right, we have a need, to address issues outside Santa Monica as part of the process of improving life inside Santa Monica.

"We should learn some lessons from our last 20 year history." (Finkel noted that the Democratic Club always endorses candidates after SMRR has chosen a slate and suggested that the group should consider having separate endorsement meetings, preferably before the SMRR convention.)

"There are forces that we cannot control. Forces of the economy, forces of the market, the value of property, and in our wildest dreams we will not able to figure out how to control them.

"I remember very well, when we developed the Santa Monica Promenade, and we were bound and determined to have community centers. We were bound and determined to use all of our political will and influence to get the owners and developers to put sites on the Promenade which were going to reflect community needs. We never even got close. We never got close. We never laid a glove on them...

"All too often we step back from making political judgments as to what we should fight for because we thought whatever we did, it wouldn't work if it went against the flow of the market and the natural evolution of the economy.

"And so we thought that we had to go along with that, and the nature of the debates that we had in the council became narrower and narrower in their scope, and less and less imaginative in their reach. Till we got to a point at which we were just monitoring activities being engaged in by others. So we turned into a bureaucracy without a theme.

"That's where the Santa Monica Democratic Club comes in. The SMDC is not bound by the restraints that are imposed by government. SMDC in my humble opinion should voice that theme, and go to government and tell that government that it's not enough just to be a neutral monitor of bureaucracy, but that you have to do so thinking globally and acting locally with a theme.

"And the themes ought to be developed by the people in the community. You say you want to have a progressive community in the future, then you have to decide what are the social values that we need to be a progressive community tomorrow. And once we articulate those social themes we have to take them to our bureaucrats and we have to tell them, with love, they're good people, they mean well, that we require that they incorporate these social values and the themes that we articulate into their governance.

"And that's the challenge of the SMDC and I don't see any reason why it can't be done. I think that's what the future force must be if it wants to be a progressive community."

(Applause)

MYERS: "I just wanted briefly to echo what David indicated. I believe people have become complacent in this community in terms of holding their elected officials accountable. I know during the 10, 11 years I served as City Attorney. during that time I became a lot more radical for some reason, going out and getting arrested, things like that. People on the City Council seem to be getting more conservative.

"And ultimately the conclusion I came to is holding power for the sake of holding power was more important than the goals we set out in 1981 when we came up with a platform. SMRR was not an independent organization. It was a coalition of groups. We came together to pass rent control and to elect the City Council, and we acted on a statement of unity, which was very progressive.

Today "you can say SMRR is a majority on the City Council, but when many of you pleaded with them last year not to pass an anti-homeless ordinance they ignored you. They passed it anyway. You need to hold them accountable.

"The people on the City Council are not that special. You can find other people to take their place. Find progressive people and hold them accountable. You are the conscience of this community.

"The city we have now is a city basically planning for the destruction of rent control in my opinion. The people in my office we spent a lot time looking at how long it was going to take with ELLIS and other things to replace enough housing so that demographics can change, so that rent control could no longer be passed.

"One of the things that was done that was a savior to progressive politics was when we met at Tom Hayden's house and we shifted municipal elections from April to November to even years so we don't have low voter turnout. We had much larger voter turnout because we made that charter amendment to change the date of elections.

"That was the most strategic and important thing we did to have a progressive government in Santa Monica because tenants vote at a much higher participation rate in November elections. That was a very important move to help insure a city that was controlled by the people.

"But we have to go beyond that, we have to engage the City Council, and I think holding people accountable and only supporting people in future elections who embrace your values is important. Why would you endorse Richard Bloom for City Council in the next election after he voted for an anti-homeless ordinance? I don't understand how you can do that, making it a crime to feed poor people. That should be the crime having such a law.

I urge you to become the force that you were in 1981. Thank you. (Applause).