Thank you to our City Councilmembers for coming together, as have Santa Monica's neighborhood groups, to enable a productive reinvention of community organizing and its support!

At the January 20 Council discussion, we heard suggestions and criticisms which we hope to constructively incorporate. Our new support model will be leaner and more efficient.

Neighborhood groups can and should be resources for our City. With support, we can be even more effective vehicles for community dialogue on City issues.

The Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Coalition and five other neighborhood groups, including one newly forming north of Montana, look forward to working with City staff on a framework for grassroots outreach.

When we come back to Council in June for the 1998-99 budget, it will be to propose access to tools for enhancing and expanding our communications to and from residents.

Give us the tools, and we volunteers in the neighborhoods will do the work!

GETTING INVOLVED

Volunteers gathered recently around a neighbor's dining room table, to fold, stuff and stamp our Wilshire/Montana annual membership renewal mailing.

Soon, we hope to be able to afford outreach to everyone in our community.

If you didn't get a renewal letter, but would like to join us (or any one of Santa Monica's neighborhood groups!), just call our shared phone at 450-5578.

This is an exciting time for grassroots organizing in Santa Monica.

With neighbors looking askance at approved developments in Ocean Park (Edgemar) and Mid-City (St. John's), the need is greater than ever for a coordinated voice for residents' rights.

SANTA MONICA LISTENS

Back to those City Council budget priority hearings last month.

Did you notice there was a new way for citizens, businesses and other concerned parties to express opinions and provide substantive input?

For the first time, the City's Web page (http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us) hosted a budget suggestions form.

Ideas submitted from the community included enhanced support for the Santa Monica Public Library and improvements in parks.

ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY

Santa Monica has long been a leader in what some call "electronic democracy" -- the use of new and emerging technologies to empower residents.

Anyone at a free computer terminal in our libraries and other public places has access to an incredible range of City information.

Want to look up a local law in Santa Monica's Municipal Code? It's there. Curious about the Maximum Allowable Rent on your apartment? It's there, too.

The next few years we'll embrace an explosion in information access, and again, Santa Monica will be a leader.

PUBLIC WORKSHOP

On Monday, February 9th, the City's Telecommunications Working Group will welcome you to a public workshop on Santa Monica's plans for the immediate and long-range future.

These include initiatives not only in computer technology, but in various electronic deliveries of government services, cell phone antenna sitings and cable TV.

A core issue for us is universal access. How do we deploy technological advances such that all members of our community are equally and equitably served?

The workshop will include a comprehensive presentation from the City, its consultants and the Telecommunications Working Group, as well as opportunities to have your questions answered.

Then we'll break into smaller issue-based groups for interactive brainstorming.

Please join us Monday from 5:30 to 7:00 in the big room at the Ken Edwards Center downtown, and bring your opinions.

GETTING THERE

We wish it were easier to get downtown from our Wilshire/Montana neighborhood!

Seniors particularly, and other residents who avoid parking frustrations by not driving cars, feel the need for more convenient mass transit.

News of the doubling of service on Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus line #3 turned out to be a disappointment for the north side of town.

The reduced "wait time" was limited to the run from downtown to LAX.

Buses will run later at night, but bus frequency up and down Montana, between downtown Santa Monica and UCLA, will remain unchanged.

RIDE THE TIDE?

What of the suggested Montana Avenue Tide Shuttle, linking the Montana shopping district with the Third Street Promenade?

Alas, with no big hotel at our end of the run to subsidize the service, funding for a Montana Tide has yet to be found. Montana's wonderful mix of retail and restaurants remains out of reach for non-driving tourists.

Could there be other reasons to justify the service?

The proposed Montana Tide route would loop across 20th Street down to Santa Monica Boulevard and back up 17th, serving the St. John's Hospital area.

Wouldn't a nice clean electric shuttle through the north side of town, serving seniors with medical needs, be a great gift from the hospital to the community?

Sounds like a job for your Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Coalition!

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