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MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2002
Volume 1, Issue 229
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
SMRR convention settles endorsements BY JASON AUSLANDER Special to the Daily Press
Amid calls for improved public schools, social and economic justice and continued protection from landlords, Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights elected its 12th slate of candidates Sunday. “There was lots of competition this year,” said Denny Zane, the party’s cochair. “The only surprise was how well everybody got along.” The powerful, so-called “non-political” party controls a majority of seats on the city council, rent control board, school district board and the Santa Monica College Board. The group also threw its support behind several ballot measures, including the living wage proposal and a plan to raise the parcel tax $300 to benefit the school district. Topping the list of Santa Monica City Council candidates who will be officially endorsed by SMRR on the Nov. 5 general election ballot were incumbents Pam O’Connor and Kevin McKeown. Joining them was activist Abby Arnold, whose endorsement was opposed by Santa Monica Mayor Michael Feinstein and
councilmen Richard Bloom and Ken Genser — all SMRR members. Pico neighborhood resident Josefina Aranda and physician Matteo Dinolfo did not receive enough votes to get the SMRR endorsement.
“There were lots of good candidates. For every seat, there is somebody that our members would say, ‘I wish there was one more seat.’” — KEVIN McKEOWN Santa Monica Councilman
Three seats on the seven-member council will be open in November. SMRR currently controls five of those seven seats. For the four open seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board, the tenants’ rights party endorsed incumbent Julia Brownley, as well as See ENDORSEMENTS, page 5
City undertakes $200K foreign media blitz Officials hope the Brits and a handful of folks ‘down under’ will save the day BY ANDREW H. FIXMER Daily Press Staff Writer
In the wake of a slumping local economy, Santa Monica is spending $200,000 on a European, advertising blitz to reinvigorate its tourism trade. After the city conducted a tourism study in March and found that travelers from Great Britain far exceeded visitors from any other country, city officials have decided to launch one of Santa Monica’s most ambitious media campaigns. Almost all of the attention will be aimed at foreign tourists, especially from Britain. “They tend to stay longer and spend more,” said Debbie Lee, communications manager for the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau. “And
they walk much more.” According to the study, 62 percent of Santa Monica’s visitors are coming from international destinations, with British tourists making up the majority of that number. As strange as it may sound, city officials believe Santa Monica is a British paradise because it already has exceptional pubs and restaurants but none of that notoriously bad English weather. “We believe they are already coming because of our community’s demographics,” Lee said. “We have a large British community here.” But don’t expect to see high-gloss ads for Santa Monica while traveling abroad. Santa Monica’s Convention and Visitors Bureau is arranging press junkets for foreign journalists to journey to Santa Monica in the hopes they will return home and write about the city’s plethora of shopping, sunny weather and stretches of See TOURISM, page 6
Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press
Officials investigate the scene where a pilotless aircraft crashed into an occupied hangar at the Santa Monica Airport.
Pilotless airplane accident at Santa Monica Airport By Daily Press staff
Aviators witnessed a bizarre accident at the Santa Monica Airport Sunday when a 1973 Skyhawk airplane crashed into a hangar and the plane it housed. The aircraft was pilotless when the incident occurred. According to Santa Monica Fire Department officials, the owner, who refused to identify himself to a reporter,
hand-cranked the plane’s engine when it suddenly started and took off across the airport runway. The unguided aircraft initially missed two planes — one was taxiing on the runway, while the other was landing — but finally crashed through a hangar and into a third plane, which suffered substantial damage to its nose. The Skyhawk narrowly missed a fourth plane worth $13 million.
Woman busted for stealing neighbors steak off barbeque By The Associated Press
SAN ANDREAS — It quickly became a case of boosted barbecue when Calaveras County authorities arrested a woman for stealing a tasty hunk of tri-tip steak straight off the outdoor cooker of her neighbor when she wasn’t looking. The call to Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department came at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday from a woman who said she only turned away from the grill briefly to return and find her tri-tip gone. Authorities didn’t have to bring in the blood hounds to solve the case of the missing meat. “It had been stolen and a trail of meat juice was followed up to the next
door apartment,” said sheriff’s deputy Blain Smith. The deputies found the partially cooked meat on a bathroom counter in the apartment occupied by Lindsey Blackledge, 19, of San Andreas. Blackledge was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property and having an outstanding warrant for allegedly stealing stolen property in an unrelated case. She was being held in Calaveras County jail on $25,000. As for the steak, it never made it back to the grill. “I doubt if it was returned and I don’t think they booked it in evidence,” Smith said.