We believe residents are entitled to participate meaningfully, and at an early stage, in development proposals which can negatively impact our city with increased traffic congestion, over-crowding, and a deterioration of our quality of life.

We believe residents are entitled to full access to public records about proposed developments, as well as accurate information about their irreversible impacts and long-range consequences. Our city's decision makers also need full and accurate information before approving such projects.

To achieve these goals, we research and publish educational information informing residents of key development and traffic issues and other proposed city activities; undertake advocacy at city hall on behalf of residents on these issues; and monitor and encourage transparency in government decisions.

SMCLC is a 501(c)(4) organization.

Persons wishing to contact SMCLC should call SMCLC at 310.395.8044 or write to info@smclc.net.

Victor Fresco and his family have lived in Santa Monica for eight years. During that time he has been alarmed at the rapid pace of development, which he believes threatens to turn this eclectic beach-side community into an upscale Manhattan on the coast. He joined the Board of Directors of the North of Montana Association when that group was first formed and eventually served as its co-chair. As he worked with NOMA to downsize the scale of so-called "monster mansions", Victor realized that people and companies make a lot of money developing our neighborhoods and if residents don't make themselves heard, soon what attracted them to Santa Monica will be gone forever.

Victor has also been active in preservation issues. He is a television writer currently under contract to 20th Century Fox Studios.

Susan Giesberg has lived in Santa Monica for seventeen years, first as a renter and now as a homeowner.

Concerned with community issues, Susan was an early participant in the North of Montana Association. She serves as a parent representative on Franklin Elementary School's Site Governance Council and co-chairs the Legislative Committee and chairs the After-School Enrichment Committee, and the Franklin Leadership Action Group. She is a co-chair of the Legislative Committee for the Santa Monica Malibu Council of PTAs and has for many years been integral in coordinating the Council's efforts on school electoral measures.

Susan believes that rapid growth in development, resulting in unprecedented traffic and congestion, have had a huge impact on Santa Monica. She was attracted to the Coalition's grassroots approach to reassessing the rapid "canyonizing" and "densifying" of our beach community. Professionally, Susan has worked in consumer protection for 27 years.

Diana Gordon is a 23-year resident of Santa Monica. As an attorney, Diana spent the early part of her career specializing in land-use and environmental law before moving into civil litigation, including entertainment and First Amendment litigation at both the state and federal levels. She is a member of the California Bar Association. Concerned about the relentless amount of new construction throughout the downtown area, Diana believes projects are going forward without regard to the collective consequences on traffic and on the character of the city. Diana would like to keep Santa Monica from turning into a gridlocked, urban high-rise environment, indistinguishable from cities elsewhere.

 

Sherrill Kushner is a 27-year resident of Santa Monica. She is an immigration attorney and writer. She has served on the Boards of the North of Montana Association, the Santa Monica Conservancy, and the Friends of the Library. She was also appointed to the city's Library Board and is a member of the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum. She chaired the ballot initiative campaign resulting in a bond that has funded the new Main Library and the refurbishing of the branches. She is particularly concerned with the architectural and cultural preservation of our city's heritage and transparency in Santa Monica's political process.

 

Jeff Segal is an 18-year resident of Santa Monica. He is president of First Avenue Realty, a Santa Monica property management business, and a partner in Arizona Place and Lincoln Place office buildings. He is a past president of the Santa Monica Kiwanis Club and serves on its board, as well as the boards of the Santa Monica Kiwanis Charities, the Santa Monica YMCA and the Santa Monica College Associates. Jeff became involved in development issues after watching the city use huge density bonuses, and exemptions from public review, to convert the east half of downtown from a commercial district to a multi-family residential district.

 

 

Mark Armour is the President of ArmourMedia, Inc., a political and issue advertising firm based in Santa Monica. As a media strategist, Mark has over 20 years' experience creating television advertising and communications strategies for progressive causes, statewide initiatives, and candidates.

Mark has worked for Senator John Kerry, Senator Barbara Boxer, and numerous state and local elected officials. He has produced ads for MoveOn, the California Department of Health Services' anti-smoking campaign, PBS, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the California Wellness Foundation's campaign to stop violence against youth, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Gold Star Families for Peace, the Sierra Club and the California Endowment.

Prior to becoming a media consultant, Mark served as press secretary for Al Gore and as a speechwriter in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Mark is currently the co-chair of the North of Montana Association. Mark and his family have lived in Santa Monica for four years.

Abby Arnold is an organizational consultant, budget analyst and grant writer for nonprofit organizations and local government. As a long time community activist and twenty-one year resident of Ocean Park, Abby has extensive experience in community affairs, government and the nonprofit sector. Her professional experience includes positions as Executive Director of the Santa Monica AIDS Project, the Health Officers Association of California, and the Santa Monica Neighborhood Support Center. She has developed programs for youth, victims of domestic violence, and people living with HIV. During the Jerry Brown administration, she worked for the California Senate Committee on Local Government, and served as a consumer member of the California Board of Registered Nursing.

Abby also served as board member and treasurer for both the Coalition for Clean Air and the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation and chaired the Oversight Committee of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District's ES Project ($100 million in capital improvements to the District's 15 schools).

Joel Brand is a communications consultant and former foreign correspondent. Joel has reported for CNN, Newsweek, and The Washington Post, as well as a host of other national broadcast and print outlets. He has reported from more than 20 countries including Bosnia, Chechnya, the Middle East and Rwanda. Locally, he serves on the boards of the Santa Monica Pier and the Santa Monica Conservancy. He is past president of both the Conservancy and the Ocean Park Association, a group he helped found. Joel is also the driving force behind Friends of 415 PCH, a coalition group that helped save the public beach club now under construction at the former Marion Davies Estate at 415 PCH.

Darrell Clarke served on the Santa Monica Planning Commission for eight years (two as chairperson). He is a founder and co-chair of the volunteer group Friends 4 Expo Transit, advocating for the Expo Line light rail from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, which is now beginning construction.

Darrell was also a founding member of the North of Montana Association (NOMA) and worked to limit the impact of "monster mansions" on neighborhood character.

A 28-year resident of Santa Monica, Darrell is now focused on policies for sustainable energy, transportation and livable communities.

Peter Davison composes music for film and television. He has scored numerous projects for PBS, the History Channel, Arts and Entertainment, and Bravo. Peter has received grants in music composition from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Foundation for New American Music and others. His music has been performed at concerts at the Los Angeles County Art Museum, the Music Center, the Morgan Theater, UCLA, CSU Northridge, UC San Diego and other universities.

Peter has lived in Santa Monica since 1977. He was a founding member of the SMMUSD District Advisory Committee on the Arts, which works to bring more arts programs and art teachers to our schools. Peter is concerned about over-development and residential vs. business issues because they directly impact his life and enjoyment of the city in which he lives.

Gale Feldman established Feldman, Milliken & Associates Community Health Consulting, which offers consulting services in public health, community development and non-profit management. Gale is a public health and community development professional with over fifteen years experience in management, strategic planning, needs assessment, program development, and evaluation. She has worked in many diverse organizations including government, for profit corporations, community based agencies, faith based communities, hospitals and other clinical settings. 

A native of Santa Monica, Gale came back to our city nineteen years ago and met her husband at the Santa Monica farmers market, where he was selling organic dates grown on his family farm. As someone who’s loved this city all her life, Gale is concerned that the size and level of development has directly impacted traffic, vehicular/pedestrian/biking injuries, pollution, and parking issues in our community - making it less of a community, and more of a commuter thoroughfare.

Mary Fenstermacher is a 20 year resident of Santa Monica, and works in the non-profit sector as a fundraiser for an established Los Angeles social service agency. Previously, Mary had a 20 year career in advertising, producing national commercials for television. Mary has also been active in a number of political campaigns, most recently as part of the Policy Group for the Mayoral race of Antonio Villaraigosa. Additionally, she has been a co-founder and Board Member of several non-profit agencies and an activist for peace and social justice since 1968. Mary has long been concerned about the impact of overdevelopment on the quality of life in her city.

Maria Loya is an experienced public policy advocate and activist with a track record of advancing the rights of working families, children and women.

As Director of Public Policy and Advocacy with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), Ms. Loya has played a leadership role in major public policy initiatives in Los Angeles. She has worked closely with the Los Angeles City Council, as well as a broad range of community activists and labor leaders to effectively advocate for low wage service employees.

Ms. Loya worked to spearhead a groundbreaking effort to create a Community Benefits Agreement for communities affected by the proposed LAX modernization plan. She helped to found Mothers for Justice (MFJ), a diverse community-based group that works to address issues of inequity in the public school system. Her efforts led to successful tenant protection law and enforcement of the City's tenant harassment ordinance. Currently, Ms. Loya is a boardmember of the Pico Neighborhood Association.

Mary Marlow has lived in Ocean Park since 1997. She is a retired AT&T executive with over 20 years experience in sales and marketing to multinational corporations. Mary has been active in the Ocean Park community, successfully pressing for needed changes to three large projects on Main St. which would have had significant and negative impacts on the mass, density, scale and character of the historic neighborhood. Mary has remained active in the community by joining the Board of Directors of the Ocean Park Association. Her primary concern is the loss of community character with the continued construction of ever larger and denser buildings, which drive out neighborhood serving local businesses in favor of retail chains and increase parking and traffic congestion.

Bea Nemlaha is a 25 year resident of Santa Monica. An attorney and member of the California and American Bar Associations, Bea lives in the Third Street Neighborhood Historic District and was its principal organizer and spokesperson for designation in 1990. She was also spokesperson for, and a member of, the Steering Committee of Save Our Neighborhoods, a political action committee which successfully preserved the Santa Monica Landmarks Ordinance through opposition to Proposition A in 2003. Bea was a founding Board member and Vice President of the Santa Monica Conservancy in 2002 - 2004, and an active member of the Ocean Park Community Organization and its Co-Chairman in 1989 - 1990.

Bea believes that preserving a human scale in the physical environment of Santa Monica in particular, and cities in general, is critical to the promotion and preservation of viable communities and neighborhoods. She is opposed to furthering a densely urban, high rise, traffic clogged City in place of the low-rise beach town of light and air, which is what traditionally has attracted most residents and others to Santa Monica.

Laurel Roennau has live in Santa Monica for 41 years. A bioastronautics engineering graduate from UC Berkeley, she is now retired after working at Douglas Aircraft, RAND, Space Technology Labs, and the Community Redevelopment Agency. She has served on the LA County Regional Plan Association, the LA Airports Commission, The SM Architectural Review Board, The SM Democratic Club Board and with several neighborhood groups. Named Woman of the Year in Science by the LA Times, Laurel holds the Lifetime Award from the Society of Women Engineers. Her current primary interests are traffic, the environment and quality-of-life issues, and of course Santa Monica.

 

Ruth Rosen has been a resident of Santa Monica since 197l, moving here to get away from the smog and density of Los Angeles. As an artist, Ruth maintains a studio in Santa Monica. She received her BA from UCLA, and taught art and dance in Los Angeles, Pasadena and a number of California public schools. Ruth believes Santa Monica was once charming and livable, but now unlimited growth along with traffic gridlock and monster mansions threaten to destroy what was once a very special place.

 

Jacob Samuel is a life long resident of Santa Monica, graduating Samohi in 1969. He has worked in the Santa Monica fine arts community for 32 years as a printer and publisher. In 1987 he started his own publishing company, EDITION. Among the local artists he has published are Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Ed Moses and Joe Goode.

 

Lorraine Sanchez is a long time resident of Santa Monica. As a community health nurse with a masters degree in nursing, she has worked in a variety of settings predominately as an administrator of home health care agencies. Upon retiring, she spent 2 yrs as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. Returning to Santa Monica, Lorraine was appalled at the amount of new, high-density development and traffic in our beach community and became active in local politics, with the hope of making our city more livable.

Carol Sobel is a civil rights attorney in private practice in Santa Monica. She was on the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California for 20 years before opening her law office in the City in 1997.








Maryanne Solomon got her start opposing neighborhood-busting development in 1986 when a developer announced that a 6-story office building would be built next door to her bungalow. She worked for 2 years opposing the monolithic building including sitting at a Planning Commission meeting until 2:00 a.m. and giving birth the next day. She served on Mid-City Neighbors Board of Directors and was active in opposing the Water Garden and Colorado Place and instrumental in getting one of the city's first Permit Parking Districts near St. John's Hospital. 

Her web design business has donated many websites to non-profit organizations including Friends of Sunset Park, Mid-City Neighbors, CEPS, Santa Monica Lifelong Learning Community, and Boy Scout Troop 2. She has served on the Samohi PTSA Board of Directors and as Co-1st Vice President of the SM-Malibu PTA Council.

Doris Sosin was one of the founders of the North of Montana Neighborhood Association. She served as the group's chairperson and is still on its Board of Directors. She has also served on Santa Monica's Recreation and Parks Commission and was a founder of the Santa Monica Conservancy.

 

Linda Sullivan has lived in Santa Monica for over 20 years. A former City employee, Linda worked in the City Manager's office when the current Land Use Element was undergoing revision. She has also worked for the Airport, and Recreation and Parks departments. An attorney, Linda works as a consultant on issues of venue and property management and public use space. She is currently chair of the planning committee for the Santa Monica Pier's 100th Anniversary Celebration, which will launch a year-long series of events to celebrate the City's most historic icon. Linda believes government integrity should not be a misnomer.

Peter Tigler, an artist, likes to use his visual acumen, communication skills, and 25 years of resident experience to remind the power structure that many people are watching, a good number do not like what they see, and a few might do something about it. He mows his own lawn, personally walks his dog and has maintained a nuclear family in an age of non-nuclear proliferation. His artwork can be viewed at tigler.com.

 

Ted Winterer was born and raised in New York City and received his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College. He moved to Santa Monica in 1990 to work as a development executive and producer for various feature film directors. He now writes for film and television. Ted wrote an op-ed column for the Santa Monica Daily Press in 2004 and 2005. He is currently a Parks and Recreation Commissioner and President of the Ocean Park Association.

Bill Zimmerman is a professional political consultant who has worked in Santa Monica for over 20 years. Bill has served as either a campaign manager or lead media consultant in over 200 campaigns, helping to elect many progressive candidates including the first Hispanic Governor of New Mexico and the first African American Mayor of Chicago. Bill has also managed many successful large-scale ballot initiatives, including California's Prop. 103,which regulates auto insurance rates, Prop. 36, which provides treatment instead of incarceration for nonviolent drug possession offenders, and Prop. 63, which places a one percent surtax on personal incomes over $1 million to fund mental health services. Bill has also managed successful initiative campaigns across the country for medical marijuana, state-funded election campaigns, physician-assisted suicide, and other progressive issues.

Bill received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and has written books, magazine articles and op-ed pieces on politics, elections and public policy.