Latest news with #park
Fast Company
6 hours ago
- Business
- Fast Company
The Santa Monica airport is set to close—but some residents would rather keep the noise and pollution than build new housing
In the neighborhoods surrounding the Santa Monica Airport, homeowners know little peace. Every few minutes, the whine of a jet engine intrudes on the suburban soundscape. But relief is coming. In 2017, locals won a more than seven-decade fight to close the airport. It's scheduled to shutter once and for all on Dec. 31, 2028. Santa Monica residents voted in 2014 to build a park on the site of the airport. But as the 2028 closure date approaches, some residents, councilmembers, and pro-housing groups are calling for the construction of affordable housing on the site in addition to a park. With an organized contingent of development opponents determined to stop them, the airport site is shaping up as the latest flashpoint in Southern California's battles over housing construction. Neighbors of the airport say living beneath the jets is maddening and dangerous—many of the smaller planes that land there burn leaded fuel, spraying toxins on the homes and schools below. But some of the airport's neighbors are so opposed to housing construction that they would consider keeping the airport open until the threat of development is quashed. 'A lot of the risk could be reduced simply by delaying closing,' said Marc Verville, who lives near the airport. 'To protect ourselves, we should keep the airport open until we can address the political landscape and correct it,' said Tricia Crane, chair of Northeast Neighbors of Santa Monica, a neighborhood association. The closure of an airport presents a rare opportunity in any urban environment. Spanning more than 200 acres—and comprising around 4% of the city's land—the Santa Monica Airport is poised to become available for redevelopment all at once. Centrally located and publicly owned, it offers a rare chance to address the city's acute affordable housing shortage. In Santa Monica, where average rent is nearly $4,000 a month, such a moment may never come again. Building housing 'would be a win for everybody,' said Rev. Joanne Leslie, a Santa Monica resident and a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Leslie is part of a group advocating for a 3,000-unit affordable housing development on the airport site called Cloverfield Commons. Leslie's group imagines their development amidst the larger park, with buildings arranged around smaller, so-called pocket parks, connected by winding paths. Building a large amount of housing on the site would likely require voter approval through another ballot measure, according to City Councilmember Jesse Zwick, who supports building 'some form of mixed use, mixed income housing' on the site alongside a park. But he says the housing crisis in Santa Monica is so great that another referendum—even if it means a difficult fight—would be worth having. For every four or five new jobs created in Santa Monica over the past 45 years, the city added just one home, he said. The city's failure to build housing has led its population to stagnate during that time period, he added, while California's population has nearly doubled. 'Will it be a fight? Sure,' he said. 'But is it one that I think can be won? Definitely.' Since the 1970s, anti-development groups have largely blocked the construction of new housing across the state—and especially in Santa Monica, where the city has permitted roughly 4,500 units of new housing in the last 20 years. Given the statewide housing shortage, state officials are asking cities to build more housing than they used to. Every eight years, cities are required to submit a plan to the state showing how they intend to meet its increasingly ambitious housing development targets. If they don't adequately plan to meet those targets, they could face penalties including the notorious 'builder's remedy,' in which developers are allowed to build whatever they want, regardless of zoning, as long as 20% of the units are affordable. Verville and Crane are worried Santa Monica will designate the airport site for housing in its next state-mandated housing plan, due in 2029. That's why they are floating the idea of pushing to delay the closure of the airport until after that deadline as a way to keep the airport out of conversations about meeting state housing targets. 'The residents want to stop the airport conversion process until this kind of risk is addressed and mitigated,' said Crane, 'and we can fulfill our vision of a park.' * * * Leslie was drawn to the fight to build affordable housing on the airport site because of her work as a deacon in the Episcopal Church advocating for workers and immigrant rights. Leslie is a member of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), which recently participated in the Home Is Sacred rally in support of affordable housing development on the airport site. 'In a place like Santa Monica, so much of the homelessness is directly related to the high cost of housing and rents,' she said. 'We put people in a situation where they can't help themselves, and then we blame them for it.' Crane and Verville say they're not opposed to affordable housing, but that the city, facing a budget deficit, cannot afford to build any and that no subsidies exist to support buildings with lower rents. 'My kids want a lot of things too,' said Crane. 'If I don't have the money for it, they don't get it.' Leslie's group contends that subsidies do exist to build affordable housing on the site, including funds raised by Measure A, the county's new half-cent sales tax, approved by voters in November and aimed at funding homelessness solutions and affordable housing. Verville and Crane think that's not realistic, and that the development at the site will be exclusively luxury apartments, which they say will make the city more expensive, not less. They arrived for their interviews at the airport armed with more than 90 pages of readings, including an academic working paper they said debunks the idea that building market-rate housing lowers rents and home prices. (The National Bureau of Economic Research study finds that higher housing costs are tied to a region's income growth, not to how tightly its housing supply is regulated.) 'It's becoming a city of rich people,' Crane sighed. Santa Monica City Councilmember Zwick says that building housing, including luxury housing, does lead to lower rents and housing prices in the surrounding community. About 80% of the time, new apartments are filled by people already living nearby, he said. 'And when those people move into those new housing units, they open up housing in the spaces where they used to live, creating more available supply and creating downward pressure on prices.' 'Every credible study I've read indicates that that's how it works,' he said, speaking with Capital & Main in an empty office at UCLA, where he is studying for a master's in urban planning. Besides, Zwick argued, parks and housing belong together. Apartments lacking backyards need open, public space. And parks need those who live nearby to use them. 'A lot of people like to say we need our Central Park,' he said. 'But if Central Park in Manhattan had a perimeter entirely of single family homes, it wouldn't function and be as great as it is.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
JANA HOCKING: The humiliating text message that made me realize we women must stop a dangerous new sex habit
I was recently taking a lovely walk in the park with my dog - basking in the sun, sipping a coffee - when my bliss was suddenly shattered by the ping of a direct message. 'Hi Jana, my name is [redacted]… Do you happen to know this man on a personal level?'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Westwood extends deadline to buy school after voters reject development
WESTWOOD, Kan. — Westwood, Kansas voters rejected an office project in April after filing a lawsuit to force a public vote. Thursday the clock was ticking on what to do next with a deadline looming Friday. 'What do you want your legacy to be 30 years from now?' Lou Wetzel asked City Council during a special meeting. Kansas City book box company feeling the impact of federal tariffs Residents filed a lawsuit back in 2023 to to a developer who along Rainbow Boulevard that is now Joe D Dennis Park. After last month's vote rejecting the project and preserving the current park the city was still on the hook for $2.785 million to the potential developers had planned to convert portions of to a new park. 'We have been put in a very challenging position on a very interesting timeline,' Councilwoman Holly Wimer said. As Westwood faced a Friday deadline to extend the purchase agreement or walk away a third option was included in meeting materials. 'Option B that would require wiring money tomorrow if there's not already somebody lined up potentially to do that,' resident James Spies said. 'That makes no sense to me.' 'There is no boogeyman buyer,' Mayor David Waters said trying to ease fears of many of the meeting's early speakers. Commissioners approve ordinance on American Royal project Any discussion about extending the agreement, logically includes what goes in the school's place, as Shawnee Mission has already applied for permits to tear it down. 'A clear majority of Westwood residents want to see the Shawnee Mission property used for homes that actually fit our neighborhood,' neighbor Tammy Carter said. 'Westwood is unified in trying to preserve as much green space as possible,' Spies said. 'That's something we tried to address with the previous project. There may still be opportunities with this or there may be opportunities with this to finance the current park that we do have to make some improvements there,' Waters said following the unanimous vote to extend the deadline to November 28, the fourth such extension since the sale was first negotiated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Bloomberg
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
San Francisco's Newest Park Used to Be a Highway
The Great Highway, once considered to be one of San Francisco's most scenic drives, is now teeming with children, joggers and cyclists. In April, the former two-mile stretch of coastal highway reopened as the city's newest park and was renamed Sunset Dunes. But the transformation — born out of the city's pandemic-era efforts to carve out car-free spaces and approved by voters during the November 2024 elections — did not arrive without controversy. To its critics, Sunset Dunes is another inconvenience for motorists in the city's 'war on cars' — so much so that one official is facing a recall effort over his support of the park, Benjamin Schneider reports. Today on CityLab: How a Highway Became San Francisco's Newest Park
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
I Asked 5 Experts To Name the Best Canned Baked Beans—They All Said the Same Thing
Few things scream 'spring!' like a barbecue. My ideal Sunday BBQ includes getting the whole family together in the park, handing out paper plates full of ribs, corn, slaw, and (of course) baked beans, so we can revel in togetherness as we gobble down bites of deliciousness. My family does these picnic adventures potluck style, with each of us claiming a main or a side. The side I always avoid? Baked beans. Why? I've little experience in making them and, honestly, they're one of my favorites, so I just don't want to mess them up! Recently, I chatted with some trusted culinary experts, and it turns out that bringing baked beans to the barbecue is simpler than I thought. All it requires is buying the right can of beans. And there's a single brand that all four of the experts prefer. Jessica Formicola: Emmy-nominated food judge, recipe developer, founder of Savory Experiments and author of Beef It Up! Toby Amidor: Registered dietitian and author of 10 cookbooks, including The Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook and Up Your Veggies Ken Tobby: Food expert, researcher, and CEO of Organic Solace Melinda Keckler: Founder and recipe developer at the Crinkled Cookbook 'The answer is easy!' Keckler exclaims. 'I always choose Bush's Best Baked Beans. The brand is consistent. The beans are creamy and tender, not chalky and hard, and each can is packed with actual beans, not just sauce or syrup.' The sauce that is there, she adds, is thick enough, not too sweet, and unlike other brands, not loaded down with tomatoes or molasses. 'These beans have the best balance of texture and flavor with a rich, slow-cooked taste and a viscous, savory-sweet sauce that is not too overpowering,' Tobby agrees. She also praises Bush's for its 'short, identifiable list' containing 'natural seasonings, such as brown sugar, and spices rather than artificial additives.' Formicola, whose non-negotiables are 'BPA-free cans and no preservatives,' seconds Tobby. Amidor loves that Bush's helps cater to dietary restrictions. 'For those looking to cut back on added sugar, Bush's makes Zero Sugar Added Baked Beans, which provide the full flavor of their Original option without the added sugar,' she notes. When it comes to eating the beans, the experts indulge in Bush's in a variety of ways. As Formicola says, 'Bush's beans are awesome because you can literally eat them right out of the can, and they will taste pretty great, but they are also the perfect base for a little doctoring.' As Amidor sums it up, 'Whether it's their Original, Brown Sugar Hickory, or any other flavor, Bush's versatility, quick preparation, and rich flavor make them the perfect complement to a variety of dishes and occasions.' Read the original article on SIMPLYRECIPES
