THE VIEW FROM MAIN STREET 

   cartoons: all rights reserved; reprinted with permission

Josh Needle
Special to the Mirror

   In a recent "Week In Business" column Michael Rosenthal referred to me as the "new sheriff on Main Street," but since I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for 23 years, the title doesn’t fit me very well. I prefer "Lord Mayor of Main."
   I came as a kid to P.O.P., drank at the Oar House in my twenties and have been eating and drinking at The Galley for at least 20 years. I’ve lived in Ocean Park for a little over a decade. After two decades practicing law, I opened Impolitic: Cartoon Commentaries in 1999. It’s the first cartoon art gallery of its kind in the country. Many people ask why I left a successful law practice to try something so risky as an untried retail art business in which I had no background whatsoever. 
   I mean that in every sense -- since I have no background in retail, art or business, some days I’m the one asking the question, and if I come up with a good answer beyond "it seemed like a good idea at the time" maybe I’ll write a column about it. In the meantime here are my stock answers:
   - If I screw up nobody goes to jail.
   - There are no cartoon emergencies at 3 a.m.
   - It’s nice to hear people laughing instead of whining when they come to see me.
   - Cartoonists are more fun to hang out with than criminals, cops and prosecutors.
   Within minutes of opening my shop, I started mouthing off about what was and wasn’t happening, as well as what should and shouldn’t happen, on Main Street. So, almost exactly a year later, I found myself elected Chair of the Main Street Merchants Association. Due to that lofty position -- upon my election I received an email (I swear) urging me to "exercise [my] power for good in the world" -- I now have a perch from which to comment to Santa Monicans at large.
   Yeah, right, power. What it really means is that now everyone else tells me what is and isn’t/should and shouldn’t happen on Main Street.
   OK, well here are my answers to some current FAQs around Main Street:
   1) It’s dark out there. As powerful as I now am, I don’t control the actual, electrical, power on Main Street and Edison doesn’t take my calls anymore -- they just leave me in phone mail hell. All I know is that 24 hours after I placed a call to Susan McCarthy, our City Manager, the street lights came back on, so you figure who has power around here.
   On the other hand, we did have something to do with the holiday lighting along the street and are gratified that so many residents and visitors appreciated it. We’re working with the City to make the power available on a permanent basis to light up the lamp posts and uplight the trees, among other things, to make Main Street Village a reality, but it will take a few years to accomplish, given our very limited budget and, yes, power.
   2) The Cone Zone. I have no power over the sewer construction on Neilson Way or Main Street either. I wish I did, since I live on one and work on the other. I don’t know when it’s going to be over, and no, I’m not going to go out with a shovel and help speed it along. The delay has something to do with mysterious wires and "duct banks" belonging to Edison and GTE that the City "discovered" during the project and all I know is that "they are working on it."
   3) Traffic and Parking/Parking and Traffic. There actually are some partial solutions to these banes of our existence, and I really don’t mean these flippantly. If you live in the area and want to enjoy Main Street
   - walk
   - ride a bike
   - take the Tide
   Walking and riding your bike are free. The Tide only costs a quarter. All three are environmentally sound and you’ll make Mayor Feinstein happy if you do any or all of these things.
   The parking lots between Main and Neilson were re-striped last year and added as many spaces as could be added without much dreaded construction. Few, if any, locals want to build ramps or structures, but where can parking go but "up" in an already developed area? Well. some of us "in power" are hoping it can go to the beach. Yes, short term parking at the beach was added last year, and more is coming this year. All of a block away, while cars circle around Main Street and park in the weirdest non-spaces imaginable, the beach lots are empty except for the roller hockey players.
   We haven’t figured out how to put two and two together yet -- a circling Main Street Trolley or unified valet service on weekend evenings and during the summer are my personal favorites at the moment -- but neither is as easy to implement as it sounds. It’s that perception of power thing again.....
   And finally, the real reason, I believe, that I’m being given space in my favorite local newspaper is that they know I’ll always put in a cartoon because, well, everyone loves a good cartoon.