Anybody Seen My Town?

Steve Stajich
Mirror contributing writer

   If you live long enough in or near the greater Los Angeles area, at some point you will have a moment like the one Jimmy Stewart has in “It’s A Wonderful Life.” No, not the tear-wrenching finale where George Bailey discovers he’s “the richest man on earth.” You won’t have that moment unless you wake up in the body of Michael Eisner. 
   I’m referring to the more disorienting and downbeat sequence where George, fully in the throes of the illusion the angel has conjured, runs panicked down the streets of his charming hometown, having realized that everything has changed. All the sweet places have become dens of iniquity, taverns, hoochie-coochie theaters, or Starbucks. 
   In the not too distant future, we might all have a moment not too different from that right here in Santa Monica. I’m warning you now, so you won’t be screaming, “Where’s my town?” later on. Of course, if we’re at war with China, we’ll all be so busy pitching in on the effort at home...collecting tin and rubber and rationing gas (wait, we’re doing that NOW!)...that some of the following might get right past us. 
   Since 1993, the city has had an approved plan to enhance the Civic Center area around City Hall and the Auditorium. But inside of those plans, now moving forward at a faster pace since the city acquired 11 acres in the area from the RAND Corporation, is the possibility of harm befalling the Civic Auditorium.
   There’s something deeply wrong about any discussion of tampering with the Auditorium. To me, it feels as though the very soul of our city would be altered. And I’m not usually prone to melodramatic lines like “the very soul of our city.” Once, I did a first draft in which I declared the Mirror “the Mother Jones of the new Millennium,” then the editors pulled my piece on mind-controlling substances in our drinking water made to taste like gasoline, and I was lectured on stirring up the populace.
   Let me frame it this way: Name a half-dozen things that, in essence, make Santa Monica Santa Monica. The Pier, the ocean (for now, that’s staying), Main Street (any minute now, chain stores will eat the charm right out of it), the Promenade (any minute now...oops, never mind), the Moose Lodge on Ocean Park, and the beautiful green grass, classic architecture and openness of the area around City Hall and the Civic Center. 
   Yet I’ve seen some semi-whacked proposals for improvements in that lovely (really, that’s the word) area. Proposals that include traffic circles and lots more cement. And then there’s some notion of actually tearing down the Civic Center Auditorium. My reaction as citizen and commentator: Yikes! 
   I’ve probably pitched this before in this column, but...you owe it to yourself to walk through the City Hall-Civic Center area on a regular basis. We’re losing open areas in cities that allow for any kind of a decent, nay, meditative stroll on foot. Not just in this city, but everywhere. 
   We build and we design and we execute “improvements” that often presume nobody really cares to take a walk anymore. And I’m sorry, but retail doesn’t count. There’s a lot that is very positive about the success of the Promenade, but I dare you to get any serious thinking done as the happy cacophony of orchestrated street life there envelops you. And a more tranquil zone like Montana Avenue is not meant to speak to the general public. Those of you who enjoy Montana know that. That’s why you’re there, and not at the Promenade. Hey, just kidding. There’s no elitism in Santa Monica. We all recycle our trash, right? Peace, love, boutiques.
   Fortunately, citizen effort has mobilized to designate the Civic Auditorium a historical landmark. That’s good, although I wish there were wider avenues for citizen efforts to save and preserve. These days, there’s so much that should just be left alone, you wish they had something like the “Because We Don’t Need Another Blockbuster!” commission that you could appeal to. Good luck with something like that in an epoch marked by leadership that declares we don’t need water or air or Alaska.
   While there’s a strong argument for the historical importance of the Auditorium, there’s also a wealth of other reasons to leave it alone. For example, it’s very cool. It looks great at night, when the lights are on and a crowd stands outside waiting to go in for a hopefully cultural and fun experience. It feels like another time when, in a civilized manner, we gathered in large buildings to honor outstanding persons or view artistic performance or maybe listen to the Ramones. 
   Recently, aging California rockers have been performing benefit concerts in the Auditorium, and the tribal vibe is undeniable. Here are the weathered faces we have admired and loved for so long because they are, for us, poets with something to say. And all these years later, we can still gather in peace and enjoy a civilized evening of popular song. Okay, okay, I’m hosing you with “Boomer Romance No. 9,” the scent of wistful nostalgia. But I’m saying that the feeling of something like that is deeply impacted by the fact that the venue has a history. It’s not the same show if you see it at the Blockbuster Pavilion sitting on a rubber bleacher. 
   You can’t save everything, as I recently discovered when I cleaned my office and found a yellowed bundle of pictures of actress Jill St. John. But we can all unite behind the idea that something significant and even necessary continues to hum inside the walls of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. There are echoes there, and short of a safety report that the walls just won’t hold up the ceiling anymore, we should keep that building just as it is. Otherwise, we’ll be running down the street, hoping that Mr. Potter hasn’t done something else horrible, like, parking a big plastic shrimp boat at the Pier. Oops, never mind.

This Week’s “Know Your News” Quiz

(1) In his final State of the City address, Mayor Riordan
   (a) urged officials to make schools 
   and safety top priorities.
   (b) urged Disney to review its new 
   “Wacky Trees” attraction.
   (c) urged Robert Blake to review his 
   story. 
(2) A judge ruled that Malibu landowners cannot
   (a) build windmills on personal mini-
   golf courses.
   (b) keep the mud that has flowed into 
   their yards.
   (c) circumvent home size 
   restrictions. 
(3) The XFL folded after one season due to 
   (a) higher standards in elementary 
   education.
   (b) poor TV ratings.
   (c) loss of fan support to 
   “Riverdance 2001.”

Answer Key

(1) (a) I’ll be in France, if you need me.
(2) (c) We’ll be in France if you need us.
(3) (b) “Coming up next: ‘Supertrain!’”