Save the Civic
Contacts
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Share your concerns:
Santa Monica Mayor Gleam Davis: gleam.davis@santamonica.gov
Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem Lana Negrete: lana.negrete@santamonica.gov
Council Member Phil Brock: phil.brock@santamonica.gov
Council Member Christine Parra: Christine.parra@santamonica.gov
Council Member Jesse Zwick: Jesse.Zwick@santamonica.gov
Council Member Caroline Torosis: Caroline.Torosis@santamonica.gov
Council Member Oscar de la Torre: Oscar.delatorre@santamonica.gov​
Santa Monica City Council Members: council@santamonica.gov
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If possible, please cc on all emails:
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SMMUSD Board of Education: brd@smmusd.org
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Here are some ideas to help get you started. You needn’t use all these points (or any of them!) You may also prefer to write about a personal experience you’ve had at the Civic.
What We Want
Ownership
Revenue For the City
A restored, vibrant, PUBLIC Civic Auditorium serving as a venue for the performing, musical and visual arts. Such a Civic would make our City a cultural and arts destination for Santa Monicans, Southern Californians and beyond; a source of pride (and tax revenue!) for the people of our great City.
The Civic Auditorium is owned by the residents of Santa Monica. Keeping public spaces public is vital to a community’s ability to see itself as a community.
A revitalized world-class concert and performing arts center would provide the City with a revenue stream for decades, as opposed to a one-time sale. And the economic ripple effect for Santa Monica would be huge as a restored concert and performing arts venue in the heart of our city would attract people from all over the region and beyond, generating economic activity (and tax dollars!) for hotels, restaurants, etc., enhancing our City’s destination status.
The School District
• The District will use the building primarily as a gym and estimates restoring it for that purposed will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which residents will be asked to pay for with a bond. Why should residents pay again for something they already own?
• The District says it intends to rent the Civic out for non-school events. But the District does not have the resources or desire to build a world-class venue with concert quality acoustics that will attract first-tier artists. That will only happen with an entity that is committed to restoring the Civic for that purpose.
• The School District exists outside the bounds of landmarking rules and could demolish the Civic should it wish to do so. It is the LAST entity that we should entrust to preserve it. The Civic was designed by renowned architect, Welton Becket, who also built the Mark Taper Forum, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Theme Restaurant at LAX and the Capital Records Building. Landmarks like this must not be put in danger of being torn down.
We Can Do It!
In only a few short weeks, Save the Civic has found a serious, motivated, and credible investment group with experience in concert promotion that is VERY interested in partnering with the City to restore and run the Civic as a world-class concert venue. Why would the City get rid of the Civic now, when it could be restored and made into an amazing and revenue-generating cultural arena?