Excerpted Los Angeles Herald Examiner 1983 editorial: Victory in Defeat: Santa Monica gives L.A. a lesson in lively politics: 1983
Politics in a democracy can be unforgiving. Today's reformers can become tomorrow's unpopular pols. That was one message of this week's election in Santa Monica. In an extremely close contest, the city's voters turned out Mayor Ruth Yanatta Goldway, the figurehead of the liberal Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) coalition that dominated Santa Monica politics these past four years. Personally distressed as she may have been by the returns, however, Goldway was philosophical: "Whether or not our individuals won," she said, "the issues we stand for clearly won."
That seems about right. Although voters rejected Goldway and retained two of her arch foes on the City Council, the renters' coalition still holds a four-to-three council majority. More significantly, in a city with a heavy preponderance of renters, the coalition's controversial rent-control policies received a strong vote of confidence: all three coalition candidates for the Santa Monica Rent Control Board were elected and a landlord-financed initiative that would have allowed tenants to purchase their apartment units went down to defeat. In other words, Santa Monica voters - whose turnout, as a percentage, was twice as high as in Los Angeles - wanted to keep the reforms, if not all the reformers - a message that was not lost on the anti-coalition victors.
Still the SMRR can take considerable credit for transforming a sleepy, apathetic suburb into a cauldron of citizen activism. The coalition's leadership, political skills and agenda energized people on all sides of a variety of issues: zoning, crime, senior citizens, parks and recreation, the arts, women. And there were positive results. New development guidelines required businesses to provide such amenities as daycare centers, affordable housing and street and sewer repairs in return for the privilege of doing business in Santa Monica. An extensive network of neighborhood watch groups, plus a big increase in the police budget, helped boost police morale and reduce the residential burglary rate by 27 percent.
Waking the sleeping giant of Santa Monica carried risks, of course, as Goldway* and her allies discovered Tuesday night. But, however much we may have disagreed with some of the coalition's policies, Santa Monicans now have a city government that isn't afraid of risk, that is seeking new answers to old problems and that actively involves citizens of all stripes in public debate and decision-making.
For this alone, Santa Monica is indebted to Goldway and the SMRR. We only wish Los Angeles had half as much political life these days."