Jenny Pirie, Peter Kastner and Jeff Mudrick A Short History of Ocean Park, Ocean Park Community Organization, 1982, (With a 1983 update.) 15pp. 1983, 1982, 1981, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1976, 1973, 1970, 1970s, 1967, 1960, 1960s, 1957, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s, 1926, 1920s 1907, 1904, 1900s
"More than eighty years ago, a real estate developer named Abbott Kinney and his partners founded a beach-front resort and vacation-home community next door to the already flourishing little city of Santa Monica. They called it "Ocean Park". Today, the former summer resort is a year-round community, and an unusual one at that: it's one of the few economically integrated communities along the Southern California coast, with a great diversity of age, race, and income, and a long history of affordable housing.
"In the last few years, however, Ocean Park residents have discovered that the quality of life in their community has become more and more threatened as coastal real estate has skyrocketed in value. They've also discovered that by working together, they can resist this threat, and preserve what's best about Ocean Park for all who live there.
"In its earliest days, Ocean Park was almost as much a carnival as a town. Crowded alongside the two hundred or so wood-frame "cottages" were a pleasure pier, an auditorium, a race-track, and a casino, in addition to the huge and ornate bulk of the Turkish Bathhouse, looking more like a movie set than an actual building. A turn-of-the-century photograph of what later became Pier Avenue shows a stylishly dressed crowd moving along a street made up chiefly of cafes, casinos, and gambling parlors, stretching toward the hill on the east side of town.
"The people of Ocean Park experimented with incorporation in 1904, and then decided to "dis-incorporate" in 1907. The town was partly absorbed by Santa Monica, and partly by Venice; but its character remained the same all through the nineteen-twenties and thirties: a thriving summer resort area, attracting out-of-state visitors and the local elite to the wealth of available entertainment opportunities. Only the Great Depression, grinding on past 1929 into the thirties and early forties, finally brought the carnival days of Ocean Park to an end.
"The Depression, and the World War that followed it, made great changes in the community of Ocean Park and the change was not necessarily for the worse. The area began its transformation from a vacation home for visitors to a year-round residence for owners and renters. Beachfront cottages which had been second homes for many people were sold and became permanent homes for the new tenants. At the same time, a large number of elderly people from the surrounding communities moved to Ocean Park to take advantage of the ocean climate and the relatively low rents. And the Second World War accelerated this change.
"The war resulted in an unprecedented demand for airplanes from the Douglas Aircraft plant in Santa Monica, as well as increased production at all the support businesses in the area that served Douglas. Wartime workers flocked to the west side, and Ocean Park took in its share. Since there was little or no building during the war, existing housing had to take the strain. From being the "Unsurpassed All-Year Playground of the West" (as a 1926 advertisement described the town), Ocean Park was becoming an "all-year" home for working people and their families.
"Real estate developers and speculators had taken notice of the increased demand for west-side housing during the war; and since new home-seekers continued to replace Douglas workers who left as war production declined, the end of the war saw a construction boom in the beach cities unmatched since the days when Abbott Kinney began building frame cottages in the sandy wastes of Ocean Park. Single family home, apartment buildings, and commercial structures appeared in rapid succession. Real estate developers made money hand over fist. The boom has been called, "The beginning of the most incredible period of progress in the Bay's history."
"Of course, the Santa Monica establishment - the City government, the Santa Monica Bank, the Evening Outlook, and the real estate interests --sought to make the area an even more attractive place for investment and development at every opportunity. With the City's blessings. Pacific Ocean Park was inaugurated in 1957, an amusement pier that harkened back to Ocean Park's pre-war "carnival" days. And the City took a major step toward assisting real estate development with the establishment of the Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency (RDA).
"During the forties and fifties, most new construction in Ocean Park occurred on land that had stood vacant. By the end of the fifties, almost all that vacant land had been used up. Developers then turned to existing structures and neighborhoods that might be leveled to permit new and profitable building. The task of the RDA was to help this process along. If a neighborhood could be considered a source of "urban blight" within federal guidelines, the RDA could purchase the property from its owners at a relatively low price, raze the existing buildings, and re-sell the property to developers at minimum cost. It was "urban renewal"; and it occurred in Ocean Park, as it did in many other old communities across the nation, at the expense of local residents.
"The 36 acre area bordered by Neilson Way, Barnard Way, Marine Street and Ocean Park Boulevard - a "mixed-use" neighborhood made up of single family dwellings as well as businesses - was judged to be a source of "urban blight" by the Santa Monica RDA in 1957, in spite of the fact that it was a stable low-income residential and commercial district. In 1960, 100 commercial establishments were "relocated" from the area, although the land remained vacant for the next seven years, until two high-rise apartment buildings were completed on the site (Santa Monica Shores). The undertaking was called, "The Ocean Park Redevelopment Project"; but instead of removing "urban blight" from the area, it simply removed people.
"Real estate development leveled off somewhat in the nineteen sixties, but grew into a speculative boom by the early nineteen seventies, usually with little consideration for the people who lived in Ocean Park (88% of whom were renters by 1970). The number of new apartment buildings multiplied; rents increased; and the population of the community itself began to change from a blue-collar "tenant community" of people who lived and worked in Ocean Park to a rental suburb, increasingly populated by young professionals who commuted to work outside the area. The completion in 1967 of the Santa Monica Freeway, giving easy access into and out of Ocean Park, was probably the single most important factor influencing this transition. But the net result of real estate development during those years was to create a serious threat to Ocean Park as a source of low-cost housing.
"In the early seventies, Ocean Park residents began organizing to resist the pressures of real estate development and to preserve Ocean Park as a seaside community affordable to low and moderate income people. Beginning in 1973, The Church in Ocean Park, on Hill Street, became a center of this activism and community spirit.
"There were some successes in these early organizing days: in 1973 the battle to save the Santa Monica Pier from demolition was won; but there were also setbacks: in 1976, residents failed to stop the Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency from subsidizing the development of what has become Santa Monica Place without adequate consideration for the impact on the surrounding community. And the "revitalization" of Main Street surged ahead in the late seventies with little or no input from local residents affected by the change. Main Street had fallen into considerable decay, but its transformation into a boulevard of luxury businesses and expensive restaurants had nothing to do with the needs of the people living in the area, and only increased the already serious problems of crime and traffic.
"By 1978, Ocean Park residents were better able to deal with all these problems. In April of that year, the struggle to preserve the community took on a specific organizational form: "Ocean Park Projects" (OPP) was incorporated, with the same Board of Directors as the Church in Ocean Park. The new organization's stated purpose was a commitment to "creating a sense of community and improving the quality of life for all residents of Ocean Park, regardless of age, sex, race, or economic status." OPP's first organizing effort was the community anti-crime project called "COMMUNITAS", for which the neighborhood received a Justice Department grant in the fall of 1978.
"COMMUNITAS set about creating a safe and secure community in Ocean Park through the establishment of a network of "block clubs". The plan was successful. It included "Neighborhood Watch" programs - neighbors coming to know and watch out for one another as a way of reducing crime; there was a project to place identification numbers on all valuable items of property; and self defense classes were held at regular intervals.
"People began to realize that unlighted streets were not a necessary fact of life, and the Navy Street Block Club succeeded in getting the City to install street lights. Over the course of the program, the community succeeded - through its own efforts - in reducing crime in Ocean Park by as much as 16%.
"A special project in Ocean Park's drive to reduce crime was called "Making It Safe." It was a series of activities created and organized by women artists as a way to alert the community to the problems of violence against women. Merchants, media people and politicians - men and women - participated in the summer-long event, which included lectures on incest, wife abuse, rape and pornography; dialogues with older women, men's groups and third world women; potluck dinners; poetry, photography, painting, performance and much more.
"The newly realized ability of people to be in control of their own neighborhood was not just limited to crime prevention: residents organized successfully to prevent the demolition of the Fourth Street Courtyard, near Hollister north of Ocean Park Boulevard. And, more significantly, over 200 residents jammed the Church in Ocean Park in the autumn of 1979 in what was the beginning of a long campaign to control Main Street development and its effects on the neighborhood.
"But the Block Club network set up by COMMUNITAS was only the precursor to the establishment of a broader "Neighborhood Congress" which was convened in December, 1979. The goal was to create a permanent, independent, and self-sufficient neighborhood organization for all of Ocean Park.
"On December 8, 1979, over 300 residents attended the First Ocean Park Congress. At that Congress, OPCO was created - the Ocean Park Community Organization - a permanent organization with a small staff and a steering committee made up of Ocean Park residents, which would deal not only with crime, but with all areas of community concern.
"Not long after the Congress, the new organization helped achieve a major victory for Ocean Park, by getting a moratorium on commercial development on Main Street that lasted from January through October of 1980. During that time, residents and merchants worked together to develop the Main Street Plan which the City used as a guide to zoning commercial development on Main Street.
"That same year, neighbors won the first round in the battle for preferential parking - a way of assuring Ocean Park residents the right to park near their homes.
"Organizing efforts continued through 1980. a summertime Energy Fair drew people from all over the community. Late in the year, neighbors rallied at the base of the Pico drain to protest the dumping of toxic chemicals. By the time of the second OPCO Congress - November 15, 1980 - neighbors in the Pico Corridor, with help and encouragement from OPCO, had begun organizing themselves into their own neighborhood organization - the Pico Neighborhood Association.
"In 1981, the threat of the Ocean Park Redevelopment Project was revived with a plan to build luxury condos on the public golf course on Neilson Way.
"Hundreds of residents were mobilized in an attempt to stop the plan, but the fate of that property had been decided years earlier by a previous City Council - before a community organization had been built that was strong enough to resist the pressure of the real estate developers. The condos could not be stopped.
"Still, Ocean Park residents did demand, and win, several changes in the project: it was to provide some affordable housing (replacing a few of the units demolished in the 1960's); the height of the project was to be substantially lower, and a view corridor to the ocean would be maintained.
"That year, neighbors demanded that the Ornyte Chemical Company stop polluting the air near Santa Monica High School with dangerous chemicals. As a result of community efforts, Ornyte Chemicals is relocating to an industrial area.
"Late in 1981, OPCO added Project "Crime Stop" to its activities, providing free locks to people with low and moderate incomes.
"That fall, it became clear that people wanted to take more initiative in deciding the kind of development that would take place in Ocean Park, rather than just fight defensive battles against real estate developers. With this is mind, at their Third Community Congress, OPCO called for the establishment of a "community development corporation" (CDC) - a corporation created and controlled by residents to meet development needs that would otherwise go unmet, i.e. affordable housing and service- oriented businesses.
"1982 was also a year of achievement for the people of Ocean Park. Early in the year, OPCO members began pushing for stronger eviction protection for all Santa Monica renters. By September, the Santa Monica Rent Control Board passed regulations meeting these demands and Ocean Park residents had won another victory in their struggle for control over their community.
"Another group of OPCO members won a commitment from the City Council to narrow Fourth Street in order to reduce the danger of speeding traffic; and the Council also agreed to preferential parking for Second and Third Streets.
"The summer of 1982 saw OPCO's First Annual Arts Festival which tapped the community's creative resources and brought people together for two days of fun and socializing.
"Community members on Third Street were involved in planning what was to become of the last few vacant lots in Ocean Park.
"OPCO helped tenants in several buildings throughout Ocean Park organize to win badly needed improvements in their building maintenance and security.
"The Free Locks Program was expanded to include all of Santa Monica.
"The community development corporation, called for at OPCO's Third Annual Congress, began its work under the name, "Community Corporation of Santa Monica."
"Finally, the most important organizing issues for the coming year were set down by the Fourth Community Congress: housing, crime, the arts, telephone rates and service, traffic and safety were the issues that most concerned OPCO members in November, 1982.
"It's been over eighty years since a group of ambitious real estate promoters founded the resort town of Ocean Park. During that time, the community has grown and changed and struggled to preserve its very livable diversity in spite of the Depression, the post-war boom, the staggering pressures of real estate development, and the mixed blessing of urban renewal.
"The community has hung on long enough to build an organization that allows people to gain power over their lives at the community level. That's what OPCO does. But no community organization can survive without a constant influx of new people and energy. That's another of OPCO's tasks: to continue building the organization, and, in doing so, realize the vision of Ocean Park as a community where people are able to identify their goals and accomplish them by working with their neighbors.
"Ocean Park Update/1983
" On February 28, Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband overturned a Santa Monica Rent Control Board decision, which had disallowed a $100/mo. rent increase sought by the landlord of the Namor Apartments. Rittenband's ruling gave the owner an additional $125,000 in rental income from the 97 unit complex and kicked off a prolonged battle between the tenants, organized by OPCO, and the landlords.
"At several meetings, during the Spring of 1983, the landlord claimed he needed the full $125,000 and more because the building was running in the red. Tenants claimed they couldn't pay $100 extra a month and that the owner's financial mess was his own fault - he had traded a low down payment for a high interest rate when he bought the building in 1979.
"After several months of cordial yet firm negotiating, the two sides reached a compromise. Rents would go up at a staggered rate - 8% of the increase each month. The compromise solved the problem of paying the large increase all at once, but the final rent would still end up too high for most tenant.
"The Namor Tenants' Association then invited Community Corporation of Santa Monica, which was started by OPCO, to look into purchasing their building as a non-profit rental owned and operated by CCSM with tenant control of management.
"The building is not out of speculative hands yet; but the Namor tenants, with OPCO's help, have been able to stay in Ocean Park for nine months more than they expected back in February when the Judge's order was issued, and they hope now to stay here for good.
"In June, the City Council's conservative minority was able to use a parliamentary technicality to have OPCO's funding completely cut. OPCO rents its space from the Church in Ocean Park. Council member James Conn* is also a pastor at the Church, and the Council minority claimed "conflict of interest' should prevent his voting on the issue of OPCO funding. Without Conn's vote, funding for OPCO was defeated.
"Two weeks later, over 500 Ocean Park residents turned out for a rally and public hearing at City Hall, where they urged the Santa Monica City Council to reconsider its action. Over the course of the summer, a ruling was requested from the State Fair Political Practices Commission. The Commission decided that there was no conflict of interest, and by summer's end, OPCO's funding had been restored, although somewhat reduced.
"In August of 1983, through the efforts of its neighbors, a ten-story senior citizens' facility on Ocean Park's northern beachfront was saved from being turned into a luxury hotel. In the summer of 1981, seniors living in the Ocean House board-and-care facility were evicted by the building's owners, despite a court restraining order, and the attempts of the City's Rent Control Board to prevent the evictions. When the developers stated their intention of putting a luxury hotel in the building, people living in the area took action and called on OPCO for help. In the face of strong neighborhood opposition, the developers agreed to drop their plans for a hotel, and to restore the senior facility in Ocean House.
"After five years, Main Street continues to present the community with plenty of organizing issues. In 1983 alone, Main Street's residential neighbors appeared in front of City officials at public hearings on more than a dozen occasions. Two Main Street issues stood out in '83. The first was the proposed 24-hour mini-market (MI-T-MART) at Marine and Main, which neighbors successfully resisted for over a year and a half. The market will be allowed to go in, but only under conditions which minimize the negative impact on the residents in the immediate area.
"The other issue was that after three years of working together to solve some of the parking problems related to the businesses on Main Street, neighbors were finally able to have preferential parking implemented with the help and support of Main Street merchants. After much confusion around the implementation of the ordinance, neighbors met with Police Chief Keane to iron out some of the snags. Together, people came up with a plan; and two months later when the City took a poll among the residents, most of them were satisfied with the ordinance.
"After several Neighborhood Watch meetings, residents of Hill Street were so well-prepared that they actually caught a burglar in the act!
"A group of mothers who take their children regularly to Ozone Park, got together and persuaded the City to provide new playground equipment and to construct a fence around the "tot lot."
"The OPCO Renter's Rights Committee fought for and won better eviction protection for tenants and opposed increases (beyond 3.6%) in the allowable yearly rent adjustment under rent control. Although a 4.5% annual increase was passed by the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, other increases that would have raised rents even further were defeated.
"Another example demonstrates how tenants were able to exercise their rights under rent control. Thanks to the action of tenants at 2721 Second Street, the landlord's petition for a $199/month rent increase was denied. In addition to preventing a rent increase, five tenants convinced the Board that the building had not been adequately maintained for years and were granted rent decreases of approximately $50 a month.
SOME OPCO ACCOMPLISHMENTS
"Installing door and window locks for low income residents; boarding up a vacant house on Hill Street; getting new equipment for Ozone Park; getting an improved drainage system for Copeland Court; installing Neighborhood Watch signs throughout Ocean Park; holding a clean-up day and Whistle-Stop program on Bay Street; getting improved maintenance and security in a number of apartment buildings; getting Stop Signs installed on 6th and Hollister to reduce speeding traffic; getting a traffic signal for pedestrians at 6th and Ocean Park; getting new lighting and playground equipment for Joslyn Park; getting new lighting for Ozone Park; getting streetlights for Navy, Marine and Ozone Streets; preventing the demolition of the historic 4th Street Court Apartments; initiating the mural at Joslyn Park; holding an Energy Fair that drew 1500 residents; cleaning and disinfecting local sewers; installing extended time crossing buttons for seniors; getting GTE to appoint an ombudsperson to handle "poor service" complaints; getting radar enforcement of speeding traffic on four neighborhood streets; getting a foot patrol on Main Street; getting a zoning plan for Main Street; removing graffiti; getting affordable housing units included in several new condominium projects that displaced the original low and moderate income residents; doing a housing rehabilitation survey; obtaining funding for the expansion and relocation of the L.A. Childbirth Center; getting a Stop Sign at 7th and Navy Streets; getting increased police patrols on several neighborhood blocks; creating a recycling center at the Civic Auditorium; holding a neighborhood Festival of the Arts; holding Neighborhood Housing Conferences; helping create a preferential parking system; helping expand eviction protections for tenants; obtaining a City commitment to solve Fourth Street traffic problems; holding community planning and design workshops with residents; distributing water conservation devices; hold a Neighborhood Film Series."