In the last few weeks, local people in Santa Monica have been gathering together to put right something that began to go wrong when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Because one of the many things sacrificed to fight off the Axis powers was the Great Park the city of Santa Monica had bought for future generations back in 1926.
The original, almost 200-acre Great Park included an 18-hole public golf course, tennis courts, open field space, archery, skeet shooting, lawn bowling, and many other recreational and sports amenities common to the time. But with the approach of war, Santa Monica loaned the park to the federal government, which in turn loaned it to the Douglas Aircraft Corporation, which built over 10,000 DC-3s before they closed the plant in the 1960s.
Then began a decades-long battle by the people of Santa Monica to get the park back, with the Federal Aviation Authority, flight schools, and corporate jet owners insisting it should remain an airport. Finally, in 2014, after a hard-fought campaign against powerful aviation interests, Santa Monicans voted 60–40 to back Measure LC, amending the city’s charter so that after the airport’s closure, no new development would be allowed on the land apart from parks, public open spaces, and public recreational facilities.
Faced with this, Washington finally agreed to let the city close the airport [PDF, 8mb] on the stroke of midnight, December 31st, 2028. Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously [PDF, 66kb] to direct staff to take all necessary actions to ensure it happened. During the last council elections, every candidate but one backed closing the airport and turning it into a park— and that one was not elected. This means we have just four years to get ready for one of the most exciting new parks Southern California has ever seen, with nearly 200 acres ready to be liberated from asphalt and concrete and turned into a green oasis for the people of Santa Monica and surrounding neighborhoods.
Recently, over 800 people turned out to say what sort of park they wanted to see, and they overwhelmingly favored just the sort of place they had voted for in 2014. Now, the people and organizations who made the 2014 victory possible have reunited in a great coalition to make sure the airport closes as scheduled and the park becomes a reality.
It won’t be easy. There are still powerful interests that would like to keep the airport open for the convenience of corporate private jets or flight training schools. At least one company wants to keep the airport open as a hub for flying taxis, with thousands of flights over the city every week. Others want to turn the park into a vast building site, claiming incorrectly that Sacramento will insist on it and that we can’t afford it.
However, the rent from non-aviation buildings on the airport site itself generates around $20 million a year, which—once the airport closes—will be available to maintain the park. There’s a host of other ways to develop it gradually with state, federal, and private money into what it could be.
So, if you’d like to make sure that Santa Monica plays its role in combating climate change, has the green space it needs for all its citizens, and will give the children of this and future generations a green, welcoming place to play, please join us in the Great Park Coalition. There’s no more positive and life-affirming project in Santa Monica right now, and future generations will thank us for what we do in the next four years.
