See email here: https://imgur.com/a/gA5Njqw

If you’ve been following the local turf wars at all, it has been, at best, confusing why SMMUSD – unlike other nearby districts like LAUSD and of course the City of Santa Monica itself – has been so gung ho on installing artificial turf on its campuses. Even if you buy the arguments about “field availability” for older students (I don’t, but let’s put that aside for the sake of argument…), District COO Carey Upton has been pushing turf even for our littlest kids, including 4 year olds (!). This is even though turf gets much hotter than real grass on warm days, and turf temps have regularly exceeded 130 degrees in just the past couple of months. Carey Upton has gone so far as to install turf at the new Ocean Park School House without Coastal Commission permits and is currently pushing turf for the new Roosevelt TK/K yard. Parents and other community members have been upset, not just at these decisions but in the way they’ve been treated in raising these issues.

What many parents and community members don’t know, however, is just how cozy Upton is with the artificial turf industry, and just how dismal our superintendent and the School Board have been in rooting out his inappropriate and unethical behavior. It honestly boggles this mind how they allow this stuff, but just to keep it relatively short, here’s a top 5. Tencate (a turf manufacturer) sure is right that Upton is a “fantastic champion,” but I think the community deserves to know who they’re dealing with…

1) Upton literally accepts gifts from the artificial turf industry: https://imgur.com/a/gi9VQKt.

I personally find it insane that the District doesn’t already prevent gifts from its vendors? If this were the City, this would be a straightforward violation of the Oaks Initiative, because I guess the City just has higher (better) ethical standards? Note that Upton’s never mentioned this at the dozens of meetings about the topic.

2) Upton speaks at Tencate-hosted conferences: https://imgur.com/a/a445nTW. Looks like he’s pretty excited about it 🙃: https://imgur.com/a/i8Unctr.

He then has Tencate reps speak before the School Board, without mentioning this to the public. Our superintendent (Dr. Antonio Shelton) shouldn’t be let off the hook either. He has also spoken at one of these conferences and has also failed to mention that to the public, despite knowing this is a contentious issue: https://imgur.com/a/VjAI7JP.

3) Upton has offered to lobby the City of LA on Tencate’s behalf and used his SMMUSD email address to lobby State Senator Ben Allen in defense of turf (luckily Ben is a champion on this issue!): https://imgur.com/a/Tyx5pW0. And: https://imgur.com/a/ftj5wlZ

Most recently, he went to Culver City’s Sustainability Commission to promote turf. I struggle to understand how this is an acceptable use of time for someone with (admittedly) so many job responsibilities?

4) Upton has zero problem being dishonest with the community – here, taking an, at best, disingenuous approach to zoning to avoid community input on turf: https://imgur.com/a/0aTbV2T

From the linked email to School Board member Laurie Lieberman: “Politically, it is better exempt the project now rather than needing to exempt the project on a specific new challenge. (An example, tonight the SM Sustainability Commission is discussing banning a synthetic turf. If they were to do this, the BOE would need to exempt the project to put in a synthetic turf field. Voting on this when it is a community issue would be more of a challenge.”

Bonus anger points: check out how Upton talks about street safety advocates! This is the guy designing “safe” pick up and drop off for our kids. Lovely.

5) Upton – along with Shelton, Laurie Lieberman, and Jon Kean – tried to push the PTA study in their own direction, attempting to exempt play yards for our littlest kids [Note that the PTA study refused to listen to them because they actually gaf…]. I highly recommend reading this email chain in full to get a sense of how manipulative these people are, how afraid they are of disagreement, and just a sense of how they operate in general. It’s unbecoming to say the least: https://imgur.com/a/luavPgU.

Gems in here include School Board Jon Kean accusing the study group, including an environmental sciences professor, of being “biased.” I’d love to understand what definition of “bias” would include the study’s authors, but not their COO who literally accepts gifts from the industry. I don’t think Jon will be explaining that one anytime soon though.

And really impeccable logic from Laurie – “I saw turf in Chicago, so it must be fine, even for little kids!” Seriously, this is the level of analysis and concern that Laurie Lieberman, running for a fifth term, brings to issues the community cares about.

TL;DR:

We so, so desperately need a more serious School Board who will be vigilant about these issues. Even if artificial turf is not your issue, Upton’s behavior is absolutely unethical and unacceptable. And, amazingly, this is the same guy they have overseeing the failing HVAC and the ~$1 billion in construction (which I’ve voted for!). A School Board that allows this behavior, and indeed enables it, is failing to perform its basic oversight role for the community.

Kicker email: https://imgur.com/a/qns2aEK. Maybe, Laurie, people blame Carey because they should? Maybe people blame Carey because the Board isn’t doing its job?

The torn pigeon netting is entangling and killing pigeons under the pier. On my last survey, I counted over 20 dead pigeons in the pedestrian walkway section alone. Entanglement is one of the worst ways an animal can die, as it slowly starves and dehydrates.

An article released in LAist supports that the netting is not working as intended, as birds actively nest and perch on the netting. This is an animal cruelty concern and a public health issue, as the torn netting may encourage even more pigeons to perch and breed under the pier and pollute the water. And it is a bad image for the city to have dead pigeons hanging above pedestrians at a major tourism hotspot.

I think the netting should be removed, and perhaps a non-lethal deterrent (like bird spikes) should be used instead. Netting requires precise installation and maintenance in order to safely exclude pigeons, but the city is clearly incapable of maintaining it. The torn net under the pier has instead become both a breeding and killing ground for pigeons. 

There are already talks about removing the net, due to the pigeons breeding upon it, exacerbating the pollution issue. However, they do not have an actual timeline.

Please email the pier management at [pier.management@santamonica.gov](mailto:pier.management@santamonica.gov) about this, and speak up at city hall to tell them to remove the net ASAP.

Noooooooooooooooooo

Edit: there were some bad actors in here, and the conversation is chopped up a bit because I think some mods ejected him from the thread

I want to hear fellow residents opinions!

Background:

$75 per a visitor pass

$45 per a resident one

increased pricing a year ago or so

only valid on their calendar year and do not transfer when you move

I live in Ocean Park five blocks from the beach (off Lincoln). We have parking permits for our whole block to allow us to park during business hours. Since it is off Lincoln, there are not many high traffic business so I am confused as to why we need them. The exception is on weekends with a local coffee shop but they seem to park on our street and never get a ticket. They have only ticketed the street once in my four years here and it was the day after the permits changed over. At night when tons of cars seem to park and it's a battle for a spot the permits are not valid. Night permits or full day permits would be much more helpful to us residents

Rose area just got two hour parking with permits for the whole block?!?

20th and OP has zones everywhere, maybe to stop smc parking maybe but I find that hard to believe as SMC has a lot of parking

high traffic Montana doesn't have them?!?

My opinion is they are a source of revenue for the city which is in dire needs of funds more than they are helpful for us residents with the exception of if you live by the beach or super high traffic area

We are looking for a full time barista. Please share to anyone interested!

The phrase “residents first” gets said a lot this election. We kept getting stuck on which Santa Monica residents that’s supposed to mean. The answer looks pretty different depending on when you first moved into your apartment, whether you run a business here, or whether you couldn’t find an affordable place in the city at all.

So we went back through the Rent Control Board’s annual reports, RAND’s new report on the city’s economy, and looked at how the council voted on a handful of related decisions going back to 2015. This is a longer read, about 15 minutes. It ends with three questions we’d want every city council candidate to answer.

Before publishing we wrote to SMRR and to the lead author of the RAND report. Neither replied.

https://oursantamonica.com/investigations/which-residents-come-first

If any number in it is wrong, let us know and we’ll look into it.

There are numerous studios in the area, and so many of them have classes that say all levels or beginner levels, but they don’t actually teach or accommodate beginners well. I don’t know anything about poses, breathing and proper form. A true beginner who really wants to fall in love with yoga. I’m not athletic or flexible. Thanks!

https://smmirror.com/retraction-from-curious-city-columnist-charles-andrews/

Seems to be the time of closings :-/

https://www.westsidecurrent.com/venice/wabi-on-rose-announces-permanent-closure/article_88da8100-ec5b-4a98-8c01-b594da7786f1.html

Something troubling is happening at the Santa Monica Daily Press. Susan Sheu wrote a letter to the editor questioning Doug Trussler's business record. Letters from Trussler and Dylan Nugent defending him followed. Those letters disappeared or never appeared online, taking the opportunity for comments and public debate with them.

Agree or disagree with Sheu, her questions are legitimate. Trussler is running on his business leadership experience, yet won't even acknowledge he's a private equity investor. He is. It's on his company Bison Capital's website. Whether it's Sentinel, FinFit, or another investment, these are decisions HE made. That's the record he's asking voters to trust.

Nugent's letter compared his involvement with Sentinel to owning stocks in a 401(k). Seriously? That's absurd. Bison controlled over 90% of Sentinel, and Trussler sat on its board. The company profited from fees charged to low-income people, faced lawsuits, a Human Rights Watch investigation, Vice documentary, congressional scrutiny, and direct appeals to Trussler from civil rights groups. He was in a position to make meaningful changes. He claims he did; those claims deserve scrutiny too.

Meanwhile, Trussler is throwing crazy money around this election. Campaign filings show $33,660 paid to SMDP through September 19, nearly a month ago. It could easily be over $40-50k now. Nugent's letter defending him even featured a big Doug Trussler campaign ad with his face right in the middle of it. Now the article returns a 404 "page not found" error.

These are debates about a candidate's actual decisions and leadership. If elected, those decisions will affect people's lives, livelihoods, and futures.

The information is out there. Anyone with a search engine and access to AI can begin examining his companies and investments. Even his claims about extensive corporate board experience deserve verification. Publicly cited figures vary, and I've only been able to verify 31 board positions despite him claiming over 100. That's a 3x difference. That's exactly the kind of discrepancy a journalist should investigate.

People are free to believe Doug Trussler's claims. But believing someone isn't the same as verifying their record. Maybe SMDP should do what a real newspaper does: put a reputable reporter on the story, investigate the companies, examine his decisions, and establish what's true and what isn't.

SMDP, if you let Trussler buy influence and silence the public, you're no longer an objective news outlet. You're part of the problem.

Money shouldn't determine what the public gets to read. Huh, SMDP?

Hi!! Anyone have a successful story with their own kiddo or know someone who is very good at math and understands very smart pre-teens who just don’t get math? Looking for a tutor/study partner for an active, hilarious, creative 12yo girl who just cannot focus or retain Math as it is being instructed at school*. A few evenings a week, the parents will pay whatever is necessary. They have tried UCLA tutors, Kumon - but I am a relative with kinda the same issue and her parents don’t want this impacting our bond - she needs someone who can make it interesting/fun and relevant to her. Many amazing things have come from reddit convos - would love to hear any advice or success stories. She loves tech and could do it over Zoom or if there was an online program your kiddo loved - just thought I would put this out here and see what comes back. Thanks for reading!

*attends a great private school so spec ed/specialized math instruction isn’t totally an option. Staff has offered to assist after school but she isn’t really into it (needs something DIFFERENT in the approach, not just 1:1 repeat of the day’s lesson).

Hey everyone! I’m just wondering if you guys have any recommendations for live music on Thursdays in or around Santa Monica. My boss is staying nearby from NY and I don’t know too many places! Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Why do we get saddled with these people? Enough. https://www.smdp.com/meth-addict-cuts-internet-service-for-hundreds-of-frontier-subscribers-over-the-weekend/?ref=smdp-daily-newsletter. You can see that he is a repeat unstable a-hole. Just a few years ago he was wandering around SMC with a fake gun and an open assault warrant in Ventura. - https://www.thecorsaironline.com/corsair/2023/3/30/arrest-at-center-of-media-and-design-calls-campus-safety-into-question.

While I have always enjoyed standing in line and chatting with my neighbors waiting to vote in person, this year I’ll be dropping off my ballot ahead of time. Apparently the ballot drop boxes are officially open for business.

Check your mailbox for your ballot and voter guide!

really will miss their salads!!! always felt like the space was too big for them though

Planning a bachelorette trip here and need good recommendations for places to go. I need the best place for brunch, lunch and dinner. A winery in Malibu for wine tasting, best nightlife (night clubs and cocktail places), a good hiking spot and any other places you can recommend for our trip!

Sorry for the AI-generated info, I couldn’t find anything else without IG.

(Reposted with correct date.)

Spotted at 7am in Santa Monica on 10/13/26

In July 2025, Lana placed an item on the city council agenda "waiving City fees not to exceed $15,000 for the Butterfly Brawl", a boxing event run by Mark Habibi. In May 2026, Habibi made a $1,200 donation to Negrete. In July of this year, Lana placed another item on the city council agenda "waiving City fees not to exceed $16,950 and also approve $12,500 in Council discretionary funds to support the Butterfly Brawl".

This adds up to two separate Levine Act violations by Lana, at least one by Habibi, and also at least one violation by Negrete of the anti-corruption Santa Monica Oaks Initiative, enshrined in the Santa Monica city code as Article XXII Taxpayer Protection.

You can get future articles directly in your email inbox by subscribing at https://mastbaum.beehiiv.com/subscribe or using the subscribe box at the bottom of the linked article. I also have an RSS feed.

25F Exchanging student coming to Santa Monica for a few weeks and I wanna make a few friends, any girls interested in party ang hangout with me? I love the beach too

Have you found yourself wondering how the parcel tax actually landed on your ballot?

Following up on my breakdown of *who* funded Measure ES, here is the breakdown of how that money was spent according to official FPPC campaign filings: https://netfile.com/public/csm/campaign

The Cash-To-Ballot Pipeline:

The Capital → ~$369,000 raised. Over 72% bankrolled by commercial developers, district construction vendors, and wealthy insiders.

📊 Where the Money Went (~$358,000 Total Expenditures & Earmarks out of ~$369,000 Raised):

71% Paid Signature Gathering, ~$253,740 | Payments to out-of-town canvassing firm Groundworks Campaigns Inc. to hire professional signature gatherers. That works out to roughly $36 per required voter signature, or around $23 for every single signature gathered on Santa Monica streets.

22% Unspent Cash Reserves, ~$78,000 | Retained treasury capital set aside for general election advertising and voter outreach.

6% Legal, Tech & Admin Operations, ~$22,700 | Legal expenditures were paid to political law firms like Sutton Law Group to handle election code compliance, FPPC reporting, and petition filing rules. (Meanwhile, municipal bond counsel firms like Jones Hall LLP and land-use attorneys like Christopher Harding contributed heavily to the donation side of the ledger.)

1% Printing & Literature, ~$3,600 | Physical paper stock, petition sheets, and initial informational flyers.

When over 70 cents of every dollar raised goes straight to an out-of-town petition vendor to buy ballot access, voters deserve to know the full story behind the measure.

Data Source: FPPC Form 460 & 497 Disclosures via the City of Santa Monica Public Portal.