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Iconic city or ‘slum by the sea’? Santa Monica needs help, stat

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Remember when Santa Monica was a classic California beach town: idyllic, iconic, safe and thriving?

This week, the city announced it would boost police visibility after a violent weekend and a crime-marred summer.

On Saturday, cops killed a knife-wielding man near the Santa Monica Pier. On Sunday, an attempted robbery left a person shot in the leg. And in recent weeks, a man was shot and killed near the pier, a woman was beaten to death at care facility, and a person was shot and injured in a road-rage incident near 18th and Broadway. 

The city needs a turnaround, and stat.

Police presence alone won’t fix years of decline caused in part by a permissive, radical and at times looney-tunes City Council. 

(This is a bunch, you’ll recall, that voted to study tearing out the Santa Monica stretch of the 10 freeway. Just how practical does anyone think they are?)

The need for change is as plain as the ferris wheel on the pier at dusk.

City voters should scrutinize their ballots this Nov. 3, and determine which candidates........

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