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Addict living in Santa Monica.
Courtesy: Santa Monica Coalition
(Editor’s note: Palisades Charter High School’s campus burned during the January 7 Palisades Fire and the students went on zoom. Administration sought a location to finish out the school year in-person and it appears the school may lease the Sears Building in downtown Santa Monica. There is hope that the Pacific Palisades High School could reopen in the fall.)
March 3, 2025
Dr. Pamela Magee
Principal Palisades Charter High School
Dear Dr. Magee,
It is my understanding that Palisades High and LA Unified School District are considering and in discussions to temporarily lease the former vacant Sears Building in downtown Santa Monica as a temporary location for PaliHi.
I am a Palisades High graduate. Several of my brothers and sisters attended as well, and participated in after-school sports and activities.
As one who owns and finances property in the Downtown Santa Monica area, I may stand to benefit financially. But first and foremost is the safety of our students, this site and area are unsafe. I urge you to drop this site from further consideration.
Moving forward and leasing this building with knowledge and facts of such is placing our kids and parents in harm’s way, in a very dangerous situation. And it places LA Unified at risk of huge financial liability the first time just one student, visitor or parent is physically injured or experiences property damage.
Here are just a few reasons why – –
1) Police are called to the adjacent Tongva and Palisades Parks and Pier an average of 8 to 10 times a day. Unreported assaults, stabbings, and overdose deaths are covered up. As a Co-Founder of the Santa Monica Coalition, I know first-hand from research we conduct and from courageous government whistleblowers. The Santa Monica Coalition has the largest ever collection of video clips and photos documenting this tragedy over the last five years.
If transient homeless drug addicts are hanging out in children’s playgrounds in the adjacent parks, we know there is a problem.
Parents of junior tennis players in the most recent Dudley Cup Tennis Tournament held in Reed Park and Santa Monica High School, complained about men harassing their sons and daughters as they competed.
2) The adjacent plant and landscape store on the site gave up on the City because of assaults and theft.
3) Adjacent streets are unsafe, even to walk and grab a coffee or lunch
4) Transient addicts from out-of-state, Skid Row and MacArthur Park ride the Metro to the end which is directly across from the Sears site. Most carry knives, blades, sticks and rods.
5) The Santa Monica Police Department is a block away, and one of its officers was stabbed by a transient addict who purchased the weapon from a Target store several blocks away. During just the last year, there have been over a dozen stabbings and killings in this immediate area.
6) About 90% of retailers experience walk-in and walk-out theft on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Some stores and casual quick-serve restaurants tell us they experience theft and harassment once an hour. Much of these incidents are unreported because the merchants are afraid of losing their property and business insurance. Sound familiar?
7) The Venice Family Clinic and the Clare Matrix Foundation, under the direction of CEO Mitesh Popat and LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer, distribute needles and glass meth pipes to addicts in Palisades and Tongva Parks. They have stopped using marked vans, and arrive in unmarked sedans.
Bottom line…addicts ride the buses and MTA Expo Line for free to pick up free drug paraphernalia. And the dealers can buy their meth and fentanyl in MacArthur Park and sell it for three times the price in Downtown Santa Monica. They have now again expanded to the parking lots and alleyways behind 7-Eleven markets and convenience stores, where some students will visit after school.
8) Our 3rd District LA County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath has approved this outdoor needle and glass meth pipe distribution, refusing to move it indoors, and even telling our current Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete she would move the program in front of one of my spaces on the 3rd Street Promenade. The Santa Monica Council, newly elected, has expressed approval of the outdoor distribution.
If there are any doubts about the awful effects, assaults and fear, talk to parishioners of Saint Monica’s Church and parents of the K-12 school, directly across from Reed Park, where the program also continues. Recently retired Councilwoman Christine Parra devoted an entire City Council session discussing the dead bodies and open use of drugs in the park and in front of that school.
9) Even after three years, 75% of the retail and restaurant space within walking distance to the Sears Building remain vacant or under month-to-month leases. The Santa Monica Place Shopping Mall, located directly across from the Sears Building, has a 50% vacancy rate. Its renown mall owner, Macerich Company, gave up. walked away from its + – $350 million loan with Wells Fargo. No theater or museum wants any of the space.
10) Investigate reasons the prior tenant prospects for the Sears Building walked away. Their reasons will shock you. The prior tenant, a museum, could not even attract a single visitor its first week, and closed shortly thereafter.
11) The Santa Monica City Council has not emphasized and focused on attracting and funding the sworn officers Police Chief Batista has publicly requested., The situation has worsened.
12) In Santa Monica, you have a 1 in 115 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime. Crime rates in Santa Monica are 131.7% higher than the national average. There were 765 violent crimes in Santa Monica last year (854 per 100,000 people) and 4,057 property crimes (4,532 per 100,000 residents) which is 131.9% higher than average.
13) With 5,386 reported incidents per 100,000 people, Santa Monica has one of the highest total crime rates in the United States. Even apartment dwellers are attacked in their car ports and rear entrances, and have resorted to private security because the City Council has not provided additional funds for police. Most of the additional funds have come from grants.
14) Last year Santa Monica also faced one of the highest vehicle theft rates in the United States – – more than 569 vehicle thefts, translating to636 stolen vehicles per 100,000 residents. 90% of cities in the United States have fewer stolen vehicles. The likelihood of experiencing a vehicle theft in Santa Monica is 1 in 158.
Click on the links below showing more research, and photos of the transient addicts residing on the Sears property. Look at the gang graffiti across the street in the Santa Monica Place Parking structures.
This is not a safe place for our kids. Bottom line – the odds of falling victim to violent crime in Santa Monica stand at 1 in 118 residents.
Please call, text or email me as soon as possible. Our phone calls and requests to discuss this with you have gone unanswered, and you have not even been aware of what we have been trying to discuss.
I have copied the LA School Board Members as a whole, and each LA School Board Member individually, with the exception of Karla Griego representing District 5, whose email is not available.
Respectfully,
John Alle
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Love these guys who shoot ideas down, but can’t come up with one of their own.
Yet we leave the students at Santa Monica High School to deal with these exact issues, and they are fine . . .
It is not a resident’s job or responsibility to come up with a location for a high school.
Mr Alle is simply reporting the truth which anyone with eyes and ears has witnessed of a sad and degrading experience this area of Santa Monica has become. We were relocated after the fires to a hotel across the street from the beautifully landscaped Tongva Park which I discovered was completely abandoned during all hours of the day except for the 5-10 transients passed out on benches & grass. What a huge waste of a very lovely green space filled with flowering native plants & water features … a park which should be filled with visitors of all ages enjoying its beauty.