Santa Monica Asked To Cut Blank Check For 2028 Olympic Stadium Next To PCH

Santa Monica is about to decide on an agreement to build a stadium for more than 12 thousand people people watching the 2028 Olympic Games volleyball … right next to Pacific Coast Highway at the tunnel.

Next Tuesday night … the Santa Monica city council will consider a contract with LA 28 .. the Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee.

LA 28 wants to build a 12,000 seat stadium on the beach immediately north of the Santa Monica pier.

A staff report says the City will be required to commit to providing services without understanding the required service levels or costs.

Santa Monica taxpayers would pay around $15.5 million to prepare for and host the Olympic Games.

Almost 3 million dollars in revenue would come in if the Olympics were to play in Santa Monica … leading to a total net loss to the City of more than $12 million.

All of these are rough figures … the exact responsibilities and costs to the city are not spelled out. 

But … if Santa Monica says ‘no’ to the beach stadium and lets Los Angeles handle the games … Santa Monica could get a financial gain of $10.7 million.

But what about community benefits from a Santa Monica Olympics venue.  The city’s staff report admits there is a lack of community benefits offered by LA28. There are restrictions on revenue generating opportunities for the City, plus other potential financial and legal risks.

Among the big issues yet to be worked … the city says the huge parking lot north of the pier would have to be closed for two months in the middle of the summer..

The reduced parking capacity at the end of the 10 Freeway will be a major local problem … the city report says …. as thousand of beach visitors will seek parking spaces elsewhere. 

Not to mention construction traffic… to build and then tear out the 12 thousand seat stadium and support buildings.

Alternative parking and transportation options, as well as a communication plan for residents and visitors, will have to be developed in consultation with Pier stakeholders .. the city says. 

The Santa Monica city council approved the concept of the Olympic volleyball games on the sand 8 years ago. 

The stadium would be constructed in June of 2028 … and the summer olympics are scheduled for July the 14th through July the 30th.

Impact Of 12,000 Seat Olympic Stadium On PCH Traffic, SM Parking Not Studied

The impact of a 12 thousand seat Olympic stadium … sitting right next to PCH at the 10 Freeway … has not been even mentioned in the LA 28 agreement with Santa Monica. 

The traffic impact on the only direct freeway link to Malibu and Pacific Palisades … has not been examined. 

Bringing in construction supplies to build … and then remove … the temporary stadium … not reviewed.

Santa Monica’s city council will be making a decision with regional traffic impacts … profoundly affecting Malibu … without even mentioning the issue.

California’s CEQA laws … the California Environmental Quality Act … specifically requires envornmentla impact report analysis for new facilities. 

But no CEQA study has even been started for the Olympic stadium on the beach.

The stadium would sit four blocks away from the end of the Expo line trains. 

Those trains are already standing room only during peak hours. 

And the issue of moving athletes to and from the volleyball stadium … not to mention 12 thousand fans … not to mention regular beachgoers …. while providing access to the state highway to Pacific Palisades and Malibu … Is simply not addressed. 

Apparently… Santa Monica is making a decision on building the major stadium… With its major transportation impacts… Without considering the impact on traffic. 

The matter goes before the Santa Monica city council Tuesday night. 

Broad Beach Billionaire Sand Defendant Stole Sand Once Before, Coastal Comm Says

The Broad Beach billionaire sand theft case gets deeper.

Turns out … the billionaire owner of the Milwaukee Brewers has been caught doing it before. 

Baseball team owner Mark Attanasio was cited 16 years ago … at a different house …. of moving sand off Broad Beach for a different house he owned half a mile away.

Attanasio has until next Monday to answer a new claim … that he sent heavy construction equipment onto Broad Beach to steal sand and stabilize a cliff below his home. 

His attorney. … Kenneth Ehrlich .,.. vigorously denies the new charge.

But in 2008 … Attanasio constructed an illegal seawall made of sandbags and metal poles along a stretch of Broad Beach … on public land.

He also planted invasive plant species on a sand dune and impeded public access to the beach … according to Coastal Commission records obtained by the Los Angeles Times. 

Attanasio sold that beach house last year for almost $24 million.

The lawyer for the Attansio’s neighbor says he’s happy to see the Coastal Commission file action against the alleged sand theif. 

Attorney Tim McGinity says “the beach cannot and should not be treated as a personal sandbox.”

Hospital Chain That Owns St Johns Santa Monica Accused Of Illegal Abortion Refusal

The hospital corporation that owns Providence Saint Johns Hospital in Santa Monica is being accused of endangering a woman’s life by enforcing its rules against abortion … letting a bleeding woman almost die.

Anna Nusslock was expecting twins and was 15 weeks into her pregnancy when she started to miscarry.

Doctors at Providence Saint Josephs’s Hospital in Eureka … in far northern California … refused to abort the twin fetuses … even though it was certain neither would survive. 

Anna Nusslock at a news conference yesterday in Sacramento. 

70642 NUSSLOCK

“That policy, I was told prohibited any medical intervention so long as my daughter still had heart tones.

“I did everything I could to take care of myself and my daughters from the moment I learned I was pregnant to the moment I learned they would not survive.

“It inflicted on me needless protracted pain, bleeding and trauma..”

Providence hospitals have a policy based on Catholic teachings  … no abortions if there is a fetal heartbeat. 

The woman was driven by her husband to a smaller hospital 15 miles away … where an emergency abortion was performed to save the mother’s life.  

All 51 Providence hospitals in the western U-S have the same anti-abortion policies … the company is owned by an offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Providence hospital in Eureka says it was heartbroken by the incident … but cannot respond to the state attorney general because of the state lawsuit.

As for the California Attorney General … Rob Bonta says Providence has an abortion policy right out of Texas … in a state that respects women’s health choices … California.

70643 BONTA ABORTION

“We’ve got a hospital we’ve got a hospital policy reminiscent of heartbeat laws in extreme red states were used to seeing stories of women denied life-saving treatment coming out of states that have outlawed abortion but even here in California. We are not immune from this problem.”

Bonta is asking for a court order … requiring the hospital in remote northern California to provide emergency abortion services … as required by California law.

In Santa Monica … Providence Saint Johns has the same anti-abortion rules as does its sister hospital … Providence Saint Joseph in Eureka.

But across the street from Providence Santa Monica is the UCLA Hospital .. which does not have Catholic strictures regulating its emergency room.

Up in Eureka … the only alternative hospital that can perform such services in that part of the state is about to close its gynecological unit due to budget cuts.

The next nearest hospital to Eureka is 220 miles away … in the Bay Area..

Poll Finds Katie Porter On Inside Track To Replace Newsom in 2026

Representative Katie Porter is the top choice for California governor in the election two years from now. 

Porter lost the U S Senate primary this spring … and is getting ready to move back to Irvine where she is a professor at the UC Irvine law schiool.

Gavin Newsom who cannot seek re-election due to term limits.

A new poll by USC, Cal State Long Beach and Cal Poly Pomona finds that Porter is rather top choice among 13 people who might run for governor … if the election was held today.

14 percent of the polled people like Porter the best.

Republican State Sen. Brian Dahle came in second with 5.3%

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state controller Betty Yee both come with with 2.6 percent of the voters.

111º Expected In Woodland Hills Today, 109º In Santa Monica Mountains – Brushfire In Castaic Might Be Sniffable In Malibu

A brushfire 35 miles north of Malibu may send smoke in our direction later today. 

The fire was reported at 2 in the morning … by 6 it had burned about 25 acres of brush. 

The fire was burring on Lake Hughes Road near 5 Freeway in Castaic, the California Highway Patrol reports.

Nightlfying helicopters dumped water on it … from the adjacent reservoir.

The urgent need was to reduce the fire’s spread before hot temperatures arrived in the middle of the day.

The blaze was about 50% contained at sunrise.

Today will be the warmest day of this record breaking heat wave … and we can expect to see several daily record highs and at least one all time monthly records set.

The National Weather Service says dangerous heat will affect almost all residents.

It was 90º up at the top of the Santa Monica Mountains at 6:15 this morning.  Two miles away, it was 50º in Malibu Canyon.

At midday…it was still cloudy at Zuma Beach as a strong marine layer also kept temperatures unexpectedly low in the Santa Monica mountains.