“En enero de 2017 [con Donald Trump como presidente] comenzaron a estar más mal las cosas”, expresó Shawn Landres, copresidente de la Semana Unidos contra el Odio Los Ángeles (UAHW, por sus siglas en inglés).

“Los residentes del condado de Los Ángeles se sintieron inseguros por el cambio en el ambiente en nuestro país”.

Por lo anterior, recalcó que si una persona que ha sido víctima de un incidente o delito de odio solamente tiene que levantar el teléfono y reportarlo al 211

“Este programa funciona y estará al servicio del público hoy, mañana y por muchos años”, dijo Landres.

Dr. Shawn Landres, [Chair Emeritus], Los Angeles [County] Quality & Productivity Commission & …Co-Chair of LA vs. Hate [United Against Hate Week] said he had three reasons for participating.

“I’m here because my mother escaped the Holocaust and survived World War II and came to this country thanks to people who reached out across lines of racial, religious, ethnic, and other differences.

“All of us are united against hate, which cannot end on November 19. We have to stay united every single day of the year and why ? [B]ecause hate is like rust, it corrodes when we leave it, it corrodes and corrodes, and ultimately, it corrodes our democracy, it corrodes our democratic institutions, it corrodes the lives that we are trying to build,” said Landres. “So, I’m here because it’s personal. For myself, it’s for my family. It’s for my community. My daughter’s my neighborhood, my country, my state, my county.”

During a special city council meeting last week, council members combed through a long list of candidates for various positions, filling out the roster of volunteer positions through summer 2023.

Planning Commission

Shawn Landres*

*Indicates incumbent 

“There’s just something joyful about this project,” said Planning Commissioner Shawn Landres. “It brings housing, it brings light, it brings historic preservation.”

Commissioner Shawn Landres said that the City should be streamlining the approval of housing projects and encouraging developers to build in Santa Monica. However, he said that with the administrative review process it is essential to set very precise guidelines on the type of housing allowed in each area of the City.

“I think at times we have not provided as much certainty to housing developers, affordable or not, as we could have,” said Landres. “Once we’ve actually defined the terms, set the rules of the game, it should be very clear to anybody coming in that if they design a project that meets the standards that we as a community have established, that they know they’re going to be able to build it.”

Commissioner Shawn Landres suggested adding recommendations to the community benefits agreement that would ensure that PSJ’s behavioral health grants be utilized as effectively as possible. Commissioners voted and approved the recommendations, which were as follows:

1. PSJ shall consult with subject matter experts, community stakeholders, and co-funders in the grantmaking process. Ensure a robust system for funding data-driven innovation that does not unfairly advantage prior grantees over promising new ones.

2. Focus the behavioral health funding on infrastructure and gap funding for mental health outpatient care, with attention to measurable ways that the program can divert from, wrap around, and prevent readmission to inpatient psychiatric care.

3. Limit in-kind funding to clearly measurable capital and operational contributions.

Commissioner Shawn Landres began raising concerns over the proximity of the two dispensaries, suggesting that selecting a location on Santa Monica Boulevard east of 23rd Street would extend service to another neighborhood that was “far, far away — within the context of what ‘far’ means in Santa Monica.”

Landres suggested that grouping the two dispensaries so closely together could cause a “geographic inequity,” since city codes dictate there can be only two dispensaries licensed to operate at any time.

…“I am just not comfortable with loading up one part of town with both dispensaries for a wide variety of reasons,” he said.

“I would like to incentivize both the applicant and the neighbors to kind of work it out, but what I don’t want to do is hold new business hostage to prior business in a given industrial zone,” said Commissioner Shawn Landres.

To add accountability, Landres suggested adding a condition to the permit approval requiring that after a year Wag Hotels must provide a report to the Planning Commission demonstrating compliance with all terms of its permit, including noise mitigation, in order to retain it.