When Santa Monica Was Still Oshkosh By the Sea

In 1973, Real Estate and Business Interests Ran the City. My Fellow Activists and I Helped Change That.

I can’t think of a song about an apartment. Nor can I recall a single poem or novel about one. (I do remember a great little movie many years ago with Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine—a romantic romp called The Apartment—but that’s the exception.) It is odd, because apartments are where many of us live, our dreams take shape, and our everyday stories unfold.

Maybe you think of Santa Monica as a place of sea breezes and ocean beaches, of suntans and surf. But for me the core of Santa Monica …