Slammed economically by the coronavirus, Santa Monica offers grim preview of crisis to come
Last edited Tue May 12, 2020, 01:13 PM - Edit history (1)
Rick Cole spent his career working to shape and move institutions — not big, august ones with world renown, but midsize cities such as Ventura and Azusa. Over 34 years in five city halls, he built a regional reputation as a wizard of municipal reform.
Sharp, outspoken, at times brusque and divisive, he fought to create compact, walk-able communities near public transportation hubs, while pushing to pare bloated budgets, using data to pinpoint inefficient services and employees.
As city manager of Santa Monica, he had been warning for two years that it needed to start paying down its pension debts, because the good times would end, as they always do.
He just didn’t imagine they would end like this.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-12/coronavirus-santa-monica-economic-impact-recession
“Either we try to preserve the bloody stump of the way we used to do things — or we invent new ways of solving today’s problems.”
