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THURSDAY
Volume 21 Issue 221
08.04.22 Take your pick: Two property transfer tax proposals approved for November ballot
A feast for the senses: Chariot festival returning to Westside
ASSOCIATED PRESS
EMILY SAWICKI
canopies that raise and lower to go under power lines along the parade route. Each chariot honors a deity — Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama, and Lady Subhadra — and is decorated with vibrant colors and flowers. “It’s very, very colorful,” one organizer, who goes by Divya, said. “The floats are decorated with fragrant marigolds and gardenias …
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers during a meeting that was disrupted by protesters who said it criminalizes homelessness. The council voted 11-3 to vastly broaden an existing ban on sitting, sleeping or camping that currently only applies to daycare centers and schools specified by the council. The vote, which applies to public and private schools, came after a previous vote last month failed to pass unanimously. The meeting was recessed for about an hour before the vote after dozens of people became unruly, at one point chanting “shut it down!” A second and final vote will still be needed next week. About 750 public school sites are within the city limits, Los Angeles Unified School District officials told the Los Angeles Times, which said nearly 1,000 commercial day-care businesses are registered with the city. The next public school year starts on Aug. 15. Los Angeles is among many cities struggling to deal with a surge in homelessness and large encampments scattered along sidewalks that have sparked public outcry. Supporters of the blanket ban said homeless camps are a health and safety threat to schoolchildren,
SEE CHARIOT FESTIVAL PAGE 5
SEE HOMELESS PAGE 5
SMDP Staff Writer
Santa Monica voters will have a few options when it comes to taxing high-end real estate deals on the November 2022 ballot. The first option will charge $57 per $1,000 of value for real estate deals in town, on properties worth $8 million or more. The measure would continue in perpetuity until such time as a future city council decides to remove it. The second option will charge $25 per $1,000 of value, also for real estate deals valued at or above $8 million. This tax measure would expire after 10 years, with an optional extension of five additional years if a supermajority of council agrees on the extension during year eight. Each of these options is a “third tier” atop already existent document transfer taxes of $3 per $1,000 of value on properties valued under $5 million and $6 per $1,000 of value on properties valued at $5 million and above. And there’s always the third option: to vote “no” on both and maintain the status quo. The two competing measures have stirred up frustration on city council, which voted to approve both for the midterm ballot despite disagreements. With the first option, which was placed on the ballot via an initiative SEE TAX MEASURES PAGE 7
Los Angeles OKs sweeping ban on homeless camps near schools
VENICE: The event is coming back to Venice after a forced break due to Covid. EMILY SAWICKI SMDP Staff Writer
A 46-year tradition returns this weekend after a two-year hiatus: ISKCON LA’s Festival of the Chariots. The festival, featuring music, dancing, vendors, a vegetarian feast and the famous parade of chariots from Santa Monica to Venice, is set to take place on Sunday, Aug. 7. The parade was scheduled to begin
at 1855 Main Street — outside the Civic Auditorium — at 10 a.m. that morning. Chariots were expected to arrive in Venice by 12:30 p.m. ISKCON, which stands for International Society for Krishna Consciousness, hosts the yearly celebration in concert with similar parades and festivals that take place the world over called Ratha Yatra, which began in India millennia ago. The chariots are massive wooden structures on wheels with 30-foot
Courtesy photo
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