Lower S.M. Canyon Joins Four Neighborhood Associations to Aid in Recovery & Preparedness

By Laurel Busby

News & Information Editor

Some Lower Santa Monica Canyon residents have begun to organize their first neighborhood association, part of a multi-pronged effort to strengthen the overall Canyon’s ability to recover from the recent disaster and prepare for the next.

Miriam Bookey, a resident of Lower Santa Monica Canyon (LoSaMoCa), has been spearheading the effort by reaching out to neighbors, building a first website, and preparing to canvass the area. Other residents have also become active, and their initial goal is to reach every neighbor by knocking on doors on the streets that loosely envelop Canyon Charter Elementary School, including Sumac, Sage, and Stassi lanes, plus parts of Amalfi, East Channel, and Entrada.

“We don’t have our own voice, so this is very exciting for us,” Bookey said. “Our biggest challenge is to create a shared understanding of what these streets have in common, and we’re trying to have as many conversations as we can. We’re going to begin with coordinating an emergency contact list, which will include both residents and their pets.”

The effort began on Mar. 1 when The Canyon Alliance Director Doug Suisman proposed that Rustic and Santa Monica Canyons be comprised of five neighborhood associations of around 200 homes each to enhance disaster recovery and preparedness efforts.

Since then, volunteers from each neighborhood—Lower Rustic Canyon, Upper Rustic Canyon, Lower Santa Monica Canyon, Upper Santa Monica Canyon, and Boca (the mouth of the Canyon)—have been assessing their current records of residents, which are in some cases outdated and therefore inaccurate, considering ways to improve them, and reaching out to their neighbors about the effort. Each neighborhood also has a webpage that is accessible from The Canyon Alliance site (the-canyon.org) with a contact link so that residents can reach their association organizers.

Unlike Lower Santa Monica Canyon, the other neighborhoods had pre-existing associations, although some were more active and current with their membership than others. The new initiative spurred them to both ascertain how accurate their membership rolls are and consider ways that they can be better prepared for the next fire, flood, or earthquake.

For example, Upper Santa Monica Canyon Association currently lists 260 members from around 300 homes, but the list is not up-to-date. Volunteers will be reaching out to create an accurate list over the next few months.

Upper Rustic Canyon already had a comprehensive list compiled by Robyn Buecker and Ashley Merrill, which they have been updating with fellow volunteer Nada Kirkpatrick to reflect any residents who have left the area.

“I’m going through it lot by lot on Google maps and highlighting houses not on the directory,” Buecker said. “I’m almost done, and I think I’ve only found three to four that we were missing. Overall, we are about 90 percent there.”

Lower Rustic and Boca also had existing lists of residents plus WhatsApp or Google groups that they had been using to coordinate on neighborhood issues.

But Lower Santa Monica is starting from scratch. Since the neighborhood had never before had a clear definition of its streets and boundaries, one of its initial goals is to find commonalities and shared concerns, Bookey said. Each street has a particular flavor and unique issues.

For example, East Channel Road runs through the center of the neighborhood and the flood channel has a strong impact on the area, while residents on Stassi and parts of Entrada may be more focused on issues of traffic from both vehicles and pedestrians who climb their popular staircases, Bookey said. Some of the stairs are falling apart, and so maintenance might also be a more prominent concern.

Meanwhile, traffic in the canyon, environmental issues, and burying power lines might be concerns that crossover to many residents in Lower Santa Monica.

On a recent tour of each street, Bookey wondered, “What are each street’s concerns? What do we all have in common? What things can we do to foster a sense of community?”