Shore Hotel Expansion: Which Side Are You on? - Santa Monica Daily Press smdp.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smdp.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SMMUSD passes its first historical resources policy
Feb. 16, 2021 at 6:00 am
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board of Education passed the district’s first historical resources policy last week, making SMMUSD one of only a few school districts in California with such a policy.
Superintendent Ben Drati said the robust historical resources policy is a win for the community because SMMUSD is committed to historic preservation goals and to adaptive reuse wherever feasible.
Specifically, the district’s newest administrative regulation and board policy will guide the district through a multi-step process when considering facilities projects and modernization at all campuses in Santa Monica and Malibu, according to district staff, who said they worked with the Santa Monica Conservancy to balance the interests of the community and the educational needs of current and future students.
In the 1940s, Nick Gabaldón, an athletic, handsome student at Santa Monica High School, would often escape class to Bay Street Beach, a half-mile stretch of shoreline roughly between Pico and Bicknell Streets, by the Casa Del Mar hotel. Derisively called the Inkwell by some white Angelenos, Bay Street Beach was a haven for people of color.
Here, Gabaldón would bodysurf for hours, impressing two white lifeguards who loaned him a rescue board. With this heavy, 13-foot board, Gabaldón taught himself to surf, becoming the first documented Black surfer in America. He eventually took to riding the waves in Malibu, paddling six miles north and another six miles back, because he knew he would not be welcome walking on most of Santa Monica s beaches.