Press Releases

  

 Contact:    Judy Rambeau
                  Communications Coordinator 
                  City of Santa Monica 
                  judy-rambeau@ci.santa-monica.ca.us
                  310.458.8301

SANTA MONICA BANK HELPS FUND ARTS & LITERATURE AWARDS

---Santa Monica Bank will present a check for $7500 to the City of Santa Monica on Wednesday, October 20, to be used for awards in the Arts & Literature Competition sponsored annually by the National Conference for Community & Justice in Santa Monica. The competition, which is one of Santa Monica's iam2m Millennium activities, will begin on January 21, 2000, with winners announced on May 10, 2000.

The check ceremony will precede the second of Santa Monica College's outdoor Brown Bag Concerts on the Madison Campus at 11th St. and Santa Monica Blvd, at 12 noon. Bank senior vice president Roger Hager will present the check to assistant city manager Susan McCarthy. The concert series, featuring Mystic Journey on the 20th and Third Optic Jazz on Oct. 27, is also one of the city's Millennium activities.

The Big Blue Bus is a sponsor of the Arts & Literature Competition, which will have the theme "Wheels of Change: A Multicultural Kaleidoscope," and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is also contributing to the awards. For information on other Santa Monica millennium events and projects, visit www.iam2m.org on the Web.

"BIG STROLL" KICKS OFF SANTA MONICA'S MILLENIUM ACTIVITIES

Santa Monica, CA, Sept. 10. --- On Saturday, October 2, the City of Santa Monica launches its millennium activities with an exciting day along the beach called the "BIG Stroll." Free and open to the public, events get under way at 12:30 pm at South Beach with the Surf band, a brief performance by Cirque du Soleil and a short ceremony recognizing the pioneering Muscle Beach body builders who paved the way for today's fitness lifestyle.

At 1:30 giant puppets and a drummer lead the way a short distance up the beautifully refurbished pedestrian walkway to Muscle Beach, where world-class gymnasts will put on demonstrations and 40 coaches will show visitors how to use the equipment. At the same time chess masters will duel it out on an enormous chess set in newly renovated Chess Park. By 2:30 it's on to the Santa Monica Pier, where "Pier Days," marking the Pier's 90th anniversary, will be in full swing. A fishing derby, raffles, continuous music, and free carousel rides for the kids are just some of Pier Days' attractions.

By 4:30 pm participants should stroll - or take one of the Ocean Avenue shuttles added for the day-up to Inspiration Point at the northernmost end of Palisades Park. Here members of a local Indian tribe will tell stories, dance and offer blessings. Light refreshments will be served. A time capsule will be placed in the new Millennium Wall, which represents the geologic and human history of the area. Finally, it's back to the Pier, where at 8:00 pm a dazzling display of fireworks (with sound simulcast on Channel 103.1 FM) ends a very special and satisfying day for the whole family.

The BIG Stroll is a City of Santa Monica-sponsored millennium event. Santa Monica has chosen to mark the turn of the millennium by demonstrating its commitment to the environment, lifelong learning and the arts. Under the thought-provoking and imaginative theme, iam2 m, the City is creating a festive atmosphere of celebration, producing highly visible imagery and developing interactive projects that will leave a legacy for generations to come. For information on other Santa Monica millennium events and projects, please visit www.iam2m.com on the Web, the city's website at www.santamonica.org or call 310-458-8999 x428.# # #

At LAST! BEACH AMENITIES WORTHY OF A GREAT BEACH COMMUNITY

Santa Monica, CA, September 13---There is no better way to welcome the new millennium than through beach enhancements that are free, open to all and cater to the spirit, mind and body. Such was the thinking of the City of Santa Monica, which kicks off its millennium festivities at Bay Street and South Beach at 1 pm on Saturday, October 2nd, by debuting its spectacular seaside improvements. Dubbed the "BIG Stroll" (BIG stands for Beach Improvement Group), the event will showcase the following improvements:

South Beach

  • Pebble and shell-imbedded seawalls provide seating, delineation, visual interest
  • Wider, 20'-wide bike path, separated from pedestrian walkway with safer crossings
  • Curving, shell-encrusted pedestrian walkway has slight elevations and dips to mimic rise and fall of waves

 

  • Light poles topped with small blue lights create sense of ocean's flow at night
  • Muscle Beach restored to former glory as gymnastics mecca with new equipment sized for everyone from toddlers to adults
  • Chess park expanded, including a giant-sized board for demonstrations
  • New advanced-design restrooms, benches, trash receptacles and drinking fountains · Improved beach access sites

Palisades Park

  • Water-conserving shrubs, plants and ground cover
  • Lighting replaced and augmented for safety and energy efficiency
  • New drinking fountains, benches, picnic tables and trash receptacles
  • Decorative planting for Pergola
  • New paths for Rose Garden
  • Veteran's Memorial south of Arizona
  • Picnic tables and new native and drought-tolerant shrubs at Inspiration Point

"We wanted to mark this moment in history in a way that will live on well beyond a New Year's Eve party," said Santa Monica Mayor Pam O'Connor. "Thanks to the BIG improvements and our other millennium activities, such as planting 2,000 trees and adding 2,000 library books, we are leaving a legacy for generations to come."

The BIG Stroll is a City of Santa Monica-sponsored event. Santa Monica has chosen to mark the turn of the millennium by demonstrating its commitment to the environment, lifelong learning and the arts. Under the thought-provoking and imaginative theme, iam2m, the City is creating a festive atmosphere of celebration, producing highly visible imagery and developing interactive projects that will leave a legacy for generations to come. For information on other Santa Monica millennium events and projects, please visit www.iam2m.com.# # #

SANTA MONICA USES TEASER CAMPAIGN TO DRAW COMMUNITY INTO Y2K ACTIVITIES

Santa Monica, CA, September 20---"Playful," "mysterious," brain teasing"-all these adjectives apply to the City of Santa Monica's ingenious response to a) a message-saturated audience and b) a small budget. Seeking ways to get residents and visitors involved in its millennium celebration, which kicks off October 2nd at 1 pm at Bay Street on South Beach, the organizers hit upon the idea of sending movers and shakers and placing around town three icons imprinted with the campaign's theme, iam2m, on one side of brightly colored metal cutouts.

The theme speaks to our sense of self and purpose as well as our sense of community and the infinite age of earth and ocean. The other side of each icon piques curiosity with such phrases as, "Oh Look," "You'll See," and "Keeper." The 4th and three other icons will be given away at iam2m events beginning October 2nd. According to consultant Lisa Citron, who conceived the campaign, "We came up with a puzzle to solve, because it will take all our skills and some deciphering to face many real life puzzles in the upcoming century."

Santa Monica has chosen to mark the turn of the millennium by demonstrating its commitment to the environment, lifelong learning and the arts. Under the thought-provoking and imaginative theme, iam2m, the City is creating a festive atmosphere of celebration, producing highly visible imagery and developing interactive projects that will leave a legacy for generations to come. For information on all Santa Monica millennium events and projects, please visit www.iam2m.com. # # #

FORMER OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS PRESIDE OVER MUSCLE BEACH OPENING, SANTA MONICA, CA

September 28 --- On Saturday, October 2, between 1 pm and 4 pm, former Olympic gold medalists Peter Vidmar, Bart Connor and Nadia Comenici are scheduled to join national gymnastics champions in reopening Santa Monica's famed seaside gymnastics center, "Muscle Beach." Steve Hug, a former member of the U.S. Gymnastics Team who practiced at Muscle Beach as a youth, and Glen Sundby, a founder of the center, will also take part. Michael Cates of Broadway Gymnastics School is directing the event.

The City of Santa Monica is featuring the grand reopening as part of its day-long Millennium launch called the "BIG Stroll." Free and open to the public, the Muscle Beach activities (which can be enjoyed from risers just south of the Pier) will include artistic, rhythmic and acrobatic gymnastics; rings; tumbling; and trampoline. There will be special demonstrations from 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm, and 40 coaches will provide free gymnastics instruction to adults and children throughout the afternoon. Among the equipment available for use will be the high bar; uneven bars; balance beams; trampolines; and tumble track.

The Muscle Beach reopening and BIG Stroll are City of Santa Monica-sponsored millennium events. Santa Monica has chosen to mark the turn of the millennium by demonstrating its commitment to the environment, lifelong learning and the arts. Under the thought-provoking and imaginative theme, iam2m, the City is creating a festive atmosphere of celebration, producing highly visible imagery and developing interactive projects that will leave a legacy for generations to come. For information on other Santa Monica millennium events and projects, please visit www.iam2m.com on the Web.# # #

SANTA MONICA REOPENS CHESS PARK WITH GRAND MASTER CHALLENGES

Santa Monica, CA, September 28--The City of Santa Monica is re-opening its famed seaside oasis, Chess Park, with exciting challenge matches that get under way at 1 pm on Saturday, October 2nd, as part of the City's millennium kick-off, the BIG Stroll. The inaugural event of the refurbished and expanded area adjacent to Muscle Beach features Chess Grand Master Edward Gurfeld taking on all comers, engaging in as many as twenty games simultaneously! This bravura performance will be matched by the state co-champions' demonstration of mental wizardry on the area's mammoth 19' x 19' chessboard.

"We're really happy that chess for the new century is getting all this attention," said Peter Savino, president and tournament director of the Santa Monica Bay Chess Club. "The City is to be commended for creating such a nice facility in which to play chess. People use their minds in this game in a way that isn't matched in any other activity. It is intellectually what the most strenuous of sports, such as wrestling, are physically."

The BIG Stroll is a City of Santa Monica-sponsored millennium event. Santa Monica has chosen to mark the turn of the millennium by demonstrating its commitment to the environment, lifelong learning and the arts. Under the thought-provoking and imaginative theme, iam2m, the City is creating a festive atmosphere of celebration, producing highly visible imagery and developing interactive projects that will leave a legacy for generations to come. For information on all Santa Monica millennium events and projects, please visit www.iam2m.com.# # #