City Council members in Santa Monica, unlike Culver City, come to stay.
One month into his ninth year on the most spirited City Council in America, Richard Bloom is still a green kid, and that label has nothing to do with the environment. He is only the second newest member of the seven-person Council in Santa Monica.
Among the true veterans, Herb Katz, Bob Holbrook and Ken Genser (voted Mayor last week by his colleagues) all are believed to have been elected shortly after the Civil War. It is unverifiable, though. Everyone who originally voted for them is gone.
[img]249|left|Richard Bloom||no_popup[/img] But this is a story about the amazing Mr. Bloom. The other day in the exact middle of his life, he made a transformative career change whose effects may not be known for years.
Thirty years into his family law practice, Mr. Bloom, a family man, gave it up, mostly, to lend a creative, committed hand to reducing the homeless curse that plagues his hometown and the rest of the country. The fact that his hometown is nationally prominent for aggressively, imaginatively and glamourously addressing homelessness is not unrelated to Mr. Bloom’s decision.
In his youthful 50s, he has been hitting his professional stride for decades. A visit with him may cure a pessimist’s notion that politicians are money-grubbing cynics who left their idealism strewn across a messy floor back in their university days.
Hope and Change, Santa Monica-Style
Over a nosh at Junior’s Deli in Westwood, the scholarly-appearing Mr. Bloom, now wearing a light dusting of a beard, traced an outline of his momentous move.
The change was neither sudden nor eruptive.
“I decided at some point that the long-term stress of litigating family law cases was something I could live without,” he says. “Not that I can’t do it. Just that family law brings along with it a certain amount of stress because you are dealing with different families’ problems on a daily basis. At any time, I would be juggling 25 to 50 cases. On top of that, when you are litigating these types of cases, the litigation itself is stressful.
“For a number of years, I felt it would be nice to do something different. This isn’t all that I can contribute. Actually, that is what brought me to run for the City Council. The same thinking and process brought me to try something new in the non-profit world.”
Question: You are in your fourth term on the City Council. Did serving on the Council awaken or clarify an interest in rescuing the homeless?
“Very much so. It was an issue I cared about… in a way that a lot of people do, passively. You wish it didn’t exist. You contribute money. Maybe sometimes you volunteer. It’s always been an issue in Santa Monica because we have a relatively large homeless population.
“You may remember I started running for office in 1996, although I didn’t get elected until 1999. I had the pleasure of losing a couple of times first. I wasn’t happy about that, of course. But looking back, I was able to learn a lot. Losing builds a certain amount of character. I also learned that if I were persistent, I could still prevail. I learned that being in politics is about coalition-building. You build for it over time.
“First time I ran, I really got my butt whipped. It came as a bit of a surprise because I only thought about what I was saying and what I believed in. ‘Gee, people must relate to that. I’ve got a great message.’ But, obviously, it is much more complicated than that.”
Did losing affect your self-esteem?
“I don’t think so. I might have been depressed for a little while, but not long.”
As if the response weren’t obvious, given that Culver City has had term limits for almost 20 years, how do you feel about them as you begin your fourth term?
“It is self-serving, but, no, I don’t support them. When I get into a long conversation with someone about term limits, I will allow for the possibility that maybe, after 25 years, there is a point in time where it would be beneficial to legislate some turnover. But generally speaking, voters vote the way they do for a reason. There is a reason there’s a long-term trend toward re-electing incumbents. People look at the options out there. They see there is institutional memory, that there is value in having somebody who has been around for awhile. Most people are not one-issue persons. They are looking at the big picture.
“My Mom would assess, as she has, politicians — she says, ‘They’re all the same anyway.’ Sometimes my Mom will say, ‘All politicians are a bunch of crooks.’”
Mr. Bloom contorted his face a little, stretching it vertically. “I will look at her and say ‘All?’”
He laughed, heartily. Will the elder Mrs. Bloom retreat? “Yes,” says her son. “But I like to tell that story to other people in front of her. Sometimes she will acknowledge it, and sometimes she will deny she ever said it.”
Was there a single triggering incident that prompted you to put aside your private law practice and join Path Partners three weeks ago as the Executive Director in charge of advocacy?
“Let me answer this way. When I ran the first time for City Council 12 years ago, in candidate forums we were asked ‘What are you going to do about homelessness?’ I remember responding, ‘We really need to treat this issue seriously. The homeless are our brothers and our sisters. They do come from families.’ Now this is Santa Monica, mind you. People started jeering me. I stored that incident away some place. But I have remembered it.
“I always felt good myself that Santa Monica was standing up, trying to take care of these people. But the jeering shocked me. I had a hard time understanding where that feeling came from.
“After I was elected, I started paying more attention to what we were doing about the homeless. At first, I was just a cheerleader. As I said, I felt really good about the programs we were doing and about our attitude, how we were willing to step forward. Over time, I noticed, though, that while we were doing a lot, the problem was not getting any better. And other communities weren’t doing much. That realization led me to become more active.”
Next: A deeper look at Councilman Bloom’s perceptions and reductive remedies for homelessness.
