Hey Santa Monica: Is it all good?

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – With a sparkling Pacific beach, acres of parks, vibrant shopping areas and plenty of jobs, this city on the affluent west side of Los Angeles would seem to have it all.

But city leaders are spending $1 million to find out how Santa Monica residents are doing and feeling about things – even how much sleep they're getting.

The city's government has begun urging residents to take its online survey aimed at quantifying and measuring their "well-being.'' The aim, says Julie Rusk, who is leading the project for the city, is "to give us a snapshot of how our community is doing'' to guide future decisions.

"Some of the kinds of things we will ask about: How they feel about home and job, how much sleep they get, what opportunities and access they have to use public spaces to engage in activities important to them,'' she says.

And, she adds, "how how much they know their neighbors.''

"These very facets of a person's life, research shows, can really contribute to their well-being,'' Rusk says.

The money for the city's Wellbeing Project comes from a grant won from Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charitable foundation set up by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.

Though not tapping taxpayer funds, the project has drawn eye rolls from skeptics who see it as one more way this quirky city distinguishes itself.

"In a nutshell, I think the Wellbeing Project is a joke and a waste of money,'' says Bill Bauer, who writes a column for the Santa Monica Daily Press.

In a recent column,under the heading "Has Santa Monica lost its way?'' Bauer complains: "Instead of practical planning we get pie-in-the sky idealism and social engineering agendas that've turned our city into a crowded, dirty and unsustainable place.''

Often regarded as bleeding-edge liberal, Santa Monica was one of the first cities in the country to ban plastic bags, and two years ago it extended a smoking ban to include inside apartments and condominiums, even by owners. Its 26-acre Palisades Park on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean has a petanque court for players of a French game the city describes as somewhere between bocce and horseshoes.

Santa Monica was the spot where Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger hid out in plain sight for 16 years, paying in cash for a rent-controlled apartment just a five-minute walk from Palisades Park. He was discovered and captured by the FBI in 2011 and is serving a life prison sentence for murder and racketeering.

The city has a thriving economy, boosted by media, entertainment and high-tech businesses attracted by the spectacular setting, educated workers and robust broadband infrastructure. Among its big employers is RAND Corp., a nearly 70-year-old think tank with global reach – and the main contractor helping the city conduct well-being measurements.

Kevin McKeown, a 16-year veteran of the city council, credits the city's push nearly two decades ago to install fiber-optic lines underground even before there was demand for its high-speed data capabilities.

The city now boasts 1.6 jobs for every resident, he says, and the roughly 90,000 population swells daily. Its Third Street Promenade upscale retail, dining and entertainment district draws throngs of tourists and day trippers.

But the success has extracted a high price in crushing automobile traffic.

"It's clear more development increases traffic,'' McKeown says.

Surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles, the beach city and the Santa Monica Freeway leading into it, streets here are among the most traffic clogged in the nation. Like many, the area representative on the county board of supervisors, Zev Yaroslavsky, says he won't go into Santa Monica unless he can schedule his return before or after a rush hour that starts at 2:30 p.m. and doesn't end until 8:30 p.m.

"It can take you an hour to go 2 ½ miles from Ocean Avenue to the 405 Freeway – literally an hour,'' Yaroslavsky says in a video featured on McKeown's city-issues website. "It's happened to me many times.''

McKeown, who has lived in the same rent-controlled apartment for 38 years, calls Santa Monica "one of the shining stars of local grass-roots progressive effectiveness in the country.''

It is, he says, sort of a liberal college town without the college – one where the mean price of a single-family home is $1.8 million.

The well-being survey is worthy of the city's progressive tradition, he says, along with city-backed child care, senior programs, rent controls and other social services.

"We're blessed that we're both a progressive town and one that has resources. We've been able to put in place those progressive policies,'' he says.

"This is not self-esteem. We're really looking at what makes a difference in people's lives.''