last august, i returned to santa monica for my 40th class reunion, and stayed at the hotel california on pacific to the left of the santa monica pier. one day, i strolled down the sidewalk street beside the hotel to neilsen way to go to the pier for an early morning coffee. i noticed a guy in overalls nailing up a ‘house for rent’ sign on what looked to be a renovated bungalow with a lovely deck on the roof with an ocean view. curiousity got the best of me in this newly defined old town/place of my birth. so of course, i asked the painter when they would be showing it…he said, ‘go ahead, take a peek inside if you like’..so i did… right inside the front door was the long skinny 50’s hallway…to the left, street-side, was a tiny bedroom; to the right, a small living room and a closet size office of sorts; next to that, a tiny refurbished bath. at the end of the hall was a tiny kitchen, whose remodeled pantry now contained a winding staircase to the roof. oh yes! the roof had a glorious view! …there was a postage-stamp sized patch of lawn in the ‘backyard’, which butted right up against a fence with a brand new apartment building’s windows facing into the tiny yard–so, no privacy… when i came back down the stairs, through the house and back out to the sidewalk street, i said to the overall’d guy, “how much for this little house”? his reply? “forty-two hundred a month”…. i was floored. and, he was insulted by my laughter… it occured to me that our old stomping grounds of venice and santa monica have been bastardized and taken over by the real estate barons, who incessently have inflated the market with overblown prices at whim to this unconscionable place …and like the gas prices at the pump and the state of all rents along this california coast, everyone then jumps on board like mindless sheep in the herd because, what the hell…what are the other choices–especially for those of us as life-long renters… when i returned from the disneyland that was once our slums at the beach, i pulled into my yard with gratitude. here, in almost paradise, i am fortunate enough to have a 2 bedroom, 2 bath casa on 1/2 acre of land, with a barn-sized former greenhouse and a shade greenhouse on the other side of this land. off the living room, there is a west-facing deck that allows for gorgeous sunsets, star-filled nights and a generous moon-glow on the eves of the full moon. its quiet and peaceful here off this dead-end lane; the birds sing to me in the morning, the deer eat my garden’s bounty on occasion; the fox, barn owls and other critters meander on their nighttime journeys through the apple orchards; the coyotes sing their mournful cries from the ridges in green valley…and i listen…and i watch and wonder…once upon a time, i was priced out of my other ‘home’ for close to twenty-five years, marin county…how long will it be before the county of sonoma  becomes as unaffordable as santa monica or mill valley…still, today, i am grateful that i am able to live in a place that i can still manage to afford, at $1500. per month…i am lucky