Mayor Lana Negrete Newsletter

My fellow Santa Monicans,

I hope this message finds you well. It's been a full and productive week in our beautiful city. I want to take a moment to share a few key updates and reflections with you as we continue working together to make Santa Monica safer, more inclusive, and more responsive to the needs of our community.

🏖️ Prioritizing Public Safety on Our Beaches

Over the past two years, we've seen a concerning rise in serious incidents occurring late at night on our beaches—from violent crimes to tragic accidents. I've asked staff to explore a limited curfew policy that keeps our beaches open and accessible during the day while better protecting public safety at night. This is not a decision I take lightly—but when it comes to keeping our community safe, I believe we must be proactive. As I said during our last meeting, "nothing good happens after midnight."

🏘️ Economic Recovery

I am excited about the unanimous support for the Entertainment Zone (that I worked on with former Councilmember Davis last year, finally came to council) and the direction to staff to make it broader and permanent.

The new ordinance will return May 13th and allow for businesses with alcohol licenses to be able to participate in a designated outdoor refreshment area. Customers who are 21 and over can receive a wristband and a special designated cup and can enjoy their alcoholic beverage on the promenade in the regulated, monitored and designated area. This is a response to the businesses who've asked for more flexibility to participate in outdoor events on the promenade and to the slowing of business.

By creating an entertainment zone that is consistent, we feel confident it will help businesses attract customers, plan unique and fun events, and activate our downtown area.

🎖 LA28 Update: Our Olympic Legacy

After thoughtful discussion with the LA28 organizing committee, we've agreed that Santa Monica will not serve as a venue for the 2028 Olympic Games. While we cherish our Olympic history, we weighed many factors and ultimately LA 28 ended negotiations and deemed they were not interested in continuing considering Santa Monica.

However, we are being considered as a broadcast location and many international athlete houses have shown interest in calling Santa Monica home for the Olympics. These opportunities would bring in revenue and allow our businesses promote any watch parties without the restriction we would of had if we were a host city.

🎨 🎶 📕 Kicking off Arts and Literacy and AMP!

The Arts and Literacy event at Virginia Park on Saturday April 26th was a great family event with lots of reading, arts and crafts and dinosaur fun! Our very own Councilwoman Natalya Zernitskaya dressed up and read to community kids and it was an amazing turnout!

AMP - Arts, Music, Promenade will be a regular event and today it kicked off with amazing vendors selling unique items and art, live DJ and a great Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band to make for the perfect Sunday! The promenade was packed with families playing games, chess players competing on the 1200 block, mimosas and margaritas being enjoyed either outdoor at 1212 or on the terrace at Casa Martin…it was great to see the promoneade full of life!

🏫 Welcoming Pali Charter School to Santa Monica

It was a joy to welcome Pali Charter to their new location, the iconic Sears building, in Santa Monica. I joined our Economic Development, metro, Department of Transportation, Pali staff and Councilwoman Traci Park, to celebrate their opening and share in their mission of getting back to in person learning. It was heartwarming to see over half of the kids arrive on the metro, school busses and local public transportation. There was no traffic impacts during parent drop-offs and I heard pick-up was just as smooth.

We are hopeful this activity will be a benefit to our local business community as there are now 2500 students and staff combined hopefully eating and playing in our city.

Supporting education—at every level—is key to the health and vitality of our city.

Pali is looking for baseball field space. If anyone knows of space within 10 miles please email me!

Sacramento Update

This past week I attended California league of cities conference in Sacramento alongside Mayor Pro Tem Carolin Terosis and Councilmember Natalya Zernitskaya. We attended sessions on the implementation of proposition 36, working cohesively with municipal staff and city managers, as well as ways to be more transparent and better communicate with our communities (along many other subjects, including issues around housing, public safety, and budgets).

We also had meetings with our state legislators pushing specific bills that were currently either in committee or being heard that impact us financially. Our voices and revision suggestions to these bills were (and are) crucial.

AB478: The FOUND Act

I am extremely proud to have worked on and help inspire the formation of AB478. During the fires I met an extraordinary man named AC who was rescuing animals. I told him I'd help him with anything he needed and there began our relationship. I brought him to press conferences and got him in front of elected county and state officials to help him get the appropriate approval, and to be able to get in and save animals. We worked tirelessly alongside many to help get AC and his associates in to help save peoples livestock, cats, dogs, koi fish and much more. From staging at Palms and Paws in Santa Monica to providing food and supplies for animals affected by the fires, being a small part of supporting these incredible heroes—who acted without hesitation to save people’s beloved furry family members—is one of the experiences I am most honored to have been part of.

AB 478, also known as the "FOUND Act", is a California state bill that aims to protect pets during emergencies and evacuations. The bill, inspired by Oreo the Pomeranian, requires local governments to have plans in place for rescuing pets and provides resources for pet owners to reunite with their animals

Today, I am back in Sacramento for the day to testify on the bill. Let's hope it passes!