🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 February 23, 2026

Hello everyone,

I spent this past weekend in Santa Barbara at the Independent Cities Association Winter Session — sitting across the table from city leaders who manage the same challenges we do: homelessness, coastal regulations, public safety, and the rising cost of doing everything.

People sometimes ask me whether these conferences are worth the time. Fair question. Here's my answer: this weekend alone, I learned how other beach cities partnered with the Coastal Commission to close beaches at night, how they're tackling safety and cleanliness with limited resources, and where we might be overpaying on contracts. Every conversation was filtered through one lens: Does this help Santa Monica? If not, I move on. If it does, I bring it home.

And there's a lot to bring home to this week. The downtown police substation is officially under construction and on track to open by March 6. We have updated public safety numbers that show our enforcement approach is working. Frieze Los Angeles returns to our airport campus this Wednesday. The NBA housed its entire All-Star roster right here in Santa Monica — and our police department delivered a flawless security operation. New businesses keep opening. And tomorrow night is our regular City Council meeting.

Big week. Let's get into it.

🚨 Public Safety

🔹 Year-to-date arrests are up 71% — and calls for service are up 18%. Through February 14, SMPD has made 636 arrests compared to 371 during the same period last year. Year-to-date calls for service total 16,415. This is sustained, measurable progress — not a one-week spike. Proactive, intelligence-driven policing is delivering results, and I'll keep pushing for the resources and coordination that make it possible.

→ 🎯 My take: When I talk about accountability and follow-through, this is what it looks like in practice. More arrests, more engagement, more coordination between patrol, the Downtown Services Unit, K-9, and the City Attorney's Office. The model works.

🔹 Key crime suppression incidents this week. Officers investigated multiple serious felony incidents, including an armed robbery that led to a multi-jurisdictional vehicle pursuit and five arrests (one located by K-9 Frenkie), a residential home invasion on the 600 block of 25th Street involving masked suspects, and a fentanyl and meth sales arrest in Alley 4 where officers observed a hand-to-hand transaction. Downtown and beach corridor deployments resulted in 38 arrests and 19 citations.

Key Crime Suppression Incidents (Feb 8–14):

🔹 Traffic enforcement stayed focused. Distracted driving operations produced 24 citations, with 19 for cell phone violations. One DUI arrest came after a driver asleep behind the wheel accelerated and struck a patrol vehicle upon being contacted — no injuries, but a reminder of why this work matters. Officers also recovered a concealed, unregistered firearm during a traffic stop on Olympic Boulevard.

🔹 Homelessness response: enforcement and compassion, together. HLP officers made more than 30 arrests this period — public camping, parole violations, narcotics, and sex offender registration violations. In one case, a person who had previously declined services was arrested for beach camping, and officers coordinated with a Department of Mental Health clinician and a local case manager who responded directly to the jail to re-engage the individual. That's the approach: don't give up on people, but don't let disorder stand either.

→ ⚡ I-10 Freeway cleanup: In partnership with Public Works HoST and Mariposa Landscaping, HLP officers removed over 5,220 pounds of trash and debris from the I-10 freeway embankment near the Lincoln exit this past week. That's the kind of cross-departmental muscle that keeps our neighborhoods clean and safe.

🔹 Downtown Police Substation: construction is underway, opening targeted by March 6. After months of coordination, the physical buildout of the downtown substation at Santa Monica Place has officially begun. All lease, payment, and contractor approvals are in place. When operational, the substation will anchor expanded Downtown Services Unit deployments — including doubled DSU staffing of 8–10 officers per day on foot and bike, dedicated Homeless Liaison officers, and eight new Public Safety Officers providing visible presence across the Promenade, Transit Mall, Pier, and surrounding areas. This has been a priority since day one. We're almost there.

🔹 Metro platform policing agreement advancing. The draft MOU between the City and LA Metro,  which would authorize SMPD to enforce laws on all Metro rail platforms within Santa Monica, is now being developed jointly by the City Attorney's Office and Metro's legal team. Staff anticipates bringing the completed agreement to Council for review as part of the March Realignment Update. With Metro in the early stages of a five-year transition away from contracted law enforcement, our residents can't afford to wait. This MOU ensures we close that gap ourselves.

🏆 NBA All-Star Weekend: The Stars Came to Santa Monica

🔹 When the biggest events come to LA, the world's best come to us. What most people don't know about last week's NBA All-Star Game is that the official players' hotel for the entire weekend was right here — at the Regent on Ocean Avenue. LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Dončić, and the rest of the 24-player roster were housed in Santa Monica from February 12 through 16.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: This was a significant security operation. Planning started back in August 2025. SMPD officers deployed from Thursday at noon through Sunday evening, and the entire operation concluded without a single security incident. NBA Senior Security Director Anthony Bynum specifically recognized our department's professionalism and singled out Sgt. Susana Wessels for her leadership throughout the process.

→ 🎯 The bigger picture: As we prepare for the FIFA World Cup, a major Goldenvoice music festival, Super Bowl LXI, and the 2028 Olympics, this weekend proved something important — when major events come to the LA region, the world's top athletes and dignitaries choose Santa Monica as home base. That's a testament to our hospitality, our beauty, and the professionalism of our City team. Massive kudos to SMPD.

🔥 Fire Department Update

🔹 347 calls for service this past week. 2,434 year-to-date. Operational tempo remained steady, with 55 calls in the most recent 24-hour period.

🔹 Battalion Chief Jason Wells promoted. The department held a badge pinning ceremony to mark the promotion — a well-earned milestone. Battalion Chief Wells will oversee C Platoon within the Suppression and Rescue Division. Congratulations to him and his family.

🔹 Recruit Academy: Week 6 complete. This was the real deal — live fire training. Recruits conducted multiple evolutions including above-grade and below-grade fire attack, transitional operations, and vent-enter-search scenarios. Building the confidence and competence to keep our community safe.

🔹 EMS team attended the Resuscitation Academy. SMFD members joined fire and EMS leaders from across the country for an intensive program on high-performance CPR, data-driven quality improvement, and cardiac arrest survival strategies. They're already incorporating these practices into local training as part of Project 2030 — our effort to improve cardiac arrest outcomes right here in Santa Monica.

Fire Prevention Weekly Data:

💼 Economic Development

🔹 Frieze Los Angeles returns this week — February 26 through March 1 at Santa Monica Airport. One of the most important contemporary art fairs in the world is right here in our city for its seventh edition and fourth consecutive year at the airport campus. More than 95 galleries representing 22 countries will showcase work inside a custom indoor-outdoor structure. This year's Art Bank acquisition — Edgar Arceneaux's Skinning the Mirror (Summer 1) — will join our permanent collection, which now includes over 200 works dating back to 1984. Every year we host this fair, our city's cultural footprint grows.

→ 💡 Free public art: You don't need a ticket to experience Frieze. Art Production Fund's Body & Soul installations — seven site-specific works by LA-based artists — are free and open to the public across the airport's athletic fields and community park. And on Saturday, February 28 from 10 AM to 1 PM, artist Cosmas & Damian Brown will lead a free, all-ages artmaking workshop where kids can paint metal plates that become part of a public sculpture. Bring your family.

👉 Register for the free Art Sundae workshop (Feb 28)

👉 Learn more about Frieze Los Angeles

🔹 New businesses keep opening across the city. Entrepreneurs continue choosing Santa Monica, and the momentum speaks for itself:

→ 🎯 My take: As a small business owner myself, I understand what it means when someone chooses to invest in your neighborhood. Equinox's opening at 700 Broadway is part of a mixed-use project that also includes 280 apartments (30% affordable) and the 60,000-square-foot Vons. Support local. Show up. These businesses need us as much as we need them.

🔹 LA County Shop Local program gaining traction. The "Shop Local. Dine Local. Recover Local." gift card program — launched to support businesses impacted by the January 2025 wildfires — has 23 participating Santa Monica businesses, including bG Gallery, Casa Martin, Huckleberry, and Milo + Olive. Buy a gift card and get a 50% bonus card while supplies last. Over $97,500 has been loaded onto cards so far.

👉 Browse participating businesses and buy a gift card

🔹 Illegally parked RVs in beach lots: problem solved. For more than a year, our Parking Division and SMPD Traffic Services worked a persistent, methodical strategy to address oversized vehicles exploiting ADA placards and entering lots without paying. At its peak, as many as 20 oversized vehicles were parked in each lot. After escalating enforcement — adjusting booth staffing, installing barriers, updating the parking resolution to close ADA loopholes for oversized vehicles — illegally parked RVs are now rarely seen. New electronic entry gates will make the fix permanent. This is what happens when departments collaborate and refuse to give up on a problem.

🤝 ICA Conference: Bringing Ideas Home

🔹 I spent the weekend at the Independent Cities Association Winter Session in Santa Barbara. ICA brings together independent cities like ours — cities with our own fire and police departments — to share real-world solutions on homelessness, economic recovery, coastal challenges, and infrastructure. I choose these conferences carefully — only the ones that directly benefit our eight square miles.

→ 💡 What I brought back: How other communities partnered with the Coastal Commission to close beaches at night. I got to hear from, meet with and interact directly with coastal commission members. Heard from other cities on how the are addressing safety and cleanliness. Where we might save money on contracts. How they're supporting local businesses. And the regional relationships that continue to pay off as we prepare for the Olympics and beyond.

These relationships matter. They've already helped us collaborate on shared opportunities tied to the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. I don't attend conferences to check a box — I go to bring back ideas that make sense for Santa Monica.

📚 Education, Libraries & Community

🔹 Westside Special Olympics kicks off its 51st year with Santa Monica. This program traces back to 1976, when Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson and Santa Monica College Professor Jo Kidd launched the first Special Olympics program in the West LA–Santa Monica area. Fifty-one years later, the partnership is still going strong. Basketball practices start today at Windward School in Mar Vista. Track, field, and swimming begin February 28 at Samohi — continuing a partnership between Westside Special Olympics, the City, and SMMUSD that dates back to 1984. Bocce training kicks off at Douglas Park's lawn bowling green.

→ 🎯 Mark your calendar: Saturday, May 2, from 9 AM to 3 PM — the 8th Annual Westside Basketball Tournament at Memorial Park. Free, open to the public, and one of the most uplifting events you'll experience all year. Come cheer.

🔹 Pokémon Club launches at Pico Branch Library. Part of a national partnership between the American Library Association and The Pokémon Company International, the club is already drawing roughly 20 young patrons per session — complete beginners alongside experienced players who naturally step up to teach newcomers. Reading, math, strategy, and peer mentorship all wrapped in fun. Our libraries keep finding creative ways to meet kids where they are.

🔹 Bike Repair RED Kits now available at Main Library. The Library's Read, Engage, Discover kits now include bike repair — everything you need to fix a flat, adjust a chain, or tune brakes. Local mobility advocate Mobility For Who? already featured the kit on Instagram. In a city where biking is a way of life, this is a smart, practical resource.

👉 View the Instagram feature

🔹 New will-call service for historic collections at Main Library. Researchers and residents can now place materials from the Santa Monica Collection Room and Periodicals Stacks on will-call and access them during Workspace hours Monday through Thursday — no appointment needed. A second phase will expand access to the Library's microfilm collection, including a complete run of the Santa Monica Evening Outlook from 1875 to 1998. Making our local history more accessible, one smart improvement at a time.

🔹 Santa Monica shapes countywide homelessness prevention. Our Housing and Human Services team completed a five-month planning process with LACAHSA — the LA County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency — to design a centralized, countywide system for renters seeking financial assistance and legal services. When it launches in late 2026, it could be one of the most significant steps forward in homelessness prevention coordination LA County has ever taken. Our team advocated throughout the process to make sure Santa Monica's existing programs — including Right to Counsel and our upcoming Flexible Financial Assistance program — integrate seamlessly, so our tenants don't face duplicative barriers. That's what it looks like to lead regionally while protecting local residents.

🔹 Farmers Market gleaning programs are growing — and getting noticed. LAist recently featured our Wednesday Downtown Farmers Market and its partnership with Food Forward, highlighting Santa Monica as a model for how gleaning programs reduce food insecurity. On a good day, the Wednesday market alone recovers upward of 5,000 pounds of fresh produce that goes directly to families in need. Our Sunday Main Street market partners with NourishLA, and by the end of February, the Saturday Downtown market will come online as a third gleaning site. Our Farmers Markets have always been a source of pride — and now they're also a pipeline to get fresh food to people who need it most.

👉 Read the LAist feature on Food Forward

🎨 Arts & Culture Highlights

🔹 ATTUNE brought synchronized sound and light to Tongva Park on Valentine's Day. Santa Monica served as the anchor site for ATTUNE 1.0 — a first-of-its-kind countywide public art experience that activated 10 parks and cultural spaces across LA County simultaneously. More than 250 people gathered at Tongva Park, many with picnics, for coordinated live sound performances and sculptural light installations. What made our role especially meaningful: acclaimed Indigenous artist L. Frank — a Tongva/Ajachmem artist, writer, and language activist — opened and closed the entire countywide showcase from Tongva Park.

🔹 Mini Renaissance Faire brought the merriment to Pico Farmers Market. Also on Valentine's Day, the Pico Farmers Market at Virginia Avenue Park transformed into a medieval celebration — complete with themed vendor activities, live music, a Renaissance-inspired photobooth, and programming from City departments and community partners. I had a booth and met with residents directly!  

🔹 COAL block printing workshop packed the Montana Branch Library. Forty community members joined a hands-on workshop led by Sara Hassan Khani, a Camera Obscura Art Lab Artist in Residence. Participants carved designs and printed them using water-based ink — a beautiful example of what happens when our RAD and Library teams collaborate. The COAL residency program provides LA County artists with 14-week studio residencies at the Camera Obscura Art Lab in Palisades Park, complete with stipend and materials. It's one of our standout arts offerings.

🔹 Beach House staff went viral with an Olympic torch relay video. To celebrate the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, the Annenberg Community Beach House team created a playful relay video that's already racked up plenty of views on Instagram. Team SaMo energy at its finest.

👉 Watch the torch relay video (Instagram)

📅 Dates & Community Events

🔹 Tuesday, February 24 — City Council Meeting, 5:30 PM. Come in person, call in, or submit written comment. Your voice shapes policy — and we need to hear from you. Share what matters most to you. The full agenda is available online.

👉 View the City Council agenda

👉 How to participate in a City Council meeting

🔹 Tuesday, February 24 — Toddler Tuesdays with Councilmember Lana Negrete, 10:30 AM & 11:30 AM at Montana Branch Library, Community Room. Stories, songs, and rhymes for ages walking–3 years. Limited space; first come, first served. I love this one.

🔹 Wednesday, February 26 – Sunday, March 1 — Frieze Los Angeles at Santa Monica Airport. One of the world's premier contemporary art fairs. Free public art installations on the airport grounds all week.

👉 Frieze LA tickets and info

🔹 Saturday, February 28 — Santa Monica Reads Author Event with Michiko Aoyama (What You Are Looking For Is in the Library), Main Library, 2:00 PM. Free and open to the public.

👉 Santa Monica Public Library events

🔹 Saturday, February 28 — Free Art Sundae Workshop at Airport Park, 10 AM–1 PM. Kids paint metal plates that become part of a public sculpture at Frieze.

🔹 Thursday, March 5 — Padel Grand Opening at 1318 4th Street with Fernando Belasteguín, the greatest padel player of all time. Details coming soon.

🔹 Want to meet with me? The City has launched a new booking link so you can schedule a 20-minute, one-on-one meeting with me at City Hall. No more back-and-forth emails — just pick a time.

👉 Book Office Hours with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📱 Stay Connected

Got an issue to report? Want to make sure the city hears you?

👉 Report an Issue

If you haven't already, be sure to follow me on Instagram too for behind-the-scenes updates, event highlights, and my thoughts along the way as I continue to go on this journey with you.

👉 Follow me on Instagram

🌟 Closing Thought: Small Town in a Big City

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. I was at St. Monica Church — a place that's been part of my life for as long as I can remember. And every time I walk through those doors, Santa Monica doesn't feel like an urban city. It feels like a small town. That's the part I love. The part I want more of.

I think about that feeling a lot — the way a shared tradition, a neighborhood market, a library storytime, or even a council meeting can remind us that we actually know each other. That we're connected. That what happens in this city is personal for all of us.

Transparency and civility aren't just words I repeat again and again; they're how we protect that small-town feeling inside our big-city reality. It means sharing the data even when it's uncomfortable. It means showing up to listen, not just to talk. It means respecting each other even when we disagree. Especially then.

Tomorrow night is Council. This week is Frieze. The substation is being built. New businesses are opening. The Special Olympics just kicked off its 51st year with us. There's a lot happening — and a lot to be grateful for.

Come speak at Council tomorrow. Book some office hours. Stop me at the Farmers Market. I'll be out in the community, as always, ready to meet you where you are.

See you out there, Santa Monica. 💙

Together, we're building a Santa Monica that works for everyone — a city where families can thrive, businesses can grow, and community comes first.

With gratitude and determination,
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica