🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 March 9, 2026

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and it brought a room full of women founders and entrepreneurs together to talk about what it actually takes to lead — not the polished version, but the real one. The conversation kept circling back to something worth sitting with: the moments that matter rarely arrive on schedule. Sometimes you're simply needed, and you show up anyway.

That energy carried through the whole week. From 64 second graders learning how City Hall works, to local high school students working to expand the youth city council we started , to a sold-out downtown forum where 100+ business leaders rolled up their sleeves and talked solutions; this was a week full of people choosing to show up.

One thing I keep coming back to: government language can sometimes feel full of taglines and summaries that don't tell the whole story. When something affects your daily life, it's worth looking closer. Don't hesitate to ask questions. If you don't get a clear answer, ask again. Your City Council works for you, and thoughtful questions from residents genuinely make our decisions better.

Big update this week. A program milestone that's changing real lives. A major vision for one of LA's next great parks. Data, heart, and things you don't want to miss. Let's go.

🚨 Public Safety

🔹 SaMo Bridge is approaching its one-year mark — and the results speak for themselves. Since launching in spring 2025, this diversion program (built through a collaboration between the City Attorney's Office, SMPD, the Homelessness Intervention and Prevention Division, and nonprofit partner Exodus Recovery) has offered a real alternative to the revolving door of arrest, citation, release, and re-arrest. Qualifying individuals who are  homelessness who encounter law enforcement for low-level offenses get connected to a 24/7 respite hub, a community navigator, and a 90-day case management plan. Complete the plan, and the charges are dismissed.

→ 📊 By the numbers: Since April 2025, SMPD has made 422 total referrals to SaMo Bridge. 312 individuals transferred to services. 51 are currently in active 90-day care plans. 48 people have fully graduated (plans complete, charges dismissed, a new path forward). Fully funded through a nearly $8 million state grant.

What SaMo Bridge has connected people to:

→ 💡 Three people behind those numbers. Kevin arrived without a home and walked out with a job and a place to live. Erik (a lifelong Santa Monica resident who became unhoused while caring for his disabled sister and nephew) was reunified with his family and is now stably housed through Upward Bound House. Dawn came to California in 2023 looking for a fresh start, ended up unhoused, and through a partnership with Project Homecoming and the Salvation Army, was reconnected with family in Delaware who welcomed her home.

→ 🎯 My take: Connection over incarceration. Meet people where they are. Build a real pathway out. I've been pushing for this model (structured, time-limited, accountable) for a long time. These 48 graduates are proof it works. We keep building on this.

🔹 SMPD: February 2026 snapshot (week of Feb 22–28). 114 arrests this period. Throughout February, the department averaged 104 arrests per week (approximately 79 involving unhoused individuals) while addressing an average of 24 encampments weekly through coordinated enforcement and outreach. Officers responded to roughly 2,565 calls for service per week, with officer-initiated activity exceeding 50% of that volume. About 600 calls each week were homelessness-related.

Key crime suppression incidents (Feb 22–28):

→ ⚡ Distracted driving enforcement isn't just a number — it's prevention. Thirty-eight citations in one targeted operation is the model working as designed.

🔹 Fire Department: 303 calls last 7 days. 3,072 year-to-date. Standout incident: on March 4, SMFD responded to two Tesla Cybertrucks fully engulfed in fire on the roof level of a seven-story parking structure attached to a residential building. Crews carried hose lines and equipment up seven flights and contained both vehicles. Zero injuries to residents, visitors, or firefighters. A Tesla representative responded to monitor for re-ignition risk. Fast, coordinated, professional; exactly what we expect from this department.

Fire prevention activity (last 7 days):

🔹 SMFD out in the community this week. On February 26, firefighters taught Hands-Only CPR to students at Santa Monica College, because bystander CPR saves lives, and the more people in our community who know how to act in those first critical minutes, the better. On March 4, the department showed up for Career Day at Grant Elementary (the same kids who got a City Hall tour from me that morning later got to see fire apparatus up close and hear about careers in public service). That kind of day sticks with a kid.

💼 Economic Development

🔹 The Reimagining Downtown Santa Monica Leadership Forum: over 100 people in a room choosing to focus on solutions. On March 4, I was there throughout as business leaders, investors, developers, and property owners gathered for a sold-out forum co-hosted by the City and CALS. Working groups surfaced the real friction points hitting businesses daily, so that what follows can be informed policy, not guesswork. Councilmember Snell served this round on the panel. The Mayor did opening remarks.

→ 💡 What came out of the room: Extending Promenade programming past 9:30 PM. Better wayfinding from parking structures to the heart of Downtown. Leveraging our local tech presence for B2B engagement. Pop-up activations for vacant retail. More affordable lodging options to support tourism and adaptive reuse. The ideas aren't new individually; the room full of people committed to executing them together? That's new. Glad to have been a part of both of these roundtables and looking forward to the next one.

→ 🎯 My take: Downtown recovery requires private investment and City action meeting each other halfway. This was the second forum of its kind. The momentum is building. We're not letting it cool.

🔹 The Montgomery Summit arrives in Santa Monica this week. Starting Tuesday, the Fairmont Miramar hosts "Monty 2026" (the 23rd annual Montgomery Summit, one of the nation's premier technology investment conferences). More than 1,200 entrepreneurs, investors, and executives for two days focused on innovation and the future of private markets. Hotel blocks across The Huntley, The Santa Monica Proper, The Georgian, and others are booked solid. Real hospitality revenue; another year confirming that when the tech world comes to LA, they come to Santa Monica.

👉 Montgomery Summit

🔹 St. Paddy's Day on the Third Street Promenade — this Saturday, March 14. 6 to 9 PM on the 1300 block: live Irish-folk-rock by Shamrock Sean and the Irish Cabbage Patch Band, games, a photo booth, an outdoor bar for guests 21+, and a city-wide pub crawl extending the night into Downtown bars. This is exactly the kind of evening programming the Entertainment Zone designation was built to enable — activating the Promenade after dark, driving foot traffic, keeping people in Santa Monica longer. Free admission.

👉 RSVP on Eventbrite

🔹 Most Loved Business voting closes this Friday, March 13. Two minutes. Your keyboard. A little gratitude for the spots that make this city feel like home. Go vote.

👉 Vote at smdp.com

🔹 Two new restaurant concepts moving toward Downtown. A notice to sell has been posted at 109 Santa Monica Blvd for Kogen Omakase (high-end Japanese dining) coming to a space that's seen several tenants cycle through. An application is also in for Trencento, an Italian eatery, at 312 Wilshire Blvd (the former Riva location). New restaurant investment in Downtown is a positive signal. We're tracking both as they move through the process.

🌳 The Airport's Future Is Taking Shape

🔹 The Airport Conversion project just hit its most meaningful milestone yet. After two years and an extraordinary amount of community input: 87 public meetings, 20 small group discussions with 370+ participants, 12,100+ online survey responses, and 50,000+ project website visits — staff has completed a Draft Framework Plan for the 192-acre site. This is the most comprehensive distillation of community preference for this land to date, built on five Guiding Principles unanimously adopted by Council in January 2025: Start with Nature, Inspire Wonder, Balance Economics, Amplify Versatility, and Celebrate Place.

→ 💡 Eight interconnected districts:

→ 🎯 My take: This is not a rigid blueprint; it's a durable framework that adapts as our community evolves over decades. Each district is defined with enough specificity for grant applications and cost estimating, while staying flexible enough to grow with us. The phasing structure means the Great Park can start delivering value in its earliest stages without requiring every dollar to be secured upfront. We are building one of the great metropolitan parks on the West Coast, right here in Santa Monica.

→ ⚡ What's next: The Framework Plan goes before the City's boards and commissions for review, with additional public outreach to follow. More opportunities to weigh in are coming, so stay tuned.

👉 Santa Monica strategic priorities

🔹 Our Immigration Task Force showed up for SamoHi students when it mattered. With ICE enforcement activity rising across LA County, students at Santa Monica High School (many from mixed-status households) needed real answers about their rights and their families' protections. Our City's Immigration Task Force, in partnership with LACOE Community Schools, hosted a "Know Your Rights" workshop led by immigration attorney Marilyn Figueroa. Thirty-five students attended an hour-long session, and several stayed after to keep asking questions.

→ 🎯 My take: When young people in our community are worried about whether their parents will be home when they get off the bus, it is our responsibility to give them accurate information, and to let them know clearly that their city stands with them. Transparency isn't only about budget meetings and agenda items. Sometimes it looks exactly like this.

🔹 One very full day in the community this week. Thursday started with 64 second graders from Grant Elementary joining me for a behind-the-scenes City Hall tour (where we talk about how government works and learn what different parts of our city do). The day continued with constituent meetings, stakeholders, and business leaders. Then the Youth City Council, juniors and seniors who are genuinely fired up about making a difference. I wrapped the evening with more than 50 Cub Scout families, explaining civic engagement using my favorite analogy: making a pizza together. Everyone at the table. Everyone contributing. Because that's what good government looks like.

→ 💡 Applications for the One SaMo People's Academy close Monday, March 16. Free. Six weeks. 25 spots. If you haven't applied yet, now is the time.

👉 Apply for the One SaMo People's Academy

🔹 Curby the recycling robot came to Roosevelt Elementary — and it worked. Back in December, a young resident met Curby at the City's 150th anniversary celebration on the Promenade and went straight home to his recycling bin. His dad submitted a 311 request asking if Curby could visit his school. Our Resource Recovery and Recycling team said yes; 135 preschool and kindergarten students got an assembly they won't forget. One child's excitement, one 311 request, one school assembly. That's how civic ripples work.

👉 Your guide to recycling and composting

🔹 Our library's Spanish-language collection just got significantly broader. Titles carefully selected at the Feria Internacional del Libro in Guadalajara last November have arrived, with cataloging underway and books being added on a rolling basis. A collection that genuinely reflects the community it serves.

👉 Browse new adult fiction titles 

👉 Browse new adult nonfiction titles

🔹 The 11th Annual Greens Festival — and a moment worth noting. On February 28, the community came together at Virginia Avenue Park for the Greens Festival, which this year carried extra significance as it marked the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. I joined Councilmember Zernitskaya to present a Black History Month proclamation to the Black Santa Monica Community Group in recognition of their ongoing contributions to this community. Three cooking demonstrations, live performances, music, line dancing, free soul food, and local Black vendors across crafts, jewelry, and clothing. That is what community looks like.

🔹 Art, history, and memory at Historic Belmar Park. On February 28, fifty community members gathered at the base of April Banks' public sculpture "Resurrection in Four Stanzas" for choreographer Marcella Lewis's site-responsive dance performance "Home Under One's Skin." The setting was deeply intentional; this land once held a vibrant early 20th-century African American community that was largely razed in the 1950s through eminent domain. Lewis's performance invited audiences to encounter that history anew, honoring both what was lost and what endures.

🔹 The Annenberg Community Beach House had quite a weekend. Over 250 people came through in just two days, first for the Big Talk Book Launch Party celebrating author Kalina Silverman's mission of building more meaningful human connections, then for the 14th annual Julia Morgan Legacy Day honoring one of California's most important architects. That is the Beach House doing what it does best: giving our community a welcoming place to gather, learn something new, and feel like they belong.

🔹 Michiko Aoyama came to Santa Monica. The international bestselling author of "What You Are Looking For Is in the Library" (our 2026 Santa Monica Reads selection) traveled from Japan to meet our community at the Main Library. The author of a book about libraries traveling halfway around the world to speak at ours says something - I’m glad our libraries are open in person now (more expanded days coming soon) and our Main library could host.

🔹 Santa Monica's Art Bank just added a new work through our Frieze partnership. The City's Arts Commission selected a piece by artist Erica Mahinay (whose work invites viewers into color, texture, and shared experience through abstraction) for our permanent municipal collection. The Art Bank features works by Southern California-based artists from the 1980s to the present, displayed on rotation at public facilities throughout the city. Our Frieze partnership keeps that collection connected to what's happening in contemporary art right now. That's exactly what it should do.

🔹 The Annenberg Community Beach House is about to get some well-deserved attention. Spectrum filmed a segment of "The SoCal Scene" at the Beach House on March 3, featuring interviews that trace the site's history from Marion Davies' Gold Coast days to everything it offers our community today. Keep an eye out for it airing later this month.

🔹 Planning Commission (March 4) reviewed amendments to Santa Monica's SB 9 duplex and lot split implementation, held a scoping session on SB 1123 small lot subdivisions, and received a 2025 Legislative Update on state housing law compliance. Keeping our local policies aligned with state law is ongoing, necessary, and frankly unglamorous work — but it matters. And you can catch that meeting on YouTube.

🔹 ARB (March 2): Approved (with conditions) a three-story self-storage facility at 1713 11th St. Continued an 8-story mixed-use development at 2800 28th St — 385 units, 168,015 sq ft of commercial space — with clear direction provided to the applicant team.

🔹 Building activity is up. New plan submittals jumped from 74 in January to 99 in February. Planning applications grew year-over-year from 13 in February 2025 to 22 in February 2026. More people are building and applying to build jn Santa Monica. See below:

📅 Dates & What's Coming Up

🔹 Tonight, March 9 — Landmarks Commission meeting. Two Certificates of Appropriateness for removal of designated Structures of Merit are on the agenda: 1626 California Ave (designated Oct 2020) and 1125 18th St (designated Nov 2025). These are always sensitive items.

🔹 Tuesday, March 10, 5:30 PM — City Council meeting. Poet Laureate appointment, and more. Full agenda is live now. Come in person, call in, or submit written comment — keep an eye on the agenda and come have your voice heard.

👉 View the March 10 City Council agenda

🔹 Tuesday–Wednesday, March 10–11 — Montgomery Summit at the Fairmont Miramar. 1,200+ tech leaders in our city.

👉 montgomerysummit.com

🔹 Friday, March 13 — Last day to vote for Most Loved Santa Monica.

👉 Vote now at smdp.com

🔹 Saturday, March 14 — St. Paddy's Day on the Promenade, 6–9 PM. Free admission. Great reason to be Downtown after dark.

👉 RSVP on Eventbrite

🔹 Monday, March 16 — One SaMo People's Academy applications close. Free. Six weeks. 25 spots. Don't wait.

👉 Apply now

🔹 Tuesday, March 24 — Next City Council meeting. Keep an eye on the agenda and come have your voice heard.

🔹 Let’s chat  — book office hours with me. As always, I'm out in the community; you'll often find me at farmers markets on the weekends. And now I have bookable office hours, easy to schedule both virtual and in person at City Hall. My first official session was March 3, and every single person showed up prepared with real questions and ideas. I left with a pile of homework I was genuinely glad to have. Book a time right here.

👉 Book Office Hours with Councilmember Lana Negrete

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

International Women's Day is a reminder that the most meaningful leadership rarely looks like a highlight reel. It looks like showing up when things are complicated, asking the question everyone else is avoiding, and staying in the room even when the answers are hard.

That's also what good civic engagement looks like. This week had real weight to it: young people at SamoHi navigating something no kid should have to navigate alone. Residents bringing a stack of real questions to their first office hours session. A community working through what 192 acres of airport land can become for the next generation.

None of it is simple. But all of it deserves honest engagement and plain language from the people elected to serve you. So read the agenda. Show up Tuesday. Apply for the People's Academy before March 16. Vote for your favorite local business before Friday. Walk into one of those new restaurants on Wilshire and say welcome to the neighborhood.

Local decisions shape our neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and public spaces. Every single act of engagement makes this city work better — not in theory, in practice.

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