🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 April 20, 2026

Hey Santa Monica,

Three openings this week, and each one says something. A brand new municipal art gallery at Bergamot Station, the City's first ever. The reimagined playground at Douglas Park, which for me is a lifetime of family memories in one place: childhood birthdays, Sundays with my dad and his Casa Escobar crew, the walks I took with him in his final years. And a unanimous Council vote Tuesday that put Santa Monica on the path of the 2026 World Cup, a Goldenvoice beach festival, and a 103-day Olympics Nations Village in 2028.

This week had real wins. I want to walk you through them the way I try to do this whole job: transparent about the good and the still-in-progress, civil with people I don't always agree with, and honest about what we're actually deciding as a city.

Take what matters to you, and find me at the farmers market this weekend if you want to talk about any of it.

🚨 Public Safety

🔹 SMFD welcomes Asta, and honors the dog who came first. One year ago this month, the Santa Monica Fire Department launched its K-9 Peer Support Program with Roger, a six-year-old English Labrador who spent his year of service showing up for firefighters after difficult calls, visiting stations, and quietly being present in the moments that wear on the people who keep this City safe. A month ago, an aggressive spinal cord cancer ended Roger's time with us earlier than anyone had hoped.

→ 🐾 Welcoming Asta: SMFD's new Peer Support K-9 is a four-year-old Golden Labrador Retriever, and she'll live and work alongside Captain Paul Bellante. Like Roger, Asta will spend time in our fire stations, support personnel during and after critical incidents, join community events, and be a calm, steady presence for SMFD members and the broader Santa Monica community.

→ 🎯 Why this matters to me: First responder mental health is not a line item. It is whether the people who run toward the worst moments of our lives can keep doing it, year after year. Roger proved the model works. Asta is the program's next chapter. Big thanks to Fire Chief Hallock for championing this from day one, to Captain Michael Rivera for the love he poured into Roger's year, and to Captain Bellante for stepping into the handler role now.

🔹 Item 16J: my Business Crime Response Recovery Portal proposal went to Council this week. Small business owners across Santa Monica are absorbing crime quietly, over and over. A window smashed. A register cleaned out. A repeat offender sitting outside. They call, they clean up, they eat the cost. Too many stop reporting because the reporting itself has become one more burden. My proposal calls for a single front door: one place to access reporting, cleanup support, safety resources, and coordinated recovery tools, across departments instead of spread across them.

→ 💡 What happens next: Staff direction items like this do not become reality the night they are introduced. They get shaped, studied, and built over the following months. I will keep you posted as staff reports back and the framework takes form. Transparency on both the wins and the works-in-progress is the only way I know how to do this job.

👉 View the April 14 Council meeting details

🏠 Where I Stand on SB 9

🔹 SB 9, honestly. SB 9 allows duplexes and lot splits in single-unit neighborhoods, and it came back for Council discussion Tuesday. Here is where I land: affordability is not the same thing as permitted supply. In a city like ours, where land costs are already among the highest in the country, more permitted units does not automatically mean more working families stay.

→ 🎯 My take: I am going to keep asking whether any state housing tool is actually delivering for the people we say we are building for, or whether it is changing our neighborhoods without changing the outcomes that matter to the families already here. Civility means I will keep listening to colleagues who see it differently. Honesty means I am going to keep saying what I see. Both can be true at once.

💼 Economic Development

🔹 Council approves the framework for the World Cup, a Goldenvoice beach festival, and a 2028 Nations Village (unanimous 6-0 on April 14). Three activations are moving forward under a new multi-year framework designed to attract international visitors, support local businesses, and raise the City's profile during a genuinely unprecedented regional moment. The "Pitchside Club" World Cup fan experience will run roughly three weeks on the Pier in June 2026. A two-day Goldenvoice music and cultural festival is being negotiated for Santa Monica Beach in fall 2026, potentially drawing up to 35,000 attendees daily. And a 103-day "Nations Village" at Crescent Bay Park during the 2028 Games will house an International Olympic Committee satellite broadcast center, national hospitality houses, and public engagement zones.

→ 📊 License fees to the City (rough figures): Pitchside Club, about $1.09M. Goldenvoice festival, about $1.34M plus per-ticket revenue shares. Nations Village, about $1.15M all-in. No city subsidy is anticipated for any of the three.

→ 🏛️ A legacy piece worth naming: The Nations Village agreement includes the restoration of Crescent Bay Park's historic pergola, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When the Olympic period ends, the park keeps a public improvement that lasts decades.

→ 🎯 My take: This is the kind of multi-year planning I have wanted to see from Santa Monica. Say yes on purpose, with cost recovery, public access, and community benefit built in, rather than reacting to these opportunities one at a time. Coastal Commission review still lies ahead for all three sites. I will keep watching how the community benefit terms get negotiated.

👉 Read the Santa Monica Daily Press recap

🔹 Baywatch came back where it belongs. For five days this past week, red lifeguard uniforms and slow-motion beach sprints returned to Santa Monica State Beach. Fox and Fremantle's long-awaited reboot of the iconic series, headed for a 2026-27 premiere, filmed along our coastline, with Stephen Amell starring as the grown-up Hobie Buchannon. The original Baywatch filmed extensively here between 1989 and 1999 and helped put our red uniforms and blue lifeguard towers into global pop culture. At its peak, the show drew 1.1 billion weekly viewers in more than 200 countries.

→ 💡 A small Santa Monica wink: Original cast member Erika Eleniak returns as Shauni McClain, now written into the new series as a Santa Monica city councilwoman. I will take it.

→ 🎯 Why this matters beyond the nostalgia: Our Film Santa Monica team worked with the production on short notice, and the crew has been generous with praise of our beaches, our cleanliness, our permitting, our parking, and the people on the ground. Nothing to announce yet on a longer-term presence, but the door is open and the dialogue is productive. Huge thanks to Film Santa Monica and every City team member who made this past week happen.

👉 Watch the Film Santa Monica post

🔹 Our local business community keeps moving, and the through-line is encouraging. A lot of small stories this week, old and new, staying and arriving:

→ 🍴 The Galley is still the Galley. Santa Monica's oldest restaurant opened in 1934, moved to Main Street in 1946, and has been run by Captain Ron Schur since the late 1980s. Nearly a century in, still serving at 2442 Main.

→ 🏨 Palihouse Santa Monica relaunches as Maison Twenty Seven at 1001 Third Street. The boutique hotel's new name is a nod to its 1927 Mediterranean Revival villa, a local historical landmark. 38 rooms, refreshed with a contemporary touch while keeping the heritage design.

→ 🍕 Ghisallo is expanding at 1622 Ocean Park Boulevard. One of Ocean Park's favorite neighborhood spots filed to expand its restaurant. A welcome sign of success for Chef Casey Lane and team.

→ 🕯️ Blow Me Candle Co. stays in Santa Monica. Founder Angel Vu's handmade soy candle business has moved from its Main Street storefront to a new studio at 1746B Berkeley Street, shifting toward workshops, private events, and online sales. Good news for us: they are staying.

→ 🏦 EverBank opens its 10th Southern California branch at 1630 Montana Avenue. In the company's own words, they chose Santa Monica for "walkable neighborhoods, vibrant local businesses, and strong sense of community." A nice validation of what we have been working to rebuild.

→ 👙 Laya Swim's pop-up returns at 1406 Montana Avenue. The women-owned, LA-headquartered swim and resortwear brand, inspired by founder Witney Laya Tucker's childhood on the island of Mauritius, is back on Montana.

→ ☕ Dragon Alley Coffee Shop is preparing to open at 312 Santa Monica Boulevard. A family-run café founded by husband-and-wife team Sage and Richard Chand, a few doors from the Promenade. Their words: "more than a café. We are a family, sharing what we love with our community." That is exactly the human story behind a storefront we are trying to cultivate here.

→ 🌮 A tradeoff I am watching closely. Taco Bell Cantina has filed permits to convert roughly 1,500 square feet at 318 Santa Monica Boulevard into a restaurant and bar with a mezzanine. This is happening in the context of Council's recent work to relax Downtown's 2018 chain restaurant restrictions, a deliberate step to reduce vacancies and support recovery. But it comes with a cost: the space is currently home to The Britannia Pub, a beloved 30-year Santa Monica institution. The Brit's lease negotiation with the property owner could not be resolved. The operators want to stay in Santa Monica, and City staff is actively working to help identify another location so this 30-year local institution can keep serving our community. Keeping a 30-year institution is a priority. More soon.

🔹 Help Santa Monica repeat at the 2026 World Travel Awards. Santa Monica is a finalist in two categories: North America's Leading Beach Destination, and North America's Leading Tourist Board (for our partners at Santa Monica Travel & Tourism). We have won both recently, and 2026 is the centennial of Route 66, whose western terminus sits at the end of our Pier. The global spotlight is coming anyway. Let us add a win.

→ 💡 How to vote (about five minutes): Step 1, register a free account and click the email verification link. Step 2, close your browser and open a new window (the voting page needs a fresh session after verification). Step 3, vote in both categories. Voting closes Friday, June 19.

👉 Register for a World Travel Awards account

👉 Cast your votes for Santa Monica

🔹 Our 6th Cycle Housing Element Annual Progress Report is officially filed with the State. Every year, California cities file an APR with the state Department of Housing and Community Development, tracking how we are pacing against our Regional Housing Needs Allocation. Under our 6th Cycle (2021 through 2029), Santa Monica is planning for 8,895 new units, with about 70% dedicated to lower-income households. That is a fivefold increase over our 5th Cycle allocation of 1,674 units, and the largest housing planning obligation in our City's history. This year's APR was submitted on schedule, pulling together data across Planning, Building & Safety, Housing, and other departments.

→ ⚡ Why it matters: Meeting our housing obligations is not abstract. It is whether Santa Monica stays a place where teachers, service workers, young families, seniors on fixed incomes, and the next generation of our own kids can actually afford to live. The APR is how we hold ourselves accountable to that goal, year by year. A sincere thank you to Jing Yeo and the entire Planning team.

👉 See Santa Monica's real-time housing progress dashboards

🎨 Culture, Parks & Community

🔹 Santa Monica opened its first-ever municipal art gallery at Bergamot Station. On Friday, April 10, roughly 75 community members gathered at 2525 Michigan Avenue, Suite F2, for the opening reception of the Santa Monica City Gallery. Going forward, the gallery will host rotating exhibitions, community partnerships, and artist-led programming, and serve as a dedicated home for works from the City's Art Bank collection. It joins a Bergamot campus already home to more than 20 galleries, design firms, and nonprofits, steps from the Metro E Line's 26th Street / Bergamot Station.

→ 🏛️ The inaugural exhibit says something. "Case Study: Adapt" runs through September 19 and features architectural models designed by USC School of Architecture students in collaboration with ten Los Angeles architecture firms, presenting 16 homes created for families who lost theirs in the January 2025 Palisades and Altadena wildfires. The exhibit draws explicit inspiration from the 1940s Case Study House program that produced iconic work by Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and others. A first-ever exhibit in our first-ever City gallery, connecting postwar design legacy to the rebuilding work underway in our region right now, feels exactly right.

→ 🎯 Credit where it is due: Huge kudos to the team that conceived, curated, and launched this space from the ground up, including our Recreation and Arts Department, Cultural Affairs staff, and the broader city team. Gallery hours going forward are Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 AM to 5 PM. Bring a friend.

👉 Visit the Santa Monica City Gallery page

🔹 Douglas Park Playground reopened Saturday, and it felt personal. This is the park where I fell into the pond trying to feed the ducks as a kid, celebrated my sixth birthday, played shuffleboard with my Nana, and later walked alongside my dad in his final years. When Casa Escobar closed, this became the new hang-out for my dad and his crew. In his final days, this community showed up for him in a way I will not forget.

→ 🌳 What reopened: The reimagined playground is Santa Monica's fifth universally accessible play space. It replaces roughly 17,000 square feet of aging rubber safety surface and 20-year-old equipment with modern, inclusive structures shaped by two public workshops and input from local TK through 6th graders. Designed to feel like nature, like you are playing through trees rather than structures.

→ 🎯 Why I keep coming back to parks: They are not just grass and playgrounds. They are memory, connection, and filled with life. Watching new families start building their own Douglas Park memories this weekend was one of my favorite moments of this year. Thank you to the architecture and design teams, to City staff, to Rec and Parks, and to every neighbor who made this possible.

📅 Dates & What's Coming Up

🔹 Wednesday, April 22: Earth Day. A good day to plug into our dune restoration, beach cleanups, or home composting programs. Our coastline is doing measurable work for us. Worth helping it along.

🔹 Saturday, April 25 (morning): Pico Boulevard Wellness Morning at Virginia Avenue Park. The Pico Boulevard business community is teaming up for a community wellness morning at VAP. A great example of neighborhood-led, BID-supported programming animating one of our most vibrant corridors.

👉 Visit Pico Boulevard Santa Monica

🔹 Tuesday, April 28, 5:30 PM: Santa Monica City Council. Fourth Tuesday of the month. Agenda posts typically 72 hours in advance.

👉 View the City Council agenda page

🔹 Saturday, May 2: 8th Annual Westside Special Olympics Basketball Tournament at Memorial Park Gymnasium. Of all the events we get to host in Santa Monica, few are as pure in their joy as our Westside Special Olympics competitions. What a lot of folks do not know: Santa Monica is the birthplace of Westside Special Olympics, founded here in the spring of 1976 by Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson and Santa Monica College professor Jo Kidd. If you can make it, I recommend it without hesitation.

👉 Learn more about Memorial Park

🔹 Saturdays and Sundays. Pico Farmers Market (Saturdays) and Main Street Farmers Market (Sundays). Come say hello. You do not need an appointment to have a conversation.

📱 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

🔹 Book time with me. Virtual, in-person at City Hall, or catch me at the farmers market on weekends.

👉 Book Office Hours with Councilmember Lana Negrete

🌟 Closing Thought: The Wave Back

I want to close with a story about a sanitation worker named Randy.

There is a family, a mom and two young kids, who became Sunset Park regulars during my years on Council. We connected at the park, they started coming to see me at the farmers market most Saturdays, and last year I gave the kids little gift bags of Santa Monica memorabilia. This past week, I learned it was their last farmers market with us. The family is moving out of California.

Here is what stayed with me. Every week, on the family's walk home from the park, those two kids would wave to Randy from our Resource, Recovery & Recycling team as his truck went by. Every week, Randy waved back. When Randy heard it was their final day in Santa Monica, he went out on his own, picked up two beautiful toy trash trucks, and gave them to the kids himself.

That is community. Not a press release. Not a program. A guy on a truck who waves back, remembers the kids' faces, and on the last day goes out of his way to say goodbye in a way they will carry with them for decades.

This is the city I want to keep building. Transparent about what is broken and what is working. Civil even when we disagree. And never too busy for the wave back, the small kindness that does not show up in a dashboard but shows up in a kid's memory for a lifetime.

See you out there in the sunshine, 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