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Lana Negrete Newsletter — August 10, 2026
🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete
📅 August 10, 2026
Hey there, Santa Monica,
On Saturday I stood at an easel on a car-free Ocean Avenue, ocean breeze in my hair and paint on my hands, taking a class from my own brother. By nightfall I was on the lawn at Tongva Park listening to ska under the stars at the very first Tongva Twilight. Somewhere in between, Block Fest Vol. VI closed out its summer run on the Promenade. That is one Saturday, in one city, and it did not happen by accident.
Now it's Monday, and the week ahead matters just as much as the weekend behind us. At 4:30 this afternoon we unveil Silas White Street, a long-overdue promise kept. And tomorrow night your Council takes up an agenda with tens of millions of your dollars on it, including the Virginia Avenue accountability report I fought to bring back into the sunlight. You know my rule: you get the preview before the vote, not just the recap after. Let's get into it.
🚔 Public Safety
🔹 National Night Out went full Hollywood, and it worked. Tuesday evening, Main Street between Colorado and Olympic closed down for "Lights, Camera, Community," complete with giant Oscar statuettes on a red carpet outside City Hall. Our Fire Department got in on the fun too, with an Up-themed booth and appearances by Asta and Spencer, SMFD's two peer support dogs, who were crowd favorites all night. Underneath the movie references was the real point: neighbors, officers, and firefighters, face to face, no agenda but getting to know each other.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Trust between residents and first responders is not built during emergencies. It's built on nights like this, one handshake and one silly costume at a time. Thank you to SMPD, SMFD, and every neighbor who came out.
👉 Read Patch's National Night Out recap
🔹 This week's SMPD report, in plain numbers. The newest weekly data covers July 26 through August 1, and the headline is the same trend I've been tracking for you all year: our officers are generating more of the work themselves instead of waiting for crisis calls. Officer-initiated activity jumped 25 percent over the prior week and now makes up 47 percent of everything SMPD handles, while calls from residents actually declined.
Metric | This Week (Jul 26 to Aug 1) | Last Week | YTD 2026 | YTD 2025 | YoY Change |
Calls for Service | 2,413 | 2,316 | 76,067 | 70,630 | +7.7% |
Resident-Initiated Calls | 1,272 (53%) | 1,403 (61%) | 39,954 | 42,129 | -5.2% |
Officer-Initiated Activity | 1,141 (47%) | 913 (39%) | 36,113 | 28,501 | +26.7% |
Homeless-Related Dispositions | 532 | 482 | 17,344 | 18,477 | -6.1% |
Total Arrests | 120 | 115 | 3,113 | 1,847 | +68.5% |
→ 📊 What you're seeing: Arrests are up 68.5 percent year over year while homeless-related dispositions keep trending down. More proactive police work, fewer crisis calls. That is the direction we want, and I'll keep pushing to sustain it.
🔹 The week's most significant cases, at a glance. Beyond the totals, a few outcomes this week show what sustained investigative work looks like.
Incident | What Happened |
Stalking investigation | The Crime Impact Team and detectives arrested a stalking suspect and served search warrants on his vehicle and residence, recovering a handgun, over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, roughly 100 magazines (about 40 of them high-capacity), narcotics, and digital evidence. He was already barred from possessing firearms under a protective order. |
Attempted residential burglary (1000 block of 4th St) | A resident's alarm and her dog interrupted two suspects trying to force open her door. Officers found them blocks away with burglary tools and a switchblade. One was on felony probation for burglary. |
City water meter vandalism | A suspect was arrested in connection with vandalism of roughly 298 City-owned water meters, with estimated repair costs topping $200,000. |
Sexual battery (Third Street Promenade) | Officers located a suspect reported to be inappropriately touching women on the Promenade. He was violating sex-offender registration requirements, and City camera footage captured evidence of a sexual battery. |
Out-of-state fugitive (Palisades Park) | Bicycle officers contacted a man for an open-container violation and discovered he was wanted in Georgia on serious felony charges. Georgia confirmed it will extradite. |
→ 🎯 My take: A resident whose alarm and dog did their job. Officers who followed up instead of moving on. Camera infrastructure that turned a report into evidence. Public safety is a system, and this week the system worked.
🔹 Traffic enforcement stayed focused where you asked for it. Motor officers made 232 stops this week, issuing 141 citations and 83 advisals, with focused enforcement near Colorado and Yale and pedestrian-safety operations along the Wilshire and Lincoln corridors. At Pico and Euclid, a driver who struck the center median was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
🔹 Homelessness response: enforcement and outreach, working the same streets. The HLP team logged 131 radio calls, 112 self-initiated contacts, 38 citations, 24 arrests, and 5 SamoBridge referrals this week. 2 Project Homecoming efforts succeeded: one individual contacted in the beach lots was brought to SamoBridge while arrangements to return home were completed, and another contacted in Tongva Park was helped with transportation back to family in Kansas. A multi-agency beach operation also connected 20 people with resources, completed two mental health evaluations, and removed 2,680 pounds of trash.
→ 🎯 My take: I talk a lot about accountability in our homelessness response, and this is the other half of the equation: persistence. Enforcement for those breaking the law, and a hand extended over and over until someone is ready to take it. Both are compassion, measured by outcomes.
🔹 Quiet nights on Broadway will stay quiet. An update on the City's public nuisance case over the around-the-clock Waymo charging operations at 1222 and 1310 Broadway. After the court's July 27 injunction barred overnight operations between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., Waymo returned to court this past Friday asking the judge to pause the order while it appeals. Our City Attorney's Office opposed the request, and the court promptly denied it, keeping the injunction fully in place. Best of all, neighbors on Broadway are reporting that they can finally sleep in their own homes again. A status conference on long-term fixes at the sites is set for October 23. Huge credit to Chief Deputy City Attorney Romy Ganschow and City Attorney Heidi von Tongeln for the win.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: We welcome the future of transportation in Santa Monica. We simply expect new technology to be a good neighbor, and this ruling says our residents' sleep is not negotiable while we work toward that.
👉 Read NBC LA's coverage of the ruling
🔹 Our firefighters helped guard the region against wildfire. As part of a coordinated Cal OES pre-positioned task force from July 31 through August 2, SMFD sent one of its Type 6 engines to join two LAFD engines and a strike team leader stationed in northeast LA during a period of elevated brush fire risk, ready for rapid initial attack before any new fire could grow. Back home, the prevention side of the house stayed busy too.
SMFD Prevention Activity (This Week) | Completed |
Annual Fire Inspections | 173 |
Alarm / Sprinkler Plan Checks & Inspections | 28 |
New Construction Plan Reviews / Meetings | 12 |
Special Event Plan Reviews / Meetings | 16 |
SMFD also ran 326 total calls this reporting period , 73 of them homeless-related, with one fire connected to homelessness.
🏛 At City Hall: Tuesday's Agenda Deserves Your Attention
We're back in Council Chambers Tuesday, August 11, at 5:30 p.m., and this is not a sleepy summer agenda. Here's what I'm watching.
🔹 Virginia Avenue Apartments: the follow-through arrives. This one started with residents. Longtime tenants of the rehabilitation project at 2033-2101 Virginia Ave came forward earlier this summer with serious concerns about construction conditions, displacement, communication breakdowns, delays, and how millions in public funds were being spent. I brought forward Item 16-B to demand answers, and Council directed staff to return with a comprehensive public update and stronger oversight. That report lands Tuesday, including a presentation from Community Corporation of Santa Monica and a full accounting of the City's loan expenditures through July 2026 on a roughly 40-unit project we've backed with more than $35 million in housing funds.
→ 🎯 My take: The staff recommendation is for Council to simply receive and file the report. Receiving information is a start, but it is not the same as acting on it, so I'll come with questions. This is bigger than one building. When taxpayer dollars fund affordable housing, transparency with residents and accountability from start to finish are not optional extras. They are the deal.
🔹 The Civic Auditorium may finally get its next act. Council will consider authorizing an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Goldenvoice/AEG Presents to explore redeveloping and operating the Civic at 1855 Main St. There's a nice bit of history here: Goldenvoice built its early reputation producing shows at the Civic, and they're the team behind September's Ocean Way Festival on our beach. So yes, part of me is genuinely excited about the possibility of music back in that building. The councilmember part of me will be reading the fine print, because an iconic community asset that has sat dark for years deserves a partnership that protects the City's interests, not just a splashy headline.
👉 Read the Civic Auditorium ENA FAQ
🔹 Human Services funding for the next four years. Council will weigh guidelines for the FY 2027-31 Human Services Grants Program and authorize the request for proposals. These grants fund the organizations serving our homeless population , our seniors, people with disabilities, and families. Getting the guidelines right now shapes who gets help for years.
🔹 122 affordable homes at 1318 4th Street. Under public hearings, Council will consider a resolution allowing the California Municipal Finance Authority to issue up to $80 million in revenue bonds to help finance a 122-unit affordable apartment development downtown. The hearing is required under federal tax law, and the project's environmental review was already completed under the Housing Element EIR.
🔹 And keep an eye on the consent calendar. It includes a $24 million contract modification with Gillig for additional battery-electric Big Blue Buses, bringing that agreement to nearly $89 million, plus phase two of our street lighting modernization, phase three of Pier fire sprinkler replacement, new recycling and trash bins, and expanded county lifeguard services on our beach. Consent items pass in a single vote, which is exactly why residents should read them.
👉 Find the agenda and staff reports
🔹 Your candidate forums are officially on the calendar. Earlier this year, your Council asked staff to work with the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica to build out a robust slate of nonpartisan candidate forums ahead of November, and the full schedule is now set. The League designs and moderates every forum, and the City's role is limited to venue, recording, and coordination, exactly as it should be. All forums run roughly 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Date | Forum | Community Partner |
Tuesday, September 29 | SMMUSD School Board | Santa Monica-Malibu PTA |
Friday, October 2 | SMMUSD School Board & College Board of Trustees | City of Santa Monica |
Sunday, October 4 | City Council | Committee for Racial Justice |
Friday, October 9 | City Council & Rent Control Board | City of Santa Monica |
Wednesday, October 14 | City Council & Rent Control Board | Community Corporation of Santa Monica |
The October 2 and October 9 forums take place in Council Chambers and will be recorded so anyone who can't attend in person can watch afterward. The League will also compile candidate information on VOTE411, its free nonpartisan online voter guide, and forum questions can go to voterservice@lwvsantamonica.org.
→ 🎯 My take: I'll be one of the candidates on those stages answering your questions, and I wouldn't have it any other way. An informed voter is exactly who I want showing up in November. Mark your calendars, bring your toughest questions, and hold all of us to them.
💼 Economic Development
🔹 Wildwood School is making a $50 million bet on Santa Monica. The school has purchased the Ocean Park Plaza office building with plans for a campus, part of a growing wave of office-to-school conversions across the region. An empty office building becoming classrooms full of students is my kind of adaptive reuse: it fills space, it brings families, and it feeds our local businesses at lunchtime.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Institutions do not invest $50 million in cities they doubt. Every deal like this is a vote of confidence in our recovery, and it compounds.
👉 Read about Wildwood's campus plan
🔹 The pianos are staying, and this one hits home for me. Longtime "piano superstore" Keyboard Concepts at 3232 Santa Monica Boulevard was recently acquired by Faust Harrison Pianos, a national retailer (colleague and friend), and instead of packing up and leaving, they're remodeling the showroom and building a brand-new piano store on the very same corner, with plans to reopen this fall. As someone whose family has spent decades behind the counter of a Santa Monica music store, I know exactly what it means when a music retailer chooses to double down here rather than move on. Keep the music playing, neighbors.
👉 Read about the new piano showroom
🔹 New doors opening on Pico and Main. Pilates Cave is now open on Pico Boulevard, and Bar Fortuna, a pasta restaurant from Crudo e Nudo chef Brian Bornemann, is headed to Main Street. When our homegrown operators double down and open second concepts here, that tells you something about where this city is headed.
🔹 Big Blue Bus just crossed 10 million rides. Again. For the second year in a row, BBB topped the 10 million boarding mark, closing FY 2025-26 at 10,000,562 rides.
👉 Plan your ride with Big Blue Bus
🔹 168 sidewalk vendor carts inspected and permitted for the new year. Over four Thursday mornings, our Code Enforcement and Business License teams inspected sidewalk vendor carts and paperwork at Parking Lot 4S, issuing FY 26-27 operating permits on the spot to carts that passed. Out of 168 carts inspected so far, only one didn't pass. The City built a process designed to help them comply rather than just penalize. Any vendor who still needs an inspection can call Code Enforcement at (310) 458-4984 for an appointment.
🎓 Education, Arts & Our Youth
🔹 Art on Ocean turned a boulevard into a gallery, and I showed up to experience it firsthand. Saturday from 11 to 6, Ocean Avenue between California and Montana went car-free for local artists, vintage and jewelry vendors, small businesses, live music, and family activities. I took a painting class with Paint Party Professionals taught by my brother Raymond Fernandez, which means I can now confirm that artistic talent in my family is not distributed evenly. Watching locals and visitors wander a street built for people instead of cars, I kept thinking: this should not be a one-time thing. I'm going to keep pushing for Art on Ocean to become an annual tradition.
🔹 Tongva Twilight is officially here, and the opener delivered. I ended my Saturday night on the lawn at Tongva Park as Western Standard Time kicked off the new free Sounds & Cinema series with an all-star set of ska jazz. The series runs every Saturday evening at 7 p.m. through September 12, and this Saturday, August 15, brings New Orleans funk powerhouse The Rumble. After that: Son Mayor's salsa orchestra on August 22, complete with a free salsa lesson, and yacht rock from The Windbreakers on September 5. Pack a picnic, bring a blanket or a low-back chair, and come find me. Free live music, steps from the ocean, in a park we built for exactly this.
👉 See the Tongva Twilight series details
🔹 The Cove turns 21, and it belongs to everyone. Santa Monica helped invent modern skateboarding, and our 20,000-square-foot city skatepark sits on the hallowed ground where the Dogtown crew turned surf moves into a whole new sport. Now a new L.A. TACO feature, The Unlikely Sisterhood of Women Skaters in Santa Monica, is spotlighting The Cove as a place where women and girls thrive, thanks in big part to the Girls Only Skate Sessions held every other Sunday, where skaters build confidence, skills, and real community. Twenty-one years in, The Cove is honoring our skateboarding heritage by making sure the next chapter of it includes everyone.
🔹 Summer Reading ends this Saturday. August 15 is the last day to log hours toward the Library's prize drawings, including that Nintendo Switch 2 for readers ages 4 to 18. Final call: ten minutes tonight still counts. And while you're logging those minutes, here's a library win worth celebrating: our branches recently added more open hours as services are restored under the Realignment Plan. At a free chamber music concert at the MLK Jr. Auditorium this week, the announcement of those expanded hours drew spontaneous applause from the audience. That's how much our libraries mean to this community.
👉 Visit the Summer Reading page
🎉 Around Town & Community
🔹 Today, we put Silas White's name where it belongs. At 4:30 p.m. this afternoon at 1846 Main St, the City celebrates the renaming of a portion of Vicente Terrace as Silas White Street. In the 1950s, Silas White envisioned the Ebony Beach Club, a place where Black families would be welcomed on a coastline that too often shut them out, and the City used eminent domain to take the property before it could open. The renaming flows from last year's settlement with the White family, which also established October 12 as Silas White Day in Santa Monica. The ceremony is free and open to everyone, and I hope you'll come. A city willing to write its history onto its street signs is a city serious about earning trust.
👉 See the Silas White ceremony details
🔹 455 new units. At its August 3 meeting, the Architectural Review Board approved two significant residential projects, both with conditions: a seven-story mixed-use development at 3205 Ocean Park Boulevard with 102 homes (16 of them affordable), and an eight-story project at 1633 26th Street in the Bergamot Transit Village with 353 homes (36 affordable). That's 455 new homes, 52 of them affordable, moving through the pipeline.
🔹 Farmers Market Week gave us plenty to celebrate, and the tomatoes have spoken. The first week of August was proclaimed City of Santa Monica Farmers Market Week, and the numbers behind the celebration are the real story: our four markets accept CalFresh/EBT and WIC at every location, and last fiscal year CalFresh customers spent over $148,000 in EBT benefits on fresh, locally grown food. Our markets aren't just a place to shop. They're a cornerstone of food access for families at every income level. The markets even hosted a tomato tasting at National Night Out, and after the community voted, Early Girl and Sungold took the crown. I'll be at the Pico market at Virginia Avenue Park this Saturday morning, August 15. Bring your questions about Tuesday's votes, the Civic, Virginia Avenue, anything. You bring the tough question, I'll bring the straight answer. Then we can both go hear The Rumble that evening.
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Today, Monday, August 10, 4:30 p.m.: Silas White Street unveiling ceremony at 1846 Main St.
🔹 Tuesday, August 11, 5:30 p.m.: City Council meeting at City Hall, with the Virginia Avenue report, the Civic Auditorium negotiation item, and more.
👉 Find the agenda and staff reports
🔹 Saturday, August 15, morning: Catch me at the Pico Farmers Market at Virginia Avenue Park.
🔹 Saturday, August 15: Last day of the Library's Summer Reading program.
🔹 Saturday, August 15, 7 p.m.: Tongva Twilight at Tongva Park with The Rumble.
🔹 Through Thursday, August 20: The Santa Monica Renter Aid application window is open. Ten days left, and one hard month should never cost a family their home.
👉 Apply for Santa Monica Renter Aid
🔹 Through Sunday, August 23: The LA Jazz Festival's free events continue across the region.
🔹 Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27: Ocean Way Festival on Santa Monica Beach.
🔹 Starting Tuesday, September 29: The League of Women Voters candidate forum series begins, with City Council forums on October 4, 9, and 14.
🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: The farmers markets are open, and weekends are where you'll find me.
💙 All In Through November
As you know, I'm running for re-election this November, alongside Doug Trussler and Ashley Oelsen. I never expected a life in politics. I'm a renter, a mom, a first-generation American, and a small business owner who was born and raised here, and I stepped into public service because voices like mine needed to be in the room. Five years in, my goals haven't changed: a Santa Monica that is safer, cleaner, more affordable, more transparent, and genuinely responsive to the people who live here. I do need your help and contributions to run a successful campaign. Please head to lananegrete.com to donate whatever you can! Every dollar helps me reach voters!
I also received an endorsement that I am proud of: Generations of Virginia Ave, an organization founded to preserve the history of the Pico Neighborhood and strengthen civic participation among its residents. This one represents generations of families who built community here and raised their kids here. Leadership begins with listening, and my job has never been to speak for people. It's to make sure people have a voice in the decisions that shape their lives. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. However you land, be informed and be counted.
👉 See the Generations of Virginia Ave endorsement
👉 Get involved at LanaNegrete.com
📱 Stay Connected
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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.
🔹 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: Join the Second Line
This Saturday, a New Orleans funk band takes the stage at Tongva Park, and it has me thinking about second lines. In New Orleans, the band that leads the parade is called the first line. The second line is everybody else: the neighbors who hear the horns, step off their porches, and fall in behind, dancing. The parade doesn't really become a parade until they join in.
That's this city, at its best. The Council can set an agenda, staff can write the reports, and a band can start playing in a park, but none of it becomes Santa Monica until you show up and join in. So this week, pick your spot in the line. Come witness history at 4:30 today. Speak your mind Tuesday night, or just follow along and read the reports. Find me at the market Saturday morning, and dance next to me at Tongva Park that evening. The music is already playing. All you have to do is step in.
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica