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Lana Negrete Newsletter — August 24, 2026
🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete
📅 August 24, 2026
Good morning, Santa Monica,
On Thursday I forced my youngest to indulge me, same as every August, and took the first-day-of-school photo. For the first time ever, there was only one kid in the frame. My oldest graduated from Samohi in June, and I will admit right here that I cried before the coffee even kicked in. Then the weekend arrived and asked something much harder of this city: a deadly officer-involved shooting in Palisades Park on Saturday, and a man wounded near the Pier on Sunday evening. In between those two moments, Main Street threw open its block for a farmers market street party that felt like Santa Monica at its warmest.
A week here rarely fits in one feeling. This letter holds all of it, plainly and honestly, because that is the deal between us.
🚔 Public Safety
🔹 What happened in Palisades Park on Saturday. SMPD officers responded to a reported domestic violence incident near the 1400 block of Ocean Avenue on Saturday afternoon. While officers were interviewing witnesses, an unrelated man armed with a knife charged at them. An officer fired, and despite emergency medical care from our Fire Department, the man was pronounced deceased at the hospital. The officer was not injured, and the investigation is ongoing.
→ 🎯 My take: I will not presume the outcome of the investigation, and the loss of any life is a tragedy. I also have deep faith in the training of our officers, and I am grateful that a dangerous situation did not cost additional lives, including innocent bystanders in one of our most visited parks. My thoughts are with everyone impacted, and especially with the officers who carry the mental weight of split-second, life-altering decisions long after the scene clears. Thank you to the men and women of SMPD who suit up every day for this community.
🔹 Sunday evening near the Pier. Around 7:50 p.m. Sunday, a man was approached by a group who attempted to rob him near the Pier. During the altercation, one of them fired a gun, striking him in the leg, and the suspects fled. SMPD's investigation is active, and anyone with information should call 310-458-8491. I was in the Downtown area as things unfolded, and I understand the intensity and the fear, especially when you are out with your family on a summer night. Making sure every resident and visitor feels safe on our Pier and in our Downtown is top of mind for me. Full stop.
🔹 By the numbers: August 9–15.
Here is this week’s public safety snapshot. Calls for service dipped slightly from the prior week, while officer-initiated activity increased. Arrests remain significantly higher year-to-date, while homeless-related dispositions are down compared with the same point last year.
This Week | Last Week | YTD 2026 | YTD 2025 | YTD Change | |
Calls for Service | 2,474 | 2,506 | 81,051 | 73,087 | +10.9% |
Resident-Initiated Calls | 1,289 (52%) | 1,378 (55%) | 42,625 (53%) | 45,215 (62%) | -5.7% |
Officer-Initiated Activity | 1,185 (48%) | 1,128 (45%) | 38,426 (47%) | 30,334 (42%) | +26.7% |
Homeless-Related Dispositions | 527 (21%) | 562 (22%) | 18,433 (23%) | 19,895 (27%) | -7.3% |
Total Arrests | 123 | 120 | 3,347 | 1,985 | +68.6% |
🔹 Traffic enforcement: Officers conducted 259 traffic stops, issued 164 citations and gave 90 warnings. At the Traffic Unit’s grant-funded DUI checkpoint, 1,113 vehicles passed through, 303 drivers were screened and one drug-related DUI arrest was made.
🔹 Homelessness response: Our Homeless Liaison Program responded to 168 radio calls, conducted 130 self-initiated activities, addressed 18 encampments, made 27 arrests and issued 16 citations. Five referrals were made to SAMO Bridge/Samoshel, including a Navy veteran who was connected to interim housing and began pursuing a VA housing voucher.
→ 💡 What I’m watching: The numbers tell more than one story. Overall weekly calls were essentially flat, but officers initiated more activity rather than simply waiting for calls to come in. Year-to-date arrests are up 68.6%, while homeless-related dispositions are down 7.3%. I will keep sharing these numbers because public safety should be measured by what is actually happening on our streets, not by anybody’s talking points.
🔹 The $600,000 question. This week I dug into how one City employee's total compensation reached roughly $600,000: about $173,000 in base salary, and more than $345,000 in overtime. So why pay that much overtime instead of hiring more people? The honest answer is complicated. Public safety runs around the clock, a new hire carries salary, benefits, pension, and training costs for decades, and mutual-aid deployments generate overtime that can be reimbursed. None of this is new or unique to Santa Monica.
→ 💡 What this means: Supporting our police officers and firefighters and being responsible with your tax dollars can both be true. The question I want us to keep asking is where the line sits: at what point does hiring additional personnel become the better investment than overtime, especially as our city adds density? Transparency means showing you the math, not just the headline number. Tell me what you think.
🔹 A quick Broadway note. The City's opposition brief in the Waymo appeal is due today, right on the schedule I shared last week. I will report back as soon as there is movement. Broadway neighbors, I have not forgotten you.
🏛️ At City Hall: SB 79, Explained Before the Vote
🔹 Tomorrow night, bring your questions. Our Community Development team hosts an SB 79 community information meeting this Tuesday, August 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, with a virtual option available through the City's SB 79 webpage. Staff will walk through the City's proposed approach, answer questions, and take your feedback before the item returns to Council on Tuesday, September 8.
→ 💡 What this means: SB 79 is a new State law that took effect July 1 and guarantees minimum development standards for qualified housing projects within a half mile of specified transit stops, which here means our Expo Line stations plus three Downtown bus stops. Council has already introduced an ordinance temporarily excluding five of our six transit-oriented development zones. The sixth, around the Expo/Bundy station, reaches into the Pico Neighborhood and does not yet meet the State's threshold for exclusion. The proposal on the table would modestly increase development standards on 89 R1-zoned parcels north of the I-10 and east of Dorchester Avenue, which would make the entire Expo/Bundy zone eligible for temporary exclusion from SB 79 until 2030.
→ 🎯 My take: You know where I have stood on this. When Council took up the earlier upzoning approach in July, I voted no, because if we say we are protecting a neighborhood, every decision should say the same thing. Whatever your view, a choice this consequential for Pico deserves a full room and hard questions asked out loud. Show up tomorrow, in person or online, and come back on September 8 when the votes are cast. I will be listening at both.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
💼 Economic Development
🔹 The Thelma Terry kitchen at Virginia Avenue Park is complete. Thanks to outstanding work by our Architectural Services Division and Virginia Avenue Park staff, a City-owned building in the heart of the Pico Neighborhood is now a fully licensed, all-electric commercial kitchen. It will offer affordable shared kitchen space, mentorship, entrepreneurship education, and connections to real markets for local food entrepreneurs. As someone who runs a 50-year-old family business a few blocks away, I can tell you the hardest part of starting out is access: to equipment, to guidance, to a fair shot. This kitchen is all three under one roof, and a ribbon-cutting celebration is coming soon. Stay tuned.
👉 Learn about the VAP Commercial Kitchen
🔹 ✨ Business Spotlight: O&V CA on Montana Avenue. This week's gem is Oil & Vinegar California at 1109 Montana Avenue, where owner Tana Harris walked my friend Dona and me through a full tasting: how olive oils and vinegars are made, why harvest times matter, and all the infused flavors you can mix and match. I had never done an olive oil tasting before, and I left with gifts, goodies, and somehow the urge to cook. Here is the part I love most: her olive oil is used across the street at Locanda Portofino, and her infused flavors show up drizzled over ice cream at John Kelly Chocolates. Montana Avenue businesses lifting each other up is exactly how a local economy is supposed to work. No appointment needed. Just walk in.
🔹 Four farmers markets, four partnerships in bloom. Our Downtown Wednesday and Saturday markets adjusted their layouts to accommodate the new digital billboard construction on the Promenade, and our market team made it look easy. The Wednesday market, running since 1981 and one of the largest certified farmers markets in the nation, expanded with pre-packaged food vendors along Third Street. The Saturday Pico market deepened its partnership with the Pico Business Improvement Association, bringing Pico Boulevard artisans and micro-businesses into the market's community events section. And yesterday, the Sunday Main Street market moved onto Main Street itself for an all-day celebration with the Main Street Business Improvement Association and the Ocean Park Association. I spent my Sunday morning right there in the middle of it, and we are now working to make the on-street market a permanent weekly tradition. Markets are where community and local commerce meet, and ours keep proving it.
🔹 $3 million more for electric buses. Our Department of Transportation secured a $3 million grant from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee, confirmed at MSRC's August 20 meeting, to help purchase nine additional battery-electric Big Blue Buses. Our team applied for the maximum award back in April and won it. The funds serve as the local match building on this spring's $56 million zero-emission fleet and charging project, largely covered by a $53.3 million State grant. Big Blue Bus already runs 34 battery-electric buses and is on track for full electrification by 2032. Bringing outside dollars home instead of reaching into your pocket is my favorite kind of budgeting.
👉 Plan your ride with Big Blue Bus
🎓 Education, Arts & Our Youth
🔹 One kid in the frame. Thursday was the first day of school across SMMUSD, and my annual first day photo hit differently this year with my oldest off into adulthood and my youngest starting her junior year. To every parent who took that picture last week, from preschool to senior year: I feel you. Take the picture. Hug them a little longer. Let yourself get emotional, because those first days become memories faster than any of us are ready for. And now that week one is behind us, drivers, keep the habit going: slow down in school zones, watch the crosswalks, and give yourself the extra five minutes at drop-off. Every kid gets home safe when all of us stay patient.
🎉 Around Town & Community
🔹 The 19th Street Community Farm is exceeding every expectation. Open just two months, our newest community garden has become a genuine neighborhood hub through a partnership with Santa Monica Helping Hub and Growing Hope Gardens. Using produce gleaned from the Wednesday Farmers Market through Food Forward, plus donations from local bakeries and supermarkets, roughly 70 families have come through each week to pick up recovered food. That is neighbor-to-neighbor coordination fighting food insecurity, no middleman required. Community harvesting and cooking demonstrations are in the works next, and I will share details as they land.
🔹 🥊 Boxing, music and a big cause took over the Pier. Saturday’s Butterfly Brawl brought more than eight hours of professional boxing and entertainment to the Santa Monica Pier, with 15 fights, a packed crowd and plenty of media attention, all while raising money for Teen Cancer America. The night brought some serious star power to Santa Monica, including three-division undisputed world champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, two-time world champion “Showtime” Shawn Porter, boxing broadcasting legend and Santa Monica resident Larry Merchant, and our local PAL kids getting an up-close look at the sport. And the music lineup was just as fun, with Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, Mellow Man Ace, A Lighter Shade of Brown and Stefano performing throughout the event. I love seeing our Pier used this way: bringing together sports, music, young people, visitors and a charitable mission while putting Santa Monica in front of a much bigger audience. This is the kind of activation that reminds people there is always something happening in Santa Monica.
🔹 600 neighbors moved together at Historic Belmar Park. On August 16, our Community Recreation Events Team partnered with City Shred, which chose Santa Monica as a stop on its "Move" series, and about 600 participants filled Historic Belmar Park for a 5K, yoga, movement activities, cold plunges, and free healthy snacks. Seeing that park, which honors the Belmar Triangle, alive with connection and joy is exactly what the space was created for. As a breast cancer survivor, I will never take a day of health and movement for granted, and watching hundreds of neighbors invest in theirs together made my whole week.
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 25, 6:30 p.m.: SB 79 community information meeting in the Council Chambers, with a virtual option available.
🔹 Friday, August 28: Last day of Dine LA prix-fixe menus at 40+ Santa Monica restaurants. Book the spot you keep walking past.
🔹 Saturday, August 29, 7 p.m.: Tongva Twilight continues at Tongva Park. The free series runs every Saturday through September 12. Bring a blanket and somebody you love.
🔹 Tuesday, September 8, 5:30 p.m.: City Council meeting, including the SB 79 item's return.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
🔹 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 October 4, 9, and 14.
🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: The farmers markets are open, and weekends are still where you will find me.
💙 All In Through November
🔹 The signs are in! Lawn signs and business storefront signs have arrived. If you would like one for your yard or your shop window, let me know and we will deliver it, and we would love to snap a photo with you when we do. Not home? We will happily plant it in your front lawn or hand it to your staff. And if you want to host a gathering in your backyard or at your place of business to support the campaign, I would love to make that happen. Nothing beats meeting neighbors where they actually live. And always donating to help my campaign and / or having me over to talk to you and your neighbors is so important! Let me know if you’d like to set up a meet and greet !
🔹 A boost from Mix Master Mike. When a Beastie Boy who has spent his life creating, performing, and standing up for artists sends you his support, you share it. Music and the arts are my whole story, from growing up in our family music store to the NAMM board to years of bringing arts programming to our schools. Supporting the musicians, DJs, sound engineers, venues, and small businesses of our gig economy is economic recovery too. More music in our parks, more live performances, more reasons to gather and spend locally. Let's keep making some noise.
👉 Get involved at LanaNegrete.com
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🌟 Closing Thought: Take the Picture Anyway
This week held a first-day-of-school photo and two stretches of police tape, and I will not pretend those fit neatly together. They never do. But here is what I noticed: twenty-four hours after tragedy in Palisades Park, Main Street filled with strollers, fresh strawberries, live music, and neighbors laughing in the middle of the street. That is not denial. That is a community refusing to let fear write its story.
So take the picture anyway. Sign your kid up for the thing. Walk to the market. Check on the neighbor who seemed shaken this weekend, and thank a first responder if you pass one. Then come to the Council Chambers tomorrow night and be part of a decision that will shape the Pico Neighborhood for years. Showing up is how we grieve, how we heal, and how we govern. I will keep showing up for you. I hope you will keep showing up with me.
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica