🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 July 13, 2026

Good morning, neighbors,

More than 85 of you gave up a chunk of your Sunday to sit and talk about the future of this city, and what stayed with me most was not what anyone agreed on. It was that people want to be heard. We talked public safety, housing, small business, and everything in between, and I left more convinced than ever that Santa Monica is strongest when people ask tough questions, look at the facts, and make informed decisions for themselves. Thank you to everyone who showed up.

That spirit runs through this whole week ahead: a packed Council agenda on Tuesday that deserves your attention, a milestone for our libraries six years in the making, a farmers market birthday 45 years in the making, and a kickoff party on Friday where I want to hear exactly what you want to see happen in Santa Monica next. Let's get into it.

👉 See my recap of Sunday's conversation (Instagram)

🚔 Public Safety

🔹 The week in numbers, June 28 through July 4. The Fourth of July week brought big crowds and a busy department: 2,426 calls for service and 98 arrests, with over 40 percent of all activity initiated by officers rather than dispatched. Year to date, arrests are up nearly 70 percent over last year while homeless-related dispositions continue to trend down.

→ 📊 What the cases looked like: Officers responding to a disturbance near Lot 5 South took a convicted felon into custody with a firearm in his waistband, along with fentanyl, pills, and packaging materials. A man assaulted with a crowbar on Ocean Front Walk got justice fast, with Pier cameras helping officers identify and arrest a suspect within about an hour. A robbery on Appian Way ended in a quick apprehension, and while working that case, officers spotted a passing stolen vehicle and arrested that driver too. Traffic teams ran 225 stops during one of our busiest weeks, kept the Main Street parade route secure, and responded to a pedestrian struck in a crosswalk at 16th and Santa Monica Boulevard. My thoughts are with that neighbor for a full recovery.

→ 🎯 My take: A holiday week with tens of thousands of visitors is the real stress test of a fully staffed department, and ours passed it. When nearly half of all police activity is proactive during the busiest week of the summer, that is not luck. That takes people, tools, and follow-through all pulling in the same direction, and it's exactly why I've backed this department's staffing and technology at every turn.

🔹 Do Flock cameras threaten our civil liberties? Let's talk about it. It is one of the questions I hear most often, and it deserves a straight answer, not a slogan. So this week I put out a Myth vs. Fact video walking through what these cameras actually capture and what they don't, how Santa Monica limits access to license plate data, and the safeguards, oversight, and audit requirements in place.

→ 🎯 Where I stand: Protecting our constitutional rights and protecting public safety should never be an either-or choice. Whether you support these cameras or have concerns about them, we should have honest conversations based on facts, not fear. Watch the video, and if you still have questions about privacy or public safety, send them my way. I would love to answer them in a future Myth vs. Fact.

👉 Watch the Myth vs. Fact video (Instagram)

🔹 One team, two tools: outreach and accountability. Our Homeless Liaison Program handled 200 radio calls this week, made 164 self-initiated contacts, and connected 13 people to SaMo Bridge. The week also included a coordinated operation with the Crime Impact Team and County Probation that resulted in six arrests, including individuals violating sex offender registration requirements and parole conditions, plus a felony warrant arrest of a person wanted on a $200,000 assault warrant.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: Real compassion has two hands. One extends a referral to services for the person ready to accept help, and the other holds a person with a $200,000 assault warrant to account. A city that only uses one of them isn't keeping anyone safe.

🔹 From dodgeball courts to a Colorado fire line, our firefighters showed their range. At home, SMFD answered 364 calls, completed 137 annual fire inspections, and spent afternoons playing Giant UNO and dodgeball with campers at Virginia Avenue Park and CREST Camp. Meanwhile, five SMFD members deployed to the Ferris Fire in Colorado as part of California Interagency Team 7, supporting a fight against fires that have burned nearly 185,000 acres and, heartbreakingly, claimed the lives of three firefighters in late June. Our members are expected home July 20.

→ 🙏 A note of gratitude: Please keep those three fallen firefighters and their families in your hearts. And know that when our members deploy on mutual aid, the experience comes home with them, strengthening how we plan for major events here, including the 2028 Olympics. To our five deployed members: thank you, stay safe, and we will see you soon.

💼 Economic Development

🔹 From Council vote to working program in about 90 days: sidewalk dining just got easier and cheaper. Back in March, the Council directed staff to make it dramatically simpler for restaurants to put basic tables and chairs out on the sidewalk. The new self-certified program went live July 1, and six of the first eight applications were approved within the first week. For simple setups, monthly licensing fees are gone, staff review fees are waived, and local per-seat wastewater fees are waived too. Up to 59 restaurants citywide stand to benefit.

→ 🎯 My take: I have run a family business on these streets for a long time, and I can tell you that fees and delays that add up to tens of thousands of dollars are the difference between growing and just hanging on. Every table and chair on a Santa Monica sidewalk puts more people on our streets and more eyes on our storefronts, at exactly the moment the world is visiting. Cutting red tape isn't a slogan when it saves a family restaurant tens of thousands of dollars. It's a lifeline, and I want more of them.

👉 Read about the sidewalk dining reforms

🔹 Smarter parking, faster exits, and 60 percent less lost revenue. License Plate Recognition technology is now live at six Downtown parking structures, with the Civic Structure and Structure 9 up next. Cameras read your plate on the way in, you pay at a station or on your phone, and the gate rises automatically on the way out. No digging for a ticket, no feeding a machine, no backup at the exit.

→ 📊 By the numbers: In structures where the technology is installed, the City has measured roughly a 60 percent reduction in lost parking revenue. That is meaningfully more money for police, fire, parks, and libraries without a single new fee or rate increase. We are simply collecting what is already owed, and that kind of operational discipline is something I will back every time.

🔹 More than 25,000 of us have gathered this summer, and counting. Between World Cup watch parties on the Promenade, Fourth of July festivities, and the debut of Pulse in the Park at Tongva Park, complete with food trucks, a beer garden, and YMCA bounce houses, this summer has been proof of concept for an activated Santa Monica. Safe, clean, welcoming, and busy. That is the recipe, and the numbers keep backing it up.

🎓 Education & Our Libraries

🔹 Six years in the making: every library branch is now open at least four days a week. For the first time since 2020, every single Santa Monica Public Library location is open for full in-person service at least four days per week. Fairview welcomed visitors on a Monday for the first time in six years. Ocean Park opened on a Tuesday for the first time in six years. Montana Avenue opened on a Wednesday for, you guessed it, the first time in six years.

→ 💡 What this means: You can now walk into any SMPL branch on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and find open doors and welcoming faces. One extra open day per branch might sound modest on paper, but ask any parent, senior, or student who depends on their neighborhood library what it means to them.

→ 🎯 My take: Rebuilding a city isn't flashy. It's schedules planned, shelves stocked, and doors unlocked, week after deliberate week. Huge thanks to the library staff at every branch who planned schedules, organized shelves, and onboarded new team members to make these reopenings happen. As our Library Director put it this week, we are just getting started, and I could not agree more.

🔹 Santa Monica is a city of readers, and now we have proof. In just the first three weeks of Summer Reading, more than 1,570 adults, youth, and babies signed up and together logged 2,487 hours of reading. That is more than 103 days of continuous, around-the-clock reading in under a month. The program runs through August 15, readers ages 4 to 18 can win a Nintendo Switch 2, adults can win a Kobo eReader, and in-person registrants get a birthday-themed goody bag while supplies last.

👉 Register for Summer Reading

👉 See the Summer Reading program details

🔹 Friday Night Lights come to John Adams, and everyone plays. Our Community Recreation Division has partnered with Compete Forever and NFL Flag LA to launch free drop-in coed flag football at John Adams Middle School, every Friday all summer from 6:30 to 8 p.m. for ages 6 to 18. No registration, no fees, no tryouts, no barriers. Teams get mixed up each week for casual pickup games, so every kid plays regardless of experience or skill level. Questions? Email communityrecreation@santamonica.gov.

🏛️ At City Hall: Your Voice This Week

🔹 Tuesday's Council agenda is one of the biggest of the year. Please read it. The Council meets Tuesday, July 14, at 5:30 p.m., and the agenda touches nearly every major issue in this city. We will receive certification that a citizen initiative for a $495 annual parcel tax funding the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has qualified, and consider placing it on the November 3 ballot. We will review three potential ballot measures amending the City Charter's rent control and housing provisions, based on recommendations from the Rent Control Board. We will take up changes to the Downtown Community Plan and zoning code to allow more development on City-owned sites Downtown, an ordinance implementing SB 79, the State's transit-oriented development law, and an interim ordinance setting standards for permitting autonomous vehicle fleet services.

→ 🎯 My take: Schools, rent control, Downtown's future, State housing law, and driverless cars, all in one night. These are exactly the decisions that should be made with residents in the room, not discovered after the fact. Read the items that touch your life, send a comment, or come speak. The best time to weigh in is before the gavel comes down, not after.

👉 Read the Council agenda and staff reports

🔹 Two more public meetings bookend the week. Tonight, Monday, July 13, the Landmarks Commission reviews three Mills Act historic preservation agreements, including 1355 Third Street Promenade, where the Commission will also weigh in on a proposed digital display. Then on Wednesday, July 15, the Planning Commission holds a study session on the Beach & Pier Vision Plan and considers a permit for a new childcare and early education facility at 1029 26th Street.

👉 Find agendas for all City meetings

🔹 Housing help comes to the neighborhood on Wednesday. The City's Housing team brings its community Office Hours back to Virginia Avenue Park this Wednesday, July 15, from 4 to 6 p.m. Sit down one-on-one with staff, in English or Spanish, no appointment needed, to talk through the Below Market Housing program, which connects households to more than 2,600 affordable apartments through one streamlined waitlist, and the Preserving Our Diversity program, which provides monthly cash assistance so low-income seniors in longtime rent-controlled apartments can afford to stay.

→ 🎯 Why I love this one: As a renter myself, I know navigating housing programs should not require taking a day off work to get to City Hall. POD in particular is one of the clearest statements of who we are: the longtime neighbors who built this community should get to remain part of it. If you know someone who could benefit, send them to the park on Wednesday.

👉 Learn about the BMH program

👉 Learn about the POD program

🔹 Last call: affordable housing comments close Wednesday. If you have thoughts on the proposed Affordable Housing Integrity Ordinance, the one that would give the City real remedies when deed-restricted affordable units don't reach the income-qualified families they were built for, the comment window closes Wednesday, July 15. Email Consumer.Mailbox@santamonica.gov before then. Every comment gets reviewed.

🎉 Around Town & Community

🔹 Our Farmers Market turns 45 this Wednesday, to the exact day. On Wednesday, July 15, 1981, the very first Santa Monica Farmers Market opened for business. This Wednesday, July 15, 2026, we celebrate 45 years at the very same market, right down to the day of the week. From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Downtown, you can grab a commemorative screen-printed tote made live while supplies last, browse the Museum of Market booth with four and a half decades of photos and artifacts, and leave a thank-you note at the Gratitude Station. At 10 a.m., commendations go to our long-term farmers, including some who were selling on day one in 1981, and at 10:45 a.m. local bakers bring out the cakes.

👉 Visit the Downtown Farmers Market page

🔹 Nearly 1,000 neighbors welcomed the 19th Street Community Farm. A space that sat vacant for more than 35 years is now home to native pollinator plants, a medicinal garden, a chicken coop, fruit trees, and beds full of peppers, pumpkins, and tomatoes, and the opening celebration last month drew close to a thousand people for blessings, ballet folklorico, line dancing, and cooking demos. Best of all, a resident Steering Committee now runs programming at the site, which has already hosted a food distribution and Plant Bingo.

🔹 LA loves our pools, and the numbers agree. The Annenberg Community Beach House sold 1,075 pool passes over the Fourth of July weekend, welcoming longtime regulars and first-time visitors alike. And the Los Angeles Times just named both the Beach House and the Santa Monica Swim Center among the region's best affordable pools to beat the heat. Two public pools on one best-of list is not a bad flex for a city our size. And if you want to test those rankings yourself, Splash Night round two hits the Swim Center this Friday, July 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. Round one drew 438 guests, so grab tickets early.

👉 Get Splash Night tickets

📅 Dates to Know

🔹 Tonight, Monday, July 13: Landmarks Commission meeting on three historic preservation agreements.

🔹 Tuesday, July 14, 5:30 p.m.: City Council meeting. Parcel tax ballot measure, rent control charter measures, Downtown zoning, SB 79, and autonomous vehicles.

🔹 Tuesday, July 14, 5:00 p.m.: City Hall steps - Join me as I officially file for reelection! If you’re a Santa Monica voter, I’d be honored if you’d sign my nomination papers to help place my name on the November ballot.

🔹 Wednesday, July 15: Farmers Market 45th Anniversary Celebration, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Downtown. Housing Office Hours at Virginia Avenue Park, 4 to 6 p.m. Planning Commission meeting. Affordable Housing Integrity Ordinance comments due. Santa Monica Democratic Club endorsement vote, 6:30 p.m. on Zoom (details below). And Santa Monica's first-ever Wallis Annenberg Day.

🔹 Friday, July 17: My campaign kickoff party, 6 to 10 p.m. (details below!). Splash Night at the Swim Center, 4 to 7 p.m. And Friday Night Lights flag football at John Adams, 6:30 to 8 p.m., every Friday all summer.

🔹 Thursday, July 23, 4 to 7 p.m.: State of the City on Main Street, with free Big Blue Bus rides to and from.

👉 See the State of the City details and RSVP

🔹 Tuesday, August 4, 5 to 8 p.m.: National Night Out on the City Hall lawn with SMPD.

👉 See the National Night Out details

🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: the farmers markets are open, birthday week or not. Come find me on a weekend. I'm easy to spot and even easier to talk to.

💙 All In Through November

It's official, and you're invited: this Friday, July 17, from 6 to 10 p.m., I'm throwing my campaign kickoff party, doubling as a slightly late birthday celebration. Another year around the sun, and I'm asking for your support for another term on City Council. One of my favorite DJs will keep us dancing, and my talented friend Josh Madson will be taking free black-and-white photos, so come camera-ready and get that headshot you always wanted. You'll receive two copies and become part of his Community Collage, a portrait project capturing the people who make this city what it is. Most of all, I want to hear from you: what do you want to see happen in Santa Monica next term, and why do you love this beautiful city? Please RSVP so we can be ready for you.

👉 RSVP for the kickoff party

Please vote for my Dem Club endorsement: This Wednesday, July 15, at 6:30 p.m., the Santa Monica Democratic Club votes on its endorsements for November. As a lifelong Democrat, this one means a great deal to me. If you are a Club member, here is how it works: RSVP through the Club's Zoom registration to attend, listen as each candidate gives a one-minute closing statement, then watch the email you registered with, because your ballot arrives right after. I am asking for your vote, alongside Ashley Oelsen and Doug Trussler for City Council and Heather Thomason for Rent Control Board and for School Board: Robbie Staenberg, Alicia Mignano, Laurie Lieberman and Stacy Rouse. One more thing worth knowing: earning the endorsement takes 55 percent, so if no one clears that bar, additional ballot rounds go out. Please keep voting the same way in every round until the process wraps. Every single vote matters, and I do not take one of them for granted.

👉 Find the meeting details on the Democratic Club site

New endorsement from Traci Park: I also want to share something that moved me this week. LA City Councilmember Traci Park, whose district meets ours where the sand does, publicly endorsed my reelection. She and I forged our partnership walking the beach between Venice and Santa Monica back in 2022, and we have worked together ever since on homelessness, public safety, the airport, and leading our cities through the 2025 fires. One line of hers will stay with me: "She didn't come from City Hall. She came into City Hall to serve." That is the standard I hold myself to every single day, and partnership across city lines is how real problems actually get solved.

👉 Read Councilmember Park's endorsement (Instagram)

And if you can give before Friday, any amount helps us kick this off strong and carry the momentum all the way to November 3.

👉 Chip in before the kickoff

📱 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: Facts, Not Fear

If this week has a theme, it's this: honest conversations make strong cities. That's what Sunday's gathering was. That's what the Myth vs. Fact series is for. And that's what Tuesday's Council meeting should be, a room full of neighbors who did the reading and came to be heard.

So here's your homework, and it's the good kind. Pick one item on Tuesday's agenda and send a comment. Sign my packet to place my name on the ballot. And on Friday, come dance with me, get that headshot, and tell me face to face what you want for this city. If you're frustrated, don't tune out. Get involved. Ask questions. And most importantly, vote. These conversations are why I love serving this city, and I'll keep showing up for every one of them.

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