🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 July 20, 2026

Hello, Santa Monica,

Sunday reminded me what Santa Monica can be. From Third Street to Ocean Avenue, Wilshire to Colorado, our city was alive: giant screens, live music, DJs, beer gardens, local businesses, families, neighbors, and visitors from all over Southern California, all celebrating the FIFA World Cup Final together. The part that stuck with me? So many people told us they came from two or even three hours away, and everyone we spoke with said Santa Monica was easy to get to and easy to enjoy. This was never just about soccer. It was about community.

I hope this feeling doesn't have to wait for another World Cup, and this week's news says it won't. A first-ever music festival is coming to our beach in September, with a resident presale opening this Wednesday. A new program launches today to help keep our neighbors housed. And I owe you a straight, honest rundown of the big votes your Council took on Tuesday, including one where I landed in the minority. Let's get into all of it.

👉 See my World Cup Final recap (Instagram)

🚔 Public Safety

🔹 The week in numbers, July 5 through 11. SMPD handled 2,438 calls for service and made 112 arrests, up 14 from the week before, with officers initiating 46 percent of all activity. Year to date, arrests have climbed 70 percent compared with 2025, and homeless-related dispositions keep inching downward.

→ 📊 What the cases looked like: When a man threatening people with a hatchet fled toward a children's playground near Barnard Way, officers used a less-lethal round to end the danger and take him into custody with no one hurt. A traffic stop near Ocean Avenue and San Vicente Terrace turned up a loaded Glock with a round chambered and an extended magazine. A residential burglary suspect on 24th Street was arrested with a resident still inside the home, and our SMART Center guided a K9 officer to a stolen vehicle and a safe arrest outside city limits. Traffic teams also ran a DUI and license checkpoint on Pico Boulevard, screening 148 of the 445 vehicles that passed through.

→ 🎯 My take: Notice how many of those arrests started with proactive work, a traffic stop, a SMART Center alert, an officer choosing to look closer. That is what a fully staffed, well-equipped department does, and it is exactly why I have fought for the staffing and technology behind every one of those cases. Safer streets are built one proactive stop at a time.

🔹 Outreach and accountability, working the same beach. An early-morning livability operation with the Salvation Army and The People Concern produced 70 community contacts, 4 arrests, 7 citations, and 8 referrals or connections to SaMo Bridge, Samoshel, and Project Homecoming. The week's best moment came near Virginia Avenue Park, where officers met a woman who had been displaced from her housing more than a year ago, coordinated with her case manager, and got her into a shelter bed with a path toward permanent housing.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: One operation, two hands: enforcement for those breaking the law, and a patient, persistent yes for someone ready to come inside. That woman's story is the outcome all of this coordination exists to produce, and I will keep backing the teams who refuse to give up until it happens.

🔹 Our Fire Department passed it forward this week. SMFD answered 332 calls and completed 111 annual fire inspections, and it also donated its training engines to El Camino College, fully equipped, to help prepare the next generation of firefighters and emergency responders. Meanwhile, the five SMFD members who deployed to the Ferris Fire in Colorado are due home today.

→ 🙏 A note of gratitude: Welcome home, crew. Thank you for representing Santa Monica on one of the hardest fire lines in the country, and thank you to the logistics, finance, and mechanics teams who made the engine donation happen. Investing in future firefighters is a legacy move, and I love to see it.

🔹 Most of us never think about our water system until something goes wrong. The recent water main breaks in neighboring communities are a reminder of how important it is to invest in the infrastructure beneath our feet before problems become emergencies. I'm incredibly grateful for Santa Monica's Water Resources Division and Public Works Department, whose work often goes unseen but keeps clean, safe, reliable water flowing to our homes and businesses every single day.

→ 🎯 Why I keep showing it off: One of my favorite stops on the Negrete Council Tours is our Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project, because I believe government should be transparent. When residents can see how their city works and meet the people behind the scenes, it builds trust in why these investments matter.

👉 See my water infrastructure post (Instagram)

🏛️ At City Hall: Straight Talk on Tuesday's Votes

🔹 Rent control measures are headed to your November ballot, and here is exactly how I voted. On Tuesday, the Council placed a package of rent control charter amendments before voters. Three of them, a state-required environmental finding, administrative updates paired with a reaffirmation of our just-cause eviction protections, and a prohibition on evictions over smaller rental debts, passed 6 to 0 with my support. A fourth measure, which would bar evictions when tenants add new occupants to a household and allow certain occupants to remain after the original tenant leaves, passed 4 to 2. I was one of the two no votes.

→ 🎯 Why I voted no on that one: I live in a rent-controlled building myself, so tenant protections are personal to me, and I supported the rest of the package. But when I pressed staff on whether this measure could let a unit pass from occupant to occupant indefinitely, the honest answer was that it could. I also heard from small mom and pop landlords who felt blindsided, good people who follow the rules and were not getting these notifications, and I asked whether we could slow down long enough to bring them into the conversation. We could not, so I voted my conscience. Now the decision belongs where it should: with you, the voters. Read up on all four measures before November 3, and whichever way you land, land there informed.

👉 Read SMDP's full coverage

🔹 Your November ballot is filling up fast. Tuesday's meeting also handled the qualified citizen initiative to fund our Santa Monica-Malibu schools through a $495 yearly parcel tax, now bound for the November 3 ballot, along with major items on Downtown zoning and the State's SB 79 transit development law. These decisions shape how we fund schools and where our city grows, and the staff reports lay it all out in plain terms.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: This November, you are not just choosing candidates. You are making policy. Give yourself time to do the reading, and bring me your questions at the market any weekend.

👉 Read the Council staff reports

💼 Economic Development

🔹 Music is coming back to our beach, and residents get first dibs this Wednesday. Goldenvoice, the producers of Coachella, just announced Ocean Way Festival, the first major music festival ever held on Santa Monica Beach, coming September 26 and 27 to the sand between the Pier and Bay Street. The Killers and Olivia Dean headline a lineup that includes Jack White, Khruangbin, Sublime, Alvvays, and DJ sets from Hot Chip and Poolside, with open blanket areas designed the way people actually enjoy the beach. Santa Monica residents get exclusive presale access starting this Wednesday, July 22, at 11 a.m., ahead of Thursday's general on-sale, and in the weeks before the festival, Goldenvoice will host free concerts, beach cleanups, and youth surf and water safety programs across the city.

→ 💡 The story behind the name: The festival honors Ocean Way Recording, the legendary studio Allen Sides launched from a garage just steps from the Pier, and Goldenvoice built its own early reputation producing shows at our Civic Auditorium. This is a homecoming as much as a debut.

→ 🎯 My take: You don't spend your life around a family music store without dreaming of a day when world-class music plays on our own sand. This festival did not happen by accident. It is a direct product of the Realignment Plan's investment in cultural vitality that your Council championed, and it comes with real commitments to local businesses and local kids. Set your alarm for Wednesday at 11.

👉 Visit the Ocean Way Festival site

🔹 The World Cup's final gift: proof that visitors choose to stay. Big Blue Bus wrapped its World Cup operation with 11,289 passenger trips between Downtown and the stadium across 228 bus trips, and zero safety or security incidents. Buried in the data is my favorite detail: starting with the third match, BBB consistently carried about 284 more people back to Santa Monica than it took to the stadium. Fans from across the region were finishing the match in Inglewood and choosing to spend the rest of their day here, with Big Blue Bus as their front door.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: That is transit service and destination marketing rolled into one, and thanks to disciplined post-game reporting and billing to LA Metro, the whole operation came at no net cost to the City. Consider it a live dress rehearsal for the Super Bowl in 2027 and the Olympics in 2028. Let's keep finding ways to activate our streets, celebrate our local businesses, and welcome visitors.

🔹 The national press has noticed our restaurant comeback. Eater LA just spotlighted West Side Oyster Club, the new seafood concept from Greg and Yunnie Morena, whose family's roots in Santa Monica hospitality stretch back to 1977, opening in the space Blue Plate Oysterette left this January. The operator credits the City directly, noting the drop in encampments and describing Palisades Park as transformed compared with just a few months ago. Eater's guide to the region's best beachside restaurants also features three Santa Monica spots on a single stretch of Ocean Avenue: Sirena at the Georgian, The Lobster, and Marelle. And the Wellside Café, coming to Wilshire Boulevard, was among the first businesses approved under our new Simple Tables and Chairs sidewalk dining program.

🔹 "People want to be in Santa Monica." That was the message when 300 commercial real estate leaders gathered at the Water Garden last week for a Bisnow summit on our local economy. Panelists praised faster permitting, called the Promenade an unbelievable retail investment, and pointed to clean and safe streets and expedited approvals as direct helps to their operations, with one investor who has put hundreds of millions into Downtown properties calling Santa Monica one of the greatest cities in the world.

→ 💡 What this means: The recovery underway here is real, and the more voices telling that story, the faster it compounds. If you own a business or a building in this city, your story is part of the pitch. Tell it loudly.

🔹 Business Spotlight: Little Bean Coffee. One of my favorite parts of this Business Spotlight series has been your recommendations. After I highlighted One Cedar Coffee, several of you told me I needed to visit Little Bean on Pico, and I'm so glad I listened. It was created by a husband and wife who moved from New York and turned their dream into a space that feels warm, welcoming, and deeply connected to the neighborhood, from the local artwork and wishing tree to the study spaces for Samohi students. What impressed me most wasn't just the coffee. It was the intention behind every corner.

→ 🎯 Keep them coming: These are the kinds of businesses that make Santa Monica special. Have a favorite local business or nonprofit I should spotlight next? Drop it in the comments on my post.

👉 See the Little Bean spotlight (Instagram)

🎓 Education & Our Youth

🔹 PAL just invested $31,000 in ten futures. At its annual Recognition Dinner, the Police Activities League awarded scholarships ranging from $1,500 to $6,000 to ten high school juniors and seniors headed to Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, Santa Monica College, and other schools. Notably, 80 percent of this year's recipients live in the Pico Neighborhood, and since 2002 the Chris Carrey Education Fund has awarded more than $475,000 to local students, many the first in their families to attend college.

🔹 More than 75 kids discovered the beautiful game at Historic Belmar Park. As part of the World Cup's local legacy, our Community Recreation team partnered with the LA Host Committee, the Play Equity Fund, and Cal South to host a free soccer clinic that drew players of every skill level, including several picking up a ball for the very first time. Our clinic was among the best attended in the entire region, and the setting mattered: Historic Belmar Park honors the community that once thrived on those grounds, making it a fitting home for a program built on opening the game to every family.

🔹 A new childcare center is officially coming to 26th Street. Last week I flagged that the Planning Commission would take up a permit for a new child care and early education facility at 1029 26th Street. Here is the follow-through: after extensive discussion of safety and traffic and significant public comment, the Commission approved it unanimously. The facility is expected to serve 24 children this fall, growing to 40 by Fall 2027, replacing an existing large family day care.

🔹 Sometimes we measure transportation by convenience. This week I measured it by independence. Like a lot of working parents, I can't always be the Uber mom. This week my daughter Mia asked me to drop her off so she could teach a friend how to ride the Big Blue Bus. She pulled up the Transit app, explained the routes, and confidently walked her friend through it. She's taken the bus to school, around Santa Monica, and even planned a trip with friends all the way to Laguna Beach. Yes, this mom was tracking her the whole time.

→ 💡 And the City is meeting riders halfway: BBB just installed 23 new metal benches and 20 solar-powered security lights at stops across the system, part of a program that has upgraded 184 stops since 2023. Today, 90 percent of all Big Blue Bus stops in Santa Monica have seating. Watching Mia teach someone else reminded me that confidence is contagious, and great transit is part of how our kids earn it.

👉 Read my Big Blue Bus story (Instagram)

🏠 Housing

🔹 Santa Monica Renter Aid launches today, and the application window is open through August 20. Funded by voter-approved Measure GS and years in the making, this new homelessness prevention program provides one-time or short-term financial assistance and housing stabilization services to eligible renter households facing a temporary crisis, with a goal of serving about 150 households a year. You can apply online starting today, or get in-person help at weekly assistance hours at Virginia Avenue Park and the Main Library, where our partners at The People Concern offer paper applications, bilingual Spanish support, and accessibility accommodations. They will also be on hand at Thursday's State of the City to help residents apply on the spot.

👉 Apply for Santa Monica Renter Aid

🔹 Virginia Avenue tenants toured their future homes, hard hats and all. Twenty-one tenants of the Virginia Avenue Apartments walked through their building's renovation last week with the architect, contractor, and project manager on hand to answer questions directly, reviewing everything from accessibility upgrades to the conversion to all-electric infrastructure. The City backed this project with a Housing Trust Fund loan of up to $35.7 million, and every tour like this allows tenants to see the progress and ask questions.

🌳 An Honest Update: The San Vicente Coral Trees

🔹 You asked for the full picture, so here it is, hard numbers included. Last week I met with neighbors and our public works director in front of a constituents home and I promised to keep you posted on the declining coral trees along San Vicente, and the assessment is now in. The corridor historically held 166 trees. Thirty-two locations are already empty, 13 dead trees will be removed this month, and of the 121 living trees that remain, roughly half are in poor condition. Two pests are compounding the problem: the Erythrina stem borer, which has devastated young coral trees region-wide, and the invasive shot hole borer, which can use corals to attack other nearby species.

→ 💡 What the City is doing right now: Crews have repaired 80 percent of the tree irrigation along the corridor, with full restoration expected within about four weeks, and every tree without working irrigation gets hand-watered starting this week. Staff is inspecting every tree monthly, surveying nurseries for pest-resistant coral varieties, and weighing more aggressive treatments. There is genuine hope, too: a more dramatic pruning approach recently produced real success with the corals in Tongva Park, and it may be extended to the healthier San Vicente trees. All street trees north of Wilshire are also scheduled for pruning this fiscal year now that our pruning budget has been restored.

→ 🎯 My take: I would rather hand you a hard truth than a pretty story, and the truth is we will likely lose more trees before this turns around. But staff is also treating this as a chance to rebuild that corridor with a denser, more diverse canopy, including early design thinking about what San Vicente's median could become. Public Works will discuss all of this at the NOMA meeting on August 6, and the Urban Forest Commission continues the conversation September 9. Bring your questions.

🎉 Around Town & Community

🔹 Lights, camera, Santa Monica. If you have noticed extra star power around Palisades Park, here is why: the largest film production in our city's history is here. Paris Paramount, a Warner Bros. romantic comedy from director Nancy Meyers featuring Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, and Jude Law, is filming at the Fairmont Miramar and along Ocean Avenue through July 25, with the Miramar starring as a fictional Parisian hotel. At a moment when film production across LA County remains well below historic levels, landing a record-setting studio production says everything about what this city offers, and it translates into real business for our hotels, restaurants, and shops. Thank you for your patience with the closures this week.

🔹 Our beach is a living ecosystem, and it is coming back. At a Main Library presentation on ten years of the Santa Monica Dune Restoration Project, The Bay Foundation shared that species that had all but disappeared are returning to our sand, including the federally endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly and the first snowy plover nest on Santa Monica Beach in roughly 70 years. Within months of the first pilot dunes, no less.

🔹Community Conversation on Homelessness

This past week, I joined Friends of Sunset Park, the Pico Neighborhood Association, and many engaged neighbors for a thoughtful conversation about the City’s new Continuum of Care approach to homelessness. I want to thank everyone who took the time to attend, ask important questions, and share their perspectives. These conversations help us build better policy through transparency and community engagement. If you have questions or would like to continue the conversation, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank You for an Incredible Celebration!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate my birthday (yes, I’m celebrating all month!) and my campaign kickoff at Casa Martin. Your friendship, encouragement, and support mean more than you know.

A special thank you to my dear friend Josh Madson of The Community Collage for capturing such beautiful photos of everyone who attended. Keep an eye out for a special video from the evening coming soon. It was a wonderful night filled with community, conversation, and excitement for what lies ahead, and I’m so grateful to everyone who made it so memorable.

🔹 Sips and swim, this Friday. The July 24 Sunset Swim at the Beach House debuts a new partnership with Back on the Beach Café that lets guests bring their Happy Hour drinks right onto the pool deck. The last one drew about 110 guests, so do not sleep on this one.

👉 Get Sunset Swim tickets

📅 Dates to Know

🔹 Wednesday, July 22, 11 a.m.: Resident presale opens for Ocean Way Festival, ahead of Thursday's general on-sale.

🔹 Thursday, July 23, 4 to 7 p.m.: State of the City takes over Main Street between Hollister and Ocean Park, with community booths, live music from the Samohi Orchestra Ensemble, Shotgun House tours, our Poet Laureate, and Mayor Torosis delivering the address around 4:45 p.m. Big Blue Bus rides are free from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m., just tell your driver "State of the City," and Santa Monica Spoke runs a free bike valet on Norman Place. Note that Main Street closes from noon to 10 p.m. between Ocean Park and Hollister.

👉 See the State of the City details

🔹 Friday, July 24, evening: Sunset Swim at the Annenberg Community Beach House, now with Happy Hour on the pool deck.

🔹 Through Thursday, August 20: Santa Monica Renter Aid application window is open.

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

👉 See the National Night Out details

🔹 Thursday, August 6: Public Works discusses the San Vicente coral trees at the NOMA meeting.

🔹 Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27: Ocean Way Festival makes history on Santa Monica Beach.

🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: the farmers markets are open, and so am I. Come find me on a weekend and tell me what's on your mind.

💙 All In Through November

Two endorsements this week that mean a great deal to me. First, I'm honored to receive the endorsement of Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. Nathan and I have worked together on issues including Proposition 36 and regional efforts to combat organized retail theft, because public safety doesn't stop at city boundaries. I'm grateful for his recognition that keeping our communities safe requires collaboration, accountability, and common-sense solutions.

I'm also honored to have the endorsement of Congressman Ted Lieu. Ted has been a longtime advocate for Santa Monica, our public schools, and the arts, helping secure federal investments long before I joined the Council. We've worked together on everything from Palisades Fire recovery to protecting the federal funding our city depends on for infrastructure, public safety, and economic opportunity.

Leaders at the county and federal level backing our local work is exactly the kind of collaboration I will keep building. If you want to help carry this campaign to November 3, every contribution, large or small, keeps us moving.

👉 Read DA Hochman's endorsement (Instagram)

👉 Read Congressman Lieu's endorsement (Instagram)

👉 Chip in to the campaign

📱 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: Let's Keep the Momentum Going

Sunday night, as the crowds thinned out and the screens came down, I kept thinking about something I wrote afterward: Santa Monica knows how to throw a party. But what made this weekend special wasn't the production. It was watching neighbors and strangers share a sidewalk table, cheer the same goal, and discover that this city is easy to love when we make it easy to enjoy.

That momentum is now ours to keep. Set your alarm for Wednesday's festival presale. Come to Main Street on Thursday and hear where your city is headed. Tell a neighbor about Renter Aid before the window closes. And whatever you do, keep showing up, because a city comes alive one person at a time, and I would love for the next one to be you.

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