🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 May 18, 2026

Hi friends,

A lot of cities spend years trying to land the kind of week Santa Monica just had.

Some quick highlights: ESPN announced our beach as the broadcast home for the Super Bowl. The full five-week World Cup activation calendar dropped, anchored on our Pier. The Downtown Police Substation has a ribbon-cutting date. The Library is finishing the job of getting every branch back to four-plus days a week. And the Realignment Scorecard the City has been building since October is now public, so anyone who wants to track whether the work is moving can do it for themselves.

I will also tell you, briefly and wholeheartedly, that Wednesday's trip to Sacramento was everything. The Senate District 24 Business of the Year award is now officially with Santa Monica Music Center, and the family, customers, students, and staff who carried that store for 56 years are the ones who earned it. Thank you.

Pull up a chair. Here is the honest, transparent version of what landed this week.

🚨 Public Safety

🔹 Mark the date: the Downtown Police Substation opens May 28. Thursday, May 28 at 12 PM, SMPD will cut the ribbon on its new Downtown Substation inside Santa Monica Place (395 Santa Monica Place, Suite 122). The 863-square-foot facility broke ground on March 6 and now anchors a permanent SMPD presence at the heart of the Promenade, Pier, and Transit Mall corridor. Council, staff, residents, and community partners are all invited.

→ 🎯 My take: I have been saying for years that public safety is presence plus partnership plus prevention. A substation in the center of Downtown is the literal version of that. It also lands at exactly the right moment, alongside the Downtown Services Unit running 8 to 10 sworn officers on foot and bike daily, two dedicated Homeless Liaison Program officers permanently assigned to the corridor, our SMART Center now feeding live intelligence into deployment, the City Attorney's Office filing more misdemeanors, and the 12.5 percent year-over-year drop in Part I crimes reported in March. None of those wins by themselves is the substation. Together, they are the story this ribbon-cutting marks.

👉 Learn about the Realignment Plan

🔹 Public Safety Snapshot, May 3 through 9. Proactive enforcement kept climbing and homeless-related arrest activity is now up nearly 94 percent year over year, a number that reflects both how thinly Santa Monica has been carrying this crisis and the level of consistency our officers are now bringing to it.

→ 📊 What you are seeing: Officer-initiated activity is now up 29.9 percent year to date, which is the data signature of a department that is finally fully staffed and able to run real deployments instead of just answering radio. The homeless-related arrest jump is the harder number. It reflects how disproportionately Santa Monica is shouldering a regional crisis, and it underscores why I keep pushing for stronger county and state partnerships, behavioral health beds, and treatment options beyond our city lines.

🔹 Notable suppression and enforcement work this week.

→ 🚨 Robbery on Santa Monica Boulevard: A suspect took food at a business on the 300 block, pushed the owner, and resisted detention. Officers took the suspect into custody.

→ 🚨 Child recovery, Beat 3: A 7-year-old reported missing after a parent failed to return from a walk was located safely. The parent was arrested for child abduction.

→ 🚨 Swatting call at Santa Monica High School: Officers responded with K-9 support and a shelter-in-place while crews searched. No threat was located. Shelter-in-place lifted.

→ 🚨 Ishihara Park tagging incident: Officers responded to gang-related graffiti at the park, recovered a loaded firearm, and made four arrests.

→ 🚨 Organized retail theft operation, Downtown: A coordinated push with Downtown retailers produced multiple arrests connected to ongoing theft, graffiti, and weapons activity.

🔹 Traffic enforcement, May 3 through 9. Motor officers conducted three motorcycle safety operations on May 3, May 6, and May 8 across PCH, Lincoln, and Downtown, producing 61 traffic stops and 52 citations. A separate Know Your Limits DUI education campaign reached 102 community members at local businesses, with 76 people participating in voluntary breath-testing education. Weekly totals: 461 traffic stops, 305 citations, and 141 advisals.

🔹 SaMo Bridge just turned one, and it has far exceeded what we promised it would do. The City's law-enforcement diversion program for individuals experiencing homelessness, behavioral health challenges, or substance use issues marked its first anniversary last week with a graduation ceremony and community reception. The numbers are striking. SaMo Bridge was designed to serve roughly 260 people annually. In its first 12 months, the program received 462 SMPD referrals, enrolled 363 participants in 90-day care plans, directly connected 233 people to services on exit, and 58 individuals graduated with their misdemeanor charges dismissed and a real path forward.

→ 💡 What this means: This is exactly the alternative to the jail-and-emergency-room cycle that I have been arguing for since I was on the Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission. A 24/7 respite hub where SMPD can bring a person, a resource navigator who builds a 90-day plan on the spot. The stories behind those numbers are real people. A Navy veteran reunited with his sister in Ohio through Project Homecoming. A woman placed at a detox facility who is now in mental health and substance use treatment. A man who is deaf, now connected to GLAD services and awaiting permanent housing.

👉 Learn more about SaMo Bridge

🔹 Fire Department weekly snapshot. Quiet, daily readiness work.

→ 🚒 Field readiness: The Training Division ran our annual Wildland Refresher (RT-130) this past week, preparing all department members for the upcoming fire season with communications, emergency procedures, Type 6 engine operations, and the required annual fire shelter deployment training. The department also welcomed a new utility truck into service, four-wheel drive and a lift gate, with a scene lighting package built for EOC and OES responses.

🔹 Fire Service Day drew about 1,500 people to Station 1. On Saturday May 9, SMFD hosted its annual community open house with engine tours, a live auto extrication demonstration, Hands-Only CPR training, emergency preparedness booths, and complimentary burgers from Heavy Handed. Library staff joined too, with kids stringing numbered-bead bracelets that spelled out their phone numbers as wearable emergency contact info. The Family YMCA, American Red Cross, CCSM, the Pico, Ocean Park, and Mid City Neighborhood organizations, UCLA Health, Big Blue Bus, the National Guard, the Farmers Market, and many others were all on site.

🔹 The Realignment Plan Scorecard is now live. The City's progress dashboard against the five strategic objectives Council adopted in October is published online, with nearly 50 individual measures distinguishing outcomes (the "so what" metrics) from outputs (what has been delivered). The Scorecard will be reviewed monthly and updated as new data becomes available. A few items currently flagged on the "Watch" list: the Downtown Substation (ribbon cutting May 28), the Metro Platform MOU awaiting Metro's draft, the trash receptacle modernization pilot, and current retail and office vacancy rates. One item flagged "Off Track" is the new Plan Check System implementation, where the original Q2 2026 launch has slipped to Q1 2027, a known-and-managed delay being worked through.

→ 🎯 My take: This is what transparency actually looks like. Not slogans, not curated wins. A public-facing scoreboard that shows you what is working, what is on watch, and what is behind. We will be honest about all three.

👉 View the Realignment Plan Scorecard

💼 Economic Development

🔹 ESPN is making Santa Monica Beach its Super Bowl LXI broadcast home. ESPN formally announced on Tuesday May 13 that Santa Monica Beach will serve as "ESPN Beach," the network's week-long broadcast headquarters and free fan activation site for Super Bowl LXI in February 2027. Most of ESPN's daily studio programming will broadcast live from beachside sets, with ABC studio programming joining the production. On the Pier, ESPN will operate a large-scale free fan activation: interactive games, immersive Disney and ESPN brand experiences, food, and themed merchandise, open to the public throughout the week. The Super Bowl itself will be played Sunday February 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, with the surrounding week of national and global media coverage originating, in significant part, from our shoreline.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: ESPN had its pick of Southern California locations and selected ours. That places Santa Monica's beachfront and our Pier at the visual center of the most-watched single sporting event in American media, reaching a global audience for an entire week. Critically, the Pier activation will be free and open to the public, which matters. This is not a private corporate takeover of one of our most beloved community assets. It is a chance to share the Pier with the world while keeping the door wide open to residents and visitors.

→ 🎯 My stance: This is the Realignment Plan working exactly the way it was designed to. Position the city for the global moments coming our way over the next three years, World Cup 2026, Super Bowl 2027, Olympics 2028, with cost recovery, public access, and community benefit built in. None of this happens by accident. Real credit to our Major Events team, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism for the long-arc positioning work that produced this result I had many meetings last year and building relationships is what Ira all about!

👉 Browse Santa Monica's summer 2026 events

🔹 Five weeks of World Cup activations launch June 11. The full lineup is now public, and the scale is significant. From June 11 through July 19, our coastline, Pier, Downtown, and parks will host the largest concentration of programming the City has produced in recent memory.

→ 🏆 The Pier anchor: Michelob ULTRA, the official beer sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, brings its signature Pitchside Club fan experience to the Santa Monica Pier from June 11 through 25. Free and open to fans 21 and over, the Pitchside Club combines live match viewing on large-format screens, interactive soccer games, cultural programming, limited-edition merchandise, and athlete and celebrity appearances, all with the Pacific as the backdrop.

→ 🏟️ The Downtown coordination: The City contracted with experiential agency Revel Republic to make sure the Pier did not have to carry the entire tournament alone. That includes the World Play Zone at Downtown Lot 27, a ticketed family-friendly soccer activation open weekends June 11 through 28; Golden Hour at the Third Street Promenade on June 12, 21, 27, and July 10, with free pre- and post-match programming, exhibitors, and local vendors; and the Garden Series at Tongva Park on June 14 and July 12, a softer, lower-key wellness and craft offering for families looking for a break between matches.

→ 🌊 The grand finale: COAST Open Streets Festival closes the World Cup window on Sunday July 19, a car-free day linking the Pier, Tongva Park, Palisades Park, Arizona Avenue, the Promenade, and the Fourth Street Metro E Line terminus, with art installations, cultural programming, interactive experiences, and food vendors. Free and for all ages.

→ 🎯 My take: This is our first real-world test of the events strategy that the Realignment Plan rests on. Five weeks of well-executed programming will not by itself prove the model, but it will give us our first significant data point, and our first major chance to show residents and visitors what Santa Monica's next chapter looks like when it actually shows up on the streets. Big Blue Bus is also running dedicated World Cup park-and-ride service from Parking Structure 1 before and after key matches, which is the smart move for everyone trying to avoid Downtown traffic on match days.

👉 See the full World Cup activation lineup

🔹 Tuesday May 26 Council meeting: the Flexible Financial Assistance contract goes live for review. Council adopted the FFA Program in March 2025 as part of the broader Renters' Protection Program. The program provides three categories of direct financial assistance to Santa Monica renters at or below 80 percent AMI who are at risk of losing their housing: up to $5,000 in one-time emergency assistance per household per year, up to $10,000 in ongoing monthly assistance, and up to $20,000 in eviction prevention or relocation assistance for households in Unlawful Detainer proceedings receiving Right to Counsel legal services. Through a competitive RFP process, The People Concern has been selected as the administrator, and the contract comes to Council on May 26 for formal review and approval.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: Year one of FFA is funded with $7 million in voter-approved Measure GS revenue plus $1 million in one-time Prohousing Incentive Program grant funding. That makes this one of the largest specific Measure GS-funded programs to launch since the measure took effect in March 2023. The data behind it is sobering. More than 6,700 Santa Monica renter households are severely burdened by rent, and nearly 500 renters are projected to face unlawful detainer proceedings annually. Keeping families in their homes before they end up in court is the goal.

👉 View the May 26 Council agenda

🔹 1318 Fourth Street affordable housing project just secured another $36.5M. The development at the former Parking Structure 3 site has been awarded $36,583,168 in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. This is the second major State funding award in five months. Combined with the $35 million already earmarked through the December 2025 Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program grant, the City has now secured over $71 million in state funding for the project in less than half a year. Construction is now anticipated to begin by the end of this calendar year, roughly a year ahead of the original winter 2027 timeline.

→ 💡 What you are getting: When complete, the project will deliver 122 affordable apartments (studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units serving households at 30 to 80 percent AMI), with 50 units dedicated to permanent supportive housing for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The building will also include roughly 19,600 square feet of ground-floor commercial space with potential for a grocery store, and EAH Housing has committed to on-site supportive services in partnership with The People Concern. Tax credits secured at this scale carry a 55-year affordability covenant, meaning these homes stay affordable through 2080 and beyond.

→ 🎯 My stance: Affordable housing is a hot topic and often these projects don’t seem to house working Santa Monica natives / residents trying to survive….I hope this project can provide clean and safe housing for those folks as well.

🔹 MAINopoly returns Sunday May 24, this time with an Entertainment Zone. The 11th annual MAINopoly: A Taste of Main Street runs from 1 PM to 5 PM on Sunday May 24. Main Street becomes a life-size board game with over 20 participating restaurants, bars, and eateries serving as "playable properties." Attendees exchange MAINopoly dollars for tastings, and anyone who completes their board is entered to win a $1,000-plus prize package. This year, for the first time, guests 21 and over can enjoy alcoholic beverages from the "Go to Jail" Beer Garden and select participating spots as they stroll, made possible by the new Main Street Entertainment Zone designation Council approved in March, the same framework first launched on the Promenade last June.

→ ⚡ What this means: Entertainment Zones let us run open-container, time-limited event spaces that activate corridors and lift small businesses without permanent changes to the rules. MAINopoly is our first Main Street activation under the new framework. If it lands well, expect more.

🔹 Three new chapters along three commercial corridors. A nice slice of economic activity this week,

→ 🌐 On Montana: Rolld Sushi opens its first U.S. location at 1307 Montana, bringing the Australian-style fast-casual sushi concept stateside for the first time. Clean ingredients, gluten-free across the menu, and a streamlined grab-and-go ordering experience. The kind of international brand willing to test the U.S. market on Montana before anywhere else.

→ 🍻 On Main Street: Circle Bar reopens Friday May 22 at 2926 Main Street. One of the oldest continuously located bars in Santa Monica (established 1949) reopens after nearly two years dark, with new operators Mark and Addie Van Gessel (the team behind Hinano Cafe in Venice and Tavern on Main here in Santa Monica). They preserved the original 1949 floor plan and the iconic oval bar while upgrading sound, lighting, and the DJ infrastructure. A 75-year institution back on its feet, two days before MAINopoly lands on the same corridor.

→ 💐 On Pico: Synchronistic Flowers and Marketplace launches a weekly Saturday pop-up from 9 AM to 3 PM every Saturday through the summer at 1819 Pico, with local makers, artists, and small businesses rotating through. Lower-key than the others, but exactly the kind of grassroots gathering that gives a corridor its texture.

→ 🎯 My take: An international debut on Montana, a historic institution returning to Main Street, and a hyperlocal pop-up taking root on Pico. Three corridors, three completely different stories, and a quiet reminder of how resilient and varied Santa Monica's commercial fabric really is. As a small-business owner myself, I know what it takes to sign a lease in this city right now. Every one of these is a vote of confidence we should not take for granted. We just need to keep it safe and easily to do business in Santa Monica.

🔹 30 years of Sustainable Quality Awards. Our Office of Sustainability and the Environment and longtime partner Sustainable Works hosted the 30th Annual Sustainable Quality Awards at the Annenberg Community Beach House on April 29. More than 100 members of the business community gathered to mark three decades of the oldest and most rigorous sustainable business awards program in Southern California. → 💡

🔹 Planning Division activity, April 2026 versus April 2025. Application volume is up modestly, with the mix shifting toward administrative approvals.

→ 📊 What you are seeing: More streamlined approvals coming through (deed restrictions, SB 330 preliminary applications, SB 684 small-lot subdivisions), and a quieter discretionary pipeline.

🔹 Every Santa Monica library branch returns to four-plus days a week starting July 6. This is the finish line on a Realignment Plan commitment Council made in October. Beginning Monday July 6, every branch will operate at least four days per week. Main Library and the Pico Branch will both expand to five days. The schedule was intentionally rebalanced so that at least two library facilities will be open every day, Monday through Saturday, meaning residents always have a Library option available within the weekly cycle.

→ 📅 The full schedule starting July 6: Main Library is open Monday through Thursday 10 AM to 8 PM and Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM. Pico is open Tuesday through Thursday 12 PM to 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM. Montana adds Wednesday service 12 PM to 8 PM. Fairview rebalances to Monday through Thursday 12 PM to 8 PM. Ocean Park adds Tuesday service 12 PM to 8 PM.

→ 🎯 My stance: Libraries are not just buildings with books. They are how working families find a safe place for kids in the afternoon, how seniors stay connected, how new immigrants find ESL resources, and how anyone without home Wi-Fi gets online. The closures that began in 2020 took a real toll on this community. Getting every branch back to four-plus days a week is one of the most concrete Realignment Plan deliveries I can point to.

🔹 Main Library marks 20 years as the Living Room of the City. A community celebration on May 9 honored two decades since the 110,000-square-foot, LEED Gold-certified Main Library opened on January 7, 2006. The Library hosted a special reception and conversation with John Ruble, founding partner of Santa Monica-based Moore Ruble Yudell (which designed the building), and Kenneth Breisch, the architectural historian, USC professor, and former Library Board member whose scholarship has helped shape the national conversation on public-library design. The event was co-produced with the Friends of the Santa Monica Public Library and the Library Board.

🔹 Nearly 100 young people connected with employers at the Library Summer Job Fair. The Main Library partnered with JVS SoCal to host a Summer Youth Hiring Recruitment Fair for young people ages 14 to 24. Local businesses, nonprofits, and Los Angeles County departments showed up, and some teens interviewed on the spot. JVS SoCal is a longtime City partner that operates the Santa Monica Youth Employment Program through one of our Human Services grants.

🏛️ Around Town & On the Calendar

🔹 Landmarks Commission, May 11 recap. Two Structure of Merit matters moved forward. At 1626 California Avenue, the Commission voted to conclude the 180-day negotiation period, allowing construction on an addition to the existing single-unit dwelling to continue. At 1125 18th Street, the Commission opted not to continue dialogue with the property owner, meaning the 180-day negotiation period concludes May 25, after which the owner is cleared to proceed with new housing development on the site. Notably, the owner intends to donate the existing structure to a family who lost their home in the January 2025 Los Angeles fires, allowing the building to be physically preserved through relocation while new housing gets built on the parcel.

→ 💡 Why this matters: After a year of conservancy nomination, commission designation, and Council appeal proceedings, the Structure of Merit negotiation framework has arrived at a result that honors preservation, housing production, and disaster recovery all at once. Three values too often pitted against each other. Here, all three got served.

🔹 Architectural Review Board meets tonight, Monday May 18. Two items on the agenda. The first is a continued design review at 122 Hart Avenue for a new single-unit dwelling. The second is the first review of a 102-unit mixed-use residential project at 3205 Ocean Park Boulevard that would replace a 1970s office building with a four-to-seven-story building featuring ground-floor commercial space, subterranean parking, and 16 deed-restricted affordable housing units under AB 1287 and State density bonus law.

→ 🎯 What I am watching: Projects under State density bonus law tend to land with limited local discretion. The first ARB review is where design quality, neighborhood scale, and the experience of getting from sidewalk to front door get pressure-tested. I will be paying attention.

👉 View the May 18 ARB agenda

🔹 A community garden turned 50, and the next one is on the way. On Saturday May 9, the Santa Monica gardening community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Main Street Community Garden, our very first, and the seed of every garden that has followed. Musical performances, recycled art, paper pot making, and a birthday cake. What started in 1976 as a small collaboration between residents and City staff has grown into seven sites with 140 rented plots and nearly half an acre of communally managed urban agriculture on City-owned property, with the 19th Street Community Garden in development as the next chapter.

🔹 A note on the Virginia Avenue Apartments rehabilitation project. The City and Community Corporation of Santa Monica are actively monitoring the rehabilitation work at the 40-unit, rent-controlled property at 2033-2101 Virginia Avenue. Residents have raised concerns, project management has cycled through transitions, and CCSM has scheduled a tenant meeting for Thursday June 18 to provide a direct project update and respond to questions. The City will continue to engage closely on a project with significant municipal investment and a clear public commitment to preserving rent-controlled tenancies. More to come.

→ 🎯 My stance: Transparency on the harder projects, not just the easy ones. I have been working closely with all 40 families and attended a community meeting to hear their concerns on Sunday. I am bringing forward a 16 item at our May 26 meeting to ask for an update on the project as it is using public funds, and I believe there should be a public facing dashboard, giving frequent updates..

🔹 Today, Monday May 18: Architectural Review Board meeting (122 Hart Avenue and 3205 Ocean Park Boulevard).

🔹 Friday May 22: Circle Bar reopens at 2926 Main Street.

🔹 Sunday May 24, 1 PM to 5 PM: MAINopoly: A Taste of Main Street, with the new Entertainment Zone activation.

🔹 Monday May 25: Memorial Day. A day to honor those who served and the families who carry their loss. Several City facilities will observe modified holiday hours.

🔹 Tuesday May 26: Council Meeting (Flexible Financial Assistance contract with The People Concern up for review).

🔹 Thursday May 28, 12 PM: Downtown Police Substation Ribbon Cutting at Santa Monica Place (395 Santa Monica Place, Suite 122). Public invited.

🔹 Thursday June 11: World Cup activation programming begins citywide and runs through July 19.

🔹 Thursday June 18: CCSM tenant meeting on the Virginia Avenue Apartments rehabilitation project.

🔹 Monday July 6: Library Phase 2 expansion takes effect. Every branch back to four-plus days a week, Main Library and Pico at five days.

🔹 Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays: Downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market (Wednesdays), Pico Farmers Market (Saturdays), and Main Street Farmers Market (Sundays). I am usually at one. Come say hi. No appointment needed to start a conversation.

💙 All In For Santa Monica

A campaign note.

The re-election work continues, and so does the case for it. The wins this week, ESPN, the World Cup lineup, the Substation opening, SaMo Bridge clearing its first-year targets, the Library finishing its return, are not slogans on a mailer. They are receipts. The Realignment Scorecard going public this past week is, in a way, a campaign promise being kept in real time: here is the work, here is what is on watch, here is what is behind. Judge it for yourself.

The hard parts are also real, and I will not pretend otherwise. Behavioral health infrastructure in this region is still nowhere near where it needs to be. Several of our small businesses are still rebuilding. The state will keep pushing housing decisions onto us, and we need a council that knows when to lean in and when to push back. That is the four-year stretch I am asking to keep doing.

If you can support the campaign financially, the link is below. If you would rather organize a neighborhood gathering and have me come talk to you and your neighbors directly, that is genuinely my favorite part of the whole job. Reach out anytime.

👉 Support the campaign

📱 Stay Connected

Got an issue to report? Want to make sure the city hears you?

👉 Report an Issue (311)

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 Quiet Work Behind The Loud Wins

The temptation, in a week like this one, is to point at the headlines. Super Bowl. World Cup. A ribbon cutting. An award. My 56-year-old family business honored at the State Capitol. These are real moments and we should let ourselves enjoy them.

But the full version of the story is that none of those moments came out of nowhere. Transparency, for me, is naming the quiet work that made the loud wins possible. Civility is making sure the people who did that work get the credit, even when their names do not show up in the press release. Both of those values are how I want to keep showing up for this community, week in and week out, in the easy weeks and the hard ones.

See you out there, 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