🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete

📅 June 1, 2026

Hey Santa Monica,

A mountain lion in a backyard off 14th and Montana is not something any of us expected this week, but that is exactly what unfolded on Friday. By evening, our unexpected visitor had been safely tranquilized and sent back toward the wild, and the bigger story turned out to be how calmly the professionals handled something genuinely unpredictable.

That steadiness runs right through the week, from a new police substation now open Downtown, to a fresh wave of businesses betting on our corridors, to summer programming stacking up, to a June primary that wraps up tomorrow. There is also a standing coffee invitation in here for you, because meeting neighbors where they already gather is still my favorite part of this job. also, I want to note that I attended the Will Mont brunch this past weekend and it was such a joy to meet new neighbors and catch up with folks I’ve known for years! If you’re neighborhood group or your block is having a gathering and you want me to stop by and meet and just get to know each other -  i would love to! Just let me know.

Here is what is worth your time this week.

👮 Public Safety

🔹 A wild visitor, and a calm, safe ending for everyone. Friday brought a mountain lion into a residential neighborhood near 14th Street and Montana Avenue, where it eventually settled into a backyard before moving on toward Euclid. Our Police Department set a perimeter, sent SM Alerts, and moved residents back as a precaution, then handed the lead to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, whose biologists safely sedated the animal that evening and arranged its return to open habitat. No people were hurt. No pets were hurt. And one very large, very frightened, beautiful cat got a second chance.

👉 Read the full update (Instagram)

🔹 Our Downtown Police Substation is officially open. The new SMPD substation inside Santa Monica Place gives us a permanent police presence right in the heart of Downtown, with officers, our Homeless Liaison Program, and live SMART Center data all working the corridor together. It opened on the heels of a frightening Sunday incident near Second and Broadway, where a man was arrested after assaulting people Downtown. That case has been submitted to the LA County District Attorney for review.

→ 🎯 Why this matters: Residents, workers, families, and visitors all deserve to feel safe Downtown, and that takes presence, not just promises. I have pushed for this kind of visible, permanent footprint for a long time, and I am glad it is finally here. We are not done, but this is real progress you can see.

👉 See the Downtown safety update (Instagram)

🔹 SMPD by the numbers, May 17 to 23. Proactive policing held its pace, with officer-initiated work making up nearly half of all activity.

→ 📊 What you are seeing: Arrests are up more than 75 percent year over year, and that is not an accident. It is the signature of a department with the staffing to be proactive instead of only reactive. Enforcement this week included a recovered firearm and several narcotics arrests in our parks and along the beach.

🔹 A quick word from the Fire side, too. SMFD stayed busy as well, logging 335 calls for service over the past week and just under 6,900 so far this year.

💼 Economic Development

🔹 New businesses are betting on Santa Monica, and we are recruiting more. The last few weeks brought a steady run of new business applications. Metro Café is preparing to open on Santa Monica Boulevard with sustainable, locally sourced food. Punchbowl is bringing its popular organic juice and shake bar over to Main Street. And the first official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizzeria has filed to open on the Third Street Promenade, a Paramount-licensed concept with only two other locations planned anywhere in the world, in Monterrey and São Paulo. At the same time, our Economic Development team represented Santa Monica at ICSC Las Vegas, the largest retail real estate gathering in the world, to court new tenants for the Promenade and Santa Monica Place.

→ 🎯 My take: One pizzeria will not rebuild a local economy on its own. But operators choosing us, paired with a City that turns up where the deals get made, is exactly how a downtown comes back to life storefront by storefront. This is the momentum I want to keep feeding.

👉 Explore doing business in Santa Monica

🔹 MAINopoly sold out, and our first Entertainment Zone delivered. Last Sunday, Main Street hosted its 11th Annual MAINopoly: A Taste of Main Street alongside the City's first-ever Entertainment Zone activation, which let participating businesses serve beverages out on the street during the permitted event. More than 750 people turned out, the event sold out, and merchants from the Promenade and Pier even sat in on the training with an eye toward activations of their own.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: Tools like this give our local merchants a real new way to draw energy and visitors, and the next Entertainment Zone training is already on the calendar for Montana Avenue ahead of their Art Walk this fall. Big thanks to the City teams who stood this up, including the Risk Management staff fielding last-minute requests at 4:55 on a Friday.

🔹 Opening doors to capital for our small businesses. On May 26, our Economic Development and Library teams teamed up with regional partners for a business resource fair focused on access to capital, new grants, and the wider support network that helps an idea become a storefront. Roughly 30 new and established Santa Monica businesses took part.

🔹 Where does our water come from? Just ask the students at John Adams Middle School. Our Public Works and Water Resources team recently brought a hands-on water lesson to JAMS, where students built their own filters from sand, charcoal, lava rocks, and coffee filters, then tested their results against Santa Monica tap water. Before the experiment, staff walked the class through the full journey of our water, from source to treatment to tap.

→ 🎯 Why this matters: Today, Santa Monica sources roughly 85 percent of its water locally, the payoff from years of investment in conservation and recycling. The twelve-year-olds running water through coffee filters this spring are the same people who will one day decide how this city protects that resource. Teaching them now, in a way they can see and touch, may be some of the most valuable work our Water team does all year.

👉 Explore City programs and services

🏛️ Around Town

🔹 More than 1,000 pounds of grease and debris, cleared from under PCH. Our Wastewater team spent two weeks on a complex maintenance job on the major sewer trunk line that runs along Pacific Coast Highway, coordinating closely with Caltrans to inspect and jet the line. What they pulled out was striking: over 1,000 pounds of hardened grease and construction debris that had quietly been causing odor problems for nearby residents and businesses.

→ 💡 My take: This is the kind of work nobody notices until it stops happening. The next time someone walks PCH without catching a bad smell, they can thank the crew that spent two weeks making sure of it.

🔹 A concert that traced how migration shaped American music. In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Main Library hosted a lovely concert-lecture, The Emigre Songbook, exploring how Jewish migration from Europe over the last century reshaped American music, from jazz and Broadway to the golden age of Hollywood film scores. These library programs are a quiet reminder that the stories of those who arrive here become, in time, the stories we all share.

🔹 Architectural Review Board meets tonight, June 1. The Board reconvenes today to continue its review of a proposed mixed-use development at 2800 28th Street, an eight-story project with 390 homes and ground-floor commercial space. The review centers on design, colors, materials, and landscaping.

👉 Read the Architectural Review Board agenda

🤝 Community & Connection

🔹 Join me for Coffee with your Councilmember, this Wednesday, June 3. I will be hanging out at One Cedar Coffee, 2432 Lincoln Boulevard, from 10 AM to 12 PM, and this time a couple of our SMPD officers and our City Manager will be stopping by too. One Cedar has quickly become one of my favorite local spots, and a great example of the entrepreneurial spirit that makes this town special. Whether you have a question, an idea, a concern, or you just want to say hello, come find me. Bring a friend.

👉 See the invitation (Instagram)

🔹 A shoutout to the Santa Monica Helping Hub. What began as a local -led effort to support Palisades fire victims has grown into something lasting, from food and supply distribution to coastal cleanups and ongoing community resilience work. I want to congratulate this grassroots crew for going so far beyond where they started, and for reminding all of us what neighbors helping neighbors actually looks like.

👉 Follow Santa Monica Helping Hub (Instagram)

🔹 Come see how City Hall actually works. I would love to see more of you at a City Council meeting. It is one of the best ways to get to know your local government, and a great low-stakes chance to practice giving public comment and watch how the whole process flows. Cannot make it in person? You can always watch online.

👉 Find Council agendas and how to participate

🏳️‍🌈 Celebrating Pride Across Santa Monica

🔹 June is Pride Month, and SaMo Pride 2026 is a full month of celebration. From storytelling and live theater to family mornings on the Pier and a night swim under the stars, there is something for every age, and much of it is free. A few highlights: Storyectomy Family Pride at The Crow on Wednesday, June 3, Fabulous Fables for young families at the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday, June 7, and Pride on the Promenade on Saturday, June 13, with a drag brunch, community booths, and a Library pop-up complete with Rainbow Storytime.

→ 🙏 Why this matters: Pride is about visibility, belonging, and making sure every resident feels seen and welcome in their own city. I am proud that Santa Monica celebrates that, in full color, every June.

👉 See the full SaMo Pride lineup

🗳️ Your Vote, Tomorrow

🔹 The California Statewide Primary is tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2. Every active registered voter was mailed a ballot, and vote centers and official drop boxes are open across Santa Monica. California also allows same-day registration in person at any vote center through Election Day, so if you missed the standard deadline, you still have options. However you choose to do it, please turn that ballot in. Your vote and your voice matter.

🔹 Big Blue Bus is offering free rides all day on Election Day. In observance of the primary, BBB is making every ride free system-wide on Tuesday, June 2, so getting to the polls is one less thing to worry about. You can map your trip in a few minutes online, or call BBB Customer Service at (310) 451-5444 for a hand planning your route.

👉 Find your nearest vote center

👉 Plan your free ride to the polls

🔹 One honest, personal note, since my name is on the Nov local ballot. I am running for re-election, and I would be truly honored to keep doing this work alongside you. You know my approach by now: ask the hard questions in public, keep things civil, lead with common sense, and stay accessible. I’d love your support as I build my campaign.

https://www.efundraisingconnections.com/c/lananegrete

🔹 Tuesday, June 2: California Statewide Primary Election. Vote centers open citywide, and Big Blue Bus rides are free all day.

🔹 Wednesday, June 3, 10 AM to 12 PM: Coffee with Councilmember Negrete at One Cedar Coffee, 2432 Lincoln Boulevard.

🔹 Sunday, June 7, 4 to 6 PM: A free, world-class outdoor dance performance, La Ville Dansée / City of Dance, comes to Tongva Park, presented by our Cultural Affairs Division with L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.

🔹 Saturday, June 13: Pride on the Promenade takes over Third Street.

🔹 Sunday, June 14: The Annenberg Community Beach House opens its daily summer pool season, running all the way to Labor Day.

🔹 Sunday, June 28, 10 PM: The public parking lot at 1211 to 1217 14th Street closes permanently to make way for the Tierra Apartments, a 100 percent affordable, 82-home development for seniors. A QR code on site links to nearby parking and support options.

🔹 Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays: Downtown, Pico, and Main Street Farmers Markets. Come find me on the weekends. No appointment needed to start a conversation.

👉 View City arts and culture events

📱 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. You'll get 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: Catch You Out There

It was a strange, full week: a wild animal in a quiet neighborhood, a new substation in our busiest corner, kids filtering water through coffee filters, and businesses old and new deciding this is where they want to be. Through all of it, what I keep coming back to is how much of this city runs on people who look out for one another. Our first responders did it under pressure this week, the Helping Hub crew has done it for fire victims and for our coastline, and tomorrow, you get your turn at the ballot box.

Summer is right around the corner, and with it a whole season of reasons to be out in the community together. I hope I get to see a lot of you at One Cedar on Wednesday, somewhere in the Pride festivities, or just at the market on a Sunday morning. Until then, take care of each other and enjoy your day in our lovely city.

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