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Lana Negrete Newsletter — November 3, 2026
🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete
📅 November 3, 2026
Happy Election Day, Santa Monica,
Four chairs at a 24/7 psychiatric urgent care center. Twenty $5,000 checks in the hands of local business owners. Sixty kids from 50 ZIP codes learning to read the waves. And one ballot that is due by 8 o'clock tonight. Some weeks the throughline hides; this week it is right on the surface: showing up works. You even got an extra hour Sunday to prepare for it. Vote first, then come find me tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. at West Side Oyster Club on Ocean Avenue, where we will watch the results roll in together. Details below, but first, the week.
🗳️ First, the Ballot
🔹 Polls are open until 8 p.m. tonight. Vote Centers and official drop boxes are open across Santa Monica right now, and Big Blue Bus is free system-wide all day, so there is truly no excuse between you and that booth. If your ballot is still sitting on the kitchen counter, consider this your friendly nudge from a very persistent neighbor. And when you reach the City Council portion, I humbly ask, one last time, for your vote for Ashley Oelsen, Doug Trussler, and myself. Locals for locals, all in for Santa Monica.
👉 Find a Vote Center at LAVOTE.GOV
🚔 Public Safety
🔹 By the numbers: October 18 to 24. Same deal as every week: the data, straight, in a table.
Metric | Oct 18 to 24 | Oct 11 to 17 | 2026 YTD | 2025 YTD | YTD Change | % Change
|
Calls for service | 2,114 | 2,318 | 104,610 | 100,465 | +4,145 | +4.1% |
Arrests | 96 | 98 | 4,402 | 2,735 | +1,667 | +61.0% |
Officer-initiated activity | 921 (44% of calls) | 993 (43%) | 48,562 | 40,728 | +7,834 | +19.2% |
Resident-initiated calls | 1,193 (56% of calls) | 1,325 (57%) | 56,048 | 59,737 | -3,689 | -6.2% |
→ 💡 What this means: Arrests are up 61 percent over last year, officers generated 44 percent of all activity themselves this week, and resident-initiated calls keep falling. Proactive policing is doing exactly what we funded it to do. Keep holding up your end: 911 for crimes in progress, 311 for quality-of-life issues.
🔹 An arrest in the March murder case. The Crime Impact Team assisted detectives with the transfer of a suspect into SMPD custody at LAX, coordinating with Mexican law enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service, and he was booked for murder in connection with the March 28 fatal shooting near 4th Street and Olympic Drive. The same week brought a coordinated retail theft operation producing multiple felony and misdemeanor arrests, the arrest of a residential burglary suspect tracked to Downtown LA, and a drone operator helping officers locate and detain a theft suspect near the Broadway stairs by the Pier ramp. Months of patient investigative work sit behind every one of those lines, and families waiting for justice deserve nothing less.
🔹 A new front door for mental health crises. Our Homelessness Prevention and Intervention team has signed an agreement with Exodus Recovery giving Santa Monica priority access to four chairs at the Westside Urgent Care Center, a 24/7 psychiatric urgent care facility on Washington Boulevard in Mar Vista, a short drive away. Our police officers, firefighters, and outreach workers can now refer someone in a behavioral health crisis directly to a clinical team for stabilization, with linkage to housing, outpatient programs, and inpatient treatment when needed. Exodus already operates SaMo Bridge, our 24/7 respite hub at Main and Pico that took in more than 460 police referrals in its first year, so this extends a partnership that is already proving itself, and it is another building block in the Housing Focused System of Care the Council adopted this summer.
→ 🎯 My take: A jail cell and an emergency room were never the right rooms for a psychiatric crisis. Getting the right kind of help fast changes how a crisis plays out, and that conviction is why I fought to launch our nurse practitioner unit in the first place. I talked about exactly this on California Insider last week. Four chairs may sound small. For the person sitting in one at 2 a.m., it is everything.
👉 Watch the California Insider clip (Instagram)
👉 Connect with homelessness services
🔹 Homelessness response: accountability and care in the same motion. The Homeless Liaison Program handled 121 radio calls, logged 112 self-initiated contacts, addressed 5 encampments, issued 18 citations, made 16 arrests, and connected people to SaMo Bridge, Samoshel, and SaMo Palm. The story that stays with me: a recently evicted Santa Monica resident walked into the police station after hitting barriers related to his pets, and Officers Madrid and Kobayashi listened, coordinated with the Salvation Army HOPE Team, and got him into his own unit at SaMo Palm. Officers also connected two people at Tongva Park with Project Homecoming to reunite with family in Arizona, and reached out to people on the beach ahead of anticipated weather with offers of services and safer ground. That is the whole model, every single week.
🔹 SMFD passed a stress test most cities never see. One recent afternoon brought 15 overlapping emergency calls within a single hour, temporarily exhausting every available unit and requiring mutual aid from Beverly Hills and Culver City. Our new EMS deployment model bent and did not break: the EMS Captain tiered incoming calls with Fire Communications, Truck 1 independently started resuscitation on a cardiac arrest and restored the patient's pulse, and the Advanced Provider Unit teamed with Engine 4 on a stroke transport. The department also welcomed a new battalion command vehicle replacing a 2012 Suburban, answered 320 calls, and completed 195 annual fire inspections. We invested in this system precisely for the worst hour, and the worst hour showed up and lost.
🔹 Traffic watch. Officers made 229 stops with 126 citations, recovered a firearm during a stop in the 800 block of Broadway, located a stolen vehicle near 18th and Wilshire with help from the SMART Center, and made multiple impaired driving arrests, including a driver who left the scene of an injury collision on Olympic and another spotted driving on a flattened rear wheel. I will say it until everyone listens: no errand, no party, no election night is worth driving impaired.
🏛️ At City Hall
🔹 Council expanded help for senior renters and moved $23.5 million toward affordable homes. At our October 27 meeting, we approved the heart of the Affordability Agenda: the Preserving Our Diversity program's minimum age drops from 65 to 62, the required tenure in a rent-controlled unit falls from 15 to 10 years, eligibility extends to deed-restricted affordable housing, and benefits now get an annual cost-of-living adjustment. Staff reports that 29 households rejected in the past year will qualify under the new rules and will be contacted directly. We also steered $23.5 million in Measure GS funds toward new affordable housing projects, and directed the City Attorney to fold final paycheck protections into our new in-house wage enforcement program and return with options.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: I rent my home in this city, so I will never treat housing stability as an abstraction. POD is cash help that keeps longtime neighbors, the people who built this community, in the community they built. If you know a senior renter who applied and was turned down, tell them to watch their mail.
🔹 Coming November 17: a $55 million bet on our own water. At our next Council meeting on Tuesday, November 17, staff brings forward authorization of roughly $55 million in Water Enterprise Revenue Bonds. The proceeds would rehabilitate the Mt. Olivette and San Vicente Reservoirs by December 2028, two of four reservoirs that together hold about 40 million gallons, roughly four days of citywide supply, in tanks that range from 60 to 100 years old. The bonds would also fund the new Olympic Production Well by June 2028, pushing local water production from 52 percent last fiscal year toward a projected 75 percent by FY 2027-28. S&P assigned the proposed issuance its AA+ rating, and if Council approves, pricing follows on December 3 with closing December 17.
→ 💡 What this means: Every gallon we produce here is a gallon we do not buy from the Metropolitan Water District, where imported water keeps getting pricier and the Colorado River keeps getting less reliable. Seismic resilience, emergency storage, and independence, all in one line item. The staff report lands with the November 17 agenda packet, and you know where to find me if you have questions.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
💼 Economic Development
🔹 Twenty checks, 129 raised hands. Our Economic Development team announced the first recipients of the Small Business Relief Microgrant Program: 20 locally owned businesses each receiving $5,000 from the program's $100,000 budget, out of 129 applicants. Any brick-and-mortar business with fewer than 50 employees and under $3 million in annual revenue could apply, and the funds can go toward point-of-sale upgrades, equipment, marketing, inventory, or professional services.
→ 🎯 My take: I have run my family's music store long enough to know that $5,000 is not a windfall, but it is absolutely a catalyst: a refreshed storefront, a new e-commerce setup, a real marketing push heading into the holidays. The 129 applications also tell me the demand is six times the supply, which is why staff is already developing options to continue and expand this program into 2027. Good. Let's grow it.
👉 See the microgrant recipients
🔹 Ride, Shop, Save is officially live. The Big Blue Bus holiday program kicked off Sunday and runs through December 31: enroll for free, get a digital discount card, and unlock exclusive deals at participating Santa Monica shops and restaurants. BBB just passed 10 million annual rides for the second straight year, and this program turns those riders into customers for the businesses that give our corridors their character. A bus that fills storefronts while it empties parking lots? As a small business owner, I approve this message. And remember, BBB is free all day today for Election Day.
🔹 October's new business scorecard: caffeinated, blended, and frozen. People's Goods, the espresso and matcha kiosk I flagged when its signage first went up, has soft-opened in the center court at Santa Monica Place, pouring from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for now. Robeks Juice is building out a former fossil shop at 1460 Lincoln with smoothies, acai bowls, and avocado toast. And somehow Santa Monica is getting two frozen yogurt concepts at once: Yogurt, All Day is coming to 601 Wilshire, and Neptune's Frozen Treats picked the revamped center at Montana and 11th for its second-ever location. They join Gott's Roadside, Bar Fortuna, Stiletto, Matilda's, and Dirty Latte Co. in choosing this city. Our job at City Hall is simple: keep making it easier to open, operate, and grow here.
🔹 Art where the butcher paper used to be. The first window wraps from the City's Local Canvas program are up on the Promenade, covering the former Anthropologie storefront at Santa Monica Boulevard and Third Street with work by local artists, with 1403, 1405, and 1413 Third Street Promenade next in line. Vacant storefronts are the Promenade's most visible wound, and while the real cure is economic growth, this is fast, inexpensive, and changes how the street feels today.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Some of my earliest memories are on that street, watching my dad perform with my brother beside me. Papered-over windows tell visitors nobody cares. Local art in those same windows says the opposite, and it says it in Santa Monica's own voice.
👉 See my Promenade memories (Instagram)
🔹 Fingers crossed for tomorrow. The one-year Realignment Plan results keep making news, with the Daily Press, the Lookout, Santa Monica Next, and even MSN picking up the story: crime down, vacancies falling, homelessness declining, finances back on track. Tomorrow, November 4, at the EDDY Awards at the Rose Bowl, we learn whether Santa Monica wins LA County's Most Business-Friendly City 👉 Read City news updates
🎓 Education, Arts & Our Youth
🔹 Sixty kids met the ocean on their own terms. Even with the Ocean Way Festival postponed to 2027 after Hurricane Marie's beach damage, Goldenvoice delivered on its community benefit commitments: the free Coastal Aquatics and Ocean Safety program wrapped up at the Annenberg Beach House pool and Santa Monica State Beach, serving 60 young people from more than 50 ZIP codes across LA County over two sessions on October 18 and 25. Working with the Surf Bus Foundation, kids from the EXPO Center, Rosecrans Recreation Center, and our own Edison Language Academy got hands-on wave readiness and water safety training, plus lunches, swimsuits, and giveaways. For many, it was their first real introduction to the ocean.
→ 🎯 My take: I started a nonprofit because I believe no kid should miss out on music just because of their ZIP code, and I feel exactly the same way about the ocean sitting at the end of our streets. Water safety instruction is also our best drowning prevention tool, full stop. This is how major events should work here: the show is temporary, the benefits stay.
🔹 McKinley's first Family Literacy Night was a hit. Our Library's LEAF and Youth Services teams, joined by literacy volunteer April, talked with more than 142 people as families made crafts, played Plinko for Library swag, and picked out books to take home. As a mom, I can confirm that a kid who picks their own book is a kid who actually reads it. Give families something worth showing up for, and they show up.
🔹 A history lesson with local wings. The Fairview Branch hosted historian and Planning Commissioner Nina Fresco for a talk on her new book about the Santa Monica Airport, including the first flight around the world, which began and ended at our airfield in 1924. The setting could not have been better: Fairview sits in Sunset Park, where thousands of Douglas Aircraft workers once lived. One attendee drove in from the Valley to buy a signed copy for her mother, who worked at the airport in the 1970s. Eight square miles, a century of stories.
🎉 Around Town
🔹 New flavors at the markets. The Sunday Main Street market welcomed Kreung LA, a Cambodian street food concept built on lemongrass, turmeric, palm sugar, and house pickles, and the Saturday Pico market added WOMO Burger, a local smashburger startup whose name is the whole menu: We Only Make One. Burgers, chips, and good service. Respect.
🔹 The Beach House ran its victory lap. Fall aquatics wrapped with Floating Fitness sold out for the entire season, the historic pool earned Best Public Pool in The Argonaut's Best of the Westside 2026, and Music Tectonics returned for a two-day conference buyout on October 28 and 29, bringing the music and tech industries to our coast under the theme Grow Music, Grow Value. A music industry conference choosing Santa Monica as home base? The music store kid in me takes that personally, in the best way.
🔹 Volley-Ween 2026: the Fire Department reigns. At the fifth annual Halloween beach volleyball tournament at Perry's on October 28, benefiting Santa MoniCARES and local nonprofits that carry families through the holidays, SMFD took the title, defeating SMPD along the way, while our Recreation and Arts crew, the Beach House Boppers, fell short but brought the spirit. Firefighters who win on the sand and in cardiac arrests the same month. There is always next year, Boppers.
🔹 Ishihara Park honored its beloved dead, then planned a feast. The garden's Oh My Gourd gathering celebrated Día de los Muertos with a marigold-adorned altar, stories of family members who have passed, garden tours, and Rose's famous pancakes, all powered by devoted volunteers. Next up: Friendsgiving at Ishihara Park on Saturday, November 21, from 9 to 11 a.m. Come hungry and leave grateful.
🔹 Quick hits worth your smile. Housing staff's quarterly Office Hours at Virginia Avenue Park drew more than 10 households for one-on-one help in English and Spanish, with HPI staff making referrals on the spot, And at the shelter, five animals found homes this week while 26 dogs, 34 cats, a snake, two chickens, and one rooster await their people. Yes, a rooster. Somebody's farm-chic dreams are one adoption away.
💗 A Pink Postscript
Pink October is over. I am not. To everyone who walked with my Tough Titty Committee, donated, shared, or cheered: thank you, from the bottom of this survivor's heart. But breast cancer does not read calendars, so here is newsletter ask number six, now with a November twist: if October got away from you, the screening still counts this month. Book it. Donations still count too. Early detection is the reason I am still the one writing to you, and I intend to keep it that way.
👉 Support the Tough Titty Committee
🏗️ Development Watch
🔹 The ARB reviewed 110 new Downtown homes yesterday. The Architectural Review Board met Monday, November 2, with a key review of 1338 5th Street, an eight-story multi-family project with 110 market-rate units above three levels of subterranean parking, examining the design, colors, materials, and landscape plans. I flag these every week for the same reason I always will: you should hear about what is proposed near you from your city, not from the construction fence.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Today, Tuesday, November 3: Election Day. Vote Centers open until 8 p.m., Big Blue Bus rides free all day, and the results watch party runs 8 to 10 p.m. at West Side Oyster Club on Ocean Avenue.
🔹 Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4: LAEDC announces the Most Business-Friendly City at the EDDY Awards at the Rose Bowl.
🔹 Through December 31: Ride, Shop, Save deals on Big Blue Bus.
🔹 Tuesday, November 17, 5:30 p.m.: City Council meets, including the $55 million water bond authorization.
🔹 Saturday, November 21, 9 to 11 a.m.: Friendsgiving at Ishihara Park.
🔹 Monday, December 7: The Clariti permitting system launches Phase 1.
🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: The farmers markets are open, and weekends are still where you will find me.
💙 All In: The Finish Line
🔹 Yesterday, I stood at the city line. On Monday I joined LA City Councilwoman Traci Park at the border of Santa Monica and Venice, because the challenges we share, homelessness, public safety, fire response, do not check for city limits on their way in. From the Palisades fires to regional outreach, we have seen how much more we accomplish when neighboring cities work together instead of pointing at each other. Partnerships matter. Relationships matter. Leadership that puts communities before politics matters most of all. I am proud to have Traci and Rick Carusos endorsements alongside many other community leaders.
🔹 Watch the results with me tonight. From 8 to 10 p.m., we are gathering at West Side Oyster Club on Ocean Avenue to watch the returns roll in. Win or lose, I would rather spend tonight with neighbors than with a refresh button, and you are warmly invited.
🔹 And whatever tonight brings, one promise. This campaign season tested our civility with mailers, robocalls, and manufactured narratives, and my answer never changed: facts over fear, records over rumors, fine print over loud fonts. When the counting is done, the people on every side of this election are still the people you will stand next to at the farmers market on Saturday. I intend to treat them that way, and I hope you will too.
📱 Stay Connected
Got an issue to report? Want to make sure the city hears you?
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.
🔹 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: However Tonight Goes
Here is what I know before a single result posts: twenty small businesses are planning their holiday push with a little more runway. A man and his pets have a key to their own unit at SaMo Palm. Sixty kids know what to do when a wave knocks them down, which is a skill worth having in oceans and in Novembers.
None of that was on a ballot. All of it happened because people in this city, staff, volunteers, neighbors, first responders, decided their corner of Santa Monica was their responsibility. Elections set the direction, but the showing up is what moves us, and you showed up all year: at council meetings, at markets, in pink sneakers, at kitchen tables with confusing ballots and strong opinions.
So vote before 8, then come clink a glass with me on Ocean Avenue. Tomorrow morning, whatever the count says, the reservoirs still need rebuilding, the storefronts still need filling, and I will still be the music store kid who cannot believe she gets to do this work for the city that raised her. Thank you for that, win, lose, or recount.
With gratitude and determination,
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica