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Lana Negrete Newsletter — October 13, 2026
🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete
📅 October 13, 2026
Hello, neighbors,
For 85 years, the Pier sign has shown up to work every single night. Next week, it finally takes a break: crews begin removal work Monday, October 19, and the sign itself comes down Tuesday, October 20, headed for a full restoration before it returns brighter in 2027. Do not panic. I will explain everything below. Meanwhile, tonight the City Council takes up the one-year report card on the Realignment Plan, with an independent RAND study now backing up the diagnosis, and next Thursday a string trio sets up where the public comment podium usually stands. Chamber music, in the Council Chambers. As a music store kid, I am beside myself. Let's get into it.
🚔 Public Safety
🔹 By the numbers: September 27 to October 3. You know the deal by now: I give you the data straight, every week, in a table.
Metric | Sep 27 to Oct 3 | Sep 20 to 26 | 2026 YTD | 2025 YTD | YTD Change | % Change
|
Calls for service | 2,384 | 2,296 | 97,790 | 93,216 | +4,574 | +4.9% |
Arrests | 108 | 114 | 4,097 | 2,526 | +1,571 | +62.2% |
Officer-initiated activity | 952 (40% of calls) | 970 (42%) | 45,627 | 37,687 | +7,940 | +21.1% |
Resident-initiated calls | 1,432 (60% of calls) | 1,326 (58%) | 52,163 | 55,529 | -3,366 | -6.1% |
→ 💡 What this means: Arrests remain up more than 62 percent year over year, and officer-initiated activity is up over 21 percent. That is proactive policing, and your reports steer it. Keep using 911 for crimes in progress and 311 for quality-of-life issues.
🔹 Sharp police work, block by block. Officers took a ghost gun and a high-capacity magazine off our streets after a report on Ocean Park Boulevard. K9 Norton helped contain a business burglary on 14th Street until the suspect surrendered. A victim's tracking tag led the Crime Impact Team straight to a stolen laptop and an arrest on Wilshire, and SMART Center information connected one vehicle to thefts at several local stores. Every one of these outcomes is a neighbor made whole, and I am grateful for the work behind each line.
🔹 A hard week on our roads. In the early hours of October 2, a driver traveling in the protected bike lane on Ocean Avenue struck a pedestrian, who remains in critical condition. The driver was arrested for felony DUI. My heart is with the victim and their family. Traffic teams also kept the pressure on overweight construction trucks along Wilshire, where four stops produced four citations and three impounds. Slow down, look twice, and never drive impaired. There is no errand worth a life.
🔹 Homelessness response, both hands working. This week the Homeless Liaison Program handled 182 radio calls, logged 145 self-initiated contacts, addressed 8 encampments, issued 44 citations, made 13 arrests, and connected 5 people to SaMo Bridge and Samoshel. HLP supervisors also sat down with the Department of Mental Health, The People Concern, SaMo Bridge, and the City Attorney's Office to coordinate care plans for individuals generating recurring calls.
→ 🎯 My take: Enforcement and compassion are teammates, not rivals. We hold the line on behavior while building real pathways to treatment, shelter, and recovery. I went deeper on the region's role in all of this on California Insider this week.
👉 Watch the interview clip (Instagram)
🔹 SMFD took Fire Prevention Week to school. Engines rolled up to Roosevelt, McKinley, Will Rogers, Ocean Park School House, and Franklin, teaching kids how to safely charge the phones, tablets, and e-bikes powered by lithium-ion batteries, and Saturday's Open House at Fire Station 1 capped the week with station tours and truck-climbing. The department also wrapped its first round of Project 2030 cardiac arrest survival training and answered 341 calls this week. Prevention is the quiet work that saves lives before the sirens ever start.
🏛️ Tonight at City Hall: The Realignment Plan Turns One
🔹 One year in, and the report card is public. Tonight at 5:30 p.m., staff presents the Council with the one-year report on the Realignment Plan. Remember where we started: a projected $29.6 million structural deficit, visible disorder Downtown, and some of the highest vacancy rates in LA County. One year later, more than 90 of the Plan's 179 activities are complete, SMPD is at full sworn staffing for the first time in over 20 years, retail vacancy has dropped from about 16 percent to 11.8 percent, office vacancy from 35 to 21 percent, unsheltered homelessness is down 18.1 percent, and new revenue measures total about $28.8 million a year, above the original $24 million target, keeping us on track for a balanced operating budget by July 2027.
→ 🎯 My take: Here is the part that matters most to me: you no longer have to take City Hall's word for any of this. On October 1, the RAND Corporation released an independent, self-funded study comparing Santa Monica to Beverly Hills, Culver City, and West Hollywood, and it confirmed both the diagnosis the Plan was built on and the progress since. Independent verification is what transparency actually looks like. I will keep insisting on it. And by no means is this work over - not even close!
🔹 Next chapter: revitalization. Three new proposals come to Council tonight: a Third Street Promenade capital refresh timed to the 2028 Games, with a concept plan due by early 2027; a better Downtown arrival experience, including ticketless, license-plate-based parking at Structures 1 and 9 and the Main Library garage starting in early November, Promenade valet stations by Black Friday, and a Zoox license agreement worth roughly $500,000 a year; and the Downtown Catalyst Incentive Program, which would focus our $3 million Economic Development Fund on two to three high-visibility Promenade projects through forgivable loans. Stability was step one. Private reinvestment is the next hill, and these are designed to take it.
🔹 Also on tonight's agenda: a resolution letting ESPN broadcast Super Bowl LXI week from the Pier deck, LA28 license agreements, a potential lease with Santa Monica Brew Works at 256 Santa Monica Pier, an extension of the off-site affordable housing re-entitlement deadline to the end of 2027, and zoning updates aligning our code with state housing law. Come weigh in, or watch from your couch.
👉 View the meeting details and agenda
🔹 The City graded its own workplace, in public. The first-ever Employee Experience Survey drew about 475 responses: roughly three in four City employees feel motivated and proud to serve, but only 39 percent said management is transparent about decisions that affect them. Leadership published the uncomfortable numbers anyway and tied them to fixes, from new training academies to 297 internal promotions since July 2025. Transparency inside the building is just as important as transparency outside it, and owning hard numbers is how trust gets built.
💼 Economic Development
🔹 Trader Joe's has its eye on Wilshire. An alcohol permit filing this week signals the grocer's plans for 1331 Wilshire Boulevard, the former Rite Aid it purchased for $22 million last December. A dark corner coming back to life as a neighborhood grocery is exactly the kind of reinvestment this whole year of work has been about.
🔹 A next chapter for the Victorian. City leaders are welcoming a plan to convert the longtime Main Street restaurant and nightclub into a family-centered membership club, keeping a historic, city-owned building active with public benefits written directly into the lease. Historic preservation that pays its own way? Yes, please.
👉 Read about the Victorian plan
🔹 New doors keep opening, at every price point. Matilda's Bakery and Cafe is now serving four-day croissants at 3200 Airport Avenue, Let Me Cook is dishing Ukrainian comfort food to go on Lincoln, New York Sewing Center is bringing classes and camps to the Promenade, and People's Good Coffee has signage up at Santa Monica Place. Even the food critics are circling: Eater LA profiled Kogen Omakase Downtown, which builds its menu around produce from our own Farmers Market, and praised La Monique at Oceana. When operators from bakeries to omakase counters all bet on Santa Monica, that is confidence you can taste. If you are thinking of opening or expanding here, the City has waived wastewater fees for restaurants, cut outdoor dining costs, and built grant support. Reach out and I will point you to the right door.
🔹 Finalist again: LA County's Most Business-Friendly City. For the second year in a row, Santa Monica is a finalist out of 88 cities, with the winner announced at the EDDY Awards on November 4. As a small business owner, I will say it plainly: we have not finished the job, but the region is noticing the work in progress now we have to really earn and keep that title.
🔹 Lights, camera, receipts. Since January: 328 film permit applications, 249 approvals, and $1.8 million in revenue for the City and Film Santa Monica. Baywatch filmed on our beaches for the first time since 1999, Nancy Meyers' Paris Paramount staged the largest filming operation in city history here, and American Idol put the Pier in front of 5.3 million viewers. Every shoot is jobs, hotel nights, and lunch orders for local businesses.
🔹 Climate goals, business reality. Staff also updated the Chamber of Commerce on the proposed Building Performance Standards policy for large buildings, with the conversation squarely focused on cost and feasibility. Buildings are one of our biggest emissions sources, and I want us to cut them without crushing the owners we are asking to reinvest. Both things must be true.
🎡 The Pier Sign Takes a Bow
🔹 Down October 20, back brighter in 2027. After coordination with Caltrans, removal work begins Monday, October 19, and the sign is expected to come down Tuesday, October 20, though construction schedules can shift. The neon gets carefully crated, a crane lifts the sign off, and restoration specialists at YESCO in Las Vegas bring it back to life, with reinstallation planned for mid-to-late 2027, slightly north of its current spot and a bit higher for better visibility. In the meantime, the lit half-scale replica next to Pier Burger is standing by for your photos. This is all one step in the $35.6 million Pier Bridge Replacement Project, retiring a 1939 bridge that no longer meets seismic standards in favor of a 447-foot span with a 15-foot sidewalk and a 75-year service life, finishing ahead of the 2028 Games. The Pier and all its restaurants and shops stay fully open the entire time.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: This is not a goodbye. It is a restoration, and there is a difference. We are not replacing what makes Santa Monica special; we are investing so it outlasts all of us.
👉 Read the Pier project updates
🛩️ Saturday: See the Airport's Future Drawn
🔹 The Great Park starts to look like a place. After more than two years of community input, the Draft Illustrative Master Plan for the airport site will be unveiled this Saturday, October 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Memorial Park Gym, 1401 Olympic Boulevard. The spring Framework Diagram was the outline; this is the drawing, with perspective renderings that let you picture yourself standing in the future park. Phase 4 also starts the honest conversations about phasing and cost. The plan heads to boards and commissions in November, an online survey will open for anyone who cannot attend, and the airport remains scheduled to close at the end of 2028. This is your community deciding what comes next on 192 acres. Show up and have a say.
👉 See the October 17 event details
👉 Explore the Airport Conversion Project
🎓 Education, Arts & Our Youth
🔹 Samohi students deserve working AC, full stop. Last Tuesday, students walked out of Santa Monica High School to protest broken air conditioning during the record heat, and the district is using portable units while repairs continue. I am a Samohi grad and a Samohi mom, so this one lands at my own kitchen table. The schools belong to the district, not the City, but my message to those students is simple: speaking up for your own learning conditions is civic engagement, and I am proud of you for doing it the right way.
🔹 Chamber music is moving into the Council Chambers. Our Cultural Affairs team is launching Chamber in the Chamber, a free concert series at City Hall with the Santa Monica Symphony, which has been giving this community free music since 1945. The series opens Thursday, October 22 at 5:30 p.m. with a woodwind trio featuring Victoria Lee on oboe, Joel Nalewajek on clarinet, and Matthew Rasmussen on bassoon, then continues every other month through June 2027, including a lunchtime concert on December 3. I have spent my whole life around instruments, and I can tell you the dais has never been used better. Come fill those seats for something everyone can agree on.
👉 Visit the Santa Monica Symphony
🔹 High schoolers: City Hall is yours on October 24. Youth Day, part of the One SaMo People's Academy I brought forward, runs Saturday, October 24 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at City Hall. Students learn how their city actually works, explore government career paths, question City leaders directly, and get free registration, lunch, and snacks. Parents, forward this to a teenager. The next generation of Santa Monica leaders has to start somewhere, and free pizza-adjacent civics is a strong start. I am very proud of this one - encourage a high school student to join!
🔹 Twice the classes for neighbors learning English and becoming citizens. The Library's partnership with the Adult Education Center has doubled: ESL Conversation now runs four times a week, and the Citizenship class moved to Saturdays at the Main Library, where 14 people showed up right out of the gate and nearly all of them arrived by foot or transit. Daytime hours and accessible locations mean more working neighbors can actually attend, and that is the whole point.
💗 Pink October, Week Three
Yes, it is me again, your friendly neighborhood survivor with a clipboard. This month I had the surreal experience of seeing myself on billboards at Citadel Outlets after participating in an American Cancer Society photo shoot for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, and I will tell you what I told the camera: surviving cancer and thriving after cancer are two very different things, and the journey does not end when treatment does.
On Saturday, October 24, my Tough Titty Committee walks in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer right here in Santa Monica. Walk with us, donate what you can, or come cheer. And if walking is not your speed, that same morning Boarding for Breast Cancer's 19th annual Skate the Coast rolls 15 miles from the Pier to Redondo Beach for prevention and survivorship programs. Pink wheels, pink sneakers, pick your lane. And since you knew it was coming: have you booked that screening yet? Early detection is the reason I am still the one writing this newsletter.
🎉 Around Town
🔹 837 reasons to love boring infrastructure. Our Sustainability and Architecture Services teams swapped 837 fluorescent fixtures for LEDs at Parking Structure 6 on 2nd Street, saving an estimated 163 megawatt-hours and more than $32,000 every year, with the project paying for itself in about two and a half years. City facilities already run on 100 percent clean electricity, so this is savings stacked on savings. More of this, please.
🔹 One last cannonball. When the early-October heat wave hit, the Annenberg Community Beach House popped its historic pool back open for a bonus swim day, and 366 of you showed up, with staff getting every single waitlisted group into the water before close. That is hustle, and it is why people love that place.
🔹 Pumpkin math, tomorrow. The All You Can Carry Pumpkin Patch takes over 2nd and Arizona at the Downtown Farmers Market on Wednesday, October 14. Ten dollars buys every pumpkin you can haul in one trip. Lift with your legs, not your pride.
🔹 Big Blue Bus keeps charging ahead. Construction is underway on a $56 million bus yard charging project, funded largely by a $53.3 million state grant, supporting up to 60 battery-electric buses by 2027 and 150 by 2028, with 34 already in the fleet and a fully electric system targeted for 2032. Quiet buses, cleaner air, and a transit system our riders can count on.
🔹 More time for earthquake retrofits. FEMA has extended the City's Seismic Retrofit Grant Program deadline by 20 months, to September 3, 2028, giving owners of qualifying soft-story buildings more runway to complete work and get reimbursed. In a city where roughly 70 percent of us rent, retrofitting older buildings protects both the people inside them and housing we cannot afford to lose.
👉 Learn about the retrofit grant program
🏗️ Development Watch
🔹 Architectural Review Board, October 5 outcomes. The Board approved designs for two projects totaling 260 new homes, including 52 affordable: a four-story, 28-unit, 100 percent affordable building at 1238 7th Street, and an eight-story, 232-unit mixed-use project at 1238 Lincoln Boulevard. An eight-story, 110-unit project at 1318 Lincoln was continued with design feedback, and an addition to a duplex at 1147 23rd Street was approved on consent.
🔹 Planning Commission, October 7 outcomes. The Commission denied the appeal of the housing project at 3205 Ocean Park Boulevard, upholding its design approval, recommended a development agreement for a digital display at 1355 Third Street Promenade with a condition to fill two more Downtown tree wells, and held a study session previewing the airport Illustrative Master Plan. I flag these every week because you deserve to know what is proposed near you before it is built, not after.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Tonight, Tuesday, October 13, 5:30 p.m.: City Council meets, headlined by the Realignment Plan one-year review.
🔹 Wednesday, October 14: All You Can Carry Pumpkin Patch at the Downtown Farmers Market.
🔹 Saturday, October 17, 1 to 4 p.m.: Airport Draft Illustrative Master Plan unveiling at Memorial Park Gym.
🔹 Monday, October 19: Last day to register to vote online, BYOB at Back on the Beach, and Pier sign removal work begins.
🔹 Tuesday, October 20: The Pier sign is scheduled to come down.
🔹 Wednesday, October 21: Bilingual tenant rights workshop and LAFLA legal clinic at Virginia Avenue Park.
🔹 Thursday, October 22, 5:30 p.m.: Chamber in the Chamber debuts at City Hall.
🔹 Saturday, October 24: Youth Day at City Hall, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, Skate the Coast, and Vote Centers and drop boxes open.
🔹 Tuesday, November 3: Election Day.
🔹 Wednesday, November 4: LAEDC announces the Most Business-Friendly City at the EDDY Awards.
🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: The farmers markets are open, and weekends are still where you will find me.
💙 All In Through November
🔹 Deadlines first, opinions second. If you are not registered, you have until Monday, October 19 to do it online, and that goes double for the 18-year-old at your kitchen table voting for the first time. Vote Centers and drop boxes open October 24, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
👉 Register to vote by October 19
🔹 BYOB: Bring Your Own Ballot, October 19. For more than a decade, my community and I have hosted these gatherings because ballots are genuinely confusing, and nobody should have to decode propositions alone. Join us Monday, October 19 at Back on the Beach, bring your actual ballot and your questions, and we will walk through the local, county, and state measures in plain language. Want to host one in your backyard? No gathering is too small, and I will happily come.
👉 See the BYOB details (Instagram)
🔹 About those mailers in your mailbox. Negative campaign mail is landing across the city, and my ask is the same one I make about everything: read the fine print. Every mailer must disclose who paid for it, so look at the name, then ask yourself why someone would spend that much money telling you who to fear instead of making a case for their own candidates. My campaign is running on records and ideas, and the best ideas should win, not the best-funded smear. Facts and transparency over misinformation and trickery, especially this close to Halloween. I broke down a real example, disclosure and all, on Instagram.
👉 See the mailer breakdown (Instagram)
🔹 Two conversations worth your time. Two new clips from my sit-down on The Real Westside Story are up: one on the missing middle, the neighbors who earn too much for affordable housing programs but not enough for market rents, a conversation that connects directly to the housing items on tonight's Council agenda, and one on whether we can keep building without compromising the water sustainability we have worked so hard for. I would rather give you my reasoning in full sentences than in slogans. Watch and decide for yourself.
👉 Watch the housing conversation (Instagram)
👉 Watch the water conversation (Instagram)
🔹 A quiet spotlight. Doug Trussler and his wife were honored with a humanitarian award for contributing more than one million meals to people in need through Hope The Mission and LA Mission. The quiet generosity of neighbors rarely gets headlines, so consider this one.
📱 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: Built to Come Back
Next Tuesday, a crane will lift an 85-year-old sign off the Pier, and for a little while the skyline will feel like it is missing a tooth. But here is the thing about that sign: it is not being discarded, and it is not being replaced. It is being taken apart carefully, restored by people who know what they are doing, and returned a little higher and a little brighter than before.
I cannot think of a better description of this city's year, and honestly, of a few chapters in my own life. Things we love sometimes have to come down before they can come back stronger. The work in between is unglamorous: crates, cranes, reports, line items, screenings, ballots. But the work is the love. So read tonight's agenda, mark the 17th for the airport unveiling, carry home an irresponsible number of pumpkins tomorrow, and when that ballot surfaces from the mail pile, give it the attention this city deserves. I will see you at the market, and I will be the one in pink. And remember - Vote for Ashley Oelsen, Doug Trussler and myself for city council to drive us forward!
With gratitude and determination,
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica