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Lana Negrete Newsletter — September 29, 2026
🌟 Santa Monica Weekly with Councilmember Lana Negrete
📅 September 29, 2026
Hello, Santa Monica,
Two more sunrises and the calendar flips to October, and this October arrives with its arms full: pumpkins landing at three different farmers markets, two art exhibitions opening on the same Saturday, more than 125 Special Olympics athletes taking over Airport Park, and ballots heading for your mailbox. It is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which means something different in my house than in most. This weekend I was at the American Cancer Society's CalSpirit event, where incredible chefs cooked to raise money for research, and I was reminded that every 15 seconds someone hears the words no one is ever ready for. I have more to say about that at the end of this letter, so stay with me.
First, the week's work: twenty neighbors have moved indoors at a motel on Palm that the City now runs, our Library is putting a full card in the hands of every kid by third grade, and the crime numbers you deserve are below, in a table as always. Let's dig in.
🚔 Public Safety
🔹 By the numbers: September 13 to 19. Here is your weekly snapshot, straight from the department to you:
Metric | Sep 13 to 19 | Prior week | 2026 YTD | 2025 YTD | Change
|
Calls for service | 2,307 | 2,325 | 93,107 | 88,105 | +5.7% |
Total arrests | 100 | 113 | 3,874 | 2,351 | +64.8% |
Officer-initiated activity | 1,083 (47% of calls) | 1,010 (43%) | 43,705 | 35,423 | +23.4% |
Resident-initiated calls | 1,224 (53% of calls) | 1,315 (57%) | 49,402 | 52,682 | -6.2% |
→ 💡 What this means: Nearly half of everything our officers did this week, they initiated themselves. Arrests are up almost 65 percent year over year while resident-initiated calls keep falling, and that combination is the signature of proactive policing, not reactive policing. Keep doing your part: 911 for crimes in progress, 311 for quality-of-life issues. Your reports genuinely steer where resources go.
🔹 A week of sharp police work. Detectives, the Crime Impact Team, and the Special Investigations Unit tracked down a suspect believed to be behind roughly six burglaries in Beat 1 and arrested him at a Los Angeles library. SMART Center personnel helped officers break up suspected drug sales near the 4th Street train platform, recovering methamphetamine, fentanyl, and pills. An overnight catalytic converter operation produced two felony arrests and took a loaded, unregistered handgun off our streets. Downtown officers recovered stolen merchandise and connected two suspects to thefts at both Alo and Lululemon. And two of our officers were injured making an arrest after a theft on Santa Monica Boulevard. To both of them: this whole city is wishing you a fast recovery, and I am grateful every week for the work behind these numbers.
🔹 Traffic teams stayed where it counts. Officers made 270 stops with 158 citations, focused on school drop-off and pickup zones, ran directed speed enforcement on PCH on September 18, and recovered a loaded handgun during a stop on Lincoln Boulevard. Two impaired drivers were arrested before they could hurt someone. You know my short sermon by now: slow down, look twice, leave five minutes early.
🔹 Homelessness response, with both hands. The Homeless Liaison Program handled 129 radio calls, logged 102 self-initiated contacts, addressed 5 encampments, issued 23 citations, and made 14 arrests. The September 15 beach livability operation contacted roughly 80 individuals and produced 18 service connections, 8 shelter placements, and about 6,700 pounds of debris removed. The two outcomes that stay with me: officers worked with the Salvation Army HOPE Team to place two young adult brothers into emergency housing together through Safe Place for Youth, and helped a man get a bus ticket home to Hayward, where he was back with family that same evening. Brothers kept together. A family reunited by nightfall. That is the hand and the law working side by side, and it is the whole strategy.
🔹 SMFD: an anniversary worth celebrating. September 22 marked one year since the Fire Department's Ambulance Operator Program ran its very first call. This is an effort I’m proud to see doing what we hoped it would! What started as a two-ambulance daytime pilot is now a fully integrated transport system carrying us from the 9-1-1 call all the way to the hospital door. This week the department also handled 349 total calls, completed 202 annual fire inspections, and hosted the 46th annual Metro Fire Planners Conference, where Deputy Chief Tom Clemo led attendees from across North America on a bike ride to the Beach House for docent-led tours. Fire planners from two countries, on beach cruisers, learning our history. Only in Santa Monica.
🔹 Ears in every neighborhood. Community Engagement officers joined the Ocean Park Association, Mid City Neighbors, and Northeast Neighbors meetings, where Chief Jacob talked crime reduction and traffic safety directly with residents, plus the NOMA Information Fair. The team also delivered a scam-prevention presentation to the Daughters of the American Revolution and completed security assessments for local businesses, including the Trapeze School after a break-in. One more detail I love: the department has begun building out the Pink Patch Project for October. More on why that matters to me personally at the end of this letter.
🏠 Housing & Homelessness: SaMo Palm Opens Its Doors
🔹 Twenty neighbors are indoors tonight. SaMo Palm, the City's first non-congregate interim housing site at the former Palm Motel, is now open and operating. In its first weeks, our Homeless Prevention and Intervention team has onboarded 20 people: 16 who were living unsheltered on our streets, and 4 Santa Monicans who had just lost their housing and were on the edge of homelessness. Every single participant has ties to Santa Monica and came through a City-directed referral.
→ 🎯 My take: The detail that changes everything is control. The City master-leases this property, so we decide who is placed there, what services are attached, how security works, and how the site treats its neighbors. Not the County. Not an outside agency. Us. That local accountability is the entire premise of our Housing Focused System of Care, and after years of being told to accept whatever regional systems handed us, we built our own front door instead.
🔹 And the system keeps growing. The agreement to activate 35 beds at the Salvation Army's Bell Shelter is nearly final, with access expected in October. The City's request for additional non-congregate housing sites drew more than 20 responses, and staff expects to bring options to Council in November or December. RAND begins independent, bimonthly counts of unsheltered homelessness in the coming weeks, so we will judge this system by consistent data, not anecdotes. No single program ends homelessness, but I am resolute that this one improves Santa Monica, measurably.
🔹 A lawyer for every renter who needs one. Our Measure GS-funded Right to Counsel expansion is up and running: bilingual tenant rights workshops, with Spanish interpretation and food, now run on the third Wednesday of each month at Virginia Avenue Park, right before LAFLA's longstanding legal clinics, where renters can sit down one-on-one with an attorney about eviction prevention, benefits, and more. LiBRE is canvassing neighborhoods to reach tenants who do not know their rights, and LAFLA is hiring additional attorneys to grow capacity. You know I am a renter myself, so I will say it plainly: knowing your rights should never depend on knowing a lawyer. The next workshop lands October 21.
🏛️ At City Hall
🔹 Last Tuesday's Council, in brief. We welcomed City Clerk Walfred Solorzano to his first meeting, reviewed the after-action report on the January 2025 Palisades Fire and Windstorm, and held a study session on the 2026 update to the Sustainable Water Master Plan that guides our push for water self-sufficiency. Council also proclaimed Filipino American History Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sitting at the dais for that last one, as a survivor, meant more to me than most votes ever will.
👉 Find agendas and staff reports
🔹 Try a new commute, get free gelato. Yes, really. On Wednesday, October 7, which happens to be California Clean Air Day, our Department of Transportation, Public Works, Office of Sustainability, and HR team up to host Try-a-Commute at Ken Genser Square from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Everyone is invited, City staff and public alike: e-bike test rides, vanpool tours, raffle prizes, info on Big Blue Bus, Metro, and cycling, and the aforementioned gelato. It is one piece of a bigger effort to rebuild a real employee transportation benefit before staff move to a shared Tuesday-through-Thursday in-office schedule in January. Smart planning, and a midweek scoop. I see no downside.
👉 Explore getting around Santa Monica
💼 Economic Development
🔹 Final call: 48 hours left for $5,000 microgrants. Applications for the Small Business Relief Microgrant Program close this Thursday, October 1. One-time $5,000 grants for brick-and-mortar businesses: a storefront repair, a tech upgrade, a marketing push, another season rooted here. I fought for this program because I know exactly what flexible money means when you are the one unlocking the door every morning. If you know a business owner who qualifies, forward this to them right now. I will wait.
👉 Explore City business resources
🔹 Three corridors, three new bets on Santa Monica. Bower Surf Club is opening at 2501 Colorado Avenue in Colorado Center, an Australian-inspired all-day café and restaurant named for the Fairy Bower surf break in Sydney where its founder grew up riding waves. Neptune's Frozen Treats is bringing its premium frozen yogurt and gelato from Palos Verdes Estates to Montana Avenue near 11th, its second location ever, which is what a vote of confidence looks like. And 310 Caffe is preparing to open at, wait for it, 310 Arizona Avenue, just off the Promenade. When an established operator expands here and a café's address does its own branding, our Realignment-to-Revitalization story is writing itself. The frozen dessert research burden, as always, falls on me. I accept.
🎓 Education, Arts & Our Youth
🔹 A library card in every kid's hand by third grade. Our Library is partnering with the school district to launch the Student Success Card, a pilot putting cards in the hands of our youngest students. State law asked libraries to pick from three models, including a limited starter card or digital-only card. In classic Santa Monica fashion, ours chose the full card: books, e-books, databases, online tutoring, all of it. School librarians at Edison, Franklin, Grant, McKinley, Roosevelt, Ocean Park School House, and Will Rogers are distributing applications to grades K through 3, paperwork has been streamlined, and kids with existing cards need to do nothing. Best of all, children's cards will no longer expire every two years; from now on, a card stays active until age 18. As a mom, I can tell you a library card is the best free membership in town, and now we are handing it to every kid before they can spell "overdue."
🔹 Two openings, one Saturday. This Saturday, October 3, our Cultural Affairs team delivers a doubleheader. At 4 p.m., the Beach House Gallery opens "Portraits: Faces and Waves," new photography by Sam Comen and Anthony Friedkin, two LA artists whose work hangs in the Library of Congress, the Getty, MoMA, LACMA, and SFMOMA, all trained on our coast and the people on it. Then from 5 to 8 p.m., the Airport Arts Center's Propeller Gallery debuts "Once There Were Millions," on the western monarch butterfly, whose overwintering numbers along our coast fell from millions in the 1980s to fewer than 2,000 in 2020. That title is not poetry. It is a count. Both openings are free.
👉 Browse arts and culture in Santa Monica
🔹 1,060 young swimmers made waves. The annual Team Santa Monica Swim Meet packed the Swim Center on September 19 and 20 with more than 1,060 athletes from fifteen clubs across the region. TSM alumni have swum in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympic Games, including Jordan Wilimovsky, and with LA28 approaching, one of the pipelines to world-class swimming runs straight through our own pool.
🔹 The Library went to the neighborhood, twice. Presenter Manuel Fonseca brought the folk dances of five Mexican regions to Virginia Avenue Park with live musicians and costume changes between numbers, and librarians Marilyn and Bricieda welcomed roughly 139 kids and families at Edison Language Academy's Literacy Festival, crafting paper-plate folklórico dancers and signing families up for the new Student Success Card. Watching our librarians meet families where they are, in their own language, is the quiet work that builds lifelong readers.
🎉 Around Town & Community
🔹 Fifty years of champions, this Saturday at Airport Park. The 8th Annual Westside Special Olympics Soccer Tournament returns October 3, with twelve teams and more than 125 athletes from Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Opening Ceremonies at 9 a.m., competition from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., free and open to everyone. The history here gives me chills: this program began in spring 1976, when Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, who later lit the cauldron at the 1984 Games, teamed up with SMC professor Jo Kidd and our City recreation staff to start the Westside's first Special Olympics program. Fifty years later, with the Games returning to LA in 2028, we are still showing up. Special thanks to Danny Price, who has championed these athletes for decades. Come cheer. It will be the best thing you do all week.
🔹 Pumpkin season hits the markets. This past Saturday, the Pico Market hosted Reclaim the Market, a kid-focused pop-up with Reclaim the Village that let children meet the farmers and learn where their food comes from. Now October brings the full gourd gauntlet: the Mini Fall Festival at the Pico Market on October 3 with free pumpkins for kids 12 and under plus the SMC Glass Pumpkin Sale, the Great Pumpkin Adoption at the Main Street market on October 11, and the legendary All You Can Carry Pumpkin Patch at the Downtown market on October 14, where a small entry fee buys you every pumpkin you can haul in a single trip. Train accordingly.
🔹 You asked, the sand appeared. Regular Beach House volleyball players noticed the court sand thinning and reported it, and our Beach Maintenance crew topped off the courts within the week using leftover sand from this summer's sand mound. Residents who speak up plus crews who jump on it: that is the feedback loop I want for every corner of this city. Meanwhile, Spectrum News returned to the Beach House to film its Floating Fitness class for a SoCal audience, six months after featuring the Marion Davies Guest House. Our historic pool is becoming a recurring television character, and honestly, it has earned it.
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Thursday, October 1: Small Business Microgrant applications close, and the Housing and Human Services Commission meets.
🔹 Friday, October 2: Movie Night downtown with BXP.
🔹 Saturday, October 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: Montana Avenue Art Walk and the Route 66 centennial celebration.
🔹 Saturday, October 3, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Westside Special Olympics Soccer Tournament at Airport Park.
🔹 Saturday, October 3: Mini Fall Festival at the Pico Market, "Faces and Waves" reception at the Beach House Gallery 4 to 6 p.m., and "Once There Were Millions" opening at the Airport Arts Center 5 to 8 p.m.
🔹 Sunday, October 4: League of Women Voters City Council forums begin, continuing October 9 and 14.
🔹 Monday, October 5: Vote-by-mail ballots begin going out to Santa Monica voters.
🔹 Wednesday, October 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Try-a-Commute at Ken Genser Square for California Clean Air Day.
🔹 Saturday, October 10: Block Fest Vol. VIII on the Promenade.
🔹 Sunday, October 11: Great Pumpkin Adoption at the Main Street market, Continuum honoring the history of Belmar and Black Santa Monica at Historic Belmar Park, and youth water safety workshops at the Beach House (also October 18).
🔹 Tuesday, October 13, 5:30 p.m.: City Council meets, including the Downtown Community Plan alignment updates.
🔹 Wednesday, October 14: All You Can Carry Pumpkin Patch at the Downtown market.
🔹 Wednesday, October 21: Bilingual tenant rights workshop and LAFLA legal clinic at Virginia Avenue Park.
🔹 Every Wednesday and every weekend: The farmers markets are open, and weekends are still where you will find me.
💙 All In Through November
🔹 Ballots start moving Monday. Vote-by-mail ballots begin going out as soon as October 5, which means you can vote from your kitchen table in about a week, and in-person voting runs through Election Day, Tuesday, November 3. My ask is the same as always: do your own research. Watch the League of Women Voters forums on October 4, 9, and 14, read the record, and ask me the hard questions to my face. I will keep giving you straight answers, because that is what transparency and civility actually look like in practice.
🔹 Two endorsements built on receipts. This week I earned the endorsement of the BizFed PAC, and as a small-business owner, this one lands close to home. Their confidence rests on work you can verify: bringing eCheck and AI-assisted plan checks to the City to speed up reviews, refusing to drop the wastewater capacity fee waiver for new restaurants until it passed, co-sponsoring the Retail-to-Restaurant pilot to fill vacant storefronts, and building small-business grant support. I was also honored to be endorsed by the Santa Monica Supervisory Team Association, the employees who keep this city running every single day.
👉 See the BizFed endorsement (Instagram)
🔹 Walk with me. Seriously, come walk. Saturday's canvass launched teams into precincts across the city from the Blue Wave Democratic Club headquarters at 1427 3rd Street Promenade, and I need volunteers every weekend plus weekday walks from 4 to 6 p.m. It is the best civics workout in town: you spread the word, we talk Santa Monica issues block by block, and you meet neighbors you never knew you had. The club also has volunteer opportunities, candidate meet-and-greets, postcarding, and texting all through October, so stop by the headquarters and consider becoming a member.
👉 See Saturday's canvass (Instagram)
🔹 October 7 at Rustic Canyon, and a dozen more to come. Join me Wednesday, October 7 at 6 p.m. at Rustic Canyon on Wilshire Boulevard alongside Ashley Oelsen and Doug Trussler, with more than a dozen gatherings planned across October at homes and restaurants citywide. Want to host one? Five people in a living room counts, and I will happily come speak. Want a lawn sign or a business window sign? Send me your address and I will drop it off personally. And because reaching voters through mailers and digital ads takes resources, every contribution genuinely helps.
👉 Get involved at LanaNegrete.com
🔹 The full podcast episode is up. My complete conversation with Joe Goodhue on The Real Westside Story is now on YouTube, including a straight-up exchange about whether Santa Monica is actually getting safer and the new SMPD substation at Santa Monica Place on the Promenade, an idea I pushed for that is already making a difference downtown. Watch it, then make up your own mind. That is all I ever ask.
👉 Watch the podcast preview (Instagram)
📱 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: Paying It Forward
On Sunday I stood in a room full of chefs, donors, and survivors at the American Cancer Society's CalSpirit event, all of us there because every 15 seconds, somewhere, someone hears the scariest words of their life. I heard them once. On Thursday, the calendar turns to October, and for Breast Cancer Awareness Month you will see pink all over this city, including on our own police department as the Pink Patch Project takes shape.
Two weeks ago I asked you to book the screening you have been putting off. Consider this your friendly follow-up call, because I am nothing if not persistent, and because the timing of detection changed the entire course of my life. But this month I want to add a second ask. Since sharing my journey from diagnosis through treatment to survivorship, I have met so many neighbors quietly carrying this, or caring for someone who is, just looking for a person who understands. If that is you, or someone you love, message me. A shoulder, an ear, a hand: whatever you need. People did that for me when I needed it most, and paying it forward is the least I can do.
Get screened. Check on your people. And I will see you at the markets, pumpkin in each arm.
With gratitude and determination,
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica
Lana Negrete
Councilmember, City of Santa Monica