| OPA Spring Mixer @ Lula Wednesday (5/20): We hope to see you at @ Lula’s back patio (2720 Main St.) from 4:00-6-30pm. Everyone is welcome and members can enjoy FREE appetizers along with the GREAT company. See you there! |
| MAINopoly This Sunday (May 24): This event is one of my personal favorite days on Main St. every year. HIGHLY recommend it! Get ready to PASS GO and taste your way down Main Street at the 11th Annual MAINopoly: A Taste of Main Street — an interactive, Monopoly-inspired food & drink adventure! Throw on your top hats and monocles and explore 20+ of Main Street’s best restaurants, bars, eateries, and shops along a lively 5-block stretch. Use your MAINopoly dollars to redeem delicious tastings, complete your game board, and enter to win amazing prizes. More details and tickets here. |
| Main St. Hosting Inaugural Entertainment Zone This Sunday! |
| Whether or not you are attending the MAINopoly event, this Sunday afternoon is your first time ever that you can buy an adult beverage from Main St. businesses and stroll around with it.Participating businesses include Jameson’s Pub,Note that activations like this are ONLY planned in connection with events like MAINopoly and will not become an everyday occurrence. |
| Woman killed by Metro bus on Main St. crawled under it: A woman believed to be homeless was killed Friday afternoon after she was struck by a Metro bus at the intersection of Main Street and Ocean Park Boulevard, Santa Monica police said. Security video from a nearby business helped investigators piece together the sequence of events. According to preliminary findings, the Metro bus was stopped when the woman moved underneath the vehicle. She was struck and sustained fatal injuries when the bus pulled away from the stop. Here is the SMDP story and here is the official city release. |
| City Council Unanimously Adopts Boulevard Safety Plan, Orders Quick-Build Protections at School Crossing: The City Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a safety overhaul of Santa Monica Boulevard, directing staff to install temporary physical barriers at a dangerous intersection near McKinley Elementary School before the next school year and to pursue stronger pedestrian crossing technology on the corridor’s eastern half. More details here. |
| SaMo Neighborhood Organizations Coalesce Around Opposition to Turf Fields: Seven Santa Monica neighborhood organizations and the Santa Monica Democratic Club have formally called on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to abandon plans to install artificial turf at local elementary schools, submitting letters of opposition ahead of the school board’s upcoming May 19 meeting. More details here. |
| Santa Monica marks successful first year of SaMo Bridge diversion program: This city post details how “One year after its launch, the city of Santa Monica’s SaMo Bridge diversion program has exceeded initial goals, connecting hundreds of justice-involved individuals to housing, treatment and supportive services.” |
| City Council Creates Restorative Justice Commission, Overhauls Advisory Bodies: The new Restorative Justice Commission oversees programs addressing historic inequities in the city, the centerpiece of a sweeping overhaul of the city’s boards and commissions that also consolidated housing and human services bodies and triggered a heated debate over compensating commissioners from marginalized communities. More details here. |
| “Circle Bar’s Triumphant Return To Santa Monica”: This Toddrickallen blog post details “One of Santa Monica’s most legendary nightlife venues is set to return on Friday, May 22. Circle Bar, the longtime OG Main Street bar and nightclub known for its dimly lit, oval-shaped bar, packed dance floor, and historic past, will reopen under new ownership. At the helm are local restaurateurs Mark and Addie Van Gessel, the duo behind the Venice staple Hinano Cafe and Santa Monica’s Tavern on Main.” |
| The Street Seen: Breakers Beach Club (1725 Ocean Front Walk @ Marine Terrace): The Breakers Beach Club, located on the beachfront between the Santa Monica Pier and Pico Blvd, is built in 1926. The Breakers soon falls into bankruptcy – the first of many. Following the Depression, the Breakers becomes a hotel under a series of owners until it is converted to the Sea Castle Apartments in the early 1970s. The building is severely damaged during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and demolished in 1996. More details here. |
| Santa Monica Small Business Resource Fair (Tuesday, 5/26 @ SM Main Library): Join LISC, the LA County Economic Development Corporation, South Bay Small Business Development Center and City of Santa Monica for a business resource event featuring grants, procurement opportunities, and financial readiness workshops to help your business grow. The event is free but registration is required (click here for more details and to register). |
