OPA Update 10/19/26: Neilson Way Speed Tables Installation, Bar Fortuna Opening, City Realignment Plan One Year Scorecard, & Things To Do This Week

Here are some pics from the NY Post from this weekend’s Day of the Dog on Main St. More to come!

OPA Membership Drive: If you enjoy this newsletter and all the events and community work OPA is leading (like this weekend’s Main St. event), please help our efforts by becoming a member or making a donation. Most memberships are $20/year but there is also a $10/year option. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OR DONATE.

WE NEED YOU to Share the OPA Newsletter with Your Friends and Neighbors: The good news is that 3000 people get it. The bad news is that 15,000 people in the neighborhood do not! You can fix that and help keep people better informed of local news and events. Here is the link for people to sign up: oceanparkassociation.org

NEXT OPA MEETING (Monday, Nov. 9): We are planning an in-depth discussion of the history and potential for the city to develop the Main St. parking lots for our November 9 meeting. See you there!

OPA is Looking for 2027 Board Nominations: November 6 is the deadline for 2027 OPA Board Nominations: Reply to this email asap if you’re interested in joining the board and want to learn more about it and/or want to nominate someone else.

Ocean Park Social Club Cookbook Club Today/Monday: 

  • What’s a Cookbook Club: Cookbook club returns this fall! If you are not familiar, a Cookbook Club is when a group of people choose 1 cookbook or 1 author and each make a different recipe, and then enjoy the meal together, potluck style. 
  • What: This quarter we will be cooking from any of Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks! Check out his broad base of books HERE. I personally have Plenty More, but have never made anything from it so Cookbook Club seems like a great way to break it open and give it a try! 
  • When: Monday, October 19th from 6:30-8pm
  • Where: The Meditation Center at 237 Hill Street
  • Now what: RSVP HERE and sign up for a recipe that you will cook and bring to our Cookbook Club potluck.

Neilson Way Speed Tables Set To Be Installed Starting This Coming Tuesday! Work to install new speed tables on Neilson Way between Pico Boulevard and Marine Street begins Tuesday, October 20, and is expected to wrap by Friday, October 30, with crews working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during each day of construction. The overall project includes the installation of new signs and roadway markings, along with the speed tables themselves.  Of note, the speed tables function like elongated speed humps to bring vehicle speeds down on an important corridor which carries beachgoers, cyclists, and Ocean Park neighbors every day. Sections of Neilson will close intermittently with detours and traffic control staff in place.

NEW OPENING – Bar Fortuna Brings Italian Flair to Main St: Starting this Wednesday, Crudo e Nudo chef-owner Brian Bornemann has opened a stylish new Italian restaurant and cocktail and wine bar just a block from his fantastic seafood restaurant in the old Vamos Vamos space. Bar Fortuna pairs Italian-inspired cocktails, an extensive amaro selection, and California-focused wines with a food menu that features 100% California-sourced ingredients for its handmade pasta, house-butchered meats, and snacks like fried squash blossoms. Look for a moody, old-world vibe, a vintage Victrola playing Italian opera and plenty of reasons to linger over a Negroni. 2917 Main St. instagram.com/barfortunala 

City Realignment Plan One Year Scorecard: At last week’s City Council meeting, City staff presented their reports from the past year and what’s next. Here are a few summaries:

  • This SaMoNext Report: One Year In, the Realignment Plan Is Working: “One year after Santa Monica adopted its Realignment Plan to close a projected $29.6 million deficit and restore order Downtown, the City Council will hear staff’s accounting of the results tonight. Crime is down, vacancy is down, and new revenue is running ahead of target. Private reinvestment, which staff calls the point of the whole exercise, has not arrived at the needed scale. Of the Plan’s 179 activities, staff’s tracker lists 96 as complete and 79 in progress as of Sept. 30. The report says the Police Department reached full sworn staffing for the first time in more than 20 years. Retail vacancy has fallen from about 16 percent to about 11.8 percent, and office vacancy from about 35 percent to about 21 percent. The 2026 Point-in-Time Count showed unsheltered homelessness down 18.1 percent.”
  • This SMDP report: A year into Realignment Plan, Santa Monica beats budget forecast and turns to revitalization: Santa Monica finished its last fiscal year $7.3 million better than projected and is on track to balance its general fund operating budget by July 2027, city officials told the City Council on Tuesday in a one-year review of the city’s Realignment Plan. City Manager Oliver Chi said the plan’s first year was about stabilizing city operations. The next phase, he said, will focus on revitalizing the local economy and drawing private investment back to Santa Monica.
  • This City Press Release: Santa Monica marks one year of Realignment Plan: city stabilizing, now turning toward revitalization. One year after the City Council adopted the Realignment Plan to stabilize Santa Monica’s finances and restore core services, the city reported this week that the organization reached full sworn police staffing for the first time in more than 20 years; saw unsheltered homelessness reduce by 18%; tripled the amount of debris cleared from its streets and beaches; and improved its General Fund finances significantly such that the city is on track to achieve a balanced operating budget by July 1, 2027.

Santa Monica to study conservancy for Great Park at airport site: The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday directed city staff to study how a nonprofit conservancy could help build and sustain the Great Park planned for the Santa Monica Airport site, which is scheduled to close at the end of 2028. The item directs City Manager Oliver Chi to return in spring 2027 with a study session on possible organizational models for a Great Park Conservancy, the range of city involvement in creating one and whether the city can and should seed an initial funding round. More details here.

The Street Seen: 2501 Beverley (Weinberg) between Hollister Ave and Ocean Park Blvd: In 1960, atop a steep slope with west-facing views of the Pacific Ocean, an abandoned water reservoir is replaced by a two-story apartment-over-parking complex. More details here.

SMPD and the Drug Enforcement Administration Team Up for the 31st National Prescription Drug Take Back Day: On Saturday, October 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Santa Monica Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration will host DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day at locations across the country. DEA and its partners will collect tablets, capsules, patches, and other solid forms of prescription drugs. More details here.

Santa Monica Fire Department Joins Regional Fire Agencies in Launching AwareCA: AwareCA is California’s statewide public safety information platform designed to give residents and visitors direct access to authoritative information from fire departments and other public safety agencies. For Santa Monica residents, that means another direct connection to information from Santa Monica Fire Department and other participating agencies across the region and state. More details here.

Councilmember Dan Hall Newsletter: Here is his weekly newsletter, with his thoughts on news in and around the city over the past week, upcoming calendar of events, and much more, such as a deep dive on the Realignment Plan, notes on Code Enforcement now responding seven days a week, SMPD officers patrolling E Line stations.

Things to Do This Week

  • Eric Idle & “Weird Al” Yankovic Together in Santa Monica: This is one of those combinations you probably didn’t know you needed: Monty Python legend Eric Idle and “Weird Al” Yankovic are teaming up for an evening of conversation, comedy and music—and they’ll actually perform together with their band. Idle will also discuss his new book, Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme. Honestly, we’re not sure what they’ll do together, but we’re pretty sure it will be weird. Thursday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m., John Adams Middle School Performing Arts Center, 2425 16th St. More details here.
  • Chamber in the Chamber: Enjoy an early-evening musical interlude as live chamber music fills Santa Monica City Hall’s City Council Chambers. Thursday, Oct. 22, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m, City Hall, 1685 Main St. More details here.
  • Santa Monica Forward’s Pearl Street Block Party (Sunday 10am–2pm): Join outside Grant Elementary on Pearl St between 24th and 25th St. for food, music, kids/adult activities, partner tables, and raffle prizes. “This block party is our way of showing the community how much better the neighborhood looks when we reclaim the street for people, not cars.” More details here.

OPA and City Meetings

  • Arts Commission Meeting (Monday 6:30pm): In-person only in the SMi Training Room (northwest corner of the 2nd floor of the Civic Center Parking Structure – 330 Olympic Drive). More details here.
  • Architectural Review Board Meeting (Monday 7pm): More details here.
  • Commission on Sustainability, Environmental Justice, and the Environment (Monday 7pm): More details here.
  • OPA Connects Meeting (Wednesday 12pm): Here is the Zoom link.
  • Free Tenant Rights Workshop + Legal Clinic (Wednesday 4:30 to 7:00 PM @ Virginia Avenue Park, 2200 Virginia Ave.): Learn about tenant protections in Santa Monica with LiBRE and meet one-on-one with a lawyer from Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) for help with HOUSING issues. How to respond if you receive an eviction notice. Free legal clinic where eligible renters can get personalized support. Immediate assistance is available by calling LAFLA directly at 800-399-4529 or visit lafla.org/get-help
  • REACH Program Application Support (Thursday 1 to 4 PM Main Library Lobby, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.): Office of Sustainability staff answer questions about the city’s Renter’s Energy and Cooling/Heating Program (REACH), which offers free appliances for income-qualified Santa Monica renters.

Upcoming Calendar of Events

  • OPA Book Club: Next planned dates are 11/4 (James), and 12/2 (The Year of Living Danishly). Email alexabarrett@gmail.com for more info. All meets are at 6pm at the Ocean Park Library (2601 Main St.).
  • OPA Monthly Meeting: Monday, Nov. 9, 6pm @ Ocean Park Library

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