Miles Warner has been talking b.s. about Santa Monica for years. He tried to run for City Council a few years ago but couldn’t get enough signatures to qualify. It only takes 90 signatures.
I was back there from November 1 to January 10 to sell my house. I went to the Promenade at least half a dozen times. It was always busy, particularly near Christmas. The claim that 20 to 30% of the stores are unoccupied is absurd. There were a few stores that were in the process of being remodeled for new tenants, but other than that I don’t remember any empty storefronts.
Let me point out one claim he makes that is laughable to anyone familiar with the city: That zoning has made it more difficult for restaurants and bars. No bars ever have been allowed on the Promenade although some of the restaurants have liquor licenses. There are bars adjacent to the Promenade but the clientele of the Promenade is not one that makes nearby bars full.
As for restaurants, the Promenade used to have quite a few. However, no matter how profitable a restaurant is, it doesn’t generate the same cash flow as a trendy retail store. The result was that restaurants started moving out whenever the landlord raised the rent. Because the Promenade always had been envisioned as a place where the evenings would be dominated by movie theatres and restaurants, that created a problem. So the City revised the zoning ordinance for the Promenade to require a certain square footage of restaurants; in other words, the city zoning has increased — not decreased — the number of restaurants on the Promenade. It still isn’t as many as back in the early days, but it’s more than it was 10 years ago.
Still, the rents are high and only high volume restaurants can make it there. It’s not a place geared for high end restaurants.
So, how far do you have to travel from the Promenade to find really good restaurants? The answer is one block. Second Street and particularly Fourth Street had, when I was last there, numerous restaurants including some owned by the top celebrity chefs in LA. It’s a one block walk. In fact, if you park in any of the public parking garages which are located on those two streets (since cars aren’t allowed on the Promenade) you are closer to those restaurants than you are to the Promenade.
In the past, Warner claimed that the Promenade was dying. His proof was there were no banks on it. There aren’t. Never have been. They don’t generate enough income and if they did aren’t allowed by the zoning. Where are they? There are at least four on Fourth Street. One block away. (The Promenade used to be Third Street.)
Yes, there are homeless people in Santa Monica. There actually are enough beds in shelters like Clare House to shelter all or almost all of them, but some won’t go to shelters. The City provides free lunch on the lawn of City Hall every Wednesday. A lot of them don’t go. Nothing can be done about that. In all the time I lived in Santa Monica, 1981-2022, I had two “encounters” with homeless people neither of which were that serious. And I lived less than a block from the methadone clinic at St. John’s Hospital. Warner is part of a group which posts doomsday posts on message boards and other forums every time a homeless person is suspected if a crime as if it is a sign the Apocalypse is around the corner.
As for his picture of the street, I don’t know what time he took it —probably very early morning before any stores were open — but I didn’t see a single empty or boarded-up storefront in it.
