Santa Monica Mirror: Mar 13 - Mar 19, 2026

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CoStar Data Shows

Santa Monica Retail Market Showing Signs of Rebound

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Cybertrucks among vehicles damaged in Santa Monica garage fire

Firefighters battled flames on a rooftop parking deck near Colorado Avenue.

Firefighters in Santa Monica extinguished a vehicle fire Wednesday afternoon that destroyed two Tesla

Cybertrucks and damaged several other Tesla vehicles parked on the rooftop of a parking structure, according to multiple media reports.

The Santa Monica Fire Department responded around 3:16 p.m. to reports of heavy smoke coming from the top level of a seven-story garage in the 2200 block of Colorado Avenue.

When crews arrived, they found multiple vehicles burning on the roof of

Santa Monica Police Seek Suspect in Sexual Battery Case

Surveillance image shows Hispanic male, 20–30, in dark hoodie near incident location

Santa Monica police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying a man suspected of sexual battery after an incident in the city.

The Santa Monica Police Department released a surveillance image Thursday showing the suspect, described as a Hispanic male approximately 20–30 years old, with dark curly hair. He is wearing a dark hoodie with a visible emblem on the left chest and dark pants.

The department did not release details on the date, location or circumstances of the alleged offense, citing the ongoing investigation.

Anyone who recognizes the individual or has information is asked to contact Detective Sean Baker at 310-458-8932 or sean.baker@santamonica.gov.

the structure. Firefighters carried hoses and equipment up all seven levels of the garage to reach the scene and begin attacking the flames.

Officials said the fire was brought under control relatively quickly, and no injuries were reported among residents, visitors, or firefighters. It is believed that the area of the parking garage where the fire started is an overflow parking lot for the nearby Tesla charging station, according to NBC

4 Los Angeles. Both Cybertrucks involved in the fire were destroyed, while several other Tesla vehicles parked nearby sustained damage from heat and flames.

Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire. Authorities noted that neither Cybertruck was connected to a charging station at the time, indicating the blaze was not triggered by active charging. The investigation remains ongoing.

CoStar Data Shows Santa Monica Retail Market Showing Signs of Rebound

Investor activity is also increasing. Over the past 12 months, retail property sales in Santa Monica totaled about $143 million, up from $135 million the previous year, according to the report

Retail real estate activity in Santa Monica is showing early signs of recovery after several difficult years following the pandemic, according to a new report from CoStar Group.

The city’s downtown retail core — including the Third Street Promenade — saw vacancies surge during the pandemic amid declining tourism, rising homelessness concerns and public safety issues that affected foot traffic in the

beachfront district.

Data cited by CoStar shows retail availability along the Promenade has fallen from a peak of 15.1% in 2024 to about 13.6%. The rate remains above the historic average of roughly 8.2%, though asking rents remain among the highest in the country at about $70 per square foot, despite declining slightly over the past year.

Investor activity is also increasing. Over the past 12 months, retail property sales in Santa Monica totaled about $143 million, up from $135 million the previous year, according to the report.

One of the largest recent investors is entrepreneur Daniel Negari, founder of XYZ.rent, who has been acquiring properties in the downtown district. His firm recently purchased the historic Junipher Building on the Promenade for $17 million.

The acquisition follows other purchases by the company, including a former REI store property on Santa Monica Boulevard. Altogether, Negari’s holdings in the area now total roughly 368,000 square feet of office and retail space along with more than 150 apartments across several nearby complexes, CoStar data shows.

Property prices in the area have softened,

creating opportunities for investors. The average price per square foot for retail assets in Santa Monica declined about 2% year over year.

At the same time, city officials have introduced policies intended to help revive the district, including allowing designated open-container entertainment zones along parts of the Promenade and encouraging housing development. About

470 residential units are currently under construction in the city, according to CoStar.

Negari told CoStar he believes the district’s long-term strength will depend on experience-focused businesses such as restaurants, entertainment venues and fitness concepts rather than traditional retail stores.

Have Housing Mandates Ignored State Water Shortages?

SM a.r.t.

Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow

This is a genuinely sharp question, and the data tells a concerning story that Santa Monica's housing advocates seem to be treating as a footnote rather than a foundational constraint.

The numbers involved actually say that Santa Monica currently sources about 75% of its water from local groundwater wells and 25% from the Metropolitan Water District, which imports water from the Colorado River and California's State Water Project. The city serves over 93,000 residents, plus businesses and visitors.

The city set an ambitious goal years ago to reach near-total water self-sufficiency, but funding issues forced the cancellation of projects that would have made this possible — the city only made it to about 85% selfsufficiency before stalling. Meanwhile, the Water Enterprise Fund accumulated a deficit of $18.5 million from 2019-2024, with the current fiscal year expected to add another $5 million in the red. The city is now in the middle of a multi-year rate study and facing mandatory rate increases just to stabilize existing infrastructure — before adding a single new housing unit.

With this, the State signals the problem: California just launched a major update to its statewide water plan, establishing for the first time a specific long-term supply target of 9 million additional acre-feet by 2040 — responding to intensifying climate impacts producing prolonged droughts alternating with extreme storms. This isn't

background noise; it's the state effectively acknowledging that the current water supply system cannot absorb the housing growth being simultaneously mandated.

Here’s is the tension: Santa Monica's groundwater basin is governed under SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) through the Santa Monica Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, a five-member consortium including Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Culver City, and the County, which is responsible for developing a Groundwater Sustainability Plan. Sustainable yield is a hard ceiling — you cannot simply pump more because the state orders more housing.

Adding 8,000 units to a city of 93,000 represents roughly an 8-10% population increase. Even with aggressive conservation, that translates to a meaningful increase in baseline water demand — on top of infrastructure that is already running a structural deficit, four reservoirs needing rehabilitation, decades-old pipelines and pump stations requiring modernization, the City of Santa Monica, and a groundwater basin operating near its sustainable yield.

All in all, the City is not entirely ignoring the issue, as we have water and wastewater capacity study requirements tied to the new entitlement and building permit process, requiring a capacity study be completed before building permits are submitted. So there is at least a technical review mechanism. But the deeper question is whether City Council and housing advocates are treating water capacity as a legitimate constraint on the pace and density of mandated growth, or simply as a checkbox during permitting to be managed around.

The honest answer is that the housing

mandate and the water reality are on a collision course that Santa Monica has not publicly or transparently reconciled. The State is simultaneously demanding we build 8,000 units, and admitting the State may not have the water to support current demand. While the city is threading that needle quietly through rate hikes and infrastructure deferrals rather than confronting it head-on as a planning constraint.

This is exactly the kind of governance gap that warrants the scrutiny the public is trying to apply to it. A genuine longrange water capacity analysis tied to the RHNA mandates — presented publicly, with honest projections — would be a far more responsible approach than approving entitlements project-by-project as we watch the Water Enterprise Fund bleed dry.

Jack Hillbrand, Architect, for SMa.r.t. Santa Monica Architects for a Responsible Tomorrow Web: www.santamonicaarch.wordpress. com/writing

Mario Fonda-Bonardi AIA, Former Planning Commissioner, Robert H. Taylor AIA, Dan Jansenson, Former Building & Fire-Life Safety Commissioner, Sam Tolkin, Former Planning Commissioner, Michael Jolly ARE-CRE, Jack Hillbrand AIA, Landmarks Commission Architect, Phil Brock (Mayor, ret.), Matt Hoefler, NCARB, Architect, Heather Thomason, Community Organizer, Charles Andrew, Journalist, Columnist

Curious City 3/13/26: PERFECT VISION

By CHARLES ANDREWS

I HAD IT

20/20 was how they used to measure it when I was a kid in school. If you measured 20/15 or 20/10 – whoa, bragging rights on the playground. Of course, none of us gave a thought to how that made the visually less than perfect feel.

I was still 20/20 until college, until the day some Albuquerque High School kid mimicking his parents’ politics (and quite possibly an ROTC student, even more entrenched), picked up a rock bigger than his hand and hurled it as high as he could at the university students marching to the Federal Building to protest the Vietnam War. It was such a mighty heave it went straight over their heads and hit me square in the right eye, as I was standing on the sidewalk opposite, reporting for the student newspaper. Bye-bye 20/20.

I lost 50% of the sight in that eye, and even though the loss of depth perception ruined my pool and ping pong prowess, I considered it only a minor annoyance. When driving, I would always check to my right much more thoroughly than my left. Always aware of it.

WHO KNEW

It would bite me, hard, more than half a century later. I developed Macular Degeneration, but it was insignificant for about nine years. Then up pops a little rascal called Geographic Atrophy, a growing pinpoint hole in the retina which dims your vision and takes away the central image, and is unstoppable. No surgery or drugs help, no cure. Finally, a drug was tested that slows it down 20% – I’ll take it! – but that requires an injection into the eye every six weeks. There, I just ruined your lunch, too bad.

But here’s the kicker. That GA showed up in my good eye. If it had hit my right eye, who cares? I don’t use it that much anyway, for years. But no, take my good eye instead and leave me blind. Proving there is a God, and She has a sense of humor. A dark sense of humor, if you will. But wait! Good news. Technology may kill us all, but sometimes it saves us.

IT’S A MIRACLE

It’s called Maggie Vision, it’s a onepound wearable plastic headset with space for an iPhone 16 or 17 to be inserted in front, so you are looking through the iPhone lens when you use it. The phone is loaded

with software that performs the magic. I can’t explain it to you scientifically, but who cares, it works. The person who

developed it, Elizabeth Evans, could explain it. She lives in Arizona and was kind enough to pay a personal visit when I was in Tempe for a family Thanksgiving. She said there already were headsets using Android phones, but she thought the Apple technology would work much better.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

I had been unable to read for a few years, without awkwardly holding up my phone with one hand, using the magnifier and maybe the flashlight if it wasn’t very light out. You can imagine that this is a problem for a writer. The things I used to do in seconds now took 10 or 20 times longer. It’s a good thing I’m a patient man.

Also, because I’m slowly growing into how I can best use it, letting me read again is a blessing, but reading and typing at the same time is a different beast. You can’t easily glance back and forth between keyboard and copy. This is complicated by the fact that I am one of the world’s worst typists. I use voice a lot on my phone, but I think I am going to have to go that route even more on my laptop.

DUDAMEL, HOOPS AND OPERA

Now there is the instant reward. Gustavo Dudamel had become this shadowy figure atop the podium, and I had forgotten how much it adds to a performance to clearly see his face and hands, simultaneously

directing and absorbing the music. The same for opera, to be able to see faces singing and acting, and the striking costumes and sets. I was just about to give up on live basketball; sometimes, I couldn't tell which team had the ball. The software allows adjustments on the headset, while wearing it, for contrast, color, and magnification up to 20x.

It’s not inexpensive. $3800 including the iPhone, $1000 less without. But look what you are getting. And if you are a veteran like me – $0. I’ll tell you more about Miracle Maggie in another column, but if anyone is interested, you can write to my email below. The future’s looking bright.

PUBLIC SERVICE REMINDER, MARK CALENDARS

The next NO KINGS DAY resistance gathering is March 28, locally in Palisades

Park, north end, with Ocean Ave. closed off. See you there. There’s no question that democracy and our freedoms, rapidly diminishing, are on the line. This depends on every one of us. It's 1776 again. We have seen that when we push back sufficiently, the demagogues back down. Last time we had 7 million people take to the streets. We need to triple that number this time. Build on the ashes. Keep hope alive. The future’s so bright I have to wear shades. And SHOW UP FOR NO KINGS DAY!!! Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com

BEHIND THE SCREEN

By Kathryn Whitney Boole

My Oscar choices and predictions

The 98th Academy Awards, Sunday March 15th at 4:00PM, on ABC, and streaming on Hulu

I believe that works of art cannot be judged, as part of their design lies in the perception of the beholder. Each of us brings a different mental algorithm as we observe, and that’s what makes art resemble life in fine detail. Moviemaking is a team sport - every film is a product of the communal blood, sweat and tears of all involved. The Oscars are a chance for filmmakers and actors to applaud some of the best work of their colleagues.

There are ten nominations for the Best Picture made in 2025, and each deserves the prize.

BUGONIA

Bugonia takes our collective hubris down a few notches. Many of us run from one task to another barely considering our time here on this planet and our relationship with our surroundings, which are recorded here by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, sometimes fleeting, sometimes vivid, always bold with deep colors, the visuals draped in sound. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, with Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, this film is a poem, a symphony, an avantgarde painting in a film. There is comedy in this dark storytelling that inspires us to laugh at ourselves - one of Lanthimos’ greatest superpowers.

F1: THE MOVIE

This movie envelopes you in a racecar with precise point-of-view shots that make you feel you are driving the car, moving at a breakneck pace. The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer emotionally amplifies the emotions of driving at 200mph at nine 2023 Formula One Grand Prix events worldwide. Brad Pitt shines as a driver who is aging out of his sport, as does Damson Idris as a young contender. Legendary racer Lewis Hamilton is featured and is one of the producers. “Slow is smooth and smooth is slow” is the mantra in the film, a Zen balance in the mind-boggling concentration it takes to conquer the Formula 1.

FRANKENSTEIN

The prolific Jacob Elordi is the unexpectedly sympathetic monster here, brought to life by tortured Dr. Frankenstein, played by Oscar Isaac. The dramatic visual backgrounds are lit by bright whites and bold colors and underscored by Alexandre Desplat’s orchestral score. The “Creature” is ghastly and frightening, but Elordi brings a plaintive humanity to him that we can identify with as he begins to sense the

world as would a baby and a toddler. The creature pleas with his maker in agony, “I cannot die. And I cannot live alone.”

HAMNET

This is the story of William Shakespeare’s wife, two daughters and son, Hamnet, who are left behind in their English country cottage by the bard as he makes his way to London to write and stage his plays, By “reading between the lines of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets,” the film’s writers and its director, Chloe Zhao, take much literary license in painting a detailed history of Shakespeare’s family life. Jessie Buckley (nominated for Best Actress) is perfectly cast as “Agnes,” who really “wears the pants” in the family while dad is off pursuing his artistry in London. Jacobi Jupe is superb as son “Hamnet.”

MARTY SUPREME

Get ready to run and run and run – you will feel it physically as you experience Marty Supreme, loosely based on the true story of a self-made table tennis champion in early 1950’s New York City, and convincingly brought to life by Timothee Chalamet as “Marty” (nominated for Best Actor). The performance of Odessa A’Zion as Marty’s impassioned girlfriend is a highlight. Chalamet notes that the film is “about sacrifice in pursuit of a dream… and to not take no for an answer.” Both Chalamet and the movie emit a breathless intensity, as if being pursued by an unimaginable force.

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

This is another movie where all the characters are breathlessly on the run, through a torturous and complex plot that has members of diametrically opposed schools of politics and belief escaping from and clashing with one another. The film features breakout performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti and Benicio del Toro. It’s an action film and a psychological study of mass proportions that highlights the fear, the anger and the humor of the human predicament in today’s world.

THE SECRET AGENT

This Brazilian film is the only one I have not seen. It takes place in 1977 and involves a tech expert who returns to his hometown and finds it has changed in many ways. The movie is said to be well worth seeing.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE

This is a classic European style film that focuses on relationships. It’s a cinematic tone poem featuring a house as the central point of view. Deep performances by Stellan Starsgaard, Renate Rensve, Inga

Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning take place in detailed rooms of this venerable home in a Norwegian seaside town, a home that has witnessed the intimate machinations of so many relationships within its walls that it harbors a sense of immortality.

SINNERS

Wow! Sinners will pick you up and drop you into the symphonic painting of a tumultuous time and place in our country’s history, as it paints a gigantic mural of the Black culture in the Jim Crow South, the Mississippi Delta of the early 1930’s. It will take you on a zipline through hell with an intense staccato carried out by the camera work, the editing and the cast. It’s a mob movie with warring factions poured into a fiery hot bowl of disparate cultures. Michael B. Jordan plays both roles of twins “Smoke” and “Stack,” and young Miles Caton plays “Sammie,” the focal point of the story. This is a history lesson and a jazz/ blues dance concert all at once.

TRAIN DREAMS

This exceptionally beautiful film that plays out against the historical backdrop of a young United States after the Civil War. The filmmakers recreate for us the open lands and nascent towns of our country in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The fictional story follows the life of “Robert Grainier,” born in the 1880’s, an orphaned child who never knew his parents nor a settled life. We experience the land through

him as he grows up, travels by railroad and joins logging crews, living among the trees. He marries, builds a home, has a child and experiences unthinkable tragedy. Joel Edgerton as the understated Grainier delivers a resounding performance, his resilience mirroring that of the beautiful country that surrounds his life. This film may resurface in your mind whenever you escape your busy life and survey the vast world around you to contemplate our life on this planet and our relationship to its inhabitants.

An extraordinary movie will haunt your memory forever emotionally and visually, with its beauty, its terror, its sorrow, its soul, its hysterics, its ability to make you laugh - the impact is cathartic. The films nominated for this year’s Oscars may do just that.

Who do I think will win Best Picture? Probably Sinners or One Battle After Another, which both deserve the prize. Who would I vote for? Train Dreams. Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE NUMBER: 2026046387 ORIGINAL FILING This statement was filed with the County Clerk of LOS ANGELES ON 03/02/26. The following person (persons) is (are) doing business as 1. SANTA MONICA CHRISTIAN TOWERS. The full name of registrant(s) is/are: SM TSA Housing LLC, 11811 San Vicente Blvd.. This business is conducted by A Limited Partnership. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on 02/2026. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime). Signed Jordan Pynes. This Statement was filed with the County Clerk of LOS ANGELES County on September, 25, 2023. NOTICE: IN ACCORDANCE WITH SUBDIVISION (a) OF SECTION 17920, A FICTITIOUS NAME STATEMENT GENERALLY EXPIRES AT THE END OF FIVE YEARS FROM THE DATE ON WHICH IT WAS FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK, EXCEPT, AS PROVIDED IN SUBDIVISION (b) OF SECTION 17920, WHERE IT EXPIRES 40 DAYS AFTER ANY CHANGE IN THE FACTS SET FORTH IN THE STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 17913 OTHER THAN A CHANGE IN THE RESIDENCE ADDRESS OF A REGISTERED OWNER. A NEW FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT MUST BE FILED BEFORE THE EXPIRATION. THE FILING OF THIS STATEMENT DOES NOT OF ITSELF AUTHORIZE THE USE IN THIS STATE OF A FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME IN VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER UNDER FEDERAL, STATE, OR COMMON LAW (SEE SECTION 14411 ET SEQ., BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE). SANTA MONICA MIRROR to publish 03/06/26, 03/13/26, 03/20/26, 03/27/26