The members of the municipal council have unanimously ordered the staff to develop a more ambitious entertainment area for the third street promenade this week, rejecting a limited pilot program in favor of a permanent allowance of seven days a week for the consumption of alcohol with open containers throughout the region.
“And if we do it, if we want to bring back our tourists and our regional visitors to the city center, I think we have to hurt them. We want to have encouraged businesses to stay open later. We want to create more jobs, more income. I therefore ask us to be daring when it is appropriate, “said Temoroline Torosin’s professional mayor.
The entertainment area, authorized by Bill 969 of the Californian Senate signed by Governor Newsom last September, would allow customers to buy alcoholic beverages in approved establishments and to consume them while walking in designated public spaces.
As part of the proposed program, companies in the area could serve alcohol in non -metallic and non -metallic containers. Customers over the age of 21 would receive bracelets or other identifiers, and clear signage would mark the limits of the area.
While the city staff had initially offered a one -year pilot program allowing an open consumption during a minimum of three special events, the members of the council unanimously pushed to a larger approach, requiring a permanent program operating seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The initial area is envisaged along the Wilshire promenade on Arizona. Several members of the council suggested that the area could possibly extend beyond the walk to include parts of Boulevard Santa Monica between the seconds and the fourth streets, where bars like Misfit and Britannia could participate.
“This is a hairdressing pin in our economic opportunity and our strategy and our priority,” said the Dan Hall Council member. “What is proposed and how the staff report relates to the entertainment area will work, being based on events, really lacks the brand.”
The members of the Council underlined the potential of the area to revitalize the city center by increasing pedestrian traffic, supporting existing businesses and attracting new visitors. They stressed that consistency would be the key to the success of the program.
“Continuity creates construction,” said the member of the Council Lana Negrete. “Having these fixed hours is really important, and it also offers calendar opportunities to companies that wish to be able to project in the future what they will do.”
The former mayor Gleam Davis, who helped to advance the proposal during his stay at the Council, said during public comments that other cities had successfully implemented similar programs without undue complexity.
“We do not reinvent the wheel here,” said Davis, showing examples of Ohio, Indiana and Savannah, Georgia. “Look at them here in Santa Monica and brown them.”
Davis also stressed the importance of regular activation rather than some special events per year.
“If you do it only three times a year, you are not going to increase the pedestrian traffic of the walk, you are not going to promote economic development. You want people not coming here once, but come here every week,” she said.
Andrew Thomas, representing the city center of Santa Monica Inc., expressed strong support for the entertainment area as a means of “promoting economic development, business and also enriching the experience of the event”.
Thomas noted that DTSM is impatiently awaiting conversations on the expansion of the scope of the entertainment area, but has raised concerns about the costs associated with the police, fires and public works during events. He asked that DTSM be authorized to provide as many services as possible by contract staff.
The members of the Council echo the concerns about security costs and the Santa Monica police service said that the staff would depend on the size and natural activity of the area, with larger events requiring more security.
The staff will return to the council with a revised prescription at their next meeting in May, incorporating the management of the council for a permanent seven -day program covering the entire promenade of the third street. If it is approved at this meeting, the prescription could take effect immediately, potentially allowing the first activation in pride of the walk in June.
“The management has been clear enough here,” said Negrete, while the meeting ended. “Permanent, regular, larger, wider, better.”
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