Remember when Santa Monica was a classic California beach town: idyllic, iconic, safe and thriving?

This week, the city announced it would boost police visibility after a violent weekend and a crime-marred summer.

On Saturday, cops killed a knife-wielding man near the Santa Monica Pier. On Sunday, an attempted robbery left a person shot in the leg. And in recent weeks, a man was shot and killed near the pier, a woman was beaten to death at care facility, and a person was shot and injured in a road-rage incident near 18th and Broadway. 

The city needs a turnaround, and stat.

Police presence alone won’t fix years of decline caused in part by a permissive, radical and at times looney-tunes City Council. 

(This is a bunch, you’ll recall, that voted to study tearing out the Santa Monica stretch of the 10 freeway. Just how practical does anyone think they are?)

The need for change is as plain as the ferris wheel on the pier at dusk.

City voters should scrutinize their ballots this Nov. 3, and determine which candidates are most apt to offer recovery.

The city says as much in its own “vision” document: “Once one of the most vibrant and prosperous coastal cities in California, our community has endured an extended period of decline since the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Well, yes. 

Much of that decline stems from the council’s own choices, post-COVID, to shrink police funding after the Black Lives Matter riots in June 2020; opt for a permissive, service-oriented approach to homelessness; and prioritize ideological projects like rent control (and pushing for freeway removal) over making Santa Monica a safe and vibrant place to live, work and do business.

Now, we have a doom loop: Crime and homelessness repel visitors and bring retail malaise; empty storefronts and a declining Third Street Promenade concentrate more homeless downtown and depress tourism.

More police is a start. But can the city address the causes of homelessness — rather than trying in vain to manage it? 

Can the council, which in 2025 acknowledged failure and vowed to prioritize law and order, deliver public safety? Not just more patrols after a crime wave, but the kind of sweeping law enforcement that brings safe, clean and orderly streets in the first place?

Or, in the words of a Post reader and longtime resident, is the city “on its way to being a slum by the sea”?

The faded glory is real. The need for change is pressing. And three council seats are on the ballot this November.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters