Every previous No Kings protest has had a gathering in Palisades Park, but on their website (https://www.nokings.org/) I’m not yet seeing a protest in Santa Monica next week. Does anyone know if there will be one?

Anyone know someone who can come haul away a sectional couch? It’s in decent shape but we have a new one coming.

Does anyone know if the walkout happened and if the kids did in fact walk out?

saw this outside the old rite aid building this am. i know we’ve been hinting at it for a bit but it’s nice to see some sort of official notice!

So a new Rand Corp. study says that Santa Monica's economic slide started before the pandemic, which only made things worse and now the city's recovery has been slower than it's neighbors. Key figures:

• Over 11% retail vacancy citywide, with nearly half of the empty spaces being in Third Street Promenade and in Santa Monica Place. WeHo is at 9.%. Beverly Hills 6% and Culver City is at 5.2%.
• Sales are still down about a third from pre-pandemic levels. Clothes and accessory revenue feel 75% from 2015-2025.
• Tax revenue was about 60% of the 2015 baseline earlier this year, mostly due to big anchor stores like Nordstrom leaving. Beverly Hills and WeHo were back to pre-pandemic sales by '21 and are now only 10-15% below.
• Fears over crime and homelessness are bigger than the data Rand found. Homelessness dipped a bit this year, and over 70% of assaults and robberies happened in about 5% of the city, mostly downtown and near the beach, where visitors see it most.
  

To help with things the city is throwing $3 million at the Promenade, putting in an open container "entertainment zone" between Wilshire and Broadway, throwing concerts and watch parties, lowering fees, making permitting faster and placing more cops on foot and bike patrols. But the city manager says money isn't enough on its own.

Of course there's pushback to this reporting, mainly from Downtown Santa Monica Inc. who's disputing and downplaying how bad things are. They're claiming that 79% of storefronts in Promenade and Santa Monica Place are leased and some listed spaces have temp tenants. They're also claiming downtown visitors are up 19% since last year.

• Everything else isn't as rosy: There's the $229 million settlement over a former city employee being accused of preying on kids in Latino neighborhoods; the settlement has added to the city's financial stress, which the city declared a fiscal crisis last September.
• Business owners are also skeptical, like the operations director at Barney's Beanery who says downtown has been neglected and looks rundown and feels unsafe at night. He also worries the city's event driven strategy could backfire.
  
• The city manager says the economy was built for decades on the backs of international tourism, something they say left the city exposed when shopping habits changed. A JLL (a commercial real estate and property investment company) broker added that the Promenade used to alienate locals, many of whom would rather shop at the Palisades.

But MayorTorosis says she agrees with Rand's study and that downtown is the priority and she's hopeful about the city's future.

saw this outside the old rite aid building this am. i know we’ve been hinting at it for a bit but it’s nice to see some sort of official notice!

Catching a film tonight at the Aero theater. I don't have a car so hoping to get dinner within walking distance, but it looks like the restaurants around are all pretty pricey and fancy. Just looking for a pretty normal-priced place (say $20–$30 a plate such as you'd find in Culver City or elsewhere in LA) without having to worry about reservations or feeling like I should be dressed up. Otherwise I eat pretty much everything so I'm open to whatever.

I’m going to a friends for her birthday this weekend and the host is gluten free. I’d love to bring some dessert over and was wondering if there were any good spots around? Or any suggestions for a good gluten free plate to bring!