Topline:
Barnes & Noble is opening on the popular pedestrian shopping center, next summer, after a five-year absence.
Why it matters: The book chain's return is part of a revitalization project to turn the outdoor shopping strip into an entertainment venue, after the pandemic left stores vacant.
But... Critics say the city must also find a way to take care of its most vulnerable residents, as homeless continues to plague the beachfront city.
A familiar retailer is returning to the Third Street Promenade, and Santa Monica leaders hope it will act as a bellwether for the area's transformation.
Barnes & Noble is opening on the popular pedestrian shopping center next summer after a five-year absence. Its return is part of a project to turn the outdoor shopping strip into an entertainment venue, with pickleball courts, tattoo parlors and more.
“I never consider us to be a mall in your traditional sense,” said Andrew Thomas, the CEO of Downtown Santa Monica, a commercial property management group behind the Promenade.
It’s not the first transformation for the three-block pedestrian mall. In the 1960s, it went from a car-friendly district to a pedestrian-only attraction. In the 1980s, some $10 million were spent on improvements to bring back shoppers and diners. In the 1990s, new commercial chains were settling in, turning the strip into a shopping destination.
But boom times ended in the late 2010s, when rising rents kept businesses from renewing leases. Then the pandemic hit, which essentially shut down in-person shopping.
“It was very painful. We really haven't had any significant downturns at all until the last three years,” said Wally Marks, who owns the building where the new Barnes & Noble will move in.
The Promenade’s taxable sales dropped from more than $435 million to just about $200 million between 2017 and 2023, according to Santa Monica Public Information Officer Lauren Howland.
And as one business shuttered after the other, an uptick in unhoused people took root in Santa Monica’s commercial echelons.
Over the summer, angry business owners pushed the city council to address the growing unhoused issue. One owner draped a sign on his shuttered promenade store declaring, “Santa Monica Is Not Safe,” later changing it to “Santa Methica Is Not Safe.”
“That's probably when we put our foot on the gas and realized that we needed to do everything we possibly could to support our business community,” Thomas said.
New zoning ordinances eliminated obstacles so new kinds of businesses can open. A focus on making the city accessible to middle-class families, compared to the adjoined mall’s luxury offerings, was also a priority.
In June 2022, Marks cold-called Barnes & Noble. His current lease would be ending and he wanted to know if the bookstore chain had any interest in returning to the Promenade.
To his surprise, the answer was yes.
Barnes & Noble first left the shopping strip in 2018, amid high rent and the onslaught of online book sales. Its Santa Monica return is part of the book retailer's bigger turnaround plan.
“They're trying to give more local control to their store managers, so it's not top down but bottom up, and that's very appealing,” Marks said.
Marks longs to see the building return to the days of book readings and community events nestled within its exposed brick walls and hardwood floors. In the early 1990s, his building was home to the indie bookstore, Midnight Special Books.
He called Barnes & Noble's return “serendipitous.”
“We just really believe in the power of books and the power of magic that it brings to people,” Marks said.
Barnes & Noble will join a number of new businesses in the area. According to Howland, the city has seen 400 new businesses and issued almost 100 outdoor dining permits this year alone.
But the city must also find a way to take care of its most vulnerable residents, housing and homeless advocates say.
Santa Monica declared homelessness a local emergency this year as it rose 15% from 2022, but some say resources have not met the uptick.
"That's what Santa Monica does — it's a big tourist community and they care more about money and more about looking good for the tourists that are coming in as opposed to taking care of the people. So it's just a really bad situation," said Joey Trachtman, a local volunteer.
Trachtman has lived in Santa Monica for 25 years, and was part of a group of volunteers who provided food for the unhoused population of 100 or so people who had congregated on the Promenade during the pandemic.
As the Promenade remakes itself post-pandemic, the unhoused problem isn't going away.
“It’s a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week issue. Homelessness does not exist during just business hours, Monday through Friday, and we haven't made a strong enough attempt, especially downtown,” Santa Monica councilmember Phil Brock said.
17 new police officers have been approved to patrol the downtown area. Brock says more social work teams and supportive housing is needed, more than what the city has agreed to provide.
Brock added that people still feel unsafe, justifiably or not, in the area.
“We're still struggling to get back to what residents and visitors feel a lot of times is a really safe, clean, inviting place to shop, to walk, to eat,” Brock said.
Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the White House of blocking a magazine interview at the official U.S. venue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a day after Newsom criticized European leaders for not pushing back harder against President Donald Trump.
What happened: Newsom was scheduled to be interviewed in Davos Wednesday evening by Fortune magazine at the USA House, a privately funded venue outside the forum that serves as a base for U.S. executives and officials. A spokesperson for the governor said USA House organizers told Newsom’s office Wednesday afternoon that they were cancelling the interview and barring Newsom from speaking with the press there. On social media, Newsom accused the organizers of bowing to “pressure from the White House and State Department.”
The backstory: The incident marks another escalation in the governor’s long-running feud with Trump and his administration. Newsom and the president have not spoken since Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles last summer. During a visit to Washington in the winter to renew his request for wildfire recovery aid, Newsom complained that the administration refused to grant a meeting.
Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the White House of blocking a magazine interview at the official U.S. venue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a day after Newsom criticized European leaders for not pushing back harder against President Donald Trump.
The incident marks another escalation in the governor’s long-running feud with Trump and his administration. Newsom and the president have not spoken since Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles last summer. During a visit to Washington in the winter to renew his request for wildfire recovery aid, Newsom complained that the administration refused to grant a meeting.
Newsom was scheduled to be interviewed in Davos on Wednesday evening by Fortune magazine at the USA House, a privately funded venue outside the forum that serves as a base for U.S. executives and officials. Venue backers include Microsoft and McKinsey, according to the Financial Times.
The U.S. State Department is an official partner of the venue, and multiple Trump administration officials have spoken there during the conference, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who on Wednesday slammed Newsom and his scheduled appearance, calling the governor “economically illiterate” and saying “he’s not speaking” at the venue.
A spokesperson for the governor said USA House organizers told Newsom’s office Wednesday afternoon that they were canceling the interview and barring Newsom from speaking with the press there. Newsom was instead invited to attend a reception later that night without the press, according to his office. He is still scheduled to speak with the news outlet Semafor at the official economic forum Thursday morning.
On social media, Newsom accused the organizers of bowing to “pressure from the White House and State Department.”
“How weak and pathetic do you have to be to be this scared of a fireside chat?” he wrote.
Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly wrote in an email that “no one in Davos knows” who Newsom is, calling him a “third-rate governor” who was “frolicking around Switzerland instead of fixing the many problems he created in California.”
Fortune Media spokesperson Patrick Reilly confirmed the magazine’s staff invited Newsom to its event at the USA House and did not make the decision to cancel his appearance. Reilly said the magazine schedules its speaking events independently, but “logistical, security and other access considerations” often affect the lineup during prominent international events.
“USA House determined it would not be able to accommodate the governor’s participation and communicated that decision to Fortune,” Reilly wrote in an email.
The governor has been using his trip to Davos to pitch California as a counterweight to Trump’s climate and economic policies. Earlier this week, Newsom announced the state has surpassed 2.5 million purchases of zero-emission electric vehicles, a market he has often said Trump is ceding to China by backing away from clean energy.
On Tuesday, he pressed European leaders to stand up to Trump as the president increasingly speaks of attempting to annex Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. On Wednesday, during Trump’s own speech at the forum, the president mentioned Newsom by name. Newsom can be seen on video laughing and sighing as the president touted his aggressive immigration raids in blue states.
“If I were a Democratic governor or whatever,” Trump said, “I would call up Trump, I’d say, ‘Come on in, make us look good.’”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Topline:
Monterey Park city leaders on Wednesday night will consider a temporary halt on a massive data center project after residents raised concerns about its potential effects on the environment and community.
The project: The data center proposed by SDCF Monterey Park, LLC, would be 247,480 square feet — larger than the size of four football fields.
Residents' concerns: The project has been under discussion since 2024, but residents say they've only heard about it in recent months. They worry that the facility could significantly increase local electricity and water use, along with noise and air pollution from industrial equipment.
What would the moratorium do: It would pause the project for at least 45 days — and up to two years — and give the city time to reconsider how data centers should be regulated.
Go deeper: Data centers are putting new strain on California’s grid. A new report estimates the effects
Topline:
San Clemente’s City Council has approved a proposal to give federal immigration officials broad oversight of the city’s coastline, despite overwhelming public opposition.
About the deal: Under the agreement approved Tuesday, Customs and Border Patrol can install cameras on a hilltop to keep an eye on the city’s waters for incoming panga boats. If people from the panga boats head into the city, federal agents can surveil them in residential neighborhoods. City officials will not have access to the surveillance system or how it’s being used. The agreement was approved on a 3-1 vote, with one council member abstaining.
Next steps: The city manager will enter into a lease with Customs and Border Patrol giving them access to the land to install the camera.
Public opposition: San Clemente residents mostly spoke out against entering into the lease agreement, with many citing privacy concerns.
Read on ... for more about the arrangement.
San Clemente’s City Council has approved a proposal to give federal immigration officials broad oversight of the city’s coastline, despite overwhelming public opposition.
Under the agreement, Customs and Border Patrol will be able to install cameras on a hilltop to keep an eye on the city’s waters for incoming panga boats. If people from the panga boats head into the city, federal agents can surveil them in residential neighborhoods. City officials will not have access to the surveillance system or how it’s being used.
The agreement — approved on a 3-1 vote, with one council member abstaining — comes even as city officials have acknowledged there hasn’t been a rise in panga boat landings within city limits.
As next steps, the city manager will enter into a lease with Customs and Border Patrol giving them access to the land to install the camera.
City leaders directed the city manager to enter into a lease agreement with Customs and Border Patrol for a five-year term, with three five-year renewal options. Federal immigration agents will also pay a one-time fee of $10 to the city and cover electricity costs.
San Clemente residents mostly spoke out against entering into the lease, with many citing privacy concerns.
“ The federal government is demanding a black box operation on our soil. They're asking for a platform to monitor our coastline with zero local oversight,” resident Robin Seymour said at the council meeting.
Another resident, Chelsea Sanchez, said she’s concerned as the daughter of immigrant parents.
“Given that racial profiling is a common tactic of these agencies, how can you guarantee that someone who looks like me won't be swept up in something like this?” she said.
Mark Enmeier, the sole voice of dissent on the dais, also raised concerns with the agreement’s lack of oversight in how the surveillance data will be used.
In the city report, officials said CBP “has stated the system would be configured to avoid scanning residential areas that fall into the scan viewshed.” However, city officials said Tuesday night that the agency “can't commit contractually to not surveilling anything inside the city limits of San Clemente or inside the residential area.”
The city of Glendale ended a 20-year contract with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed the agency to use its jails after coming under pressure when immigration enforcement ramped up in Southern California last summer.
Customs and Border Patrol also has an agreement with San Diego County that gives agents access to personal data in a San Diego Association of Governments database.
Topline:
Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications is a done deal after the agreement closed Tuesday, kicking in a slew of digital equity requirements and infrastructure investments for California.
What does this mean for digital equity? The California Public Utilities Commission’s recent approval included a slew of digital equity requirements, such as expanding affordable internet and new fiber optic projects.
Why it matters: The merger comes as the federal government pulled back $2.75 billion in funding by slashing the Digital Equity Act. CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said requirements from the Verizon deal will benefit Californians and align with the state’s mission to expand affordable connectivity.
Read on … for what is required from Verizon as part of the deal.
Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications is a done deal after the agreement closed Tuesday, kicking in a slew of digital equity requirements and infrastructure investments for California.
The California Public Utilities Commission’s recent approval included a slew of digital equity requirements, such as expanding affordable internet and new fiber optic projects.
The merger comes as the federal government pulled back $2.75 billion in funding by slashing the Digital Equity Act.
CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said requirements from the deal will benefit Californians and align with the state’s mission to expand affordable connectivity.
“California isn’t just approving a merger, we’re securing real commitments that will connect communities, lower costs for families who need it most, and strengthen workforce and supplier diversity protections,” Reynolds said in a statement.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman, in a statement, celebrated the approval.
“Our greatly expanded footprint will enable us to provide more value to more households and businesses in more regions, driving our growth and benefitting our customers and our shareholders,” Schulman said.
The closed merger means Verizon must expand affordable voice and broadband plans. That includes providing free broadband service to qualifying low-income families for at least 10 years. And for at least the next five years, Verizon can’t raise rates on its affordable plans.
The state also reported that Verizon must invest in 75,000 new fiber locations and build 25 new wireless towers that will reach rural areas.
The decision also adopts multiple settlement agreements that include additional commitments related to affordability, service quality, labor protections, infrastructure deployment and $500 million in spending with small businesses.
Verizon must fulfill its commitments or face fines and other penalties from the California Public Utilities Commission, according to the agreement.
Some concerns remain about what these mergers could mean for customers, according to Lindsey Skolnik, manager at the California Alliance for Digital Equity.
“Recognizing that declining competition in the marketplace ultimately leads to increased concentration of power over broadband pricing and service offerings, this potential outcome is deeply worrisome, especially in the midst of California's affordability crisis,” Skolnik said in a statement.
Much of California’s broadband prices are driven by the Big 5 providers that include Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Cox and Verizon-Frontier. They service around 97% of the state’s 10.7 million broadband subscribers, Skolnick said.
In the coming years, the Big 5 could shrink to the Big 4 if the merger between Charter Communications and Cox Communications closes. Charter announced in May 2025 that it had offered to acquire Cox for around $34.5 billion, consolidating two of the largest cable companies in the country.
No details yet on when the agreement may close.
