Santa Monica Promenade 'Entertainment Zone' Unlikely to Work if Homeless Problems Persist

July 3, 2025 - In an effort to prop up a fading shopping and entertainment area in downtown Santa Monica, the city council okayed the outdoor consumption of alcohol from 6 pm until 2 am on the Third Street Promenade on the weekends. While the move is undoubtedly popular with heavy drinkers, it is unclear whether the new law will be enough to counter the perception of downtown Santa Monica as largely a territory for the drug-addicted homeless.

Officials are not even able to control the furniture they've installed to assist the new "Entertainment Zone." According to John Alle, who owns property on the Promenade, the homeless who regularly inhabit the area overnight have been using the new picnic benches as weapons. "Two nights ago 2 individuals used the benches to swing at each other like they were swords," Alle wrote to Andrew Thomas, CEO of Downtown Santa Monica Inc. DTSM is a quasi-governmental agency in charge of the downtown and Promenade. On another occasion, "my neighbor across from one of my buildings on the Promenade witnessed 2 transients who had been sitting on the same benches, pounding on my glass storefronts for no reason," Alle wrote.

The least city staff could do would be to lock up the furniture at night. "Your Staff stacks and ties the Adirondack chairs with a lock. They must do the same with the newly purchased picnic tables and chairs," Alle wrote.

Having created this monster, it does seem the least they could do.