Mayor Lana Negrete | Fighting Bureaucracy, Homelessness & Starting Up in Santa Monica
Watch the full episode: YouTube
Episode Summary
Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete shares her unconventional path from music store owner to mayor, discussing how entrepreneurial thinking transforms local government, cutting red tape for small businesses, creating entertainment zones, and why treating constituents as customers changes everything. From surviving cancer while serving to rebuilding after riots, Mayor Negrete brings authentic, gritty problem-solving to City Hall with a startup mindset that challenges traditional government thinking.
Key Topics: entrepreneurship in government, small business, Santa Monica, Lana Negrete, regulatory reform, business-friendly policies, civic engagement, local government, startup mindset, public-private partnerships
Table of Contents
- Introduction to Santa Monica Housing
- Mayor's Personal Journey
- Challenges and Resilience
- Entering Politics
- Entrepreneurial Mindset in Government
- Encouraging Civic Engagement
- Business-Friendly Policies
- Entertainment Zones and Innovation
- Treating Constituents as Customers
- Closing Thoughts
Introduction to Santa Monica Housing
And as far as housing goes in Santa Monica, we are always gonna be desirable. We're in the city of Santa Monica. We're on the coast and look around guys. Is San Francisco the most affordable place to live? Is New York? No. So we're not gonna create affordability by building on our beaches here, and we're not gonna solve homelessness by building our way out of it.
I love your approach, right? Love your approach, and obviously it's gonna cause friction in government after this airs for wherever. So here we are. We're gonna get started. Thanks again.
Mayor's Personal Journey
And let us begin with a little bit about your journey, how you got here. You're a small business owner still. You don't have the traditional path of getting to a position like mayor that most folks do, and it's inspiring. You have a great story. Why don't we start a little bit with that and a little bit about your why. Why you do this in the first, take on this thankless work in the first place?
Okay, well, first of all, I'm not sweating because of the lights probably, but we'll get to that in a second. My journey to being on here, well, small business owner took over my family business. I have a background prior to that I wanted nothing to do with my family business, which is music stores. Not because I don't love music, but because everybody in my family worked in it. Both my parents aren't from this country. My mom's from Trinidad, my dad's Cuban and Spanish, but came by way of Canada.
We struggled and were poor and I watched all my siblings kind of struggle in the music industry and I was like, well, I'm not gonna do that. So since my mom bused me to school on the north side, I had that to look forward to these kids that grew up in big houses, and that's what I wanted. And I figured that wasn't the way to get it to work at the music store in a building we didn't own.
However, my journey through being an account executive, international marketing, one day kids, one on the belly and one on my hip, my dad said, we're gonna go bankrupt and close. And we've been serving every school now 54 years with all their instruments and repairs. And my dad won a Man of the Year award in Compton and Watts for bringing music to underserved kids. And I thought, what a tragedy to lose that. So I said, fine. We sold everything, moved into an apartment, downsized to one car, and I stepped in.
Challenges and Resilience
In 2020 when Covid hit right after that, we got looted and our other location got set on fire during the George Floyd riots. And I was there during that time with my kids and with the kids in my nonprofit. And afterwards in the rebuilding phase, I thought the way it was handled and everything that was going on, I wanted to get more involved. So I started a program through the police department and the at-risk youth that I offer free lessons to.
And during that process, the folks in the police department and fire department were like, you need to be on our city council. I'm like, absolutely not. First of all, I cuss like a sailor, I'm tatted up. And everybody, they're like, but everybody knows you. You're, you know, you've been so philanthropic in the community. Your dad has your staple here. You're born and raised and you know, as a business owner, the struggles.
Entering Politics
'Cause at that time we had people all of a sudden for the first time in decades, like doing meth in front of my music store, but the city was fining me for having like an A-frame saying, kids rock band. They're like, you can't have that there. That's $200. I'm like, oh, by the way, that guy just shit in front of my store and is like smoking meth. What about him? And they're like, yeah, we can't deal with that right now. So that's what inspired me.
So then I ran for election and I got a four year seat. And we do an appointment process for mayor. And so it was all political. They tried to make me mayor right away, but there was an older gentleman who really wanted it. It was like his life's goal as a child. I think he already had the license plate made. So I voted against myself three rounds. So I was vice mayor for two years. And then in December, against some people's wishes, I became the mayor.
And I must say during that process, my dad had a stroke, was paralyzed. I took care of him. February of last year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Didn't tell my dad, didn't miss a meeting. Went through three surgeries, five months of chemo, radiation. Rang the bell in November. Got appointed as mayor in December. Everything caught on fire in January.
Entrepreneurial Mindset in Government
Think that the entrepreneurial mindset, the startup mindset, that way of solving problems, critical thinking, how much more of that do we need in government? And just to be fair, where is its limitations?
Well, I think that's what separates me. There's been people on council who have been like, I'm a business owner. But they've never had to run payroll or put a key in a door and flip the open sign or, you know, really deal with the city and the capacity that I have. And I don't come from generational wealth or legacy where I'm connected. I came from parents who struggled and really didn't know how to make it, and I had to figure it out.
And I think that gritty mindset forces you to think outside the box. And I think coming from trauma and struggle forces you to be flexible in your mindset and it gives you just a different perception. I look at city government, like our constituents are our customers and we are a business and we need to be serving our community. And as an elected leader, I'm the go-between, between the constituent and staff. My job is to be like, since you guys are busy working, let me tell you what our customers are saying and then let's adjust so that we can serve our customers.
[Full 40-minute transcript continues with detailed discussions on encouraging civic engagement, business-friendly policies, creating entertainment zones, cutting red tape, treating constituents as customers, and practical examples of bringing startup thinking to local government while maintaining accountability and service excellence.]
Written by
Evan Meyer
January 9, 2025