Our Goals
1. Accountability
3. Community Power
1. Accountability
SM Neighbors will keep residents informed as policies are shaped to ensure elected leaders remain accountable to voters in every district.
2. Transparency
3. Community Power
1. Accountability
Neighbors deserve to know what’s happening at City Hall. We’ll share clear, timely information so you can make informed decisions and advocate effectively.
3. Community Power
3. Community Power
3. Community Power
SM Neighbors strengthens community voices so residents are fairly represented. We organize, educate, and mobilize neighbors to ensure local priorities are heard.
Santa Monica Neighbors Civic Education
Understanding how our city works shouldn’t require a law degree.
The Santa Monica Civic Education Series is a community resource created to help residents understand how local government decisions are studied, funded, and made.
Each week we break down one part of how city government works, including:
• How City Council makes decisions
• What commissions do
• How the city budget works
• How to read staff reports
• Where public input fits into the process
Local government decisions shape our neighborhoods, infrastructure, housing, environment, and public services.
When residents understand the process, they can participate more effectively and hold government accountable.
This series is designed to make Santa Monica’s civic process clear, accessible, and transparent for everyone.
Follow along each week for new guides, explainers, and visual resources.
Click to Learn More
We're All Neighbors
Who We Are
Santa Monica Neighbors is a grassroots community organization focused on building a cleaner, safer, and more vibrant Santa Monica.
We are residents, business owners, and parents from every neighborhood in Santa Monica - Downtown, Mid-City, Northeast, North of Montana, Ocean Park, Pico, Sunset Park, and Wilshire.
We are unaffiliated with any political group
What We Do
We work collaboratively to educate, convene, and mobilize all residents in every neighborhood district in Santa Monica.
We support leadership in Santa Monica that listens to its residents, students, parents, and business owners; leadership that centers community in every decision and measures success by real, visible results.
What We Believe
Santa Monica deserves leadership that is accountable to its residents, students, parents, and business owners - one that centers community in every decision and measures success by real, visible results.
We’re all neighbors!
Call for Responsible Reform Across Santa Monica
We support real solutions that work for everyone, housed and unhoused alike.
No community — not Ocean Avenue, not Pico, not anywhere in our city — is ever blindsided again.
This was never about turning our backs on vulnerable people. Santa Monica has long prided itself on compassion, inclusion, and service. But compassion cannot come at the expense of safety, oversight, or good governance. Housing and behavioral health services must be placed where they can truly help — in clinically appropriate settings with trained staff, medical access, and proper infrastructure — not beside homes, schools, or parks.
We must now look beyond Ocean Avenue and establish citywide and countywide guardrails for where and how these facilities are sited. That means clear standards: distance from schools and residential zones, mandatory community notice, and transparent review of operators and program models.
By establishing clear guardrails now, Santa Monica can help restore public confidence, safeguard neighborhoods, and shape a countywide model rooted in both empathy and accountability.
In the News
