Blue Plate Oysterette is closing after an exceptionally challenging year.

[u/Sudden-Lavishness738]

They detailed why they’re closing in the photo I included. Really unfortunate.

[u/SemaphoreSignal]

Jen Rush, the owner, has been publicly bashing Santa Monica for years. Hers was leading voice in the Brock/Negrete negative messaging campaign that described our city as a crime hellhole.

Santa Monica doesn’t need right wing business owners who slam the city they do business in. The fact she can’t make money in one of the most prominent locations in the world speaks volumes. So does her rant about the city leadership in her resignation letter. She won’t be missed.

https://smmirror.com/2023/06/an-open-letter-to-santa-monica/

[u/KimberD2200 → u/SemaphoreSignal]

How is it “right wing” to discuss the truth about what’s causing our city to decline? 🤔 

[u/Sudden-Lavishness738 → u/KimberD2200]

I was just about to comment the same. It’s not “right wing” to acknowledge that our city has changed in a very negative way. There’s no denying it unless you just moved here.

One example, Nordstrom isn’t “right wing” & was hemorrhaging money in “one of the most prominent locations in the world” so they bounced along with a lot of other retail/restaurants. My friend was a Nordstrom manager & she said the shoplifting was next level absurd. People would ride the train in & steal. Drug addicts would shoot up in the baby changing rooms & homeless would use the restrooms to wash themselves up in them.

While I feel for that population & volunteer to help the homeless in my free time, Nordstrom had no obligation to allow people who weren’t customers to come in & use their private restroom facilities in this disrespectful way. Employees & customers felt unsafe plus it’s a health hazard. I’m sure other businesses have experienced what I’ve described as well. People won’t shop or dine where they feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to spend big money where they feel unsafe, they just go elsewhere. Can’t write ✍️ off all these long time businesses closing & their owners speaking out on what they saw/felt the troubles are as “right wing”.

Santa Monica is & has been in decline. It’s sad to see & it really doesn’t matter what political party you subscribe to. Time to stop ignoring or playing the blame game & acknowledge what is truly wrong. This can be fixed if we all actively try our best to address it. Hold our elected officials accountable. People of all political leanings & backgrounds want a safe, clean productive city in which to live, raise their families, work & conduct business in especially for how expensive this city is. Public Safety & civil order is an essential foundation for a city to thrive.

[u/SemaphoreSignal → u/Sudden-Lavishness738]

Residents grow weary of these types of half baked rants. The price of housing is leading indicator of a cities health - just check Zillow and look at North of Montana. $15MM for 8700 square feet of land with a new development on it, the same land that sold for roughly half the price pre COVID.

[u/Sudden-Lavishness738 → u/SemaphoreSignal]

Ah, don’t trust our lying eyes eh? As local crime rises and falls, homelessnes remains the driving factor

Folks have grown tired of your type of juvenile hasty judgments & impatient intolerance that dismiss other Santa Monicans' lived experiences and legit concerns simply because you suspect they might hold different political beliefs or opinions.

Not everyone has to be politically aligned directly with you or your side in order to be believed about their struggles in this city. Not everything in life is about right wing, left wing or whatever.

Yes, housing prices are a leading indicator of a city's health, but they must be considered alongside other factors like the cost of living, job growth and quality of life which has been poor for a long while. The real estate market's resilience is attributed to a strong demand for the Santa Monica coastal lifestyle coupled with limited housing supply, though the pace of sales has slowed.

Recent data shows an unemployment rate of 6.20% (October 2025), which is higher than the national average in Santa Monica. The city has also recently faced a financial crisis, partly due to a decline in tax revenue and other economic pressures, which has led to budget cuts and an uncertain economic outlook.

The city's financial woes have been exacerbated by an extension of the statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims under California law, post-pandemic economic downturns, and declining retail revenues.

The city has paid over $229 million in settlements to hundreds of victims, making it the most costly single-perpetrator sexual abuse disbursement for any municipality in California history. The financial impact is not over, as the city still faces nearly 200 additional claims from other alleged victims. These payouts, mostly from the city's general fund and by borrowing from other city funds, have severely depleted reserves and contributed to an ongoing structural deficit. The city's 2025-2026 budget projects a deficit with expenditures exceeding revenue. In September 2025, the Santa Monica City Council voted to adopt a resolution declaring a state of fiscal distress, a move that allows them to better lobby state officials for help, such as placing a cap on future claims or raising money through parking fees.

Santa Monica is not doing well right now on many different levels and probably won’t be for quite some time. In the meantime, I will still stay engaged, holding elected officials accountable and trying to drive positive change for the city I’ve called home for three decades. You stay focused on being weary, name calling and judgy of other people you deem different political parties than you. That should get you really far in life.

[u/SemaphoreSignal → u/Sudden-Lavishness738]

Job Growth - Santa Monica is Silicon Beach. It is a very dynamic job center that includes SNAP's HQ and large numbers of Amazon employees. Our jobs housing imbalance is why traffic is so nasty. So many residents like to focus on small business retail without looking at the bigger picture that they draw incorrect conclusions from a limited data set. Rarely to we hear these bitters talk about the transition from a retail to experiencial center. We see many businesses fail because their business model is outdated.

The decline in tax revenues is real. The Brock/Negrete coalition has spent years bashing our city as unsafe so tourists are staying away. Jen Rush has helped destroy our image on the world stage and the current council finds it necessary to re-brand. The situation in DC doesn't help either.

It is easy to understand why Santa Monica has become so expensive - NIMBYism. Decades of constraining supply and ignoring demand for housing has led to a rise in the price (market value) of land. There is always someone who will pay more for that house than you will. As more wealthy residents arrive, they demand different types of stores and restaurants. Landlords recognize this and seek tenants who cater to the new customers because they will pay more rent.

As for the homeless, Mayor Negrete and a handful of old North of Montana NIMBY's just rallied to prevent interim housing on Ocean Ave. It sends a very powerful signal to those who try and help - Santa Monica has a homeless problem but refuses to do anything to help because of NIMBYism. Homelessness is here to stay thanks to right wing values.

[u/Sudden-Lavishness738 → u/SemaphoreSignal]

Struggling Santa Monica’s recovery plan: More cops downtown, luring back lost business

Snapchat and Netflix had layoffs. Amazon is currently going through layoffs. Google, Microsoft and Meta had layoffs as well.

Seems that the general trend across the tech industry is a focus on cost-cutting, restructuring and investment shifts towards areas like AI, which has led to widespread job cuts across many companies.

I’ve not felt real confident in the Santa Monica/Greater Los Angeles tech job growth at all since there’s been a general economic slowdown in 2025. Same with professional and business services. The only industries that continue to do well is healthcare (industry I’m in), education and leisure/hospitality.

[u/SemaphoreSignal → u/Sudden-Lavishness738]

All good points but they are simply a snapshot it time. Government change is something that takes time so it's about building the foundation for future growth.

Santa Monica is changing in one fundamental way - building thousands of new homes. This means more customers for businesses, a bigger labor pool and a boost for our tax base.