Santa Monica Block Fest kicked off a party Saturday on the Third Street Promenade, part of a big push to bring people and businesses back the downtown area.
Artist Marquis Cook used to make a living selling his drawings at the Third Street Promenade. But after the pandemic, the area struggled.
“When everything was boarded up, too dead to do anything,” he said.
Cook came back this summer and was surprised with how things had turned around.
“The last couple of weeks, I’ve been coming out here, and I noticed there’s like a lot of changes, but then there’s like a revitalization going on,” he said.
Thanks to events like the Santa Monica Block Fest, thousands of people have returned to shop, eat and dance.
“All three blocks of the promenade have different DJs, EDM music,” said Sydney Korvach, the downtown Santa Monica director of community affairs. “It’s free. Everyone’s welcome to come down, enjoy a drink. The entertainment zone is activated today, so folks can grab a drink at a participating business and walk around and enjoy the open air in the weather.”
The city says it has been laser-focused on bringing business back to the promenade. Shop owners say these activations have helped and that they feel their concerns are finally being heard.
“The agenda is make Santa Monica cleaner and safer like it was in the past, and definitely we are seeing the people responding very positively to that,” said Fusun Cesuroruc, co-owner of Ugo.
And locals say the area is special — steeped in history and so uniquely Southern California. They are glad to see it come back to life.
“Between the pier and Third Street, we got to keep raising up Santa Monica,” neighbor Michael Ware said.
The block fests happen every second Saturday of the month from 5 p.m. to midnight and are free to the public with music and night markets.