Why Santa Monica Promenade Businesses Went Dark Monday

SANTA MONICA, CA — Businesses around the Third Street Promenade were disrupted Monday morning and into the afternoon after an overnight power outage left portions of two downtown blocks without electricity, forcing some stores to remain closed. The cause of the outage remains under investigation.

The Southern California Edison outage affected parts of the 1300 and 1400 blocks of the Promenade on either side of Santa Monica Boulevard. The unusual footprint meant some businesses lost power while others just steps away remained unaffected.

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SCE first reported the outage at 2:23 a.m., when 74 customers were without electricity, according to the utility's outage information. The number fell to 53 customers during the morning before SCE later listed 54 customers as affected.

At 5:03 a.m., SCE attributed the outage to "equipment problems."

Francisco, a duty manager at Develados, told Patch that power was already out when he arrived at the restaurant Monday morning.

James Walton, a design specialist at Design Within Reach, also confirmed that the business was impacted.

Several businesses Patch found along the affected stretch remained closed Monday morning, including Dragon Alley Coffee. Others stayed open and waited for service to return.

Burton, located on the southwest corner of the 1400 block, was unaffected, illustrating the highly localized nature of the outage.

Business owners and employees told Patch their electricity returned between about 1 and 1:30 p.m. SCE's outage notification system later reported at 2:21 p.m. that power had been restored to all affected customers.

Patch contacted Southern California Edison for additional information about the outage. A media representative said the unusual pattern of affected and unaffected businesses could be related to the electrical circuit layout and said the utility was looking into the outage.

Additional information from SCE was not immediately available Monday afternoon.