SANTA MONICA, CA — Caroline Torosis was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area before attending UCLA and earning a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
An attorney and Santa Monica's current mayor, Torosis works as policy director for Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell. She began her career representing workers in wage theft cases and has spent 14 years working for the county.
Torosis lives in Sunset Park with her husband, whom she met in law school, and their two dogs. She was drawn to Santa Monica because it reminded her of the community where she grew up, where neighbors knew one another and took an active interest in local affairs.
Her political ambitions emerged early. In her eighth-grade yearbook, she predicted she would one day run for president.
What is Santa Monica getting wrong about homelessness today, and what would you do differently?
We've already begun changing our approach because relying on the county's coordinated entry system wasn't working. Only about 15 percent of people being sent to SAMOSHEL were actually from Santa Monica. We've brought our homelessness system of care in-house to prioritize people with established local connections, including those who became homeless here and families with children in our schools.
We've also contracted for beds at the Salvation Army's Bell Shelter, with free transportation available for people without an established Santa Monica connection. We're integrating social workers and medical professionals into our public safety response, including a nurse practitioner who provides street medicine. We've seen an 18 percent decline in unsheltered homelessness this year and are working toward closing SAMOSHEL while developing alternative shelter locations.
We cannot continue simply managing decline on our streets.
What measurable result would convince you that a city-funded homelessness program is working, and what result would cause you to stop funding it?
We need to measure how many people are housed, whether they remain housed and whether they're moving from interim shelter into permanent housing. If people remain in shelter indefinitely without progressing, something isn't working.
More than 80 percent of participants in our Santa Monica Bridge program have agreed to accept services rather than incarceration. Ultimately, visible homelessness and crime need to decrease, and people need to achieve lasting housing stability.
What should happen when someone living on the street repeatedly refuses an offer of shelter, treatment or services
There need to be carrots and sticks. It's neither progressive nor humane to allow someone to deteriorate on the streets when shelter and treatment are available.
CARE Court offers one potential intervention, although our legal authority to compel treatment is limited. We need more effective ways to help people who repeatedly refuse available services.
What's your default karaoke song?
Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire." Although I'm a terrible singer.
What song or band makes you crank up the volume in the car?
RÜFÜS DU SOL. I love electronic dance music and listen to it on my way to council meetings.
Santa Monica Airport is scheduled to close at the end of 2028. What, specifically, do you believe should replace it?
A great park. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create something extraordinary for the entire Westside. I've stood on the runway and looked toward the ocean. I believe this could become the West Coast's Central Park.
It should include walking and bicycle paths, recreational facilities and cultural spaces, along with restaurants and other park-related businesses that generate revenue. As the region becomes denser, people will increasingly need places to gather and enjoy the outdoors.
The airport site is roughly 192 acres and converting it will be enormously expensive. How much should Santa Monica taxpayers be expected to pay for the project, and where should the rest of the money come from?
I don't believe taxpayers should be expected to pay anything directly. We should explore enhanced infrastructure financing districts, climate resilience districts, philanthropic contributions and potentially a conservancy. We've already received a $10 million state grant.
Revenue-generating amenities and occasional events could also help cover operating costs, as they do at Los Angeles State Historic Park. There are successful financing models elsewhere. We need to be creative rather than relying entirely on taxpayers.
What's your guilty-pleasure TV show?
"The Traitors." It's a ridiculous reality show, but I think it's hilarious.
When was the last time you took public transport and where was it to?
Last week. I took the Big Blue Bus from my house to the farmers market to celebrate the system reaching 10 million riders for the second consecutive year.
What is the single most important thing City Hall can do in the next two years to bring businesses and residents back to Third Street Promenade?
Instead of rolling out the red tape, we need to roll out the red carpet. We've reduced permit turnaround times by more than 40 percent and established a small-business concierge service.
Our $3 million tenant improvement fund could help property owners convert large, difficult-to-lease retail spaces into smaller businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues. We're also waiving certain fees, potentially saving qualifying new businesses up to $70,000, and working to streamline coastal permitting.
We need to give people reasons not just to visit downtown, but to stay.
Is downtown Santa Monica fundamentally suffering from a public-safety problem, a business-model problem or a development problem, and what role should new housing play in its recovery?
It's all of the above. Public safety, outdated retail spaces and perceptions about downtown are interconnected. We've taken a more assertive approach to enforcing quality-of-life laws, particularly concerning drugs, while increasing street cleaning, landscaping and improvements to parking garages.
For too long, Santa Monica assumed people would come simply because we're Santa Monica. We need to actively market ourselves and make downtown welcoming again. Additional housing downtown would also bring more customers to local businesses and help support economic recovery.
Who would you most hate to be stuck in a lift with?
Donald Trump. Or Stephen Miller.
What's your most irrational superstition or habit?
I wear my grandmother's pearl necklace on important occasions. I wore it when I was sworn into the City Council, when I became mayor and at a recent candidate debate.
It gives me strength.
Does Santa Monica have a revenue problem or a spending problem and if finances deteriorate, what specifically would you be prepared to cut or change?
I believe we have a revenue problem. We're a full-service city and major tourist destination, providing services for residents and visitors. We've historically relied heavily on hotel taxes and consumer spending.
We need more people downtown, more successful businesses and additional housing along commercial corridors to generate economic activity. If cuts become necessary, we'd have to look first at programs that aren't essential to keeping Santa Monica clean, safe and economically vibrant.
But our priority should be rebuilding revenue.
Who was your childhood hero?
Bill Clinton. I admired his journey from rural Arkansas to national politics and his ability to build coalitions.
Later, after working on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, I came to admire her even more. She's extraordinarily intelligent, and I don't think the public ever fully appreciated her.
What's the most recent book you gave up on, and why?
I can't remember one. The last book I read was "Black Power Scorecard" by Andre M. Perry, which examines how ownership and economic opportunity affect outcomes in minority communities. It made me think about how we create opportunities for communities such as Pico and Belmar in Santa Monica.
Has Santa Monica gone too far, not far enough or roughly the right distance in redesigning streets around bicycles and pedestrians and would you support removing or substantially redesigning a project that was shown to create new safety or access problems?
I believe pedestrian and bicycle safety must take priority over driver convenience. Santa Monica committed to Vision Zero a decade ago, yet pedestrian and bicycle deaths have increased. I'm willing to make driving less convenient if it makes our streets safer.
When businesses around Broadway and 17th Street raised concerns about parking and access, we worked with city departments to explore solutions. If a project genuinely creates safety problems, we should be willing to change it. But I believe our overall approach is the right one.
What's the worst job you've ever had?
I've enjoyed all my jobs, although filing paperwork in my father's office before college was pretty boring.
What completely different job would you secretly love to do
Something in the NHL, preferably with the San Jose Sharks. I'd love to be a coach or an agent. Or commissioner of the NHL. Gary Bettman needs to retire, and I'd happily take his job.
Santa Monica faces major decisions over the future of both the Civic Auditorium and Bergamot Station. What should happen to each, and how much should preserving their existing cultural uses influence those decisions?
Preserving their cultural uses must be our north star. We've entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Goldenvoice to explore restoring the Civic Auditorium as a major concert venue.
At Bergamot Station, transit-oriented housing could make sense because of its location beside the light rail, but protecting the existing arts community is essential. Any redevelopment should cover gallery tenants' temporary relocation costs, preserve their rental rates and guarantee their right to return.
I'd also like affordable housing specifically for artists, with ground-floor commercial space focused on galleries and arts-related businesses.
When did you last do something for the very first time?
Since becoming mayor, I've had opportunities to speak with elementary school students about government. It's been one of the most rewarding experiences of the job. Their questions about homelessness and protecting the planet give me hope for the future.
Do you have any tattoos?
No.
Should Santa Monica continue challenging state housing mandates, or accept that Sacramento has largely removed the city's discretion and concentrate on deciding where new housing goes?
We've already seen what happens when Santa Monica challenges state housing requirements. The previous council's approach led to the builder's remedy situation, allowing developers to pursue projects outside our usual zoning restrictions.
The state has made clear that it's prepared to enforce its housing laws. Unless cities can build a broader coalition to change those laws, fighting Sacramento isn't productive. We should work with the state to accommodate housing requirements while protecting Santa Monica's unique character.
Does Santa Monica need substantially more housing, and if so, where should it be built? Would you concentrate most new development downtown even if that means substantially taller buildings, and what areas should be protected from additional density?
I believe additional housing should be concentrated downtown and along commercial boulevards such as Wilshire and Lincoln. I don't support increasing density in single-family neighborhoods or along Pico Boulevard, Ocean Park Boulevard or Montana Avenue.
I also want to address rumors about developing the city-owned parking lots behind Main Street businesses. Those properties were identified as potential housing sites in the city's housing element, but we're not developing those parking lots. Period.
Caroline Torosis' campaign website is torosisforsantamonica.com
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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