October 5, 2026
We’re going to tell you a story. It’s all true. Don’t worry—it has a happy ending.
It’s a story about why we need Ashley Oelsen on our City Council.
First, imagine Santa Monica’s coastline—cherished by residents and the tourists who power our economy—no longer under the protection of the California Coastal Commission. Now imagine that coastline when a majority of our City Council is obsessed with building dense, market-rate housing along our beaches.
It almost happened.
Our build-anything-anywhere City Council had an idea. What if it could convince Sacramento to carve out Santa Monica (and only Santa Monica!) from the oversight that has successfully protected California’s 800-mile coastline from overdevelopment and privatization for 50 years!
Our Council crafted this very proposal behind closed doors and without community input. One of its members even flew to Sacramento to personally lobby for it.
But Ashley Oelsen, a biologist, environmental activist, and longtime Santa Monica resident, was having none of it.
Ashley worked tirelessly to expose their scheme and its consequences, then helped organize the community to fight it. Horrified at the thought of turning our shoreline into a playground for the rich, residents fought back. Our politicians retreated, and the whole top-down, anti-democratic, anti-environmental plan was scrapped.
Likewise, when Ashley learned that the county, along with some Santa Monica Council members, had entered into a secret agreement with a developer to use a family neighborhood to house individuals receiving drug treatment—without vetting them for criminal offenses—she led the charge for the community to be heard. In the glare of public scrutiny, that scheme was also scrapped.
Ashley, a longtime Santa Monica resident and renter, is a fighter for residents, for transparency, and for our environment.
We need her on City Council.
To hear Ashley speak: Go to https://www.vote4ash.com/
To win, Ashley will need your support and that of your friends and neighbors. Please spread the word.
Next up: Why we need to re-elect Lana Negrete, our Council’s current lone voice for residents.
