A local trapeze school finally has a place to land — but some Santa Monica residents say City Hall pulled a fast one to get them there.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, City Council rubber-stamped a five-year deal, with a five year option, to drop the Santa Monica Trapeze School directly into the middle of Clover Park. The City will also contribute up to $170K toward relocation expenses.
In return, the for-profit business will shell out $4,000 a month — plus an 8% cut of concession sales — to occupy a patch near old Public Works trailers.
“I am overwhelmed by the whole thing,” owner Kenna Stevens told The Sun on Wednesday. “We are really excited to be in this community. We want to celebrate Santa Monicans.”
A half dozen staff and customers spoke at the meeting in support of the move. But other residents slammed the council for sneaking the proposal onto its consent calendar — a backdoor maneuver usually reserved for routine, non-controversial items voted on in a single batch with zero public debate.
Parks chief blows the whistle
The sharpest rebuke came from Steven Johnson, chairman of the city’s own Recreation and Parks Commission, who took the podium to beg council members to hit the brakes.
Johnson urged the council to table the vote and send the proposal through proper public review with the Parks, Urban Forest, and Sustainability commissions first.
“Granting a five- to 10-year lease to a commercial enterprise in a public park, without public review, goes against the spirit of our parks,” he cautioned.
“Any commitment of public park space to a private entity deserves both deeper and wider consideration.”
Council members ignored the warning and pushed the deal through ten minutes later.
From Pier boot to park fight
The fate of Stevens’ business –– which she took over in 2023 –– has been in flux for two years.
After operating on the Pier since 2008, the school was booted in 2025 when the city awarded its footprint to an expansion of Pacific Park. The school abruptly relocated to the Santa Monica Airport in early 2026, where L.A. neighbors quickly raised hell — complaining about noise and acrobats peeping directly into their private backyards.
Desperate for a fix, city officials pitched Clover Park as an “underutilized” space that could use a shot of new energy and open the door for future food concessions.
Stevens admitted she understood the anger — but insisted the outrage is over City Hall’s secrecy, not her business.
“I didn’t speak to anybody who was actively against the trapeze school,” Stevens said. “The thing they seemed upset about was the process. We are just an activation of an underutilized space.”
Stevens added that the park could actually be an unexpected upgrade compared to the Pier, where walk-up tourists in flip-flops accounted for only 11% of sales.
“How many people didn’t come to us because we were on the pier?” She questions. “A lot of people from Santa Monica don’t go to the pier. Clover Park is going to be a different crowd than we even got at the airport.
It is unclear when the move will take place, but Stevens says she is ready to go.
To show appreciation for her new neighborhood, she plans to continue hosting free community showcases, including the school’s popular Pride month and Halloween performances.
For Stevens, steering through the sudden bureaucratic crossfire has been an eye-opening crash course in local governance.
“I believed with every fiber of my being that the hard part was going to be getting off the Pier,” she said. “Everybody keeps telling me, ‘this is just business’… I had no idea!”
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