West Hollywood’s State of the City Delivered a Clear Message — Things Are Looking Up

“I have a very bright outlook for West Hollywood’s future,” Mayor John Heilman told a packed room at The London West Hollywood on Tuesday morning. It set the tone for everything that followed.

The West Hollywood State of the City is an annual tradition hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. It brings together the city’s business community, civic leaders, and elected officials for a program that takes stock of where the city has been and where it’s headed. Tuesday’s gathering at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills was the 2026 edition — and it came with more backstory than most.

Jacob Shaw, West Hollywood Chamber Interim President and CEO, didn’t waste time on small talk. He showed up Tuesday morning with a bit of a scratchy throat but excited to kick off the day’s event. He told WEHOonline he’d spent the days leading up buried in logistics — Pride week, a leadership transition, a program to pull together — and somewhere in the middle of all of it, a cold caught up with him. There was no chance a cold was going to keep him down. But his fingers were crossed that his voice would hold. It did.

“We’ve got a lot of changes, obviously, in the last couple of weeks,” Shaw told the room. “And it couldn’t have been a busier time. Pride was around the corner. There was a lot to do. And the question was, do we go on with the event? We did.”

Shaw also took a moment to recognize businesses large and small and even tucked in a nod to the local press. He gave a shout-out to WEHOonline and friends over at WeHo Times for keeping the community informed. And he reminded the room of something easy to forget.

“West Hollywood is a small city with an incredibly big impact,” he said. “People from around the world know this community — our activity, our originality, our spirit, and our willingness to take big ideas and make them real.”

He also thanked Chamber staff.

“The small but mighty team has kept the Chamber running,” he said. “The lights on, the events happening, and occasionally kept me out of trouble.”

Shaw stepped in as interim President and CEO of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce on May 29, weeks after the board removed his predecessor. Tuesday was his first State of the City. He co-owns Beaches WeHo and Beaches Tropicana and owns SoCal Payroll. He’s been on the Chamber board for years as Vice Chair of Events. He’s not a politician. He’s a business owner who got the call and stepped up.

The room at The London was filled with business owners, civic leaders, and elected officials for the Chamber’s annual State of the City, themed Unbridled Momentum: Driving Vision, Opportunity, and Community. Mayor John Heilman and Councilmembers Lauren Meister, Chelsea Byers and Vice Mayor Danny Hang were in attendance. It was a full room. Doors opened at 11 a.m. By 1:30 p.m., people were getting in their cars. It was a great event. It ran smoothly and flowed well.

Mayor Heilman has addressed this crowd a lot of times through the years. He was elected to West Hollywood’s first City Council in November 1984. He helped build West Hollywood. Tuesday he stood in front of the Chamber and did what he’s done for four decades: made the case for West Hollywood.

He didn’t pretend the last few years were easy.

“I think we’ve had the opportunity here to emerge from some very challenging times,” he said. “COVID, protests, fires, endless construction at Melrose, and I think we’re seeing the emergence from that.”

He walked the room through the city, district by district. The Rainbow District, he said, is back.

“All of our nightlife establishments are now open and operating,” he said. “There were periods of construction, but we just had a very exciting new edition with Mic Drop and Sweetwater. And on many occasions, if you’re out there at night, you see that there is a full complement of people on the streets, enjoying our nightlife.”

Further east on Santa Monica, he pointed to Erewhon. “It really has enlivened the area,” he said, with a chuckle about the $100 beet juice. Across La Cienega, he highlighted Laurel Supply as well. The Eastside’s Gateway project is going through major renovations he believes will continue to drive business to the popular shopping destination. And Melrose.

“If you’ve been on Melrose, particularly on the weekends, the foot traffic is incredible,” he said. “We have high end retail, a lot of restaurants, and it has gotten a lot of attention.”

He was pretty candid about Sunset Blvd. “Sunset presents challenges,” he said. “A number of developments that were approved are not moving forward. A number of vacancies.” He said the City has approved a reimagined Sunset Strip Music Festival for the fall, and that he’s working on two film festivals for the area by year’s end.

On WeHo restaurants, he didn’t sugarcoat it. “That is a real challenge,” he said, “both with wages, certain other requirements, and the cost of food and supplies.” He said the City is actively looking at ways to support the industry.

He also took on Washington directly. International tourism is down. People are watching immigration raids on the news and deciding not to come. But he pointed to the World Cup fan zones happening this week in West Hollywood — partnered with the French and Swedish consulates — and what they represent.

“That’s really what the United States is all about,” he said. “Welcoming people from other parts of the world, other parts of the culture. That’s the real United States that we don’t often hear about from the current administration.”

He talked about the Olympics in two years, Metro eventually reaching the city, the near-term calendar packed with activations.

“I have a very bright outlook for West Hollywood’s future,” he said.

Then he paused. “This is probably the last time I will get to address the Chamber in this room,” he said. “And I have so appreciated working with all of you over the years. It’s really quite an honor. And regardless of whether I am on the city council or not, please know that I’m always here for you.”

He is termed out. He’s not coming back. There are a lot of us who supported (and support) term limits. But when reality hits and the City loses two grounded, seasoned and thoughtful leaders like Heilman and Meister, the pangs of be careful what you wish for are hard not to miss.

Forty-plus years on the council, multiple terms as mayor, and Tuesday was the last time he’d stand in front of this room in this capacity. The audience knew it. They rose to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. Heilman, being Heilman, tried to wave it off — gesturing toward City Manager Jackie Rocco, as if to send the applause to her. But everyone knew it was for him and many would say it was well deserved.

Rocco had the unenviable slot to follow the popular mayor. But she did, with usual aplomb. Her task was to deliver the numbers. That might normally be a cue to snooze, but in this case you had a room with folks very interested in what she had to say.

The City’s budget for fiscal year 2027 shows revenue estimated at $236 million and planned spending of approximately $235 million across all funds. The general fund is structurally balanced. Hotel occupancy hit 78.2% in May, with an average daily rate of $397 — up 5.6% from the same month in 2025. The City now has 211 active restaurant businesses, a net gain of 19 from 2025.

“Think about this,” Rocco said. “There are 1.9 square miles. This is an astonishing achievement for our great city.”

She highlighted the $18 million restaurant grant program, Fire Station 8 — currently housed in a 73-year-old building — and the City Playhouse project at the former Basix site on Santa Monica. The WeHo Local card program has pushed over $33,000 directly to participating businesses, with $180,000 still available to redeem.

The event also featured a panel discussion — “West Hollywood in Motion: Partnerships Driving Growth and Opportunity” — moderated by Greg Rang of the West Hollywood Design District. Tom Kiely of Visit West Hollywood, Caitlin Penny of the Design District, Brett Latteri of the Sunset Strip, and Chamber board member Oliver Gabay rounded out the table. The conversation covered tourism, placemaking, business collaboration, and what momentum actually looks like on the ground across the city’s districts.

The event closed with the presentation of the Ed Levin Award for Design Excellence to Ian Schrager, whose newest project, PUBLIC West Hollywood, opens July 15. Schrager sent a video message. His award was accepted on his behalf by Gabriele Originario, General Manager of PUBLIC West Hollywood. Schrager, in his video, described the property in his own terms.

“It’s impossible to put a label on and categorize what we’ve done,” he said. “‘Cause when you do something nobody has ever done before, it’s provocative by definition.”

Then, as events tend to do, it was running a bit over and it was time to wrap.

Shaw closed it out the way he opened it — by thanking people. “We pushed on,” he said. “The only way that happened was because of everybody in this room who really stepped up and supported this event.”