Christine Reed; Ex-Santa Monica Official

Christine Emerson Reed, former Santa Monica mayor and city councilwoman, died Wednesday of cancer at UCLA Medical Center. She was 52.

Reed served a record four terms, more than 15 years, on the City Council before she was defeated for reelection in 1990 by Santa Monicans for Renters Rights.

She was one of Santa Monica’s first environmental activists, working in 1971 to block a plan that would have replaced the Santa Monica Pier with a causeway leading to a fake island with a 35-story hotel. She regularly campaigned on a theme of environmental protection and staunchly opposed high-rise development and rent control.

A moderate Republican, Reed was first elected to the City Council in 1975 and served as mayor from 1984 to 1986. After leaving the council, she lost the race for the state Assembly’s then-new 41st District in 1992.

She also served on the board of the Metropolitan Water District, headed the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (now the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and served as president of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

“It was so rewarding and so satisfying to be a member of the county Transportation Commission, where you’re working on major infrastructure projects . . . where you are making decisions that will outlast you by a hundred years,” she told The Times after her defeat in 1990. “To me that is satisfying. That is worth all the crap I had to put up with. One of the things I think I am really good at is translating complicated public policy issues and reducing it into the absurd so people can understand it.”

Reed also served on the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Santa Monica Recreation and Parks Commission.

A native of Santa Monica, she studied political science at UCLA, worked on Republican candidates’ campaigns and was state secretary of the California Young Republicans. She worked as textbook manager of the campus bookstore until she married Jason C. Reed, controller for Associated Students of UCLA, and became a full-time homemaker.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by their two children, Margaret and Timothy; her parents, Joseph and Lenore Emerson, of Mariposa, Calif.; three sisters and a brother.

A funeral Mass will be said at 1:30 p.m. Monday at St. Monica’s Catholic Church, 725 California Ave., Santa Monica.

The family has asked that memorial donations be made to the Wellness Community, 2716 Ocean Park Blvd. Suite 1040, Santa Monica 90405, or to the YWCA of Santa Monica, 2019 14th St., Santa Monica 90405.