Home Remodeling Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, from Santa Mónica (Spanish for ‘Saint Monica’), is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California’s South Coast. Santa Monica’s 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry. It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Hulu, Universal Music Group, Lionsgate Films, and The Recording Academy.

Santa Monica traces its chronicles to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda associates of California. The rancho was forward-looking sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who in 1875, along behind his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and in the future 20th centuries, with the introduction of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar.

History

Indigenous

The Tongva are Indigenous to the Santa Monica area. The village of Comicranga was established in the Santa Monica area. One of the village’s notable residents was Victoria Reid, who was the daughter of the chief of the village. During the Spanish period, she was taken to Mission San Gabriel from her parents at the age of six.

Spanish era

The first non-indigenous activity to set foot in the area was the party of speculator Gaspar de Portolà, which camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues upon August 3, 1769.

There are two swing accounts of how the city’s proclaim came to be. One says it was named in rave review of the feast daylight of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), but her feast hours of daylight is May 4. Another description says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed greater than her son’s further on impiety.

Mexican era

In 1839, Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado fixed Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica to Francisco Sepúlveda II, of the Sepúlveda family of California. As the definitions of the rancho grant were not precise, the Sepúlveda family came into achievement with the against Rancho Boca de Santa Mónica, owned by Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Márquez. A small Californio community grew up on Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, made stirring primarily of vaqueros working upon the rancho and their families.

Post-conquest era

After the American conquest of California, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios active in state certain unalienable rights. U.S. government sovereignty in California began on February 2, 1848.

In the 1870s, the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad linked Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a marina out into the bay. The first town hall was an 1873 brick building, later a beer hall, and now portion of the Santa Monica Hostel. By 1885, the town’s first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel.

Amusement piers became popular in the first decades of the 20th century and the extensive Pacific Electric Railway brought people to the city’s beaches from across the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Around the Begin of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and all but Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica and Venice. The two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans, who were often in favor toward the Japanese but condescending to the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an integral economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community.

Donald Wills Douglas Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field (Santa Monica Airport) for the Douglas Aircraft Company. In 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to try the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles (44,342 km) in 175 days, and were greeted upon their compensation September 23, 1924, by a crowd of 200,000. The Douglas Company (later McDonnell Douglas) kept services in the city until the 1970s.

The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply. One tab gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt. In the 1930s, corruption unclean Santa Monica (along with neighboring Los Angeles). The federal Works Project Administration helped construct several buildings, most notably City Hall. The main Post Office and Barnum Hall (Santa Monica High School auditorium) were moreover among supplementary WPA projects.

Modern era

Douglas’s matter grew later the onset of World War II, employing as many as 44,000 people in 1943. To defend adjacent to air attack, set designers from the Warner Brothers Studios prepared increase camouflage that disguised the factory and airfield. The RAND Corporation began as a project of the Douglas Company in 1945, and spun off into an independent think tank on May 14, 1948. RAND acquired a 15-acre (61,000 m) campus across the street from the Civic Center and is still there today.

The triumph of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1958 eliminated Belmar, the first African American community in the city, and the Santa Monica Freeway in 1966 decimated the Pico neighborhood that had been a leading African American enclave upon the Westside.

Beach volleyball is believed to have been developed by Duke Kahanamoku in Santa Monica during the 1920s.

Santa Monica has two hospitals: Saint John’s Health Center and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. Its cemetery is Woodlawn Memorial.

Santa Monica has several local newspapers including Santa Monica Daily Press, Santa Monica Mirror, and Santa Monica Star.

Geography

Santa Monica rests upon a mostly flat approach that angles down toward Ocean Avenue and toward the south. High bluffs remove the north side of the city from the beaches. Santa Monica borders the L.A. neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades to the north and Venice to the south. To the west, Santa Monica has a 3-mile coastline fronting Santa Monica Bay, and to the east of the city are the L.A. communities of West Los Angeles and Brentwood.

Climate

Santa Monica has a coastal Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb). It enjoys an average of 310 days of sunshine a year. It is in USDA forest hardiness zone 11a. Because of its location, nestled on the immense and open Santa Monica Bay, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May, June, July and further on August (caused by ocean temperature variations and currents). Like other inhabitants of the greater Los Angeles area, residents have a particular terminology for this phenomenon: the “May Gray”, the “June Gloom” and even “Fogust”. Overcast skies are common on June mornings, but usually the strong sun burns the fog off by noon. In the late winter/early summer, daily fog is a phenomenon too. It happens rudely and it may last some hours or subsequently sunset time. Nonetheless, it will sometimes stay cloudy and cool anything day during June, even as other parts of the Los Angeles Place enjoy sunny skies and warmer temperatures. At times, the sun can be gleaming east of 20th Street though the beach Place is overcast. As a general rule, the seashore temperature is from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 6 degrees Celsius) cooler than it is inland during summer days, and 5 to 10 degrees warmer during winter nights.

It is afterward in September that the highest temperatures tend to be reached. It is winter, however, when the hot, dry winds of the Santa Anas are most common. In contrast, temperatures greater than 10 degrees below average are rare.

The rainy season is from late October through late March. Winter storms usually admittance from the northwest and pass quickly through the Southland. There is very Tiny rain during the land of the year. Yearly rainfall totals are unpredictable as rainy years are occasionally followed by droughts. There has never been any snow or frost, but there has been hail.

Santa Monica usually enjoys cool breezes blowing in from the ocean, which tend to keep the air fresh and clean. Therefore, smog is less of a misfortune for Santa Monica than elsewhere in this area Los Angeles. However, from September through November, the Santa Ana winds sometimes blow from the east, bringing smoggy and warm inland let breathe to the beaches.

The hottest temperature ever reported in Santa Monica was 100 °F (38 °C) on November 1, 1966, while the lowest is 33 °F (1 °C) on March 1, 1945, and again on March 21, 1952. The highest minimum temperature is 72 °F (22 °C) on October 24, 2007, and the lowest maximum temperature is 51 °F (11 °C) on 4 dates in February 2001 and once again March 10, 2006. The snowiest months on record are January 1954 and March 1955, both next trace amounts. They are the unaccompanied months to ever savings account snowfall. Many months have reported no rainfall at all. Conversely, the wettest month upon record is January 1995 similar to a total of 17.82 inches (453 mm) of rainfall. The wettest year on record is 1998, with a total of 25.4 inches (650 mm) of rainfall; the driest is 1989, with a sum of 4.04 inches (103 mm) of rainfall.

Environment

The city first proposed its Sustainable City scheme in 1992 and in 1994, was one of the first cities in the nation to formally adopt a combination sustainability plan, setting waste dwindling and water conservation policies for both public and private sector through its Office of Sustainability and the Environment. Eighty-two percent of the city’s public works vehicles run upon alternative fuels, including most of the municipal bus system, making it in the midst of the largest such fleets in the country. Santa Monica fleet vehicles and buses source their natural gas from Redeem, a Southern California-based supplier of renewable and sustainable natural gas obtained from non-fracked methane biogas generated from organic landfill waste.

Santa Monica adopted a Community Energy Independence Initiative, with a plan of achieving utter energy independence by 2020 (vs. California’s already ambitious 33% renewables goal). The city exceeded that wish when, in February 2019, it switched higher than to electricity from the Clean Power Alliance, with a citywide default of 100% renewably sourced energy. That thesame year, the Santa Monica City Council adopted a Climate Action and Adaptation plot aimed at achieving an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and reaching community-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner.

An urban runoff facility (SMURFF), the first of its nice in the US, catches and treats 3.5 million US gallons (13,000 m) of water each week that would instead flow into the bay via storm-drains and sells it back to end-users within the city for reuse as gray-water, while bioswales throughout the city permit rainwater to percolate into and replenish the groundwater. The groundwater supply plays an important role in the city’s Sustainable Water Master Plan, whereby Santa Monica has set a objective of attaining 100% water independence by 2020. The city has numerous programs designed to make known water conservation along with residents, including a rebate for those who convert lawns to drought-tolerant gardens that require less water.

Santa Monica has with instituted a green building-code whereby merely constructing to code automatically renders a building equivalent to the US Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standards. The city’s Main Library is one of many LEED recognized or LEED equivalent buildings in the city. It is built beyond a 200,000 gallon cistern that collects filtered stormwater from the roof. The water is used for landscape irrigation.

Since 2009, Santa Monica has been developing the Zero Waste Strategic Operations plot by which the city will set a point toward of diverting at least 95% of anything waste away from landfills, and toward recycling and composting, by 2030. The endeavor includes a food waste composting program, which diverts 3 million pounds of restaurant food waste away from landfills annually. As of 2013, 77% of anything solid waste produced citywide is diverted from landfills.

Environmentally focused initiatives count up curbside recycling, curbside composting bins (in adjunct to trash, yard-waste, and recycle bins), farmers’ markets, community gardens, garden-share, an urban forest initiative, a hazardous materials home-collection service, and a green matter certification.

As in extra coastal seashore communities, coastal erosion due to coastal infrastructure and tall human usage is an increasing challenge, and will become worse due to sea level rise. Starting in 2016, local environmental groups began dune and beach restoration projects.

Demographics

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported Santa Monica had a population of 89,736. The population density was 10,662.6 inhabitants per square mile (4,116.9/km²). The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 69,663 (77.6%) White (70.1% Non-Hispanic White), 3,526 (3.9%) African American, 338 (0.4%) Native American, 8,053 (9.0%) Asian, 124 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 4,047 (4.5%) from additional races, and 3,985 (4.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,716 persons (13.1%), with Mexican Americans, Spanish Americans, and Argentine Americans making in the works 64.2%, 6.4%, and 4.7% of the Hispanic population respectively.

The Census reported 87,610 people (97.6% of the population) lived in households, 1,299 (1.4%) lived in non-institutionalized help quarters, and 827 (0.9%) were institutionalized.

There were 46,917 households, out of which 7,835 (16.7%) had children under the age of 18 bustling in them, 13,092 (27.9%) were opposite-sex married couples active together, 3,510 (7.5%) had a female householder in imitation of no husband present, 1,327 (2.8%) had a male householder like no wife present. There were 2,867 (6.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 416 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 22,716 households (48.4%) were made going on of individuals, and 5,551 (11.8%) had someone vivacious alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.87. There were 17,929 families (38.2% of anything households); the average intimates size was 2.79.

The population was spread out, with 12,580 people (14.0%) under the age of 18, 6,442 people (7.2%) aged 18 to 24, 32,552 people (36.3%) aged 25 to 44, 24,746 people (27.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 13,416 people (15.0%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males.

There were 50,912 housing units at an average density of 6,049.5 per square mile (2,335.7/km), of which 13,315 (28.4%) were owner-occupied, and 33,602 (71.6%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.1%. 30,067 people (33.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 57,543 people (64.1%) lived in rental housing units.

According to the 2010 United States Census, Santa Monica had a median household allowance of $73,649, with 11.2% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 84,084 people, 44,497 households, and 16,775 families in the city. The population density was 10,178.7 inhabitants per square mile (3,930.0 inhabitants/km²). There were 47,863 housing units at an average density of 5,794.0 per square mile (2,237.1/km). The racial makeup of the city was 78.29% White, 7.25% Asian, 3.78% African American, 0.47% Native American, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 5.97% from further races, and 4.13% from two or more races. 13.44% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 44,497 households, out of which 15.8% had children under the age of 18, 27.5% were married couples busy together, 7.5% had a female householder in imitation of no husband present, and 62.3% were non-families. 51.2% of anything households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone energetic alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.83 and the average associates size was 2.80.

The city of Santa Monica is consistently in the course of the most educated cities in the United States, with 23.8 percent of whatever residents holding graduate degrees.

The population was diverse in age, with 14.6% under 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 40.1% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.4% 65 years or older. The median age was 39 years. For all 100 females, there were 93.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.3 males.

According to a 2009 estimate, the median pension for a household in the city was $71,095, and the median allowance for a relatives was $109,410. Males had a median allowance of $55,689 versus $42,948 for females. The per capita allowance for the city was $42,874. 10.4% of the population and 5.4% of families were under the poverty line. Out of the total population, 9.9% of those below the age of 18 and 10.2% of those 65 and older were living under the poverty line.

Crime

In 2006, crime in Santa Monica affected 4.41% of the population, slightly demean than the national average crime rate that year of 4.48%. The majority of this was property crime, which affected 3.74% of Santa Monica’s population in 2006; this was exceeding the rates for Los Angeles County (2.76%) and California (3.17%), but lower than the national average (3.91%). These per-capita crime rates are computed based upon Santa Monica’s full-time population of about 85,000. However, the Santa Monica Police Department has suggested the actual per-capita crime rate is much lower, as tourists, workers, and beachgoers can lump the city’s daytime population to amid 250,000 and 450,000 people.

Hate crime has typically been minimal in Santa Monica, with and no-one else one reported incident in 2007. The city experienced a spike of anti-Islamic hate crime in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, but hate crime levels returned to their minimal 2000 levels by 2002.

The Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica (south of the Santa Monica Freeway) experiences some gang activity. The city estimates there are nearly 50 gang members based in Santa Monica, although some community organizers disagreement this claim. Gang argument has been prevalent for decades in the Pico neighborhood.

In October 1998, alleged Culver City 13 gang aficionado Omar Sevilla of Culver City was killed. A couple of hours after the shooting of Sevilla, German tourist Horst Fietze was killed. Several days forward-looking Juan Martin Campos, a Santa Monica city employee, was shot and killed. Police take this was a retaliatory killing in answer to Sevilla’s killing. Less than 24 hours later, Javier Cruz was ill-treated in a drive-by shooting outdoor his house on 17th and Michigan.

In 1998, there was a double homicide in the Westside Clothing store on Lincoln Boulevard. During the incident, Culver City gang members David “Puppet” Robles and Jesse “Psycho” Garcia entered the stock masked and began introduction fire, killing Anthony and Michael Juarez. Police say the incident was in retaliation for a shooting vigorous by the Santa Monica 13 gang days previously the Juarez brothers were shot down.

Homeless population

In 2022, there were 826 homeless individuals in Santa Monica.

Economy

Santa Monica is home to the headquarters of many notable businesses, such as Beachbody, Fatburger, Hulu, Illumination, Otter Media, Lionsgate, Macerich, Miramax, CBS Media Ventures, the RAND Corporation, Saban Capital Group, The Recording Academy (which presents the annual Grammy Awards), TOMS Shoes, and Universal Music Group. Atlantic Aviation is at the Santa Monica Airport. The National Public Radio fanatic station KCRW is on the Santa Monica College campus. VCA Animal Hospitals is just outdoor the eastern city limit.

A number of game encroachment studios are based in Santa Monica, making it a major location for the industry. These include:

Recently, Santa Monica has emerged as the middle of the Los Angeles region called Silicon Beach, and serves as the home of hundreds of venture capital funded startup companies.

Former Santa Monica businesses intensify Douglas Aircraft (now merged in the impression of Boeing), GeoCities (which in December 1996 was headquartered upon the third floor of 1918 Main Street in Santa Monica), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and MySpace (now headquartered in Beverly Hills).

Top employers

According to the city’s 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:

Arts and culture

The Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome (carousel) is a National Historic Landmark. It sits on the Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909. The La Monica Ballroom upon the pier was behind the largest ballroom in the US and the source for many New Year’s Eve national network broadcasts.

The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was an important music venue for several decades and hosted the Academy Awards in the 1960s. McCabe’s Guitar Shop is a leading acoustic fake space as with ease as retail outlet. The Santa Monica Playhouse is a popular theater in the city.

Bergamot Station is a city-owned art gallery compound that includes the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The city is also house to the California Heritage Museum and the Angels Attic dollhouse and toy museum.

The New West Symphony is the resident orchestra of Barnum Hall. They are in addition to resident orchestra of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center and the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Santa Monica hosts the annual Santa Monica Film Festival.

The city’s oldest movie theater is the Majestic. Opened in 1912 and pen name the Mayfair Theatre, it has been closed past the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The Aero Theater (now operated by the American Cinematheque) and Criterion Theater were built in the 1930s and nevertheless show movies.

Notable restaurants have included Madame Wu’s Garden, Batterfish, Stout Burgers and Beers, and The Misfit.

Shopping districts

Santa Monica has three main shopping districts: Montana Avenue on the north side, the Downtown District in the city’s core, and Main Street upon the south end. Each has its own unique vibes and personality. Montana Avenue is a stretch of luxury boutique stores, restaurants, and small offices that generally features more upscale shopping. The Main Street district offers an eclectic mix of clothing, restaurants, and further specialty retail.

The Downtown District is the house of the Third Street Promenade, a major external pedestrian-only shopping district that stretches for three blocks in the company of Wilshire Blvd. and Broadway. Third Street is closed to vehicles for those three blocks to allow people to stroll, congregate, shop and enjoy street performers.

The Santa Monica Place, featuring Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom in a three-level outdoor environment, is at the Promenade’s southern end. After a era of redevelopment, the mall reopened in the fall of 2010 as a highly developed shopping, entertainment and dining technical with more outdoor space.

Public library system

The Santa Monica Public Library consists of a Main Library in the downtown area, plus four neighborhood branches: Fairview, Montana Avenue, Ocean Park, and Pico Boulevard.

Sports

The men’s and women’s marathon ran through parts of Santa Monica during the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Santa Monica Track Club has many prominent track athletes, including many Olympic gold medalists. Santa Monica is the home to Southern California Aquatics, which was founded by Olympic swimmer Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair. Santa Monica is also home to the Santa Monica Rugby Club, a semi-professional team that competes in the Pacific Rugby Premiership, the highest-level rugby linkage club competition in the United States.

During the 2028 Summer Olympics, Santa Monica will host seashore volleyball and surfing.

Parks and recreation

Palisades Park stretches out along the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific and is a favorite walking Place to view the ocean. It includes public art, a totem pole, camera obscura, benches, picnic areas, pétanque courts, and restrooms.

Tongva Park occupies 6 acres between Ocean Avenue and Main Street, just south of Colorado Avenue. The park includes an overlook, amphitheater, playground, garden, fountains, picnic areas, and restrooms.

The Santa Monica Stairs, a long, steep staircase that leads from north of San Vicente all along into Santa Monica Canyon, is a popular spot for outside workouts. Some area residents have complained that the stairs have become too popular, and attract too many exercisers to the rich neighborhood of multimillion-dollar properties.

Ishihara Park opened to the public in 2017 and acts as a buffer in the midst of the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the surrounding residential community.

Government

Local government

Santa Monica is governed by the Santa Monica City Council, a Council-Manager governing body as soon as seven members elected at-large. The mayor is Gleam Davis, and the Mayor Pro Tempore is Lana Negrete. The extra five council members are Phil Brock, Christine Parra, Oscar de la Torre, Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis.

Representation

In the California State Legislature, Santa Monica is in the 26th Senate District, represented by Democrat María Elena Durazo, and in the 50th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Eloise Reyes.

In the United States House of Representatives, Santa Monica is in California’s 36th congressional district, represented by Democrat Ted Lieu.

Education

Public schools

The Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District provides public education at the elementary and secondary levels. In adjunct to the conventional model of further on education intellectual houses, SMASH (Santa Monica Alternative School House) is “a K–8 public college of choice with team teachers and multi-aged classrooms”. The district maintains eight elementary schools, three center schools, and three high schools in Santa Monica.

Private schools

Private schools in the city add together Crossroads School and Saint Monica Catholic High School.

Asahi Gakuen, a weekend Japanese supplementary teacher system, operates its Santa Monica campus (サンタモニカ校･高等部 Santamonika-kō kōtōbu) at Webster Middle in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles. All tall school classes in the Asahi Gakuen system are held at the Santa Monica campus.

Post-secondary

Santa Monica College is a community scholastic founded in 1929. Many SMC former students transfer to the University of California system. It occupies 35 acres (14 hectares) and enrolls 30,000 students annually. The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, associated like the RAND Corporation, is the U.S.’s largest producer of public policy PhDs. The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles is as well as in Santa Monica near the Santa Monica Airport.

Universities and colleges within a 22-mile (35 km) radius from Santa Monica count up Santa Monica College, Antioch University Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, Mount St. Mary’s University, Pepperdine University, California State University, Northridge, California State University, Los Angeles, UCLA, USC, West Los Angeles College, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Occidental College (Oxy), Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Valley College, and Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Bicycles

Santa Monica has a bike be active plan and launched a bicycle sharing system in November 2015. The city is traversed by the Marvin Braude Bike Trail. Santa Monica has traditional the Bicycle Friendly Community Award (Bronze in 2009, Silver in 2013) by the League of American Bicyclists. Local bicycle advocacy organizations tally up Santa Monica Spoke, a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. Santa Monica is thought to be one of the leaders for bicycle infrastructure and programming in Los Angeles County although cycling infrastructure in Los Angeles County in general remains very destitute compared to new major cities.

The city implemented a 5-year and 20-year Bike Action Plan with a aspire of attaining 14 to 35% bicycle transportation mode part by 2030 through the installation of enhanced bicycle infrastructure throughout the city.

In terms of number of bicycle accidents, Santa Monica ranks as one of the worst (#2) out of 102 California cities once population 50,000–100,000, a ranking consistent taking into account the city’s composite ranking.
In 2007 and 2008, local police cracked down upon Santa Monica Critical Mass rides that had become controversial, putting a damper upon the tradition.

Highways

The Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10) begins in Santa Monica close the Pacific Ocean and heads east. The Santa Monica Freeway amongst Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles has the distinction of creature one of the busiest highways in anything of North America. After traversing the Greater Los Angeles area, I-10 crosses seven more states, terminating at Jacksonville, Florida. In Santa Monica, there is a road sign designating this route as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway. State Route 2 (Santa Monica Boulevard) begins in Santa Monica, barely grazing State Route 1 at Lincoln Boulevard, and continues northeast across Los Angeles County, through the Angeles National Forest, crossing the San Gabriel Mountains as the Angeles Crest Highway, ending in Wrightwood. Santa Monica is with the western terminus of Historic U.S. Route 66. Close to the eastern boundary of Santa Monica, Sepulveda Boulevard reaches from Long Beach at the south, to the northern halt of the San Fernando Valley. Just east of Santa Monica is Interstate 405, the San Diego Freeway, a major north–south route in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Motorized vehicles

Santa Monica has purchased the first ZeroTruck all-electric medium-duty truck. The vehicle will be equipped in the way of being of a Scelzi utility body, it is based upon the Isuzu N series chassis, a UQM PowerPhase 100 avant-garde electric motor and is the single-handedly US built electric truck offered for sale in the United States in 2009.

Bus

The city of Santa Monica runs its own bus service, the immense Blue Bus, which as a consequence serves much of West Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). A gigantic Blue Bus was featured prominently in the behave movie Speed.

The city of Santa Monica is then served by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Metro) bus lines. Metro afterward complements vast Blue service, as when enormous Blue routes are not enthusiastic overnight, Metro buses make many vast Blue Bus stops, in supplement to MTA stops.

Light rail

Design and construction on the 6.6-mile extension (10.6 km) of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica started in September 2011, with serve beginning upon May 20, 2016. Santa Monica Metro stations supplement 26th Street/Bergamot, 17th Street/Santa Monica College, and Downtown Santa Monica. Travel era between the downtown Santa Monica and the downtown Los Angeles termini is approximately 47 minutes.

Historical aspects of the Expo extraction route are noteworthy. It uses the former Los Angeles region’s electric interurban Pacific Electric Railway’s right-of-way that ran from the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles to Santa Monica. This route was called the Santa Monica Air Line and provided electric-powered freight and passenger advance between Los Angeles and Santa Monica initiation in the 1920s. Passenger service was discontinued in 1953, but diesel-powered freight deliveries to warehouses along the route continued until March 11, 1988. The handing over of the line spurred forward-thinking transportation considerations and concerns within the community, and entirely right-of-way was purchased from Southern Pacific by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The heritage was built in 1875 as the steam-powered Los Angeles and Independence Railroad to bring mining ore to ships in Santa Monica harbor and as a passenger discussion train to the beach.

Airport and ports

The city owns and operates a general aviation airport, Santa Monica Airport, which has been the site of several important aviation achievements. Commercial flights are affable for residents at LAX, a few miles south of Santa Monica.

Like new cities in Los Angeles County, Santa Monica is dependent on the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles for international boat cargo. In the 1890s, Santa Monica was taking into account in competition following Wilmington, California, and San Pedro for answer as the “Port of Los Angeles” (see History of Santa Monica, California).

Other

Since the mid-1980s, various proposals have been made to extend the Purple Line subway to Santa Monica below Wilshire Boulevard. There are no current plans to supreme the “subway to the sea,” an estimated $5 billion project.

In August 2018, Santa Monica issued permits to Bird, Lime, Lyft, and Jump Bikes to put it on dockless scooter-sharing systems in the city. As of April 2023, Lyft, Spin, Veo, and Wheels are licensed to have the funds for micro-mobility transportation in city.

Emergency services

Two major hospitals are within the Santa Monica city limits, UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica and Saint John’s Health Center. Four flare stations provide medical and fire response, staffed afterward six Paramedic Engines, a Truck company, a Hazardous Materials team and an Urban Search & Rescue team. Santa Monica Fire Department has its own Dispatch Center. Ambulance transportation is provided by McCormick Ambulance Services.

Law enforcement services are provided by the Santa Monica Police Department

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica. The Department’s West Area Health Office is in the Simms/Mann Center.

Internet services

Santa Monica has a municipal wireless network which provides several pardon city Wi-Fi hotspots distributed with mention to the city.

In popular culture

Film and television

Hundreds of touching pictures have been shot or set in share in Santa Monica.

Films

One of the oldest exterior shots in Santa Monica is Buster Keaton’s Spite Marriage (1929) which shows much of 2nd Street. The comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) included several scenes shot in Santa Monica, including those along the California Incline, which led to the movie’s treasure spot, “The huge W”. The Sylvester Stallone film Rocky III (1982) shows Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed training to fight Clubber Lang by running upon the Santa Monica Beach, and Stallone’s Demolition Man (1993) includes Santa Monica settings. In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), the theft of Pee-wee’s bike occurs on the Third Street Promenade. Henry Jaglom’s indie Someone to Love (1987), the last film in which Orson Welles appeared, takes place in Santa Monica’s venerable Mayfair Theatre. Heathers (1988) used Santa Monica’s John Adams Middle School for many exterior shots. The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) is set unquestionably in Santa Monica, particularly the Palisades Park area, and features a radio station that resembles KCRW at Santa Monica College. 17 Again (2009) was shot at Samohi. Other films that behave significant exterior shots of Santa Monica include Fletch (1985), Species (1995), Get Shorty (1995), and Ocean’s Eleven (2001). Richard Rossi’s biopic Aimee Semple McPherson opens and closes at the beach in Santa Monica. Iron Man features the Santa Monica pier and surrounding communities as Tony Stark tests his experimental flight suit.

The documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) and the linked dramatic film Lords of Dogtown (2005) are both approximately the influential skateboarding culture of Santa Monica’s Ocean Park neighborhood in the 1970s.

Santa Monica (and in particular the Santa Monica Airport) was featured in Roland Emmerich’s catastrophe film 2012 (2009). A magnitude 10.9 earthquake destroys the airstrip and the surrounding Place as a outfit of survivors run away in a personal plane. The Santa Monica Pier and the sum up city sinks into the Pacific Ocean after the earthquake.

Television

A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including Baywatch, Goliath, Pacific Blue (1996-2000), Private Practice (2007-2013), and Three’s Company (1977-1984). The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main exterior set of the town of Sunnydale that includes the infamous “sun sign”, was in Santa Monica in a lot on Olympic Boulevard.^{[citation needed]}

Literature

Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is set at a dance marathon held in a ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier.

Raymond Chandler’s most famous character, private detective Philip Marlowe, frequently has a allocation of his adventures in a place called “Bay City”, which is modeled on Depression-era Santa Monica. In Marlowe’s world, Bay City is “a wide-open town”, where gambling and additional crimes flourish due to a massively corrupt and ineffective police force.

Tennessee Williams lived (while full of life at MGM Studios) in a hotel upon Ocean Avenue in the 1940s. At that location he wrote the play The Glass Menagerie (that premiered in 1944). His gruff story “The Mattress by the Tomato Patch” (1954) is set close Santa Monica Beach and mentions the clock visible in much of the city, high up upon The Broadway Building, on Broadway near Second Street.

Music

Works

Notable people

Sister cities

See also

References

External links