Santa Monica (;
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in
Los Angeles County, situated along
Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in ...
on
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
's
South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area.
Geographical
Australia
*South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney
* South Coast (Q ...
. 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
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
,
Lionsgate Films
Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinépix Film Properties) is an American film production and film distribution studio, headquartered in Santa Monica and founded in Canada, and is the flagship division of Lionsgate Entertainment. It is the la ...
, and
The Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy A ...
.
Santa Monica traces its history to
Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica
Rancho or Ranchos may refer to:
Settlements and communities
*Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad
*Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California
**List of California Ranchos
*Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...
, granted in 1839 to the
Sepúlveda family of California __NOTOC__
Sepulveda or Sepúlveda may refer to:
Places California
* Sepulveda Boulevard, a major street in Los Angeles
* Sepulveda Dam, a flood control dam in the San Fernando Valley which regulates the Sepulveda Basin
* Sepulveda Pass, a pass ...
. The rancho was later sold to
John P. Jones and
Robert Baker, who in 1875, along with his
Californio heiress wife
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827–1912) was a wealthy Californio landowner and socialite of Los Angeles. She played an important role in the elite society of Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica. She was married to two wealthy Anglo-Ameri ...
, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germ ...
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as
Palisades Park, the
Santa Monica Pier,
Ocean Park, and the
Hotel Casa del Mar
The Hotel Casa del Mar is a historic luxury hotel located on the beach in Santa Monica, California. It is owned and operated by the Edward Thomas Collection of Hotels (ETC Hotels).Valli Herman“Casa del Mar elegant – and pricey – in Santa Mo ...
.
History
![Rancho San Vicente Y Santa Monica (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Rancho_San_Vicente_Y_Santa_Monica_%28cropped%29.png)
Santa Monica was inhabited by the
Tongva people
The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historicall ...
. It was called Kecheek in the
Tongva language.
Spanish era
The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar is a given and/or surname of French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish origin, cognate to Casper (given name) or Casper (surname).
It is a name of biblical origin, per Saint Gaspar, one of the wise men mentioned in the Bible.
Notable peo ...
, which camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769.
There are two different accounts of how the city's name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the
feast day of
Saint Monica
Monica ( – 387) was an early North African Christian saint and the mother of Augustine of Hippo. She is remembered and honored in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, albeit on different feast days, for her outstanding Christian virtues, partic ...
(mother of
Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
), but her feast day is May 4. Another version says it was named by
Juan Crespí
Joan Crespí or Juan Crespí (1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of Las Californias.
Biography
A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to New Spain ...
on account of a pair of springs, the
Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her son's early impiety.
[Paula A. Scott, ''Santa Monica: a history on the edge. Making of America series'' (Arcadia Publishing, 2004), 17–18.]
Mexican era
In 1839, Governor
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo (February 14, 1809 – July 13, 1882) was a Californio politician that served as Governor of Alta California from 1837-42. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independe ...
granted
Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica to Francisco Sepúlveda II, of the
Sepúlveda family of California __NOTOC__
Sepulveda or Sepúlveda may refer to:
Places California
* Sepulveda Boulevard, a major street in Los Angeles
* Sepulveda Dam, a flood control dam in the San Fernando Valley which regulates the Sepulveda Basin
* Sepulveda Pass, a pass ...
. As the definitions of the
rancho grant were not precise, the Sepúlveda family came into conflict with the neighboring
Rancho Boca de Santa Mónica, owned by
Ysidro Reyes
Ysidro Reyes (1813–1863) was a Los Angeles-based business man and grandson of Juan Francisco Reyes, the first ''alcalde'' (mayor) of the Los Angeles pueblo.
Life
Reyes acquired half of a Mexican Land Grant called the Rancho Boca de Santa Mo ...
and Francisco Márquez. A small
Californio community grew up on Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, made up primarily of
vaqueros
The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...
working on the rancho and their families.
Post-conquest era
After the
American conquest of California, Mexico signed the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...
, which gave Mexicans and Californios living 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
The Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, opened on October 17, 1875, was a steam-powered rail line which ran between the Santa Monica Long Wharf (north of the current Santa Monica Pier) and 5th and San Pedro streets in downtown Los Angeles.
...
connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was an 1873 brick building, later a beer hall, and now part 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
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
brought people to the city's beaches from across the
Greater Los Angeles Area
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...
.
Around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of
Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
lived or worked in Santa Monica and Venice. The two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans, who were often well-disposed 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
Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about from the Pacific Ocean (Santa Monica Bay) and north of Los Angeles International Airp ...
) for the
Douglas Aircraft Company. In 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering in 175 days, and were greeted on their return September 23, 1924, by a crowd of 200,000. The Douglas Company (later
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...
) kept facilities in the city until the 1970s.
The
Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply. One report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt. In the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica (along with neighboring
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
). The federal
Works Project Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...
helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall. The main
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
and Barnum Hall (
Santa Monica High School
Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...
auditorium) were also among other WPA projects.
Modern era
![California - Santa Monica - NARA - 23935313 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/California_-_Santa_Monica_-_NARA_-_23935313_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Douglas's business grew with the onset of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, employing as many as 44,000 people in 1943. To defend against air attack,
set designer
Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly train ...
s from the
Warner Brothers Studios
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
prepared elaborate 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
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
on May 14, 1948. RAND acquired a 15-acre (61,000 m
2) campus across the street from the Civic Center and is still there today.
The completion of the
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1958 eliminated Belmar, the first African American community in the city, and the
Santa Monica Freeway
Interstate 10 (I-10) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida. The segment of I-10 in California runs east from Santa Monica through Los Angeles, San Bernar ...
in 1966 decimated the Pico neighborhood that had been a leading
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
enclave on 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
Providence Saint John's Health Center, formerly St. Johns Hospital and Health Center, is a private not-for-profit, Roman Catholic hospital in Santa Monica, California, United States. The hospital was founded in 1942 by the Sisters of Charity of ...
and
Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. Its cemetery is
Woodlawn Memorial.
Santa Monica has several local newspapers including ''
Santa Monica Daily Press
The ''Santa Monica Daily Press'' is a freely distributed microdaily newspaper in Santa Monica which was founded in 2001 by Dave Danforth, Carolyn Sackariason, and Ross Furukawa. The Santa Monica Daily Press is the only local daily newspaper in c ...
'', ''
Santa Monica Mirror
The ''Santa Monica Mirror'' is a weekly community newspaper which covers Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 20 ...
'', and ''Santa Monica Star''.
Geography
Santa Monica rests on a mostly flat slope that angles down toward
Ocean Avenue and toward the south. High bluffs separate the north side of the city from the beaches. Santa Monica borders the L.A. neighborhoods of
Pacific Palisades to the north and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
to the south. To the west, Santa Monica has a 3-mile coastline fronting
Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in ...
, and to the east of the city are the L.A. communities of
West Los Angeles
West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...
and
Brentwood.
Climate
Santa Monica has a
coastal Mediterranean climate (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Csb''). It enjoys an average of 310 days of sunshine a year. It is in
USDA plant hardiness zone
A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...
11a. Because of its location, nestled on the vast and open Santa Monica Bay, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May, June, July and early 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 suddenly and it may last some hours or past sunset time. Nonetheless, it will sometimes stay cloudy and cool all day during June, even as other parts of the Los Angeles area enjoy sunny skies and warmer temperatures. At times, the sun can be shining east of 20th Street while the beach area is overcast. As a general rule, the beach 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 also 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 exceeding 10 degrees below average are rare.
![Ocean Avenue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Ocean_Avenue.jpg)
The rainy season is from late October through late March. Winter storms usually approach from the northwest and pass quickly through the Southland. There is very little rain during the rest 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 problem for Santa Monica than elsewhere around Los Angeles. However, from September through November, the Santa Ana winds sometimes blow from the east, bringing smoggy and hot inland air to the beaches.
The hottest temperature ever reported in Santa Monica was on November 1, 1966, while the lowest is on March 1, 1945, and again on March 21, 1952. The highest minimum temperature is on October 24, 2007, and the lowest maximum temperature is on 4 dates in February 2001 and again March 10, 2006. The snowiest months on record are January 1954 and March 1955, both with trace amounts. They are the only months to ever report snowfall. Many months have reported no rainfall at all. Conversely, the wettest month on record is January 1995 with a total of of rainfall. The wettest year on record is 1998, with a total of of rainfall; the driest is 1989, with a total of of rainfall.
Environment
![Santa Monica (35285634420)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Santa_Monica_%2835285634420%29.jpg)
The city first proposed its Sustainable City Plan in 1992 and in 1994, was one of the first cities in the nation to formally adopt a comprehensive sustainability plan, setting waste reduction 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 on alternative fuels, including most of the municipal bus system, making it among 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 goal of achieving complete energy independence by 2020 (vs.
California's already ambitious 33% renewables goal). The city exceeded that aspiration when, in February 2019, it switched over to electricity from the Clean Power Alliance, with a citywide default of
100% renewably sourced energy. That same year, the Santa Monica City Council adopted a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan aimed at achieving an 80% cut in
carbon emissions by 2030, and reaching community-wide
carbon neutrality
Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...
by 2050 or sooner.
![Annenberg beach house santa monica-FFP](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Annenberg_beach_house_santa_monica-FFP.jpg)
An
urban runoff
Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater, landscape irrigation, and car washing created by urbanization. Impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots and sidewalks) are constructed during land development. During rain , storms and other precip ...
facility (SMURFF), the first of its kind in the US, catches and treats of water each week that would otherwise flow into the bay via storm-drains and sells it back to end-users within the city for reuse as gray-water,
while
bioswale
Bioswales are channels designed to concentrate and convey stormwater runoff while removing debris and pollution. Bioswales can also be beneficial in recharging groundwater.
Bioswales are typically vegetated, mulched, or xeriscaped. They co ...
s throughout the city allow rainwater to percolate into and replenish the
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
. The groundwater supply plays an important role in the city's Sustainable Water Master Plan, whereby Santa Monica has set a goal of attaining 100% water independence by 2020. The city has numerous programs designed to promote water conservation among residents, including a rebate for those who convert lawns to drought-tolerant gardens that require less water.
![The Pergola](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/The_Pergola.jpg)
Santa Monica has also 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 certified or LEED equivalent buildings in the city. It is built over 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
Zero waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are reused. The goal of this movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, or the ocean. Current ...
Strategic Operations Plan by which the city will set a goal of diverting at least 95% of all waste away from landfills, and toward recycling and composting, by 2030. The plan includes a
food waste
Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...
composting program, which diverts 3 million pounds of restaurant food waste away from landfills annually. , 77% of all solid waste produced citywide is diverted from landfills.
Environmentally focused initiatives include curbside recycling, curbside composting bins (in addition 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 business certification.
As in other coastal beach communities,
coastal erosion
Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwa ...
due to coastal infrastructure and high human usage is an increasing challenge, and will become worse due to
sea level rise
Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...
.
Starting in 2016, local environmental groups began dune and beach restoration projects.
Demographics
2010
![Cropped Statue of Saint Monica in Santa Monica California](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Cropped_Statue_of_Saint_Monica_in_Santa_Monica_California.jpg)
The
2010 United States Census
The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...
reported Santa Monica had a population of 89,736. The population density was . The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 69,663 (77.6%)
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
(70.1% Non-Hispanic White),
3,526 (3.9%)
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 338 (0.4%)
Native American, 8,053 (9.0%)
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 124 (0.1%)
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 4,047 (4.5%) from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 3,985 (4.4%) from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
of any race were 11,716 persons (13.1%), with
Mexican Americans,
Spanish Americans, and
Argentine Americans
Argentine Americans ( es, argentino-estadounidense) are Americans whose full or partial origin is in Argentina.
They are part of the broader Hispanic and Latino American category, and make up a scant 0.1% of the U.S. population, compared to lar ...
making up 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 group 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 living in them, 13,092 (27.9%) were
opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,510 (7.5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,327 (2.8%) had a male householder with 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 up of individuals, and 5,551 (11.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.87. There were 17,929
families
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...
(38.2% of all households); the average family 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 , 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 income of $73,649, with 11.2% of the population living below the federal poverty line.
2000
![SantaMonicaCatholicChurch (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/SantaMonicaCatholicChurch_%28cropped%29.JPG)
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 (3,930.4/km
2). There were 47,863 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 78.29%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 7.25%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 3.78%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.47%
Native American, 0.10%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 5.97% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 4.13% from two or more races. 13.44% of the population were
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
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 living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 62.3% were non-families. 51.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.83 and the average family size was 2.80.
The city of Santa Monica is consistently among the most educated cities in the United States, with 23.8 percent of all 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 every 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 income for a household in the city was $71,095, and the median income for a family was $109,410. Males had a median income of $55,689 versus $42,948 for females. The per capita income for the city was $42,874. 10.4% of the population and 5.4% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 9.9% of those under the age of 18 and 10.2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Crime
![SMPD School Resource Officer Chevy Tahoe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/SMPD_School_Resource_Officer_Chevy_Tahoe.jpg)
In 2006, crime in Santa Monica affected 4.41% of the population, slightly lower 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 higher than 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 on 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 increase the city's daytime population to between 250,000 and 450,000 people.
Hate crime has typically been minimal in Santa Monica, with only one reported incident in 2007. The city experienced a spike of anti-Islamic hate crime in 2001 after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
, but hate crime levels returned to their minimal 2000 levels by 2002.
;Gang activity
![Bay Cities Guaranty Building, Santa Monica 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Bay_Cities_Guaranty_Building%2C_Santa_Monica_01.jpg)
The Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica (south of the
Santa Monica Freeway
Interstate 10 (I-10) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida. The segment of I-10 in California runs east from Santa Monica through Los Angeles, San Bernar ...
) experiences some gang activity. The city estimates there are about 50 gang members based in Santa Monica, although some community organizers dispute this claim. Gang activity has been prevalent for decades in the Pico neighborhood.
In October 1998, alleged Culver City 13 gang member Omar Sevilla of Culver City was killed. A couple of hours after the shooting of Sevilla, German tourist Horst Fietze was killed. Several days later Juan Martin Campos, a Santa Monica city employee, was shot and killed. Police believe this was a retaliatory killing in response to Sevilla's killing. Less than 24 hours later, Javier Cruz was wounded in a drive-by shooting outside his home 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 store masked and began opening fire, killing Anthony and Michael Juarez. Police say the incident was in retaliation for a shooting committed by the Santa Monica 13 gang days before the Juarez brothers were shot down.
Economy
![Buildings in Santa Monica, California-2261765938](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Buildings_in_Santa_Monica%2C_California-2261765938.jpg)
Santa Monica is home to the headquarters of many notable businesses, such as
Beachbody,
Fatburger
Fatburger North America Inc. (doing business as Fatburger) is an American fast casual restaurant chain. Its tagline is ''The Last Great Hamburger Stand''. While it is a fast food restaurant, the food is cooked and made to order. Some Fatburge ...
,
Hulu,
Illumination,
Otter Media
Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013 ...
,
Lionsgate Films
Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinépix Film Properties) is an American film production and film distribution studio, headquartered in Santa Monica and founded in Canada, and is the flagship division of Lionsgate Entertainment. It is the la ...
,
Macerich
Macerich ( ) is a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. It is the third-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned interests in 52 properties comprisi ...
,
Miramax, the
RAND Corporation,
Saban Capital Group
Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment firm based in Los Angeles, California focused on media, entertainment, and communications investments. Formed in 2010 by Haim Saban, Saban Capital Group owns Saban Films, part of Univision Comm ...
,
The Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy A ...
(which presents the annual
Grammy Awards),
TOMS Shoes, and
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
.
Atlantic Aviation
Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (MIC) owns, operates and invests in a diversified group of infrastructure businesses. Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation's business consists of the largest network of fixed-base operations in the United St ...
is at the
Santa Monica Airport
Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about from the Pacific Ocean (Santa Monica Bay) and north of Los Angeles International Airp ...
. The
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
member station
KCRW
KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to program ...
is on the
Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high sc ...
campus.
VCA Animal Hospitals
VCA Animal Hospitals, incorporated as VCA, Inc., operates more than 1,000 animal hospitals in the US and Canada. The company is based in Los Angeles, and was founded in 1986. Until its acquisition by Mars in 2017, VCA traded on the NASDAQ under ...
is just outside the eastern city limit.
A number of
game development
Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC ...
studios are based in Santa Monica, making it a major location for the industry. These include:
*
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Viven ...
(which includes
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...
)
*
Cloud Imperium Games
file:Cloud Imperium Games logo.svg, Logo Cloud Imperium Games
''Star Citizen'' is an in-development multiplayer, space trading and combat simulation game. The game is being developed and published by Cloud Imperium Games for Microsoft Windows. An ...
(Creators of
Star Citizen
Logo Cloud Imperium Games
''Star Citizen'' is an in-development multiplayer, space trading and combat simulation game. The game is being developed and published by Cloud Imperium Games for Microsoft Windows. An extended retry of unrealized plans ...
)
*
Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog, LLC (formerly JAM Software, Inc.) is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Gav ...
(Creators of
Crash Bandicoot
''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...
(1996–1999),
Jak & Daxter,
Uncharted
''Uncharted'' is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. Created by Amy Hennig, the ''Uncharted'' franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who travel across th ...
and
The Last of Us
''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel (The Last of Us), Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie (The Last of Us), Ell ...
franchises)
*
PUBG Corporation
Krafton Inc. ( ko, 주식회사 컴퍼니 크래프톤) is a South Korean video game holding company based in Bundang-gu, Seongnam. It was created in November 2018 to serve as the parent company for Bluehole, founded by Chang-Byung-gyu in Seoul ...
(North American station, developed Miramar map in
PUBG
''PUBG: Battlegrounds'' (previously known as ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'') is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film '' Battle Royale'' (2000), is base ...
)
*
Riot Games, the creator of ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by '' Defense of the Ancients'', a custom map for ''Warcraft III'', ...
'', is just outside the eastern city limit.
*
Treyarch
Treyarch Corporation ( ; formerly Treyarch Invention LLC) is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for ...
Recently, Santa Monica has emerged as the center of the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
region called
Silicon Beach
Silicon Beach is the Westside region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area that is home to more than 500 technology companies, including startups. It is particularly applied to the coastal strip from Los Angeles International Airport north to th ...
, and serves as the home of hundreds of venture capital funded
startup companies
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
.
![Umgheadquarters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Umgheadquarters.jpg)
Former Santa Monica businesses include
Douglas Aircraft
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...
(now merged with
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
),
GeoCities
Yahoo! GeoCities was a web hosting service that allowed users to create and publish websites for free and to browse user-created websites by their theme or interest. GeoCities was started in November 1994 by David Bohnett and John Rezner, and ...
(which in December 1996 was headquartered on the third floor of 1918 Main Street in Santa Monica),
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
, and
MySpace (now headquartered in
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...
).
Top employers
![Randcorporationsantamonica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Randcorporationsantamonica.JPG)
According to the city's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:
Arts and culture
![052607-008-3StP-facing-SMP](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/052607-008-3StP-facing-SMP.jpg)
The
Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome
The Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome is located on the Newcomb Pier adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California. It was designed and built in 1916 by Charles I. D. Looff and his son Arthur to hold a Looff Carousel. Looff's carousel ...
(
carousel) is a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. It sits on the
Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909. The La Monica Ballroom on the pier was once 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
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
in the 1960s.
McCabe's Guitar Shop
McCabe's Guitar Shop is a musical instrument store and live music venue on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California, United States. Opened in 1958 by Gerald L. McCabe, a well-known furniture designer. McCabe's specializes in acoustic and folk i ...
is a leading acoustic performance space as well as retail outlet. The ''Santa Monica Playhouse'' is a popular theater in the city.
Bergamot Station
Bergamot Station Arts Center is a Santa Monica facility housing many different private art galleries and appears in most tourist guides as a primary cultural destination. Opened September 17, 1994 as Bergamot Station the campus-like complex is ...
is a city-owned art gallery compound that includes the
Santa Monica Museum of Art
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), formerly known as the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), is a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, CA. As an independent and non-collecting art museum (or kunsthalle), it exhibits the ...
. The city is also home to the California Heritage Museum and the
Angels Attic
Angels Attic was a museum of dollhouses, toys, and miniatures located in Santa Monica, California.
The museum was established in 1984 by Jackie McMahan, a longtime collector, and Eleanor LaVove, a former fashion editor. McMahan and LaVove had b ...
dollhouse and toy museum.
![Charmont Apartments, Santa Monica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Charmont_Apartments%2C_Santa_Monica.JPG)
The
New West Symphony
The New West Symphony is a regional professional symphony orchestra serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was founded in 1995. The orchestra's players are professional musicians drawn from the rich pool of classical musicians in the Los An ...
is the resident orchestra of Barnum Hall. They are also resident orchestra of the
Oxnard
Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. On California's South Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd-most-populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately west ...
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 also known as the Mayfair Theatre, it has been closed since the
1994 Northridge earthquake. The Aero Theater (now operated by the
American Cinematheque
The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms.
The Cinematheque was created in 1981 as ...
) and Criterion Theater were built in the 1930s and still show movies.
Notable restaurants have included
Madame Wu's Garden,
Batterfish,
Stout Burgers and Beers, and
The Misfit.
Shopping districts
![Parkhurst Building, Santa Monica, California](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Parkhurst_Building%2C_Santa_Monica%2C_California.JPG)
Santa Monica has three main shopping districts: Montana Avenue on the north side, the Downtown District in the city's core, and Main Street on the south end. Each has its own unique feel 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 other specialty retail.
The Downtown District is the home of the
Third Street Promenade
The Third Street Promenade is a pedestrian mall esplanade, shopping, dining and entertainment complex in the downtown area of Santa Monica, California which originally opened as the Santa Monica Mall on November 8, 1965. It is considered a premier ...
, a major outdoor pedestrian-only shopping district that stretches for three blocks between
Wilshire Blvd.
Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated alo ...
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
Santa Monica Place is an outdoor shopping mall in Santa Monica, California. The mall is located at the south end of Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade shopping district, two blocks from the beach and Santa Monica Pier. The mall spans 3 levels. T ...
, featuring Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom in a three-level outdoor environment, is at the Promenade's southern end. After a period of redevelopment, the mall reopened in the fall of 2010 as a modern shopping, entertainment and dining complex 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 Santa Monica High School Girls Track team first coach is Dalal M. Ahmad, a USC graduate doing her second semester of student student teaching . She was placed in charge of the team in 1972 during her second semester of student teaching
The Santa Mo ...
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 union club competition in the United States.
During the
2028 Summer Olympics, Santa Monica will host
beach volleyball and
surfing.
Parks and recreation
Palisades Park stretches out along the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific and is a favorite walking area to view the ocean. It includes
public art
Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...
, a
totem pole
Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually ...
,
camera obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole.
''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions such as a box or tent in w ...
, benches, picnic areas,
pétanque
Pétanque (, ; oc, petanca, , also or ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports, along with raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, lawn bowls, and crown green bowling. In all of these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls ...
courts, and restrooms.
Tongva Park
Tongva Park is a park in Santa Monica, California. The park is named after the indigenous Tongva people, who have lived in the Los Angeles area for thousands of years. The park is located just south of Colorado Avenue, between Ocean Avenue and Ma ...
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
The "Santa Monica Stairs" refer primarily to a pair of outdoor stairways in California descending to the northwest from Adelaide Drive in Santa Monica, to Santa Monica Canyon in Los Angeles.
Canyon stairs
The two well-known stairways descend ...
, a long, steep staircase that leads from north of San Vicente down into Santa Monica Canyon, is a popular spot for outdoor workouts. Some area residents have complained that the stairs have become too popular, and attract too many exercisers to the wealthy neighborhood of multimillion-dollar properties.
Ishihara Park opened to the public in 2017 and acts as a buffer between 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 with seven members elected at-large. The mayor is Sue Himmelrich, and the Mayor Pro Tempore is Kristin McCowan. The other five council members are Gleam Davis, Phil Brock, Christine Parra,
Kevin McKeown, and Oscar de la Torre.
Representation
In the
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
, Santa Monica is in , and in .
In the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
, Santa Monica is in .
Education
Public schools
The
Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District
Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District is a school district located in Santa Monica, California. The district serves the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu, California, Malibu. It has ten elementary schools, two middle schools, three hi ...
provides public education at the elementary and secondary levels. In addition to the traditional model of early education school houses,
SMASH (Santa Monica Alternative School House) is "a K–8 public school of choice with team teachers and multi-aged classrooms". The district maintains eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools in Santa Monica.
Private schools
Private schools in the city include
Crossroads School and
Saint Monica Catholic High School
Saint Monica Preparatory is a parochial, co-educational school in Santa Monica, California, consisting of students in grades kindergarten to grade 12. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and serves the parish of St. Mo ...
.
Asahi Gakuen
Asahi Gakuen (あさひ学園 "School of the Rising Sun"), or the Los Angeles Japanese School (ロス・アンジェルス補習授業校 ''Rosu Anjerusu Hoshū Jugyō Kō''), is a part-time Japanese school in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. ...
, a
weekend Japanese supplementary school 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 high school classes in the Asahi Gakuen system are held at the Santa Monica campus.
[サンタモニカ校・高等部]
." Asahi Gakuen. Retrieved on March 30, 2014. "DANIEL WEBSTER MIDDLE SCHOOL 11330 W. Graham Place, Los Angeles, CA 90064 "
Post-secondary
Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high sc ...
is a
community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...
founded in 1929. Many SMC graduates transfer to the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
system. It occupies 35 acres (14 hectares) and enrolls 30,000 students annually. The
Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School (Pardee RAND) is a private graduate school associated with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. The school offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAN ...
, associated with the
RAND Corporation, is the U.S.'s largest producer of public policy PhDs.
The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles is also in Santa Monica near the Santa Monica Airport.
Universities and colleges within a radius from Santa Monica include
Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high sc ...
,
Antioch University Los Angeles
Antioch University Los Angeles (AULA) is a campus of Antioch University in Culver City, California.
Background
Antioch College was founded in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Horace Mann, Antioch College’s first president's goal was to create an educat ...
,
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...
,
Mount St. Mary's University,
Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...
,
California State University, Northridge,
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...
,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
,
USC,
West Los Angeles College
West Los Angeles College (West L.A. College or WLAC) is a public community college in Ladera Heights, Los Angeles County, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. It is ac ...
,
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
(Caltech),
Occidental College (Oxy),
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campu ...
,
Los Angeles Southwest College
Los Angeles Southwest College (LASC) is a public community college in the unincorporated area of West Athens, California in Los Angeles County, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District and its service area includes In ...
,
Los Angeles Valley College
Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC) is a public community college in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District.
The college is adjacent to Grant High School in the neighborhood of Valley Glen. Often call ...
, and
Emperor's College
Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine is a graduate school of traditional Oriental medicine in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1983, it offers master's and doctoral programs with full accreditation in acupuncture and Oriental m ...
of Traditional Oriental Medicine.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Bicycles
![Bike (193316603)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Bike_%28193316603%29.jpeg/1200px-Bike_%28193316603%29.jpeg)
Santa Monica has a bike action plan and launched a
bicycle sharing system
A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost.
The programmes themselves include bo ...
in November 2015. The city is traversed by the
Marvin Braude Bike Trail
The Marvin Braude Bike Trail (also known as the Beach Bike Path, Coastal Bike Trail, The Strand, or the South Bay Bicycle Trail
) is a paved bicycle path that runs mostly along the shoreline of Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County, California ...
. Santa Monica has received the Bicycle Friendly Community Award (Bronze in 2009, Silver in 2013) by the
League of American Bicyclists
The League of American Bicyclists (LAB), officially the League of American Wheelmen, is a membership organization that promotes cycling for fun, fitness and transportation through advocacy and education.
A Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizat ...
. Local bicycle advocacy organizations include 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 poor compared to other major cities.
The city implemented a 5-year and 20-year Bike Action Plan with a goal of attaining 14 to 35% bicycle transportation mode share 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 with population 50,000–100,000, a ranking consistent with the city's composite ranking.
In 2007 and 2008, local police cracked down on Santa Monica
Critical Mass
In nuclear engineering, a critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specifically, its nuclear fi ...
rides that had become controversial, putting a damper on the tradition.
Highways
![Beach Santa Monica ocean](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Beach_Santa_Monica_ocean.jpg)
The
Santa Monica Freeway
Interstate 10 (I-10) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida. The segment of I-10 in California runs east from Santa Monica through Los Angeles, San Bernar ...
(
Interstate 10) begins in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean and heads east. The Santa Monica Freeway between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles has the distinction of being one of the busiest highways in all of North America. After traversing the
Greater Los Angeles
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...
area, I-10 crosses seven more states, terminating at
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
. In Santa Monica, there is a road sign designating this route as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway.
State Route 2 (
Santa Monica Boulevard
Santa Monica Boulevard is a major west–east thoroughfare in Los Angeles County. It runs from Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean to Sunset Boulevard at Sunset Junction in Los Angeles. It passes through Beverly Hills and West Ho ...
) begins in Santa Monica, barely grazing
State Route 1 at
Lincoln Boulevard, and continues northeast across Los Angeles County, through the
Angeles National Forest
The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the U.S. Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County in southern California. The ANF manages a majority of the San Gabriel Mounta ...
, crossing the
San Gabriel Mountains as the
Angeles Crest Highway
The Angeles Crest Highway is a two-lane (one lane of travel in each direction) highway over the San Gabriel Mountains, in Los Angeles County, California. Its route is to/through the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Angeles Nation ...
, ending in
Wrightwood
Wrightwood is a census-designated place in San Bernardino County, California. It sits at an elevation of . The population was 4,525 at the 2010 census, up from the population of 3,837 at the 2000 census. Wrightwood is located northeast of Lo ...
. Santa Monica is also the western terminus of Historic
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
. Close to the eastern boundary of Santa Monica,
Sepulveda Boulevard
Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...
reaches from
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
at the south, to the northern end 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
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
counties.
Motorized vehicles
![Santa Monica Beach (8369125844)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Santa_Monica_Beach_%288369125844%29.jpg)
Santa Monica has purchased the first
ZeroTruck all-electric medium-duty truck
Truck classifications are typically based upon the maximum loaded weight of the truck, typically using the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and sometimes also the gross trailer weight rating (GTWR), and can vary among jurisdictions.
United ...
. The vehicle will be equipped with a Scelzi utility body, it is based on the Isuzu N series chassis, a
UQM
UQM Technologies Inc was an American manufacturer of electrical motors, generators, motor controllers, fuel cell compressor systems and hybrid systems for passenger and commercial vehicles. Established in 1967 as Unique Mobility Inc, UQM was base ...
PowerPhase 100 advanced electric motor and is the only 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
Big Blue Bus
Big Blue Bus (stylized, big blue bus) is a municipal bus service serving the city of Santa Monica and the greater Westside region of Los Angeles County. The service, operated by the city of Santa Monica, was founded on April 14, 1928 and thro ...
, which also serves much of
West Los Angeles
West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...
and the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
(UCLA). A Big Blue Bus was featured prominently in the action movie ''
Speed
In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...
''.
The city of Santa Monica is also served by the
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angel ...
's (Metro) bus lines. Metro also complements Big Blue service, as when Big Blue routes are not operational overnight, Metro buses make many Big Blue Bus stops, in addition to MTA stops.
Light rail
![Gold Line train leaving Downtown Santa Monica station, July 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Gold_Line_train_leaving_Downtown_Santa_Monica_station%2C_July_2017.JPG)
Design and construction on the of the
Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica started in September 2011, with service beginning on May 20, 2016. Santa Monica
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
stations include
26th Street/Bergamot,
17th Street/Santa Monica College, and
Downtown Santa Monica. Travel time between the downtown Santa Monica and the downtown Los Angeles termini is approximately 47 minutes.
Historical aspects of the Expo line route are noteworthy. It uses the former Los Angeles region's electric interurban Pacific Electric Railway's
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
that ran from the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles to Santa Monica. This route was called the
Santa Monica Air Line
The Santa Monica Air Line was an interurban railroad operated by the Pacific Electric between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Electric passenger service operated over the line between 1908 and 1953. After abandonment as a freight railroad, ...
and provided electric-powered freight and passenger service between Los Angeles and Santa Monica beginning 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 abandonment of the line spurred future transportation considerations and concerns within the community, and the entire right-of-way was purchased from
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The line was built in 1875 as the steam-powered
Los Angeles and Independence Railroad
The Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, opened on October 17, 1875, was a steam-powered rail line which ran between the Santa Monica Long Wharf (north of the current Santa Monica Pier) and 5th and San Pedro streets in downtown Los Angeles.
...
to bring mining ore to ships in Santa Monica harbor and as a passenger excursion train to the beach.
Airport and ports
![KSMO east](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/KSMO_east.jpg)
The city owns and operates a
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
airport,
Santa Monica Airport
Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about from the Pacific Ocean (Santa Monica Bay) and north of Los Angeles International Airp ...
, which has been the site of several important aviation achievements. Commercial flights are available for residents at
LAX
Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
, a few miles south of Santa Monica.
Like other cities in Los Angeles County, Santa Monica is dependent upon the
Port of Long Beach
The Port of Long Beach, also known as the Harbor Department of the City of Long Beach, is a container port in the United States, which adjoins Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for US–Asian trade, the port occupies of land with ...
and the
Port of Los Angeles for international ship cargo. In the 1890s, Santa Monica was once in competition with
Wilmington, California
Wilmington is a neighborhood in the Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, covering .
Featuring a heavy concentration of industry and the third-largest oil field in the continental United States, this neighborhood has a high percentage of La ...
, and
San Pedro for recognition as the "Port of Los Angeles" (see
History of Santa Monica, California
The history of Santa Monica, California, covers the significant events and movements in Santa Monica's past.
Population by decade
* 1880 – 417
* 1890 – 1,580
* 1900 – 3,057
* 1910 – 7,847
* 1920 – 15,252
* 1930 – 37,146
* 1940 – ...
).
Other
Since the mid-1980s, various proposals have been made to extend the
Purple Line subway to Santa Monica under Wilshire Boulevard. There are no current plans to complete the "subway to the sea," an estimated $5 billion project.
In August 2018, Santa Monica issued permits to
Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
,
Lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
,
Lyft
Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...
, and
Jump Bikes to operate dockless
scooter-sharing system
A scooter-sharing system is a shared transport service in which electric motorized scooters (also referred to as e-scooters) are made available to use for short-term rentals. E-scooters are typically "dockless", meaning that they do not have a ...
s in the city.
Emergency services
![UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/UCLA_Medical_Center%2C_Santa_Monica.jpg)
Two major hospitals are within the Santa Monica city limits,
UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica
UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center is a hospital located within the city of Santa Monica, California. The hospital was founded in 1926, and is a member of the UCLA Health. The hospital is also known internationally for operating its Rape Treatment ...
and
Saint John's Health Center
Providence Saint John's Health Center, formerly St. Johns Hospital and Health Center, is a private not-for-profit, Roman Catholic hospital in Santa Monica, California, United States. The hospital was founded in 1942 by the Sisters of Charity of ...
. Four fire stations provide medical and fire response, staffed with 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 Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) is a law enforcement agency of the city of Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's Sou ...
The
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (abbreviated DHS and LADHS) operates the public hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles County, and is the United States' second largest municipal health system, after NYC Health + Hospitals.
DHS ope ...
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
A municipal wireless network is a citywide wireless network. This usually works by providing municipal broadband via Wi-Fi to large parts or all of a municipal area by deploying a wireless mesh network. The typical deployment design uses hundred ...
which provides several free city
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...
hotspots distributed around the city.
In popular culture
Film and television
![Santa Monica End 66 P4060286](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Santa_Monica_End_66_P4060286.jpg)
Hundreds of moving pictures have been shot or set in part in Santa Monica.
Films
One of the oldest exterior shots in Santa Monica is
Buster Keaton's ''
Spite Marriage
''Spite Marriage'' is a 1929 American silent comedy film co-directed by Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick and starring Keaton and Dorothy Sebastian. It is the second film Keaton made for MGM and his last silent film, although he had wanted it ...
'' (1929) which shows much of 2nd Street. The comedy ''
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer with a story and screenplay by William Rose and Tania Rose. The film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all-star cast of comedians, is a ...
'' (1963) included several scenes shot in Santa Monica, including those along the
California Incline
The California Incline is a slanted road in Santa Monica, California, connecting Ocean Avenue with State Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway or PCH). It technically is the last link, the western end of California Avenue, a minor east–west str ...
, which led to the movie's treasure spot, "The Big W". The
Sylvester Stallone film ''
Rocky III
''Rocky III'' is a 1982 American sports drama film written, directed by, and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the sequel to '' Rocky II'' (1979) and is the third installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise. Along with Stallone reprising the title r ...
'' (1982) shows
Rocky Balboa and
Apollo Creed
Apollo Creed is a fictional character from the ''Rocky'' films, played by Carl Weathers.
He serves as the main antagonist in ''Rocky'' and '' Rocky II'' and also appears in ''Rocky III'' and ''Rocky IV''. He is a tough but agile boxer w ...
training to fight
Clubber Lang
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
by running on the
Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of Santa Monica.
Description
The beach is located along Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. It is long and has parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, restrooms, as well as s ...
, 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
Henry David Jaglom (born January 26, 1938) is an English-born American actor, film director and playwright.
Life and career
Jaglom was born to a Jewish family in London, England, the son of Marie (née Stadthagen) and Simon M. Jaglom, who w ...
's indie ''
Someone to Love'' (1987), the last film in which
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
appeared, takes place in Santa Monica's venerable Mayfair Theatre. ''
Heathers
''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...
'' (1988) used Santa Monica's
John Adams Middle School for many exterior shots. ''
The Truth About Cats & Dogs'' (1996) is set entirely in Santa Monica, particularly the Palisades Park area, and features a radio station that resembles
KCRW
KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to program ...
at
Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high sc ...
. ''
17 Again'' (2009) was shot at
Samohi. Other films that show significant exterior shots of Santa Monica include ''
Fletch'' (1985), ''
Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
'' (1995), ''
Get Shorty
''Get Shorty'' is a 1990 novel by American novelist Elmore Leonard. In 1995, the novel was adapted into a film of the same name, and in 2017 it was adapted into a television series of the same name.
Plot summary
The story centers on Ernesto ...
'' (1995), and ''
Ocean's Eleven
''Ocean's Eleven'' is a 2001 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh from a screenplay by Ted Griffin. The first installment in the ''Ocean's'' film trilogy, it is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film of the same name. The ...
'' (2001).
Richard Rossi
Richard Rossi is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, talk radio host, musician, and former evangelical minister.
Among Rossi's projects are the film ''Canaan Land'' which contained five of Rossi's songs that made the song list for Oscar con ...
'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
''Dogtown and Z-Boys'' is a 2001 documentary film produced by Agi Orsi and directed by Stacy Peralta. The documentary explores the pioneering of the Zephyr skateboard team in the 1970s (of which Peralta was a member) and the evolving sport of s ...
'' (2001) and the related dramatic film ''
Lords of Dogtown
''Lords of Dogtown'' is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke and written by Stacy Peralta. The film follows a group of young skateboarders in Santa Monica, California during the 70s. This is the first (and so ...
'' (2005) are both about 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 disaster film ''
2012'' (2009). A magnitude 10.9 earthquake destroys the airport and the surrounding area as a group of survivors escape in a personal plane. The Santa Monica Pier and the whole city sinks into the Pacific Ocean after the earthquake.
Television
A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including ''
Baywatch
''Baywatch'' is an American action drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bo ...
'', ''
Goliath'', ''
Pacific Blue'' (1996-2000), ''
Private Practice Private practice may refer to:
*Private sector practice
**Practice of law
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiati ...
'' (2007-2013), and ''
Three's Company
''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom '' Man About the House''.
The story revolves around three single room ...
'' (1977-1984). The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
series ''
NCIS: Los Angeles''. In ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', the main exterior set of the town of
Sunnydale
Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the al ...
that includes the infamous "sun sign", was in Santa Monica in a lot on
Olympic Boulevard.
Literature
Horace McCoy
Horace Stanley McCoy (April 14, 1897 – December 15, 1955) was an American writer whose mostly hardboiled stories took place during the Great Depression. His best-known novel is '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' (1935), which was made into ...
'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
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashie ...
, frequently has a portion 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 other crimes thrive due to a massively corrupt and ineffective police force.
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...
lived (while working at
MGM Studios
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
) in a hotel on Ocean Avenue in the 1940s. At that location he wrote the play ''
The Glass Menagerie
''The Glass Menagerie'' is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his Histrionic persona ...
'' (that premiered in 1944). His short story "
The Mattress by the Tomato Patch" (1954) is set near Santa Monica Beach and mentions the clock visible in much of the city, high up on The Broadway Building, on Broadway near Second Street.
Music
;Notable locations
* The band
Linkin Park is named in homage to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park (now called Christine Emerson Reed Park).
* The
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...
is based in Santa Monica on
Olympic Boulevard.
*
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
is based in Santa Monica. Several of its labels, such as
A&M Records
A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...
,
Aftermath Entertainment
Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by hip hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Interscope Records.
Current acts include Dr. Dre himself, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, ...
(started by
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...
),
G-Unit Records
G-Unit Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group. Founded in 2002 by rapper 50 Cent, for the first eleven years of operation, G-Unit ran in conjunction with, and was distributed by, Interscope Records. In February 2014, ...
(created by
50 Cent &
Sha Money XL
Sha or SHA may refer to:
Places
* Sha County, Fujian, China
* Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, (IATA code)
* Sia, Cyprus, also spelled ''Sha''
* Sagamihara Housing Area, an army installation in Japan
* Vehicle registration plates in t ...
),
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint.
Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
,
Interscope (started by
Jimmy Iovine
James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...
), and
Shady Records
Shady Records is an American record label founded by rapper Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg, after the highly successful release of Eminem's ''The Slim Shady LP'' (1999).
Shady has seen negative times when being part of the unsuccessful ...
, are based in Santa Monica, CA.
Works
* The folk Australian duo
Angus and Julia Stone has a single titled "Santa Monica Dream" on its album ''Down the Way''.
* The ska/reggae band
Bedouin Soundclash
Bedouin Soundclash is a Canadian band based in Toronto and consisting of vocalist and guitarist Jay Malinowski, bass player Eon Sinclair and drummer Chuck Treece. Their sound has been described as a combination of reggae and ska. Bedouin Soundc ...
has a song called "Santa Monica".
* The band
Everclear released a song titled "
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') 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 i ...
" in 1995, which became their first mainstream hit.
* The British singer-songwriter
Noel Harrison
Noel John Christopher Harrison (29 January 1934 – 19 October 2013) was an English actor and singer who had a hit singing " The Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, and was a member of the British Olympic skiing team in the 1950s. He was the son of ...
released a song and album titled ''Santa Monica Pier'' (1968).
[Steve Harvey]
"Only in L.A."
, ''Los Angeles Times'', February 9, 1990.
* In 1948, bandleader
Kay Kyser
James Kern Kyser (June 18, 1905 – July 23, 1985), known as Kay Kyser, was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.
Early years
James Kern Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Emily ...
released a 78 record of the novelty song "When Veronica Plays the Harmonica (Down at the Pier in Santa Monica)".
* One of the few songs musical satirist
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American former musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, having lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded in ...
has recorded since the 1970s is a tribute to the holidays of the Jewish calendar called "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica".
*
Richard Rossi
Richard Rossi is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, talk radio host, musician, and former evangelical minister.
Among Rossi's projects are the film ''Canaan Land'' which contained five of Rossi's songs that made the song list for Oscar con ...
released a song called "Santa Monica," celebrating the Santa Monica Pier, on his album ''Seasons of My Heart.''
* The band
Savage Garden
Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. Formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993, the duo achieved international success from the mid-1990s to early 2000s with the No. ...
released a song titled "Santa Monica" from its album ''
Savage Garden
Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. Formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993, the duo achieved international success from the mid-1990s to early 2000s with the No. ...
'' (1997).
* The modern rock band
Theory of a Deadman
Theory of a Deadman (abbreviated as Theory or TOAD) is a Canadian rock band from North Delta, British Columbia. Formed in 1999, the band is currently signed to Roadrunner Records as well as 604 Records. The band includes traits of music styles ...
's song "
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') 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 i ...
" is a first-person account of a girl leaving her significant other to start a new life in Santa Monica.
* French Rapper
Moha La Squale
Mohamed Bellahmed, better known by his stage name Moha La Squale (; born in Créteil
Créteil () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Créteil is the ''préfecture'' (c ...
released the song "Santa Monica" in 2019.
Notable people
Sister cities
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Mazatlán
Mazatlán () is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding '' municipio'', known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip ...
, Mexico
*
Hamm, Germany
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Fujinomiya
is a city located in central Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 132,507 in 56,655 households, and a population density of 340 persons per km². The total area of the city is .
History
The city name comes from ...
, Japan
See also
*
2013 Santa Monica shooting
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Aragon Ballroom (Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California) The Aragon Ballroom on Lick Pier in the Ocean Park district of Santa Monica, California, was a social-dance venue opened under the Aragon name in March 1942 by dance promoter Harry Schooler (born Harrison Augustus Schooler; 1918–2008).
History
...
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Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827–1912) was a wealthy Californio landowner and socialite of Los Angeles. She played an important role in the elite society of Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica. She was married to two wealthy Anglo-Ameri ...
, co-founder and benefactress of Santa Monica
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List of cities and towns in California
California is a state located in the Western United States. It is the most populous state and the third largest by area after Alaska and Texas. According to the 2020 United States Census, California has 39,538,223 inhabitants and of land.
C ...
*
List of City of Santa Monica Designated Historic Landmarks
This is a List of City of Santa Monica Designated Historic Landmarks.
Ordinance
As the 1975 Santa Monica Centennial approached, the City Council created the Historical Site Committee, and adopted the Landmarks and Historic District Ordinance on ...
*
List of people from Santa Monica, California
This is a list of people from Santa Monica, California.
*Jay Adams, skateboarder
*Amy Alcott, professional golfer
*Britt Allcroft, creator and former producer of ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' television series
*Rod Allen, TV colo ...
*
List of public art in Santa Monica, California
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Muscle Beach
Muscle Beach is the birthplace of the United States physical fitness boom, which started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Muscle Beach Venice is the contemporary title of the outdoor we ...
References
External links
City of Santa Monica– slideshow by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''
*
Image of zoning map of Los Angeles outlining Santa Monica,1927 Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
{{Authority control
1769 establishments in New Spain
1886 establishments in California
Venues of the 1984 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletics venues
Cities in Los Angeles County, California
Incorporated cities and towns in California
Populated coastal places in California
Populated places established in 1769
Populated places established in 1886
1886 establishments in the United States
Seaside resorts in California
Westside (Los Angeles County)