More about Santa Monica

The city of Santa Monica is located on the Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles County. The city is named for Saint Monica of Hippo because the area was first visited by the Spanish on Saint Monica’s feast day. The city is home to an estimated 87,664 residents as of 2000, and in the surfing and skateboarding communities within the city the Ocean Park neighborhood is referred to as Dogtown. The Santa Monica Pier is one of the leading attractions in the city; built in 1909, the pier is home to a number of well-known attractions. The Santa Monica Hippodrome is a carousel located on the pier and is a National Historic Landmark. The La Monica Ballroom used to be the largest ballroom in the nation and was used for New Year’s Eve broadcasts. The city is also home to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium which was once an important music venue and hosted the Academy Awards several time in the 1960s. Santa Monica still had several theaters located there, some that play movies and others that are simply there for tourists and locals to see. The Majestic, the oldest theatre in the city, also known as the Mayfair Theatre, was opened in 1912, but has been closed since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and no longer plays films. The Criterion Theatre is still a functional theatre and has been open since the 1930s. Every year, the city’s Chamber of commerce hosts the “Taste of Santa Monica” which is a food festival located on the Santa monica Pier that offers guests free samples of food and drink from the various restaurants in the city. The city runs its own bus service known as the Big Blue Bus, which serves a large portion of West Los Angeles as well and UCLA. One of the lines busses was also featured in the 1994 smash hit movie Speed, as the bus that Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are stuck on. The city has a reputation for being one of the leading sustainable cities in the country; 75% of the city’s public works vehicles run on alternative fuel making one of the largest fleets in the country. All the buildings in the city run on renewable energy as well, helping the city to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10% in the last 15 years. Keeping the city green is a major priority for both residents and officials; a runoff facility was built and catches 3.5 million gallons of water every week that would otherwise go into the bay.