Santa Monica, CA

Santa Monica is a beach city of its own where Los Angeles County meets the Pacific, wrapped by the city of Los Angeles on three sides and the ocean on the fourth. Downtown mixes new apartment buildings with the Third Street Promenade and a steady flow of visitors. Ocean Park keeps its older cottages and Main Street shops close to the sand, while Sunset Park spreads postwar bungalows around the airport and the Pico neighborhood gathers around Virginia Avenue Park and the college. Most homes are older and close together. Craftsman and Spanish houses from the early 1900s through the 1940s sit among courtyard apartments and small stucco buildings. Downtown is where new building is concentrated, with mid-rise apartments going up near the train. The shoreline is the backyard. Palisades Park runs along the top of the bluff for walkers and joggers, the beach path carries bikes south toward Venice, and Original Muscle Beach still draws people to its rings and bars just south of the pier. Tongva Park gives downtown a patch of hills and fountains. The food that defines the city tends to be long-running. Bay Cities Italian Deli on Lincoln builds its Godmother sub. Dogtown Coffee pours in the old Zephyr surf shop on Main Street, and the Wednesday farmers market on Arizona Avenue pulls chefs from all over the county. The tradeoff is sharing the city with visitors, since summer weekends fill the parking structures and push traffic onto Ocean Avenue and the 10. For people who live in Santa Monica, the ocean ends up folded into ordinary days, a walk on the bluff after dinner or salt air drifting inland on the way to the market.