Santa Monica
Santa Monica is where Los Angeles meets the ocean and behaves like a small city about it. Three miles of beach, a bluff-top park, a pier that has been a landmark for more than a century, and a walkable downtown all sit inside eight and a half square miles with its own city hall and its own school district. Few places in Southern California combine coastal living with genuine urban convenience this completely.
History
Santa Monica was founded in 1875 by Colonel Robert S. Baker and Senator John P. Jones, who laid out the townsite and auctioned its first lots that July with the intention of building a great port. The port went to San Pedro instead — and Santa Monica became a resort town, which shaped everything that followed. The Municipal Pier opened in 1909, joined in 1916 by the Looff Pleasure Pier and its Hippodrome, which still houses a carousel and stands as a National Historic Landmark. The city became the western end point of Route 66 and, over the following century, evolved from beach resort to aerospace town to one of the most desirable coastal cities in the country.
Living in Santa Monica
Santa Monica is defined by how much of daily life happens outdoors and on foot. Palisades Park runs along the bluff above the beach, a narrow ribbon of lawn and palm trees with the Pacific below. The Marvin Braude Bike Trail runs the length of the shoreline. Montana Avenue, Main Street, and the Third Street Promenade each carry their own retail character, and the Wednesday farmers market downtown is among the best in California. The city maintains its own police, fire, library system, and school district — a level of self-determination residents notice and value.
Real Estate Landscape
Santa Monica contains several distinct markets. North of Montana holds the city's marquee single-family estates on wide, quiet streets a short walk from the bluff. Wilshire-Montana and Ocean Park mix historic bungalows, courtyard buildings, and condominiums close to the beach. Sunset Park, in the city's southeast corner, is the family-oriented single-family neighborhood. Mid-City and Pico offer the city's most attainable entry points. Architecture spans Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival bungalows through mid-century apartment buildings and contemporary new construction. Inventory is structurally limited — the city is built out, and its boundaries are fixed.
What's Nearby
Bergamot Station houses one of the largest concentrations of art galleries on the Westside. The Annenberg Community Beach House offers public pool and beach access at a historic estate site. The Santa Monica Pier, the beach, and the coastal bike path anchor the western edge, while Brentwood, Venice, and Marina del Rey are all within a few minutes' drive.
Education
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District serves the city, including Santa Monica High School, Lincoln and John Adams middle schools, and a set of well-regarded elementary schools. Crossroads School and other independent options are located in the city, along with Santa Monica College, one of the most successful community colleges in the state.
Santa Monica offers something rare: a real city, on a real beach, with the institutions to match. It has been one of the most consistently desirable addresses in Los Angeles for a hundred and fifty years, and there is no more of it being made.