Santa Monica & Venice Beach

Escrito por Jesús M. 

Located on the western edge of LA, Santa Monica and Venice offer two different sides of LA, both well heeled: Santa Monica, the trendy liberal enclave with smart restaurants, shops and coffeehouses; and Venice, the offbeat focus of experimental architecture, vibrant beach culture and fringe galleries. Still, driving north on Main St. it can be hard to discern exactly where Venice stops and Santa Monica starts. Both places also share moderate temperatures -they are cooler than the rest of the basin, with average midsummer temperatures sitting comfortably around 19ºC. Perhaps for this reason, these areas have become home for at least one-quarter of LA´s population of British and Irish expatriates, many of whom can be spotted in the local Euro-friendly pubs, clubs and diners. As the epitome of Southern California's laid-back sun-and-surf culture, the two cities have little of the pretension of Beverly Hills and West LA, and much in the population is relatively stagnant because of the steep price of new housing and, like other parts of the Westside, is still fairly WASPy. Multiculturalism, however, has been long established in Venice, which was one of the few coastal cities not to use restrictive covenants to keep blacks from living there. It was also an alternative melting pop-of-sorts in the 1960s, when the place was shambling, attracting a number of up-and-coming artists and musicians inspired by the mix. Since then, the district has prospered but continues to be home to a much wider range of classes and races than Santa Monica. 

Further south, the colourless real-estate tract of Marina del Rey offers few spots of interest, but the adjacent Ballona Wetlands have much natural appeal. Playa del Rey, meanwhile, maintains a certain faded charm, which takes an eerie turn near the airport, around the site of LA's only urban ghost town.