#santa-monica-smo

#santa-monica-smo

"So few pockets of L.A. County are actually great for families and that's what makes South Pas so compelling. Plus, it has light-rail."

The crowd atop the Hermosa Beach Pier watched with bated breath as a local fisherman, stripped down to his underwear and armed with only a pair of scissors, waded into the water in an attempt to free a juvenile great white shark.

When people come in and realize I'm involved, they're always surprised to see me. It's a bit like being at Disneyland and running into Goofy. I sometimes feel like the mayor of Larchmont. Rosenthal enjoys the personal connection with diners at his recently opened establishment, finding satisfaction in the surprise and delight customers experience when discovering his involvement in the neighborhood venue.

I'm happy, but I'm also sad about my final year as a Bruin, adding that it's pretty cool to know that my dream school has become my legacy. I'm going to stand for what is right. I am doing the things to make sure no other athlete has to go through what I had to go through.

In her latest body of work, Hayv Kahraman grapples with the loss of her Altadena home during last year's Eaton Fire. The women in her paintings channel a sense of magic, wonder, and ritual as they contort their bodies or dance across the canvas. Kahraman herself endured the traumatic displacement from her native Iraq as a child during the first Gulf War, and she incorporates symbols from her heritage, such as Sufi talismans and the Anqā, a phoenix-like bird from Arab mythology.

With more than eight miles of coastline and consistently strong breaks, it's long been a magnet for surfers from around the world. However, the city's appeal goes beyond the water-it also has a walkable downtown, a charming namesake pier, and plentiful waterfront bars and restaurants.

Charlize Theron, who stars as a Florida serial killer in the upcoming independent film 'Monster' and then will star opposite Geoffrey Rush in an HBO Films project about the late actor Peter Sellers, has purchased a beachfront Malibu home. The actress paid close to $3.4 million, according to a real estate mailer and area residents.

On the first Fish Friday of 2026, restaurants of all sizes are spotlighting fish and seafood on their menus with some new items and a few deals. Lent, a time when many Christians abstain from meat, began on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18. It lasts 40 days, ending on Thursday, April 2. Easter Sunday will be on April 5. Here is what some restaurant chains have announced on their websites, in social media or in news releases.

Baca, who was awarded the National Medal of Arts by former US president Joe Biden, is working with a team of artists to tell socially engaged stories on 12ft-tall panels. "I want to use public space to create ... consciousness about the presence of people who are often the majority of the population but who may not be represented in any visual way," she says.

Fisher marked the first time Moscone Center hosted something enormous like this; I went on the second night of a two-night takeover, December 20. Operationally, it ran surprisingly smoothly for a first-time venue. Crowd-wise: a lot of phones, a lot of jerseys, a lot of people filming drops they will absolutely never watch again. It felt like a first "rave" moment for a lot of folks since it was an 18+ event.

For travelers looking to get to know the many-varied charms of the Golden State, discovering it through the best beaches in California is never a bad idea. The state's coastline spans a vast 3,427 miles after all. Among its 420 public beautiful beaches are plentiful opportunities to swim, lay out, look at tide pools, surf to your heart's content, or watch the sunset.

An affordable housing nonprofit has put the kibosh on selling some Santa Monica buildings to developer Leo Pustilnikov. At a Santa Monica City Council meeting last week, officials disclosed that they had privately discussed a potential sale of 419 and 1616 Ocean Avenue, properties controlled by Community Corporation of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported. Any transaction would require city approval because Santa Monica deeded 419 and 1616 Ocean to the nonprofit in 2016 and retained reacquisition rights.

Highway 1 is an emotional experience for so many people, and its early reopening reconnects the full wonder of Ragged Point, San Simeon and Cambria with our neighbors to the north in Monterey,

In a widely cited (and likely apocryphal) exchange the bewildered conductor cried, 'But there's nothing here!' Alighting the stopped train, one of the Standard Oil men is said to have replied: 'No, but there will be.' Nothing is precisely what they were looking for. They needed a blank space along the coast on which to build a refinery to complement the company's existing facility nearly 400 miles to the north in Richmond.

Situated on the southern border of Orange County and easily accessible to travelers by Amtrak train or car, San Clemente has all the charm of a close-knit community and all the liveliness of a surfer's paradise. Plus, it's one of the most beautiful towns in the area, with the rolling San Joaquin Hills on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

The 31st edition of the LA Art Show is back this week at the downtown Convention Center, more than a month before Frieze, Felix, and Post-Fair roll into town. Although it is LA's longest-running art fair, the show is somewhat of an outcast, snubbed as pedestrian, too commercial, and out of touch with the cutting edge of the global art world. But at the rear of the cavernous exhibition hall, a pair of projects organized by curator Marisa Caichiolo gives visitors a sense of the fair's cultural and political relevance.

I may be a bit biased, but I consider the California coastline to be the most scenic and diverse route in the U.S. As a native to the state, I've taken more than 20 road trips over the years, traversing desert terrain, budding vineyards, and cliff-hugging highways that tower above the Pacific Ocean. And though I love the colossal redwood forests in northern California and the gleaming coastline that cradles the state's southern end, there's one road trip I always return to for its access to some of the state's best wineries, restaurants, and charismatic hotels.