Santa Monica

Santa Monica is a coastal city in western Los Angeles County. Situated on Santa Monica Bay of the Pacific Ocean, it is surrounded by the City of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades and Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles and Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the south.

 Santa Monica is named for Saint Monica of Hippo because the area on which the city is now located was first visited by Spaniards on her feast day. In the skateboard and surfing communities, Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood and adjacent parts of Venice are sometimes called Dogtown.

Because of its agreeable weather, Santa Monica had become a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its downtown core with significant job growth and increased tourism.
Santa Monica is also the home of the Third Street Promenade, a major outdoor pedestrian-oriented shopping district that stretches for three blocks between Wilshire Blvd. and Broadway Blvd. Third Street has been closed for those three blocks and converted to a pedestrians-only stretch to allow people to congregate, shop and enjoy street performers.