Los Angeles Guide
Santa Monica and Venice
Located on the western edge of LA, the contiguous beach districts of SANTA MONICA and VENICE supposedly represent two different sides of LA: Santa Monica, the trendy, well-heeled liberal enclave with chic galleries, shops, and coffeehouses; and Venice, the offbeat, anarchic focus of dive bars, junk emporia, and fringe galleries. This is more of a myth than reality, since the beachside blocks of each city are increasingly similar, lined as they are with upscale condos and expensive hotels. Driving north on Main Street, it can be hard to discern exactly where Venice stops and Santa Monica starts.
As the epitome of Southern California's laid-back sun-and-surf culture, the two cities contain some of the region's most enjoyable spots, with little of the pretension of Beverly Hills and West LA, and much in the way of easygoing attitudes and pleasantly low-scale development. Santa Monica's population is relatively stagnant due to 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 pot of sorts in the 1960s, when the place was really shambling, attracting a number of up-and-coming artists and musicians inspired by the mix. Still, the district continues to be home to a much wider range of classes and races than Santa Monica, and nowhere are these contrasts more apparent than near Abbot Kinney Boulevard, where upscale boutiques sit just a few short blocks from one of LA's grimmer ghettos, Oakwood.