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Santa Monica Bay is a section of the Southern California coast that
extends from the Palos Verdes
Peninsula to the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu. The shoreline
is a nearly contiguous stretch of sandy beach that for many people is
what comes to mind when they think of Los Angeles. The southern end of
the bay is, not surprisingly, called the South Bay. Along with the four
cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the South Bay region includes the
three “beach cities” (from south to north), Redondo Beach, Hermosa
Beach, and Manhattan Beach. Though they lack the Baywatch cachet
of celebrity-saturated Santa Monica and Malibu at the north end of the
bay, they’re very popular summer and weekend escapes for residents of
“Greater Los Angeles.” On sunny warm weekends, the beaches are jammed
with families looking for a respite from the inland heat and smog. In
the winter, surfers avail themselves of the large waves churned up by
Pacific storms.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cities all along the
California coast built municipal piers to serve as docks for commercial
shipping. Although that traffic is long gone, updated piers in all three
beach cities remain for recreational use. They’re places where anglers
can catch their supper, and where tourists can enjoy the ocean air and
coastal views. The Redondo Beach pier is the most extensively developed
of the three. It has a collection of restaurants, fast food, and
tchotchke shops, along with an office complex that includes a small
courthouse— possibly the only truly desirable jury duty assignment in
Los Angeles County. The pier also has underground parking, a convenient
(though expensive) amenity for beachgoers who might otherwise face a
frustrating search for a scarce metered space.
The current Redondo Beach Pier is the seventh version since 1889. The
earliest piers were railroad terminals for lumber, to which sections
were eventually added for fisherman and tourists. Except for one that
was condemned when lumber business waned, these piers all succumbed to
the winter storms that periodically batter the Southern California
coast. The 1929 version lasted until 1988, when a fire destroyed most of
it. That pier was called the Horseshoe Pier because of its unusual
circular shape. The small section undamaged by the fire remained open to
the public until 1995, when it was demolished to make way for the
current pier. The old Horseshoe Pier was quite a colorful place. I often
went there to test new cameras, lenses, and films.
The current pier launched its reconstruction in 1993 and opened in 1996.
The designers seemed to have learned their lessons well. They built it
with heavy-duty concrete and steel, which should (in theory) better
withstand the storms and fire that destroyed its wooden predecessors.
The new pier includes some distinctive “artistic” elements. A series of
mesh sun shades on a frame of steel tubes are meant to recall the
sailing ships that docked at the 1889 pier. The reinforced concrete
pilings are painted the color of the earlier piers’ wood pilings. And
the railings have decorative inlays with cetaceans, painted sea blue.
The initial concept for the new pier showed some rather grandiose
ambitions. It included an aquarium, a wax museum, and a carousel. It’s
probably a good thing that those all got dropped in the final design,
since the pier gets crowded enough without them during the summer and on
weekends. The pier nonetheless offers plenty of things to do— and
plenty of colorful details to photograph.
Hermosa Beach is probably best known for beach volleyball. Perhaps
because it’s is the smallest of the South Bay beach cities, the Hermosa
Beach municipal pier is the plainest of the three piers. Completely
reconstructed in 2000, it’s just a simple concrete deck for fishing and
strolling, extending some 200 meters beyond the shore with a square
platform at the end for fishing. At the foot of the pier— the end of
Pier Avenue, appropriately enough— is a pedestrian mall with
restaurants, bars, dance clubs, and a few shops. It gets very crowded on
weekend evenings.
Manhattan Beach is the northernmost of the beach cities. At the end of
its 376-meter municipal pier is the Roundhouse Marine Studies Lab and
Aquarium. The Roundhouse is a non-profit educational facility chartered
to teach children (and their parents) about the oceans of Southern
California. Along with exhibits of local undersea fauna in glass tanks,
there’s a marine “petting zoo” with tide pool creatures,
rays, and cute baby sharks.
Travel Notes: Much of the area around the South Bay beaches was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, well before the automobile came to dominate Southern California life. That creates parking and traffic nightmares in the 21st century. Parking anywhere near the beach is metered, and subject to limits and restrictions strictly enforced by very zealous parking officers. The restrictions and aggressive enforcement are about the only way the cities can fairly ration a very inadequate supply of parking in summer and on weekends when demand is high. But the officers are just as busy at other times. It’s no coincidence that the cities rely on revenue from parking citations for a significant portion of their budgets (particularly Hermosa Beach, which has a much smaller tax base than its neighbors).
If you’re aware and prepared, you can enjoy a nice visit to the beach without finding an unpleasant “souvenir” under your windshield wiper. Bring plenty of quarters, since many meters accept no other coins. When you find a parking spot, carefully read all nearby signs to make sure you’re actually allowed to park there. Some street parking is reserved for residents with permits; and there may be other restrictions that can easily trap the unwary. Make sure the meter works— parking at a broken meter will guarantee you a ticket!— and feed it generously. Then set the alarm clock on your watch or cellphone to make sure you get back to your car in time. Remember, you might have a very long walk to and from the beach on a summer weekend.
If you’re visiting Redondo Beach during the summer, you can avoid the
parking hassles, limits, and expense by parking at the Del Amo Fashion
Center mall in Torrance and riding a Torrance Transit bus (Route 3)
directly to the pier. There are no similarly convenient mass transit
options for the other beaches.
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