Santa Monica

Sister cities

• Mazatlán
• Hamm
• Hechuan District
• Fujinomiya
• Sirolo
• Sant'Elia Fiumerapido

History

The Tongva are indigenous to the Santa Monica area. The village of Comicranga was established in the Santa Monica area. One of the village's notable residents was Victoria Reid, who was the daughter of the chief of the village. During the Spanish period, she was taken to Mission San Gabriel from her parents at the age of six. In 1839, Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica to Francisco Sepúlveda II, of the Sepúlveda family of California. As the definitions of the rancho grant were not precise, the Sepúlveda family came into conflict with the neighboring Rancho Boca de Santa Mónica, owned by Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Márquez. A small Californio community grew up on Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, made up primarily of vaqueros working on the rancho and their families. After the American conquest of California, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in the state certain unalienable rights. U.S. government sovereignty in California began on February 2, 1848. In the 1870s, the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was an 1873 brick building, later a beer hall, and now part of the Santa Monica Hostel. By 1885, the town's first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel. Amusement piers became popular in the first decades of the 20th century, and the extensive Pacific Electric Railway brought people to the city's beaches from across the Greater Los Angeles Area. Around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf, while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica and…

Geography

Santa Monica rests on a mostly flat slope that angles down toward Ocean Avenue and toward the south. High bluffs separate the north side of the city from the beaches. Santa Monica borders the L.A. neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades to the north and Venice to the south. To the west, Santa Monica has a coastline fronting Santa Monica Bay, and to the east of the city are the L.A. communities of West Los Angeles and Brentwood. Santa Monica has a coastal Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb). It receives an average of 310 days of sunshine a year. It is in USDA plant hardiness zone 11a. Because of its location, nestled on the vast and open Santa Monica Bay, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May, June, July and early August (caused by ocean temperature variations and currents). Like other inhabitants of the greater Los Angeles area, residents have a particular terminology for this phenomenon: the "May Gray", the "June Gloom", and even "Fogust". Overcast skies are common on June mornings, but usually the strong sun burns the fog off by noon. In the late winter/early summer, daily fog is a phenomenon, too. It happens suddenly and it may last some hours or past sunset time. Nonetheless, it will sometimes stay cloudy and cool all day during June, even as other parts of the Los Angeles area experience sunny skies and warmer temperatures. At times, the sun can be shining east of 20th Street while the beach area is overcast. As a general rule, the beach temperature is from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 6 degrees Celsius) cooler than it is inland during summer days, and 5 to 10 degrees warmer during winter nights. It is also in September that the highest temperatures tend to be reached. It is winter, however, when the hot, dry winds of the Santa Anas are most common. In…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  38,403
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  32,629
• Black Phoebe

  Sayornis nigricans (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  31,627
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  27,930
• Allen's Hummingbird

  Selasphorus sasin (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  26,508
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

  Setophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  24,756
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  24,186
• California Towhee

  Melozone crissalis (Vigors, 1839) · Aves
  23,553

Largest nearby schools

• Palisades Charter High
  High · Pacific Palisades · 2,959 students · 23.3:1 ratio
• Santa Monica High
  High · Santa Monica · 2,678 students · 19.5:1 ratio
• Alexander Hamilton Senior High
  High · Los Angeles · 2,259 students · 18.1:1 ratio
• Culver City High
  High · Culver City · 2,155 students · 22.4:1 ratio
• Venice Senior High
  High · Los Angeles · 2,107 students · 22.4:1 ratio
• Paul Revere Charter Middle
  Middle · Los Angeles · 1,718 students · 24.5:1 ratio
• Fairfax Senior High
  High · Los Angeles · 1,632 students · 18.5:1 ratio
• Larchmont Charter
  Other · West Hollywood · 1,620 students · 23.1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.16 — 2026-10-09
  2 km SW of Signal Hill, CA
• M 2.7 — 2026-10-08
  2 km WNW of Fontana, CA
• M 2.51 — 2026-10-05
  31 km SW of Dana Point, CA
• M 2.81 — 2026-10-05
  32 km SW of Dana Point, CA
• M 3.48 — 2026-10-05
  31 km SW of Dana Point, CA
• M 3.81008714964485 — 2026-09-30
  4 km SE of Piru, CA