Ocean Avenue

Parts of Ocean Avenue will be closed at times in January while the city installs a new sewer line. The work, scheduled to begin Tuesday, is necessary to replace a deteriorated sewer line on the north side of Ocean Avenue near South Coast Highway. The new sewer line will be connected to an existing line near Ocean and Forest avenues, according to city officials.

Santa Monica police are investigating a possible kidnapping and robbery at a hotel on Ocean Avenue that ended with some arrests being made on the beach. Authorities received a call from a guest of the Seaview Hotel in the 1700 block of Ocean Avenue about 11:40 p.m. Sunday, according to Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis. The caller reported something “going on” in another room, Lewis said, and when officers arrived, they discovered “people fleeing out of the window.” Victims told police they were being kidnapped and robbed, Lewis said, adding there were conflicting statements that investigators are still sorting out. Lewis said two victims were injured and treated at a local hospital.

A community group's plan to install a tree-lined median along a section of Ocean Avenue has met with some resistance from residents. But the president of the Trees for Seal Beach Foundation said he still hopes a compromise can be worked out. Ocean Avenue residents spoke out against the plan at a meeting Thursday, complaining that a center island would limit their ability to turn left into their driveways.

This beach-and-bluffs walk in Santa Monica is a great way to soak up some scenery, take in some salty air and learn a little local history. It can be a gentle walk or a generous workout -- depending on whether you use any (or all!) of the four massive staircases that connect the top of the walk to the bottom. 1 Start your walk from the top of the Santa Monica Pier, at the corner of Ocean and Colorado avenues. Join the tourists walking onto the pier, toward the vintage carousel, where Paul Newman worked in "The Sting.

A community group raising money to improve and beautify a stretch of Ocean Avenue won approval from the City Council to give residents an idea of what a proposed widening of parkways on the sides of the street would look like. They just have to use their imaginations. The Trees for Seal Beach Foundation will lay tape 3 feet from the curbs on both sides of the thoroughfare, "narrowing" the street between 1st and Main streets in an effort to also show that traffic can flow at safer speeds.

In another sign that commercial real estate is thawing in choice markets, construction will officially get underway Thursday on a $350-million residential and retail development on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. The complex, called the Village at Santa Monica, which mixes luxury condominiums and affordable apartments, has been in the works for more than six years. The project is being built by New York developer Related Cos. on a 3-acre site once owned by think tank Rand Corp. The Village is the first major residential development to be built on Ocean Avenue in two decades and one of only a few condominium complexes under construction in Los Angeles County.

This beach-and-bluffs walk in Santa Monica is a great way to soak up some scenery, take in some salty air and learn a little local history. It can be a gentle walk or a generous workout -- depending on whether you use any (or all!) of the four massive staircases that connect the top of the walk to the bottom. 1 Start your walk from the top of the Santa Monica Pier, at the corner of Ocean and Colorado avenues. Join the tourists walking onto the pier, toward the vintage carousel, where Paul Newman worked in "The Sting.

City officials have rejected a plan to change the remaining two-way strip of Ocean Avenue to a one-way section. The discussion about this option began in 1985, when city staffers recommended altering the street to create more parking spaces from Forest Avenue to Coast Highway. At that time, the City Council decided to make Ocean Avenue one-way from Forest Avenue to Beach Street.

The city's 18th Annual Holiday Christmas Parade will take place at 7 p.m. Friday. The parade, which will include local businesses, nonprofit groups and marching bands, will move along Main Street, starting at Ocean Avenue. Rain date is Dec. 11.

Parking Plan Scaled Down: The City Council has scaled down a plan to add more parking spaces to the crowded downtown area after store owners voiced fears over possible traffic congestion. Council members on Tuesday rejected a plan to convert Ocean Avenue south of Forest Avenue to a one-way street, allowing for angled parking that would create about 30 new parking spots.

In another sign that commercial real estate is thawing in choice markets, construction will officially get underway Thursday on a $350-million residential and retail development on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. The complex, called the Village at Santa Monica, which mixes luxury condominiums and affordable apartments, has been in the works for more than six years. The project is being built by New York developer Related Cos. on a 3-acre site once owned by think tank Rand Corp. The Village is the first major residential development to be built on Ocean Avenue in two decades and one of only a few condominium complexes under construction in Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles Marathon When: The women's field is scheduled to start at 7:11 a.m. Sunday. The men's field is set to start at 7:28 a.m. Where: The 26.2-mile course starts at Dodger Stadium and heads downtown before stretching into West Hollywood and Beverly Hills and finishing at Ocean Avenue and California Avenue in Santa Monica. On the air: TV: Ch. 5; Radio: 570. Defending men's champion: Wesley Korir of Kenya, who finished last year's race in 2:09:19, the third-fastest time in race history.

Sauntering along the 60-year-old concrete bridge that connects Ocean Avenue and the Santa Monica Pier can be an awkward experience for the millions of visitors who traverse it each year. The bridge's steep pitch, skinny driving lanes and sidewalks, and foot-high curbs pose hurdles and hazards ? especially when a crush of sun-dazzled pedestrians with strollers or beach gear mingle with motorists and cyclists. Squeezed off the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge, pedestrians often find themselves vying with taxis and minivans for space in the roadbed.

This is a neighborhood people hurtle past at 60 miles an hour (though the posted speed is 45), where houses are built just a few yards from a major six-lane highway, yet residents can step out their back gates and walk barefoot to the local restaurant on the beach. The neighborhood starts just north of the pier with tall slivers of houses flaunting their differences.

It's one of Southern California's most rugged spots. It's also one of the most fragile. The abrupt way that the continent comes to an end in Santa Monica with a spectacular, 100-foot cliff that towers over the Pacific Ocean is breathtaking. But the bluff at Palisades Park keeps falling down. And local and federal officials are ready to spend $6 million to keep it standing. Santa Monica city leaders are wrapping up a two-year study they hope will show them how the landmark 1.

To Southern California motorists, Santa Monica these days means clogged freeways and slow surface streets. But it wasn't always that way. Improbable as it may seem now, the seaside city once was a place people went to drive fast.

A robber walked off with about $5,000 in cash after holding up a bank Monday morning, police said. The suspect--described as a white man with a beard in his late 20s, wearing a yellow baseball cap--claimed to be armed but did not show the teller a gun during the 11 a.m. holdup at the Bank of America branch on Ocean Avenue, said Sgt. Greg Bartz. No one was injured in the robbery, he said. The robber fled on foot, authorities said.

Santa Monica police are investigating a possible kidnapping and robbery at a hotel on Ocean Avenue that ended with some arrests being made on the beach. Authorities received a call from a guest of the Seaview Hotel in the 1700 block of Ocean Avenue about 11:40 p.m. Sunday, according to Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis. The caller reported something “going on” in another room, Lewis said, and when officers arrived, they discovered “people fleeing out of the window.” Victims told police they were being kidnapped and robbed, Lewis said, adding there were conflicting statements that investigators are still sorting out. Lewis said two victims were injured and treated at a local hospital.

A community group raising money to improve and beautify a stretch of Ocean Avenue won approval from the City Council to give residents an idea of what a proposed widening of parkways on the sides of the street would look like. They just have to use their imaginations. The Trees for Seal Beach Foundation will lay tape 3 feet from the curbs on both sides of the thoroughfare, "narrowing" the street between 1st and Main streets in an effort to also show that traffic can flow at safer speeds.

A community group's plan to install a tree-lined median along a section of Ocean Avenue has met with some resistance from residents. But the president of the Trees for Seal Beach Foundation said he still hopes a compromise can be worked out. Ocean Avenue residents spoke out against the plan at a meeting Thursday, complaining that a center island would limit their ability to turn left into their driveways.