Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Yuma County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the 2014 estimated population of the Yuma MSA is 203,247. More than 85,000 retirees make Yuma their winter residence. Yuma is in the Sonoran Desert, Yuma Desert sub-region; the area's first settlers for thousands of years were historic tribes. Their descendants now occupy the Quechan reservations. In 1540, Spanish colonial expeditions under Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz visited the area and recognized the natural crossing of the Colorado River as an ideal spot for a city; the Colorado River narrows to under 1,000 feet wide in one area. Military expeditions that crossed the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing include Juan Bautista de Anza, the Mormon Battalion and the California Column.
During and after the California Gold Rush to the late 1870s, the Yuma Crossing was known for its ferry crossings for the Southern Emigrant Trail. This was considered the gateway to California, as it was one of the few natural spots where travelers could cross the otherwise wide Colorado River. Following the United States establishing Fort Yuma, two towns developed one mile downriver; the one on the California side was called Jaeger City, named after the owner of Jaeger's Ferry, which crossed the river there. It was for a time the larger of the two, with the Butterfield Overland Mail office and station, two blacksmiths, a hotel, two stores, other dwellings; the other was called Colorado City. Developed on the south side of the river in what is now Arizona by speculator Charles Poston, it was the site of the custom house; when started, it was just north of the border between Mexican-ruled Sonora and California. After the Gadsden Purchase by the United States, the town bordered on the Territory of New Mexico.
This area was designated as the Territory of Arizona in 1863. The Colorado City site at the time was duly registered in San Diego; the county of San Diego collected taxes from there for many years. From 1853 a smaller settlement, Arizona City, grew up on the high ground across from the fort and was organized under the name of its post office in 1858, it had two stores and two saloons. Colorado City and Jaeger City were completely destroyed by the Great Flood of 1862 and had to be rebuilt on higher ground. At that time Colorado City became part of Arizona City, it took the name Yuma in 1873. From 1854, Colorado City was the major steamboat stop for traffic down the Colorado River. After the 1862 flood, it became part of Arizona City; the steamboats transported passengers and equipment for the various mines and military outposts along the Colorado. They offloaded the cargo from ships at the mouth of the Colorado River at Robinson's Landing and from 1864 at Port Isabel. From 1864, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot, today a state historic park, supplied all forts in present-day Arizona, as well as large parts of Colorado and New Mexico.
After Arizona became a separate territory, Yuma became the county seat for Yuma County in 1871, replacing La Paz, the first seat. The Southern Pacific Railroad bridged the river in 1877, acquired George Alonzo Johnson's Colorado Steam Navigation Company, the only steamboat company on the river. Yuma became the new base of navigation on the river, ending the need for Port Isabel, abandoned in 1879; the warehouses and shipyard there were moved to Yuma. The city of Yuma operates as a charter city under the Charter of the City of Yuma; the elected government of the city is the City Council which follows the mayor–council government system and whose members include: The Mayor of the City of Yuma acts as the chief executive officer of the city, is elected for a period of four years. The mayor is elected from the city at large; the mayor has the following powers and responsibilities: act as an ex officio chairman of the city council and preside over meetings, administer oaths and issue proclamations.
The mayor is recognized as the official head of the city by the courts and has the power to take command of the police and govern the city by proclamation during times of great danger. The City of Yuma City Council is the governing body of the City of Yuma and is vested with all powers of legislation in municipal affairs; the council is composed of six council members elected from the city at large for four-year terms, as well as the Mayor of Yuma. A deputy mayor is elected by the Council who shall act as Mayor during the temporary absence of the mayor; the current council members are Gary Knight, Leslie McClendon, Jacob Miller, Edward Thomas, Mike Shelton, Karen Watts. The next election is the August 2019 Primary for the three city council seats that are held by Miller and Shelton; the City Council appoints a city administrator who acts as the chief administrative officer of the city. The city administrator is directly responsible to the City Council for the administration of all city affairs placed in his charge by the City Charter, or by ordinances passed by the Council.
Some of the administrator's duties include: see that all laws and provisions of the City Charter are faithfully executed and submit the annual budget and capital
Big Wednesday
Big Wednesday is a 1978 American coming of age film directed by John Milius. Written by Milius and Dennis Aaberg, it is loosely based on their own experiences at Malibu; the picture stars Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, Gary Busey as California surfers facing life and the Vietnam War against the backdrop of their love of surfing. The film tells the story of three young friends; the friends include: a self-destructive type who has a devil-may-care attitude. Their surfing lives are traced from the summer of 1962 to their attempts of dodging the Vietnam War draft in 1965, to the end of their innocence in 1968 when one of their friends is killed in Vietnam; the three make the difficult transition to adulthood with parties, surf trips and the war. The friends reunite years after Barlowe has served in Vietnam, for the "Great Swell of'74." With this reunion, the transition in their lives becomes the end point of what the 1960s meant to so many as they see that the times have changed, what was a time of innocence is gone forever.
Raised in Southern California, Milius made Big Wednesday as an homage to the time he spent in Malibu during his youth. Milius and his friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg famously agreed to exchange a percentage point of Big Wednesday, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind prior to the release of the three films throughout 1977-1978. Spielberg in particular was certain that Big Wednesday was going to be a box office hit, opining it was like "American Graffiti meets Jaws", two of the decade's most successful films. Milius wrote the script with journalist Denny Aaberg, it was inspired by a short story Aaberg had published in a 1974 Surfer Magazine entitled "No Pants Mance", the lives of a group of friends who used to surf with Aaberg and Milius including Lance Carson."A lot of things happened to me," said Milius. "A lot of the characters in another sense none of them are me. It took an awful long time to write the script, it is so personal. It's about growing up and relationships and the surf is the exotic background.
We all knew it was special, we knew. And we knew. Surfing is a strange thing. A lot of people never leave it. You always feel, it was a central experience in our lives. It's all changed now."Milius and Aaberg interviewed a lot of their friends from the 1960s. "It was a special time," said Aaberg of the 1960s. "Surfing was a brand new sport with its own aristocracy."Aaberg says "it took about a year to write" the script. "We much want it to be authentic. That's important to me. So's John.""Because I surfed, I'm the only director in the world who could have made his picture," said Milius. "And I can tell you, it's so hard, no one will make it again."Milius said in a 1976 interview: It's a surfing HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY: the loss of an aristocracy, the end of an era, the passing of a more innocent time to a more corrupt and complex one-all growing up is the passing of innocence. It's based on the lives of three friends ten years ago. It's about their friendship, the value of friendship. I don't think; this movie is about friendship: surfing is just the background.
It's about love of a place, love of a time, love of your human contacts, the loss of those things. It's the most personal film I'll ever make, I figured I ought to do it now, before I get too far away from it. At least half the people who participated are dead now; the attrition rate among surfers is high. A lot of them died in OD'd on dope. Milius and producer Feitshans had met at American International Pictures, where they worked on Dillinger, they formed The A Team. This was their first production, they obtained finance from Warner Bros in June 1976. The following month it was announced Big Wednesday would be postponed because it was not ready and Milius would instead make Extreme Prejudice. "I've been working on Big Wednesday a long time," Milius said. "I don't want to put it off any further but I don't want to work on it until its ready either."However Milius changed his mind again. "John has fallen in love and is getting married and that's opened up this other side of him," said star William Katt.
"He was going to do another gun and guts macho fight film but he decided to do this. "But I couldn't," he said. "The part is too big for me to do."Barbara Hale, mother of William Katt, plays a small role in the film. A 1940s film star but best known as Della Street from the long-running Perry Mason television series, this was Hale's last appearance in a feature film. "It was the most personal film I'd done," said Katt. "I'd lived that life since I was ten."Milius recalled: When I did Big Wednesday my first impressions were that I was going to do this coming-of-age story with Arthurian overtones about surfers that nobody took their troubled lives made larger than life by their experience with the sea. And that's, it never strayed from that. There was a lot of pressure to make it more like Animal House, but the movie has a huge following now because it did have loftier ambitions, it wasn't just a story about somebody trying to ride something. That’s not enou
Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures beach party film, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher. It is the fifth, best-known, film in the beach party film series; the film starred Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Linda Evans, Deborah Walley, Paul Lynde, Don Rickles. Earl Wilson and Buster Keaton appear. Evans's singing voice was dubbed by Jackie Ward. A singer, Sugar Kane, is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent, for example, faking a skydiving stunt performed by Bonnie. Meanwhile, takes up skydiving at Bonnie's prompting. This, of course, prompts Dee Dee to try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper and his Rat Pack bikers show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. To top all this, Bonehead falls in love with a mermaid named Lorelei. Von Zipper "puts the snatch" on Sugar Kane, in a Perils of Pauline-like twist, the evil South Dakota Slim kidnaps Sugar and ties her to a buzz-saw. Cast notesBeach Blanket Bingo was Frankie Avalon's last "starring role" in the beach party films.
He appears for only a few minutes in the next film, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, not at all in the last film, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Donna Michelle, who portrays Animal, was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year for 1964. Bobbi Shaw, again is playing her "ya" Swedish bombshell part. Though this was Rickles' fourth film in the series, it's the only one in which he stepped out of his character in one scene and does a little of his night-club act, tossing some barbs at the characters, notably asking why Avalon and Funicello were in the picture, teasing "You're 40 years old!" Cast and character changesThe part of Sugar Kane, played by Linda Evans, was intended for Nancy Sinatra. This change was due in part to the fact that the plot involved a kidnapping, somewhat reminiscent of her brother Frank Sinatra, Jr.'s kidnapping a few months before shooting began and it made her uncomfortable causing her to drop out. Elsa Lanchester was announced for a small role off the back of her performance in Pajama Party but does not appear in the final film.
The character of "Deadhead" in Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, is now called "Bonehead" in this film, as AIP had decided the term "Deadhead" was a so-called'bankable noun' and had decided to cast Avalon as the title character of their upcoming Sergeant Deadhead. The Rat Pack leader character Eric Von Zipper is given more screen time than before in this third film, he gets to sing his own song titled "Follow Your Leader". John Ashley, who played "Ken" in Beach Party, "Johnny" in both Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, returns in this film as "Steve," playing opposite his real-life wife Deborah Walley. Deleted sequences and songsAfter the sequence wherein Frankie sings “These Are The Good Times”:Dee Dee leaves the beach club and sings “I’ll Never Change Him” by herself at the beach house. After Frankie completes his skydiving jump:Bonehead asks Frankie if Lorelei and himself can double-date with Frankie and Dee Dee; as seen in the release print, the two couples arrive together at the beach club as the Hondells are performing “The Cycle Set.”Movie tie-inDell Comics published a 12 cent comic book version of Beach Blanket Bingo in conjunction with the movie's release.
The score for this fifth film, like the four preceding it, was composed by Les Baxter. Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner wrote seven songs for the film: “Beach Blanket Bingo” - sung by Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello with the cast “I Think You Think” - performed by Avalon and Funicello “These Are the Good Times” - sung by Avalon “It Only Hurts When I Cry” - sung by Donna Loren “Follow Your Leader” - sung by Harvey Lembeck with the “Rat Pack” “New Love” and “Fly Boy” – both sung by studio call vocalist Jackie Ward off-screen – and lip-synched by Linda Evans onscreen. Gary Usher and Roger Christian wrote three songs: “Cycle Set” - performed by the Hondells “Freeway” - performed by the Hondells “I'll Never Change Him” - performed by Annette Funicello, although this song was included in initial prints, it was excised for wide release when the decision was made to feature the song as "We'll Never Change Them" in Ski Party Dell Movie Classic: Beach Blanket Bingo Frankie Avalon recalled, "'That's the picture of mine that I think people remember best, it was just a lot of kids having a lot of fun -- a picture about young romance and about the opposition of adults and old people.
There's nothing that young people respond to more than when adults say, `These kids are nuts,` and that's what this movie was about. It was fun because we got to learn how to fake skydive out of an airplane." The title of this film inspired the title for Steve Silver's 1974 play, Beach Blanket Babylon, which
Tanya Roberts
Victoria Leigh Blum, known by the stage name Tanya Roberts, is an American actress and producer. She rose to prominence as Julie Rogers in the final season of Charlie's Angels in 1980, she is known for her role as Kiri in The Beastmaster, Stacey Sutton in the James Bond film A View to a Kill, as Midge Pinciotti on That'70s Show. Roberts was born in 1955 in the Bronx, New York City, the second child of her father, of Irish descent, a Jewish mother, she has Barbara. Roberts' father supported their family on a modest income, working as a fountain pen salesman in Manhattan. Roberts and her sister were raised in the central Bronx, she relocated from New York with her mother to live in Toronto for several years, where she started formulating a photo portfolio and laying plans for a career. At age 15, she lived for a while hitchhiking across the United States, she returned to New York City and became a fashion and cover model. After meeting psychology student Barry Roberts, she proposed to him in a subway station and they were soon married.
While Barry pursued a career as a screenwriter, she began to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen under the name Tanya Roberts. Her career began as a model in TV ads for Excedrin, Ultra Brite and Cool Ray sunglasses, she played serious roles in the off-Broadway productions Antigone. She supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor, her film debut was the horror film Forced Entry. This was followed by the comedy film The Yum-Yum Girls. In 1977, as her husband was securing his own screenwriting career, the couple moved to Hollywood; the following year, Roberts participated in the drama Fingers. In 1979 Roberts appeared in the cult movie Tourist Trap, in Racquet, California Dreaming. Roberts was featured in several television pilots that were not picked up: Zuma Beach, Pleasure Cove, Waikiki. Roberts was chosen in the summer of 1980 from some 2000 candidates to replace Shelley Hack in the fifth season of the detective television series, Charlie's Angels on ABC. Roberts played a streetwise fighter who used her fists more than her gun.
Producers hoped Roberts' presence would revitalize the series' declining ratings and regenerate media interest in the series. Before the season's premiere, Roberts was featured on the cover of People magazine with a headline asking if Roberts would be able to save the declining series from cancellation. Despite the hype Roberts's debut had received, her premiere episode in November 1980 drew dismal ratings; the series was thereafter moved to several different timeslots on the broadcast schedule, causing viewership to drop as the season progressed. After just 16 episodes of a fifth season, the series had drastically slipped to 59th in the ratings out of just 65 shows and was cancelled in June 1981. Roberts played Kiri in the adventure fantasy film The Beastmaster, she was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy to help promote the movie, appearing on that issue's October 1982 cover. In 1983, Roberts filmed the Italian-made adventure fantasy film Hearts and Armour, based on the medieval novel Orlando Furioso.
She portrayed Velda, a buxom secretary to private detective Mike Hammer in the television movie Murder Me, Murder You. The two-part pilot spawned Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, she declined to continue the role in the Mike Hammer series to work on her next project, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. The movie was a box office and critical disaster, garnering her a nomination for "Worst Actress" at the Razzie Awards. Roberts subsequently appeared as a geologist, in A View to a Kill, she again found. Other 1980s films include an erotic thriller. Roberts starred in Inner Sanctum alongside Margaux Hemingway. In 1992, she played Kay Egan in Sins of Desire, she appeared on the cable series, Hot Line in 1994. In 1998, Roberts took the role of Midge Pinciotti on the television sitcom That'70s Show. Roberts revealed on E! True Hollywood Story that she left the series in 2001 because her husband had become terminally ill, she wrote the foreword to The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels. Roberts was married to husband Barry Roberts from 1974 until his death in 2006.
They had no children. Roberts resides in California. Official website Tanya Roberts on IMDb Tanya Roberts at the TCM Movie Database Tanya Roberts at AllMovie
Baby Blue Marine
Baby Blue Marine is a 1976 Metrocolor film set during World War II, directed by John D. Hancock, it stars Glynnis O'Connor. The feature film was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, both of whom were better known for their television work.. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2½ out of 4 stars. Marion “Hedge” Hedgepeth, a Marine recruit during World War II, washes out in basic training in San Diego, he is sent home in an unadorned baby blue uniform, leftover military surplus, as most recruits sent their civilian clothes home, thus the derogatory designation Baby Blue Marine. Traveling by bus to his home in St. Louis, Hedge meets a Marine Raider veteran at a stopover; the young, battle-scarred and decorated Marine has aged beyond his years with prematurely gray hair. As the Raider doesn't wish to return to the war, he knocks out Hedge and trades uniforms with him. Now penniless, with only the Raider uniform for clothing, Hedge hitchhikes towards St. Louis, he enters the idyllic small town of Bidwell, below Mount Shasta.
His uniform’s decorations and Raider shoulder-sleeve insignia make him a hero to the community, whose own young men are away at the war. At the local diner, Hedge is befriended by waitress Rose, a recent high school graduate, Mr. Elmore, a local who lost his son in the attack on Pearl Harbor, he meets Army Private Danny Phelps, a neebish local who just finished basic training and is awaiting assignment to the army typing pool. Rose invites Hedge to stay with her family for a few days, where Hedge bunks with her brother, Barney. Rose and Hedge fall in love, he tells her the truth of his story, saying that he has chosen to stay quiet because he does not want the real Raider to get in trouble for deserting; when three American-born teenaged boys escape from a local Japanese American internment camp, the camp’s small and inexperienced army troop is joined by the locals in searching the woods. Mr. Elmore reminds everyone that these are young American citizens, but some of the locals Private Phelps, seem hellbent on killing the “Japs”.
Hedge finds the boys first, they admit that they are sick of being unfairly held and are trying to get home to San Francisco. Phelps spots the scene from a nearby ridge and shoots, hitting Hedge, who falls into the rapids of a rushing mountain stream; the Japanese-American boys, aided by Mr. Elmore and a repentant Phelps save the bleeding Hedge from drowning. Thinking he might die, Hedge tells Rose to tell everyone his true story; when the war ends, Hedge returns to Bidwell and Rose, having served as a corporal under General Patton in the U. S. Third Army. Baby Blue Marine was shot in Siskiyou County, California. Most elements were filmed in McCloud, California with the scene at a local football game filmed in Weed, California at the high school. A couple of scenes were shot at mainside at Camp Pendelton, it showed one of the rare times. Other elements were shot in Hollywood. Vincent stars in Tribes, another film that features the Marine Corps. Baby Blue Marine on IMDb Baby Blue Marine at Rotten Tomatoes Baby Blue Marine at AllMovie Baby Blue Marine at the TCM Movie Database Baby Blue Marine at the American Film Institute Catalog
Avila Beach, California
Avila Beach is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, United States, located on San Luis Obispo Bay about 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles, about 200 miles south of San Francisco. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Avila Beach as a census-designated place; the census definition of the area may not correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name. The population was 1,627 at the 2010 census; the name Avila commemorates Miguel Ávila, granted Rancho San Miguelito in 1842. The town was established in the latter half of the 19th century, when it served as the main shipping port for San Luis Obispo. Around this time, Luigi Marre built a honeymoon hotel here and steamboats brought customers from San Francisco and Los Angeles. Although Avila Beach still has a working commercial fishing pier and the inland areas have extensive apple orchards, tourism is now the main industry. There are few historical structures remaining. In the late 1990s, Unocal began the cleanup of decades old oil seepage discovered years earlier from corroding pipes under the township, which had caused a massive oil spill under the town.
Over 6,750 truckloads of contaminated material was sent to a Bakersfield landfill, replaced with clean Guadalupe Dunes sand. Many of the town's homes and businesses, including several blocks of Front Street, were razed as a result of the quarter-mile-wide excavation. New buildings, businesses, modern walkways and sea motif walls and benches have been constructed; the beach is less than 0.5 miles long and sheltered in San Luis Bay, formed by Point San Luis on the west and Fossil Point on the east. Avila Beach faces south and the 600 foot elevation of Point San Luis breaks the prevailing northwesterly winds, it is therefore warmer than the other beaches on the Central Coast. Most of Avila Beach is undeveloped, except for a few blocks adjacent to the beach with homes and small businesses, a few upscale housing developments inland near a golf course. Avila Beach is known for its hot springs, which are used for resort spas. U. S. Route 101 and State Highway 1 bypass this part of the coastline to the east in favor of a more direct route from Pismo Beach north to San Luis Obispo.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 6.0 square miles, 99.71% of it land, 0.29% of it water. Average temperatures vary little during the year, ranging from 47–49 °F to 70–72 °F from November through April, from 60–69 °F to 80–82 °F from May through October. Average annual rainfall is 15 inches. Along with much of the California coast, winter is the wet season, with more than 70% of the yearly rain falling from December through March, while summer brings drought conditions; the 2010 United States Census reported that Avila Beach had a population of 1,627. The population density was 269.9 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Avila Beach was 1,507 White, 13 African American, 7 Native American, 33 Asian, 0 Pacific Islander, 34 from other races, 33 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 111 persons; the Census reported that 1,627 people lived in households, 0 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 0 were institutionalized. There were 842 households, out of which 115 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 416 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 39 had a female householder with no husband present, 16 had a male householder with no wife present.
There were 36 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 14 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 296 households were made up of individuals and 108 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.93. There were 471 families; the population was spread out with 183 people under the age of 18, 74 people aged 18 to 24, 263 people aged 25 to 44, 597 people aged 45 to 64, 510 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 56.9 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.0 males. There were 1,093 housing units at an average density of 181.3 per square mile, of which 529 were owner-occupied, 313 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.1%. 1,074 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 553 people lived in rental housing units. Avila Beach has three piers: Avila Beach Pier, 1,685 feet in length, is closed to tourist strolling and recreational fishing. In recent years, the pier has become a site for whale watching as numbers of grays and humpback whales come into bays around the pier to feed and draw crowds during the seasons.
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the last remaining nuclear power plant in California, is located in a remote part of the Avila Beach unincorporated area, about 6 miles northwest of the beach itself. The Avila Beach Pier was featured in a Super Bowl advertisement on February 7, 2010. Avila Beach was the primary shooting location for the 1979 film California Dreaming, which sta
Santa Monica State Beach
Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of Santa Monica. The beach is located along Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, it is 3.5 miles long and has parks, picnic areas, restrooms, as well as manned lifeguard stations, the original Muscle Beach, bike rentals, concessions, a few hotels, a bike path, wooden pathways for warm days and beachgoers with disabilities. Visitor activities include volleyball, stand up paddleboarding, swimming. Smoking at the beach is prohibited. At the foot of Colorado Avenue, through the famous arch and sign, lies the historic Santa Monica Pier, which dates from 1909; the pier has a National Historic. A few steps south of the Pier volleyball courts is the International Chess Park; the public chess tables—and a human-scale chessboard set into the sidewalk—draw a wide assortment of players. Palisades Park is located atop Santa Monica’s famed sandstone cliffs, providing a vantage point to see the sweep of Santa Monica Beach and the Pacific Ocean.
The beach is the one Baywatch was filmed at and the beach the album art for Umbrella Beach by Owl City features. The beach will host beach surfing during the 2028 Summer Olympics. A section of the beach was referred to as "Ink Well" and "Negro Beach" in the early 20th century when it was one of the few areas in California where African Americans were allowed to enjoy beach access in a segregated society. Other areas for blacks were Bruce's Beach in Manhattan Beach and the Pacific Beach Club in Orange County. Nick Gabaldon, one of the first black surfers in California, lived in Santa Monica, used the 200 foot roped off stretch of beach demarcated for blacks, he died after crashing into the Malibu Pier. Arlington West is a temporary memorial created on Santa Monica Beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier at Santa Monica, every Sunday from sunrise to sunset. Crosses are placed on the beach for each U. S. military person who has died in the Iraq War. The number of crosses erected every Sunday now exceeds 4,000.
For military personnel killed within the week past, flag draped coffins with blue crosses are positioned in front. The Arlington West Memorial, a project of Veterans For Peace, is intended to offer visitors a graceful and powerful, place for reflection. Snowy Plovers nest on the beach; the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has developed a safe eating advisory for fish caught in the Santa Monica Beach based on levels of mercury or PCBs found in local species. Official Santa Monica State Beach webpage - City of Santa Monica Santa Monica State Beach Santa Monica Pier — Pier located on Santa Monica Beach Muscle Beach — Portion of Santa Monica Beach south of the pier, the site of gymnastics exhibitions and bodybuilding Santa Monica Pier Aquarium — Aquarium on the pier operated by Heal the Bay, known as the Ocean Discovery Center Pacific Park — the amusement park portion of the pier Hot Dog on a Stick — original, opened in 1946, found on the sidewalk just south of the pier in front the original Muscle Beach Pacific Ocean Park — former amusement park one pier south of Santa Monica Pier.
