City Style With Laid-Back Ocean Atmosphere : Ocean Park: Hilly Santa Monica community with trendy shops is called ‘San Francisco in Los Angeles’ by residents.
When Ocean Park resident Dorothy King steps out on her veranda in the morning, she is welcomed by a dreamlike vista. Past the green leaves of a huge palm tree she overlooks the Pacific Ocean, its waves still veiled by cotton-like mist.
Although just eight blocks south of bustling Wilshire Boulevard, the community of Ocean Park in the southwest corner of Santa Monica has beach-town atmosphere. Often described by residents as “San Francisco in Los Angeles,” Ocean park boasts hilly terrain, cool breezes, galleries, sidewalk cafes and trendy shops. Charming turn-of-the-century Victorian homes contrast with contemporary, resort-style condos.
“You find a combination of city living and the laid-back feeling of a small town here,” King said. “It’s a pleasant neighborhood to walk in, and everything is in walking distance. I hardly take my car out of the garage.”
King, 71, moved to Ocean Park in June with her dog, Pauley. The retired high school English and history teacher sold her house in West Virginia, shipped her furniture and found a new home in Ocean Park.
She paid $145,000 for a newly remodeled one-bedroom, 720 square-foot condominium on Fourth Street. The three-story condo complex has elevators and a swimming pool. “I got more for the dollar here than every other place,” King said.
Less than one square mile in size, Ocean Park is bounded by Pico Boulevard on the north, by Marine Street on the south, by Lincoln Boulevard on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. The middle- to upper-middle class community’s more than 11,000 residents are primarily Anglo with Latinos as second largest group.
Among beach-goers and surfers, the area is best known for its white sandy shores. Gourmets from all over Los Angeles flock to Ocean Park for upscale restaurants like Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois, Rockenwagner’s and Gilliland’s Cafe.
Tree-lined Main Street is the community’s commercial and cultural heart. It features a charming collection of architectural styles that tell about Ocean Park’s rich history.
Starting out as a sleepy colony of summer homes in the late 1800s, the community soon emerged as the most popular beach resort in Southern California. Once the Santa Fe Railroad extended its tracks to the area in 1892, sun-seeking tourists and profit-seeking investors swarmed the area. By 1900, Ocean Park was booming, featuring an amusement wharf, golf links, business buildings, a school and even a race track.
Visionaries among the community’s then 750 residents planned to show the world a model city. Activist Dana Burks, in an interview with The Times in September, 1903, said: “We propose to make Ocean Park the best lighted city in the United States. . . . Pure food regulations will be enforced strictly. . . . City officials will serve without pay.”
Within a couple of years, real estate prices jumped from a few dollars an acre to $15,000 for a small lot. California bungalows, practical little homes on a tiny plot of land, shot up like mushrooms in Ocean Park. Soon the popular bungalow became the symbol of the good, middle-class life many Easterners hoped to find in Southern California.
First-time buyer Chris Meloni paid $530,000 two years ago for his California bungalow just one block from the beach. The 32-year-old actor, who played Frank Fanelli on the NBC show “The Fanelli Boys” and just finished the movie “Clean Slate” with Dana Carvey, immediately fell in love with the 1907 home.
“I looked for a unique house in a unique neighborhood. I found both in Ocean Park. There are only four blocks like this in Los Angeles,” Meloni said.
“I enjoy jogging and bicycling at the beach or the lazy stroll down Main Street. It has a really neighborhood feeling to it. We even close off our street once a year and have a block party with a barbecue and pony rides for the kids.”
The community’s Bohemian ambience has long attracted a wide variety of people. “Heterogeneity is the catchword for Ocean Park,” said Adam Blumenstein, realtor with Jon Douglas Properties Estates. Home prices range from $99,000 for a one-bedroom, fixer-upper condominium to $1.2 million for a contemporary beachfront villa. An average single-family home currently sells for about $360,000. The median price for a condo runs about $225,000.
The diversity of the real estate reflects the diversity in the community. “Ocean Park has an edge to it because it is a mixed neighborhood. That makes it interesting to live here,” said Daphne Dennis, who moved to Ocean Park 13 years ago.
Dennis, a social services planner for the City of West Hollywood, and her husband, John Given, a real estate planner for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, paid $240,000 for a two-bedroom, 2,500 square-foot California bungalow on Sixth Street in 1980.
The 1915 bungalow’s cornered back yard serves as playground for Samantha, the couple’s 6-year-old daughter. “She is a real outdoor kid,” said Dennis. “She plays soccer in the local parks and roller-blades at the beach. We are lucky to live in a community where Samantha and her friends can do all that.”
Samantha is a first-grader at the Santa Monica Alternative School House (S.M.A.S.H.), one of Ocean Park’s two public elementary schools. “We chose S.M.A.S.H. mainly because of its smallness and the community involvement. The 180 students are like a family. We love it, “ said Dennis. The alternative school house offers cross-grade-level grouping and written evaluations instead of letter grades.
A more traditional approach is found at John Muir Elementary School, which Diane Goodwin, a strategic planner in her 30s, and her husband, Browne, a consultant for Metrorail, chose for their son Daniel.
Daniel is a fourth grader at Muir, one of the smallest schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. “John Muir is a fine school, enriched by the economic and cultural diversity of the community,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin rented in Ocean Park for several years and moved to a condo in the community before buying the a turn-of-the-century Craftsman home with a back yard six weeks after her son was born in 1984.
“Ocean Park has a wonderful mix of people. It’s not only diverse but intellectually stimulating. People here are real, not superficial,” said Goodwin. “There is a sense of community to preserve Ocean Park. We never even thought about moving away.”
The same is true for longtime Ocean Park resident Evelyn Williams, 73. She’s lived in the community since 1946, when her family left a coal-mining town in Ohio in search for a better life.
“Ocean Park has always been great. When we came here right after the war, we were into dancing,” Williams said. “Ocean Park Pier with its casinos, clubs and big bands was the place to go. I still enjoy walking along the beach.”
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In 1959, Williams and her husband, Kenneth, a salesman for Wonder Bread, bought a two-story, four-bedroom Victorian for $22,500. “I loved the house the moment I set foot in it. It has a feeling of stability that is characteristic for Ocean Park,” Williams said. “Even nowadays I know all my neighbors.”
Close-knit contacts among neighbors are the reason for the slight downward trend of crime in Ocean Park while crime is up nationwide.
“We actively promote Neighborhood Watch programs and encourage people to get to know their neighbors. In Ocean Park, residents and businesses are very involved in the prevention of robberies and burglaries,” said Gary Gallinot, chief’s adjutant with the Santa Monica Police Department. One problem remains the homeless, who committed almost 40% of the robberies and burglaries in the community last year, he said.
Williams, who raised her children in Ocean Park and now watches her grandchildren grow up here, still feels safe. “I leave my door open like in 1946 when I first came to Ocean Park. Where else can you do that?” she asked.
At a Glance
Population 1993 estimate: 6,178 1980-90 change: 1.9%
Annual income Per capita: 35,275 Median household: 44,909
Household distribution Less than $30,000: 23.1% $30,000 - $60,000: 27.7% $60,000 - $100,000: 29.3% $100,000 - $150,000: 11.2% $150,000 +: 8.6%
