Santa Monica, CA

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023 - 12 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, CA

"Join us on October 28 from 12 PM to 9 PM for a breathtaking journey into the heart of Dia de los Muertos, right here on the iconic Santa Monica Pier!

"Event Kick-off: Blessing at the West End of the Pier: Experience the spiritual essence of Dia de los Muertos as we commence our celebration with a heartfelt blessing at the picturesque west end of the Santa Monica Pier.

"It's a moment of reflection and connection you won't want to miss.

"Prepare to be amazed by the exquisite altars crafted with love and creativity by the talented Sylvia Sanchez and her family.

"These artistic tributes are a testament to the beauty of Mexican tradition and the memories of loved ones.

"Community Altar: Feel the unity of our community as we come together to create a communal altar. You're invited to contribute your own mementos and tokens in honor of your dearly departed.

"Face Painting: Transform yourself into a living work of art with our Dia de los Muertos face painting stations. Express your inner spirit and adorn your face with stunning designs.

"Live Music: Let the rhythmic beats and soul-stirring melodies of live music fill the air. Get ready to dance, sing, and celebrate life with fantastic performers.

"Food: Savor the flavors of Mexico and beyond with an array of delicious food options. From traditional dishes to modern delights, there's something for every palate.

"Ballet Folklorico: Be enchanted by the captivating movements and colorful costumes of Ballet Folklorico dancers. Their graceful performances will transport you to another world.

"And so much more awaits you at this enchanting celebration! Whether you come to honor your ancestors, immerse yourself in the culture, or simply enjoy a day of festivities, the Santa Monica Pier's Dia de los Muertos Celebration promises an unforgettable experience for all ages.

"Mark your calendars and invite your friends and family to this magical event on the Santa Monica Pier.

"Let's celebrate life, love, and the return of the monarch butterflies together.

"Artistic Altars by Sylvia Sanchez, Yolanda Medina, and their family members, Felipe Sanchez, Leticia Vickers. Sergio Sanchez, Luis Romo, Lisa Montoya, Carmen Q. Rosa, Frank Medina, Dominique Medina, Mateo Rodriquez, Jose Soto, Mia Vickers, Mya Vickers, Josie Avila, Linda Valdez, Olivia Valdez, Alina Servin-Valdez, Natalie Montano, and Antonio Medina."

MORE INFO HERE

--Image: Shutterstock

In an effort to curb the driving habits of its citizens, the Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority is rolling out a new pilot program with the city of Santa Monica. It’s called the “One Car Challenge,” and the program will pay 200 residents of households that have multiple vehicles a weekly stipend to use just one of their cars, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The program will reportedly offer payments of up to $119.80 per week for five weeks starting in November. That comes out to $599 per household, and on top of that, the city is also offering a bonus incentive — a Metro TAP card preloaded with $50, as well as five to 10 free rides on Metro Bike Share. Not too shabby.

The LA Times says the program is part of Metro’s $1.3 million Travel Rewards Research Pilot Program which is being funded by grants from the Federal Transit Administration and Duke University.

If you happen to be one of Santa Monica’s 91,000 residents and you’ve got a bunch of cars but only need to drive one, you have until October 6th to sign up on Metro’s website. It looks like this is a first come, first serve thing, so you'd better act fast if you want in. If the program is deemed a success, Metro reportedly said it could be rolled out to other parts of Los Angeles County.

On the face of it, this seems like a neat program to cut down on driving, but I’m honestly not sure just how much it’ll actually do. It doesn’t put any limits on how much driving folks do with their one car, and you can only drive so many cars at once, anyway. I suppose it remains to be seen if it’ll actually cut down on emissions. Good on LA Country for trying something, though.

Santa Monica has emerged as a leader in California earthquake safety, retrofitting more than half of its seismically vulnerable buildings.

The ambitious effort to tackle upgrades to several types of structures that historically have amplified the death and destruction resulting from a major temblor has made the city a model as more communities grapple with seismic retrofitting.

“It’s pretty impressive how many buildings were retrofit since 2017, especially considering that we were dealing with COVID in the middle of all that,” said Patti Harburg-Petrich, former president of the Structural Engineers Assn. of Southern California.

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, no city took more decisive action than Santa Monica, which despite being 14 miles from the epicenter, was hard-hit, with a loss of 1,500 apartments — or roughly 5% of the city’s stock.

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But a decade ago, it had become clear that Santa Monica’s progress had stumbled. Administrative action to order fixes to quake-vulnerable buildings had stalled. And by 2013, the city couldn’t even find the list it had created of buildings that might be at risk, The Times reported.

That report prompted a new look at seismic safety. By 2017, Santa Monica adopted one of the nation’s most extensive earthquake retrofit plans — ordering again that nearly 2,000 buildings suspected to be vulnerable in earthquakes be retrofitted.

Last month, city officials announced that 1,099 buildings identified as seismically vulnerable are now compliant with the retrofit law.

March 22, 2023

Of the city’s 1,964 buildings initially identified as vulnerable in a quake, five have been demolished. Updated figures show that 599 structures had previously been retrofitted or demolished, and since 2017, 500 more have been made compliant with the seismic safety law, representing 56% of the initial stock of earthquake-vulnerable buildings. An additional 865 buildings have not been retrofitted.

“We’ve made significant progress,” Santa Monica building and safety manager Ariel Socarras said at a recent City Council meeting.

Substantial improvements have been made in retrofitting “soft-story” buildings. They are primarily wood-frame apartment buildings, with carport parking spaces on the ground floor, held up by skinny, flimsy poles that support the apartment units above them. In an earthquake, the top-heavy apartments can come crashing down.

During the Northridge quake, the collapse of a soft-story apartment building resulted in 16 deaths.

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These structures, also known as dingbats, can be retrofitted by installing a steel frame to support the ground story. Of 1,686 soft-story buildings, 495 were retrofitted before the latest law, and an additional 462 have been retrofitted in the last several years. More than 700 still have not been upgraded.

June 23, 2023

Santa Monica has until 2026 to upgrade its soft-story buildings.

More local governments in California have passed seismic retrofit ordinances in the last decade, but most cities still don’t have such laws in place, risking immense property destruction and threats to lives in a future earthquake.

In February, L.A. County took the first step toward a mandatory retrofit order for the types of concrete buildings that catastrophically collapsed in the devastating earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria early this year. These buildings lack a sufficient configuration of reinforcing steel within the concrete frame, allowing chunks of concrete to explode from the columns when shaken, leading to a collapse.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ask officials to prepare new rules that would require county-owned “non-ductile” concrete buildings, as well as any in unincorporated areas, to be retrofitted.

A draft ordinance is expected to be presented to the board for a public hearing later this year, said Elizabeth Vazquez, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Works.

California

April 30, 2023

The supervisors also ordered officials to create an inventory of all soft-story residential buildings in unincorporated areas, where about 1 in 10 L.A. County residents live. The Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles in February expressed opposition to such an inventory, saying doing so would probably cause owners’ insurance premiums to dramatically increase. The group added that landlords were still reeling from the pandemic-era eviction moratorium and rent freeze.

The renewed look at earthquake safety in Southern California comes after a 2013 Times report that focused on the city of Los Angeles and showed how officials knew about the deadly flaw of concrete buildings for decades yet did little to address it. In 2015, the City Council approved a landmark law requiring property owners in L.A. retrofit non-ductile concrete and soft-story buildings.

As of June, L.A. city officials reported that more than 8,900 seismically vulnerable buildings had been retrofitted, out of more than 13,600. Of those, 8,854 soft-story buildings have been upgraded, as have 68 non-ductile concrete structures.

Santa Monica and nearby West Hollywood have issued retrofit orders that go even further than Los Angeles’. Both cities also ordered vulnerable “steel moment frame” buildings to be upgraded.

A popular type of construction in which a building’s skeleton is made of steel beams and columns, such structures built before the mid-1990s can be vulnerable because of brittleness around the connection points.

During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, 25 steel moment frame buildings were significantly damaged, including the Automobile Club of Southern California building in Santa Clarita. That earthquake showed how cracks can form in the frames of these buildings during an earthquake.

A U.S. Geological Survey simulation released in 2008 of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Southern California said it’s plausible that five high-rise steel buildings holding 5,000 people could collapse.

In its most recent report, Santa Monica identified 80 steel moment frame buildings. Eleven have been retrofitted, and two have been strengthened since the latest retrofit law. The deadline is 2037.

Santa Monica officials also found that a little more than half of the city’s identified non-ductile concrete buildings have been retrofitted. Of the 66 buildings in this category, 32 have been upgraded and three others have been strengthened since the latest retrofit law. The deadline is 2027.

Retrofit deadlines have already passed for unreinforced masonry buildings, or brick buildings, as well as for concrete tilt-up buildings such as warehouses — built by tilting up concrete walls that had been made on the ground and attaching them to a roof. They can be vulnerable to collapse if the walls move away from the roof when shaken.

Of Santa Monica’s 90 unreinforced masonry buildings, 72 are compliant with the city’s ordinance; 18 remain to be retrofitted. For tilt-up buildings, of 42 that were identified, 22 are compliant.

June 12, 2021

Another city that recently took action is Torrance. In March, the coastal suburb passed an ordinance requiring soft-story, non-ductile concrete, tilt-up and steel moment frame buildings to be retrofitted. About 1,300 buildings may be affected.

“This has been a long time coming,” Torrance Councilmember Mike Griffiths said, noting the idea has been under discussion since at least 2018. “There is enthusiastic support to move this forward.”

Noting the earthquakes that devastated Turkey and Syria, “we’d certainly want to do what we can to prevent that kind of destruction in our community should — when — that earthquake happens here,” Griffiths said.

Seismologist Lucy Jones said she was heartened by the retrofit progress. “Every building that’s retrofitted is not going to be killing somebody,” she said.

But the dozens of brick and concrete tilt-up buildings that remain vulnerable in Santa Monica are concerning, Jones said. These types of buildings have long been fixed in other jurisdictions, and they’re “the most dangerous types of buildings,” she said.

Santa Monica Councilmember Caroline Torosis expressed similar worries.

“There’s quite a few that still aren’t in compliance,” Torosis said. “We’ve seen these pretty destructive earthquakes happen recently. I think we know that this could happen here. We’re on a fault line.”

There are various estimates for how much building retrofits can cost; in general, the smaller the building, the lower the bill. In 2017, Santa Monica estimated a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per unit to retrofit a typical soft-story building and $50 to $100 per square foot for non-ductile concrete and steel buildings.

In October, an analysis by structural engineer Keith Porter — an expert on California seismic safety issues — calculated that Los Angeles property owners already had spent more than $1.3 billion retrofitting about 8,000 soft-story buildings.

Failing to retrofit and dealing with the damage after a quake, however, could be far costlier, including building repair as well as the loss of rental income.

Other California cities that have implemented retrofit laws for soft-story buildings include Beverly Hills, Culver City and Pasadena in Southern California; and in Northern California, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont and, most recently, the Marin County community of Mill Valley.

At a Mill Valley City Council meeting last month, structural engineer David Bonowitz noted there hasn’t been intense organized opposition to soft-story retrofit laws after they pass.

“Once the ordinance is in place, owners find it easy enough to comply, tenants find that it doesn’t interrupt them,” Bonowitz told the council.

“I don’t want to say that this is cheap, and obviously for some owners, it’s an unexpected expense,” Bonowitz added. But most owners are choosing to do the retrofit rather than ignore the order or abandon their buildings, he said.

San José and Long Beach have ordered inventories of soft-story apartments and are discussing ordinances to require retrofits.

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Updated July 26, 2023.

Work has been completed on the bluff stabilization project and all routes are now open ahead of schedule as of 10:45 a.m. on July 26. Thanks to the community for their patience and to Public Works for their organized, thorough, and quick work on the project!

Recently, the City discovered an unstable portion of the Santa Monica Bluffs located just above the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) between the California Incline and Moomat Ahiko Way.

In order to address the land instability and to ensure safety, the City is proactively performing an emergency removal of the portion identified.

(Two photos side by side. On the left, a close up photo of the Santa Monica Bluffs showing a portion of the bluff with a large crack. On the right, a photo is an aerial view of the bluffs looking north. The bluff with a crack is in the foreground. Embedded in the left photo are text boxes indicating the Santa Monica Veterans Memorial, the Pacific Coast Highway, the PCH/Arizona Pedestrian Bridge, Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.)

The bluff removal will require a temporary early morning closure of all lanes of northbound PCH and in connection westbound I-10, in addition to a temporary overnight and morning closure of the Moomat Ahiko Way on-ramp from Ocean Avenue to PCH.

The southbound PCH will remain open, and the eastbound I-10 will remain open.

TIMELINE

DETOURS

Download a PDF version of the map here.

A detour route is available via the I-10 westbound Lincoln Boulevard exit, using either Wilshire or Santa Monica west to Ocean Avenue, then northbound Ocean to the northbound California Incline to PCH. See the below map.

Traffic impacts will be monitored throughout the closure. Additional detours may be implemented to safely facilitate reroutes and mitigate traffic back-ups. In addition, all persons exiting Santa Monica Beach Parking Lots 7 North, 6 North, 5 North, 4 North, 3 North will only be able to turn right onto southbound PCH during the closure time.

Residents and businesses in the impacted zone along PCH between the California Incline and Santa Monica Pier should expect the following construction impacts:

Big Blue Bus will offer free rides during the closures, to help keep riders moving and minimize traffic delays in Santa Monica. On Wednesday, July 26, 2023, Big Blue Bus customers can board any bus for free all day. Big Blue Bus will resume fare collection on Thursday, July 27, 2023.

Authored By

Selim Eren Principal Civil Engineer

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The huge fissure running down the bluffs above Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica is hard to miss and was likely caused by heavy rains that soaked Southern California earlier this year, according to city officials.

Months after the rain stopped, a portion of the bluffs appears to be in danger of crashing down onto the roadway below.

The city will close some lanes of the highway Tuesday night to remove 2,000 to 4,000 cubic feet of earth as crews break away the soil column that has detached from the bluffs, said Rick Valte, the director of the Santa Monica Public Works Department.

Read more: Here's where California’s cliffs are collapsing into the sea the fastest

Crews expect to use a giant crane with a clamshell attachment to break away the damaged portion of the cliffside and 10 to 15 dump trucks will haul away 200 to 300 tons of soil, Valte said.

"The heavy rains that occurred in December and January likely caused the development of the crack in the bluffs," Valte said. The city is unsure whether the area is unstable or poses an immediate risk, but rather than risk the column falling onto Pacific Coast Highway, the project will break off the area from the base to the top of the column, according to Valte.

The problem area, which is near the Santa Monica Veterans Memorial and the Arizona Avenue Pedestrian Bridge over PCH, was identified by the city last month during a survey of all the bluffs in the area, Valte said.

Another, smaller portion of the bluffs farther north sloughed off in January due to the heavy rains, Valte said. After the city addressed it, a survey team assessed the bluffs in the city limits to see whether there were any other problem areas and the team identified the bluffs near the veterans memorial, according to Valte.

Read more: Forced from homes by Rolling Hills Estates landslide, weary residents could wait weeks for answers

Northbound lanes of PCH and the Moomat Ahiko Way on-ramp from Ocean Avenue will be closed starting at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. The westbound 10 Freeway through PCH at the California Incline will close at 2 a.m. Wednesday. All routes are scheduled to reopen by noon Wednesday, principal civil engineer Selim Eren said in a news release Monday. Detours will be in effect for the Wednesday morning commute around PCH, so travelers can expect some delays on Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, Ocean Avenue and the California Incline, according to the city.

The problem was first reported by photographer and studio executive Suzanne Yankovic. She shared a video on Instagram showing a large gap separating a section of the bluff.

"I noticed this crack from the bluffs, seems precarious fyi," she wrote in her post. Yankovic, who is married to musician and parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic, posted the video July 13.

Read more: Amid crumbling cliffs, Orange County considers moving its famously scenic rail line inland

Yankovic and her friend, celebrity hairstylist Sean James, contacted Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath's office for assistance, but they learned that the bluffs are in Santa Monica's jurisdiction.

James tried to flag the issue on social media, but did not get an immediate response, and it was only after Horvath's office was contacted that the city contacted him. He doesn't know exactly how much his involvement spurred the city's response, but he's glad that something is being done.

"I love seeing things in action," James said in an interview. "When I saw the crack, it was obvious that something was going to inevitably happen. This monolith was looming over PCH and I love that road. I drive through almost every day. But it's also a dangerous road. If something is to roll down the hill, well, you really have nowhere to go."