Ballona Lagoon

Silicon Beach is the Westside region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area that is home to more than 500 technology companies, including startups. It is particularly applied to the coastal strip from Los Angeles International Airport north to the Santa Monica Mountains, but the term may be applied loosely or colloquially to most anywhere in the Los Angeles Basin. Startups seeded here include Snapchat and Tinder. Major technology companies that opened offices in the region including Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, BuzzFeed, Facebook, Salesforce, AOL, Electronic Arts, Sony, EdgeCast Networks, MySpace, Amazon.com, Apple, Inc., and Netflix. By some 2012 metrics, the region was the second or third-most prominent technology hub in the world. In the first six months of 2013, 94 new start-ups in Silicon Beach raised over $500 million in funding, and there were nine acquisitions.The area offers relatively easy access to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), the biggest and most connected airport in western North America.As in the San Francisco Bay Area, the influx of technology companies has boosted home and office rents and real estate prices in Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Westchester, Santa Monica, and Venice, already high previously due to beachfront location. The effects are also spilling over into Marina del Rey and Hermosa Beach.Start-up pockets have also emerged in nearby Culver City, West L.A., and El Segundo. Other pockets include Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Glendale, and the San Fernando Valley, which were pricey areas even before the influx. The tendency of companies to congregate in these centrally-located, high income areas has raised concerns about the feasibility of racial minorities joining the workforce, as they tend to live in further outlying areas.Silicon Beach is also home to start-up incubators and accelerators, such as Amplify.LA, Science, Disney Accelerator, and TechStars Cedars Sinai.The Los Angeles metro area was home to 88,000 engineers in 2021, the highest number of any metro area in the United States. Higher education institutions in Los Angeles County graduate 6,600 engineering majors a year, the highest of any county in the United States.Higher education institutions headquartered in Silicon Beach include Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Art and Design. Other higher education institutions in the nearby Southern California region or with satellite campuses in/nearby Silicon Beach include: Pepperdine University, Santa Monica College, Art Center College of Design, California Institute of Technology, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Occidental College, CalState LA, CalState Northridge, CalState Long Beach, CalState Dominguez Hills, CalPoly Pomona, and the Claremont Colleges.

Marina del Rey (Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the greater Los Angeles area. The port is North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor and is home to approximately 5,000 boats. The area is a popular tourism destination for both land and water activities such as paddle board and kayak rentals, dining cruises, and yacht charters. Land activities include bicycling on several bicycle paths, walking paths along the waterfront, and birdwatching (birding). Wildlife watching opportunities include California sea lions and harbor seals. Dolphins and whales occasionally visit the deeper waters of harbor. This Westside locale is approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Santa Monica, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Los Angeles International Airport, and 12.5 miles (20.1 km) west-southwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The harbor is owned by Los Angeles County and managed by the Department of Beaches and Harbors (DBH), but the waters are environmentally regulated by state government and federal government through their many agencies and departments with overlapping oversight. The Los Angeles Times said in a 1997 editorial that the harbor is "perhaps the county's most valuable resource". The population was 11,373 at the 2020 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Marina del Rey as a census-designated place (CDP). The census definition of the area may not precisely correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name; for example, the 90292 ZIP code includes all of Marina del Rey and portions of neighboring Los Angeles, such as Del Rey, and has a population of 21,576, more than double that of the CDP. Many residents of the 90292 ZIP code consider themselves to live in Marina del Rey even if they in fact live outside the official boundaries of the CDP.

Port Ballona is an archaic place name for an area near the center of Santa Monica Bay in coastal Los Angeles County, where Playa Del Rey and Del Rey Lagoon are located today. Port Ballona was a planned harbor and town site from circa 1859 to 1903. The name comes from the Rancho La Ballona Mexican land grant. Port Ballona consisted of the current Del Rey Lagoon Park but conceptually also included the current Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve alongside the estuarine river Ballona Creek, which flowed into and alongside the marsh within earthen levees built of soft-bottomed wetland soil. While these plans never came to fruition, and the area remains a primarily residential neighborhood, the wetlands immediately to the north were eventually developed into Marina del Rey, North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor.

Marina Peninsula is a neighborhood in western Los Angeles, California. It is often considered a subsection of the adjacent neighborhood of Venice. Because of its name it is sometimes erroneously thought to be part of the adjacent community of Marina del Rey, California, but it was annexed to Los Angeles along with the rest of Venice in 1925.Marina Peninsula lies directly west of Marina del Rey and west of the main Venice Canal, south and southeast of Venice Beach, and north of Ballona Creek. Its northern border is marked by Washington Boulevard. It houses about 3,000 mostly affluent residents.Neighborhood organizations include the Marina Peninsula Community Council (an elected advisory board) and the Marina Peninsula Property Owners Association. It is part of the Venice Neighborhood Council.All of the street names are alphabetical and nautical, starting with Anchorage Street and ending with Yawl Street. The Silver Strand is a subsection of Marina Peninsula.

The Warren Wilson Beach House, later known as The Venice Beach House is a Craftsman style house built in 1911 in the Venice section of Los Angeles, California. It has operated over the years as both a residence and a camp. The Venice Beach House structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Real World: California (retrospectively referred to as The Real World: Los Angeles, to distinguish it from subsequent installments of the series) is the second season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months, as the cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It is the first season of The Real World to be filmed in the Pacific States region of the United States, specifically in California. The season featured a total of nine cast members over the course of the season, as one cast member was evicted and replaced, and another was replaced when she got married. The Real World expanded from 13 to 21 episodes with this season. Production for the season was from February to June 1993. This is the first of two seasons to be filmed in Los Angeles. In 2008, filming of the twentieth season again took place in Los Angeles, this time in the district of Hollywood. The season, which documented 22 weeks of the cast's interactions, began with two cast members being flown to Nashville and then spending ten days driving cross country to their Venice Beach house in a Winnebago, picking up a third cast member in Owensboro, Kentucky along the way.

Ballona Creek (pronunciation: "Bah-yo-nuh" or "Buy-yo-nah") is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows". The urban watercourse begins in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, flows through Culver City and Del Rey, and passes the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Preserve, the sailboat harbor Marina del Rey, and the small beachside community of Playa del Rey before draining into Santa Monica Bay. The Ballona Creek drainage basin carries water from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, from the Baldwin Hills to the south, and as far as the Harbor Freeway (I-110) to the east. Before colonization, the Tongva village of Guashna located at the mouth of the creek. Ballona Creek and neighboring Ballona Wetlands remain a prime bird-watching spot for waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and birds of prey. In 1982, film critic Richard von Busack, a native of Culver City, described the channelized creek as "a cement drainage ditch indistinguishable in size and content from the Love Canal."

Venice Fishing Pier is a pier in Venice, Los Angeles, in the U.S. state of California. The current concrete structure was completed c. 1963. According to Paste, the pier extends approximately 1,300 feet into the Pacific Ocean.In 2018 the Venice Oceanarium proposed a new exhibited space for the pier.

Fisherman's Village is a waterfront mall, commercial boat anchorage and tourist attraction located in the world's largest man-made small boat harbor in Los Angeles County at Marina del Rey, California. The Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve is just east of Fisherman's Village and immediately to the south is the federally-owned riverine estuary of Ballona Creek. The historical Fisherman's Village, built in 1967, is nestled on the eastern bank of main harbor entrance channel between Whiskey Reds restaurant to the south and the Windward boatyard to the north. Fisherman's Village was developed and built by the Sheldon L. Pollack Corporation. The company also developed and/or built several other similar projects in Southern California including San Diego Seaport Village, Port Hueneme Fisherman's Village (now called Fisherman's Wharf Channel Islands Harbor) and Oceanside Harbor Village. Constructed in the style of a New England fishing village, Fisherman's Village consists of five brightly painted wooden buildings, a waterfront promenade, a lighthouse, a water fountain and commercial boat docks. Tourist attractions include live music concerts, restaurant and café dining, harbor and fishing cruises, boat and bicycle rentals, a Catalina Island ferry service, souvenir shops, a nightclub and a public water shuttle (harbor ferry) service. The waterfront promenade offers panoramic views of the harbor, where approximately 5,300 pleasure boats, yachts, and commercial vessels are berthed across 21 individual marinas, including yacht clubs. Various types of ocean-going vessels can be seen as they pass Fisherman's Village en route to, or returning from, voyages into Santa Monica Bay, Catalina Island, the Pacific Ocean and beyond. On Wednesday evenings during March to September from 5 pm to 7 pm, up to 100 sailboats from 22 to 70 feet in length can be seen, sails unfurled, racing toward the finishing line in California Yacht Club's (CYC) Sunset Series regatta. The address of Fisherman's Village is 13755 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey, California, 90292-6909. It is situated on Los Angeles County land (public land) and designated as parcel #56 by the DBH (Department of Beaches and Harbors). DBH lease the parcels on the public's behalf. The adjoining public parking lot #1 is managed by Parking Concepts International (PCI) on behalf of DBH. The lessee of Fisherman's Village is 'Gold Coast Village, LLC' who have appointed their property management company, 'Pacific Ocean Management'. The leasee also holds other parcels in Marina Del Rey such as Admiralty Apartments on Admiralty Way, Marina Beach strip mall on Washington Boulevard and Pier 44/Dock 77 marinas. Shoreline Village in Long Beach is another lease held. Other entities of note adjoining Fisherman's Village are: US Coast Guard station, MDR LA Sheriff's Department station, the LA County Department of Beaches and Harbors (DBH) executive offices, Whiskey Red's restaurant, Villa Venetia apartment complex, UCLA rowing sheds to the south and Loyola Marymount University (LMU) rowing sheds, The Boatyard and DBH trailer offices to the North-east. Since the late 1970s, Fisherman's Village has faced a decline of stores closing due to the leasing issues. A seal cage was emptied and various arcades for pinball machines and video games closed, including an eponymous arcade owned by actor Gary Coleman in the early 1990s. At times, the boat tours were shut down as well. There has been an effort to rebuild Fisherman's Village with a parking complex, however, due to the millions of dollars involved in order to add new shops and stores, as well as the influx of heavy traffic, it had to go through several environmental impact reports before any demolition could take place. No decision has been made at this time. The parking lot had to start charging fees in order to pay for the maintenance of Fisherman's Village.

The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors is responsible for 20 beaches and the Marina Del Rey small-craft harbor in Los Angeles County, California.

The UCLA Marina Aquatic Center (or MAC) is a waterfront recreation facility located in Marina del Rey, California at the northeastern end of the Entrance Channel, which is owned and operated by the University of California, Los Angeles. The MAC, which is operated by UCLA Recreation, was opened in 1965 to house the Collegiate Rowing and Sailing programs. Since that time the MAC has expanded to offer recreational classes in small boat sailing, surfing, rowing, kayaking, windsurfing and stand-up paddle boarding to UCLA students. Construction on the facility began in 1965. A cinder block boathouse was built to replace a wooden boathouse structure on Ballona Creek. In 1967 a dock was added to the entrance channel. In 1984 the installation of new trailers (which were previously used for the Los Angeles Olympics) was added to the facility.

The Venice Canal Historic District is embedded in the residential Venice suburb of Los Angeles, California. The historic district is noteworthy for possessing man-made wetland canals, built in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney as part of his Venice of America. Kinney sought to recreate the appearance and feel of Venice, Italy, in coastal Los Angeles County. The names of the canals were given by Abbot Kinney as follows: Aldebaren Canal, Altair Canal, Cabrillo Canal, Coral Canal, Grand Canal, Lion Canal and Venus Canal. Another set of canals were built south of the Venice Canals, originally known as the New Amsterdam Canals by investors and architects, namely Howland, Sherman and Clark, land owners whom two canals were named after. These canals are roughly bounded by Eastern Court on the east, Court A on the south, Strongs Drive on the west, and Court E on the north. There are four east-west canals (Carroll Canal, Linnie Canal, Howland Canal, and Sherman Canal) and two north-south canals (Eastern Canal and Grand Canal). The lit canals with gondoliers and arched bridges drew widespread publicity and helped sell lots in the development. By the 1920s, with cars quickly gaining popularity, the canals were viewed by many as outdated, and as a result a number of canals were filled in 1929 to make room for paved roads. By 1940 the remaining canals had fallen into disrepair, and the sidewalks were condemned by the city. The district remained in poor condition for more than 40 years; numerous proposals to renovate the canals failed due to lack of funding, environmental concerns, and disputes as to who should bear the financial responsibility. The canals were finally renovated in 1992; they were drained, and new sidewalks and walls were built. The canals re-opened in 1993, and have become a desirable and expensive residential section of the city. The residential district surrounding the remaining canals was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. However, in recent years, there has been extensive renovation work on many of the old houses, and many large, modern houses have been built. The water enters the canals through sea gates in the Marina Del Rey breakwater via the Ballona Lagoon, and again in Washington Boulevard. They open at low tide to drain most of the water, and at high tide they are closed, trapping the water for about three days, before being refreshed again.