Oxford Basin

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.

Del Rey (Spanish for "of the King") is a neighborhood in the Westside of Los Angeles, surrounded on three sides by Culver City, California. Within it lie a police station, the largest public housing complex on the Westside, a public middle school and six public elementary schools. It is served by a neighborhood council and a residents association. Del Rey, with a 32,000+ population, has a large number of military veterans.

Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by Los Angeles. Venice is known for its canals, a beach, and Ocean Front Walk, a 2.5-mile (4 km) pedestrian promenade that features performers, fortune-tellers, and vendors.

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center is a literary arts center located at 681 Venice Boulevard, Venice, Los Angeles, California, founded in 1968. The center is based near the beach in Los Angeles's old Venice City Hall, built in 1906. It offers an extensive program of public readings, workshops, a project room, bookstore, publications, and chapbook/small press archive.

Pacific Resident Theatre (PRT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theatre company located at 703 Venice Boulevard in Venice, California. It was founded as an actors cooperative in Venice's arts district in 1985 and is dedicated to producing both classic and little known plays, as well as works by new authors. As of June 2012, the company had received over 90 awards, including NAACP Image Awards, 73 (as of 2013) Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. and the since-retired LA Weekly Theater Awards (defunct 2014), Drama-Logue Awards (defunct 1998) and Back Stage West Garland Awards (defunct 2009).

The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC or SPARCinLA) is a non-profit community arts center based in Venice, California. SPARC hosts exhibitions, sponsors workshops and murals, and lobbies for the preservation of Los Angeles area murals and other works of public art. SPARC hosts several community programs and artist spaces, including the UCLA@SPARC Digital Mural Lab, a "comprehensive" archive, printmaking studios, an art gallery and a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate program. According to its mission statement, "SPARC espouses public art as an organizing tool for addressing contemporary issues, fostering cross-cultural understanding and promoting civic dialogue."

First Lutheran Church of Venice is a congregation in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) founded in 1944 on the westside of Los Angeles. It serves the communities of Venice, Mar Vista, and Marina del Rey, and is in the Pacific Southwest District of the LCMS. The church offers both traditional and contemporary services and ran the First Lutheran School of Venice a Lutheran elementary school on the Westside of Los Angeles established in 1948. After 70 years in the Venice community, the church decided to close the school in 2018.With 331 members as of 2006, it is the third largest LCMS congregation in Los Angeles and the largest in its circuit, which includes churches in Beverly Hills, Inglewood and Santa Monica. Venice is home to a thriving artistic community, and First Lutheran is described as "an 'art friendly' church" that hosts programs "looking at the divine through visual arts, readings and music." Since 2001, the church has hosted a Masters in the Chapel music series which has featured performances by artists from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, and Los Angeles Master Chorale. The series began in the wake of the church's restoration efforts following a 1998 electrical fire which gutted the sanctuary, and concerts took advantage of the church's new "acoustically reverberant hall in which everything sounds entrancing." The church's pipe organ, installed in 2004, was designed by the same builder of organs at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and is also featured in the musical events. The church also features an exterior mural, Jesus Roller Skating with Friends in Venice Beach, created in 1997 by Ft. Maur Van Doorslaer, a Benedictine monk from St. Andrew's Abbey in the Antelope Valley.

The Venice Miniature Railway was a 7,500-foot (2,300 m) long miniature railway in the 1:3 scale with a gauge of 18 in (457 mm), which was in operation from July 30, 1905, to February 13, 1925, in Venice near Los Angeles in California.

Machado refers to three locations in Los Angeles, California, all named for the rancho-era Machado family. Machado is a name derived from Portuguese meaning "hatchet", the stop was probably more directly named for the Machado family of the Rancho era. The family, however, may have used a hatchet to mark their lands. An 1855 real estate description mentions a "cottonwood tree marked with cuts of a hatchet."(1) Machado is a former rail stop in Los Angeles County, California. It laid at an elevation of 13 feet (4 m). Machado was a stop on the Venice–Inglewood Line just north of Alla Junction; the line, which dated to the late 19th century, was lightly used for both passengers and freight. Machado still appeared on USGS maps as of 1934.(2) Machado post office was organized circa 1878 an application was made to the Post Office Department. The new Machado post office station was located northwest quarter section 12 township 2W range 15 west, half a mile north of Ballona Creek and one mile west of La Ballona station.(3) Machado Lake was a 19th century name for Bixby Slough, now Harbor Regional Park lake.

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.

Keenan Anderson was an African American man who died on January 3, 2023, about four and a half hours after he was restrained and tasered six times by a member of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He was a cousin of Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. Anderson was restrained due to suspicion of a hit-and-run and driving under the influence following a traffic collision and due to a witness testimony of an individual attempting to get in their car without their permission. Police ordered Anderson to sit down, which he initially did. Later, Anderson ran away into traffic, leading to police subduing and tasing him for around 30 seconds and then another five seconds. An autopsy conducted by the L.A. County Medical Examiner found that Anderson died from the effects of an enlarged heart and cocaine use. The specific manner of Anderson’s death was undetermined.