Santa Monica Shuts Beach Parking Lots, In Order to Limit Crowds

Today was a great beach day in Santa Monica, and thousands of people came to the beach. This is behavior the city of Santa Monica wants to discourage.

"This will last for weeks," said city manager Rick Cole, referring to the Coronavirus emergency declared by City, State and national governments. "Maintain social distancing wash your hands and find a way to exercise 6 feet apart from others."

The 100 year old Santa Monica pier was closed a few days ago, the first time since a fire in 1992. Local government believes that there are just too many people on the beach from a social distancing perspective.

Santa Monica began as a resort town. The 8 mile square City includes 4 miles of beaches, with the historic Pier in the geographic center of the beach.

County of Los Angeles followed Santa Monica's lead on Monday 3/23/20, shutting Topanga, Zuma, Pescadero, and 9 other county beach parking lots.