MARINA DEL REY

Marina del Rey (Spanish for "Docks 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 8,866 at the 2010 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.

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Marina del Rey falls within unincorporated Los Angeles County and is southeast of the L.A. City community of Venice and north of the L.A. City community of Playa del Rey, near the mouth of Ballona Creek. The harbor and port is located four miles (6 km) north of Los Angeles International Airport.

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The harbor and the unincorporated residential and business community of Marina del Rey is bounded on all sides by the city of Los Angeles. The beach-style homes, on the inner portion of the coastal strand and the beach (see photo), west of the harbor, are within the city limits of Los Angeles, but share the same zip code as Marina del Rey. The name of this coastal strand that surrounds an estuarine inlet known as the Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve is called the Marina Peninsula. The city street, Via Dolce, forms the boundary between Los Angeles and the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, known as Marina del Rey.

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According to the United States Census Bureau, Marina del Rey has an area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km2). Nine-tenths of a square mile (2.2 km2) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2) is water (40.91%).

 

One of The highest and biggest buildings in Marina Del Rey is the large high-rise condominium building known as “The Admiralty High-Rise” or simply AHR. AHR is a large condominium complex, having three official names: Azzura condos, Regatta condos, or The cove. AHR has a height of about 170 feet (50 m), 20 floors and can house a maximum of about 2,500 people (800 condominiums) which is almost 30 % of the population of whole Marina Del Rey. AHR is located right to the north of harbor and has a bright green-aquamarine color. It was built in 2003. AHR, or specifically The Cove, was the main location in the 2010 film Skyline.

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The specially designed harbor has many kinds of moorings with significant cement pilings for pleasure craft and large boats, including Catalina Island multi-passenger ferry boats, a large whale watching boat as well as a pelagic seabird watching boat, commercial fishing boats, harbor cruise ships, a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Ship, LA County Fire Department and Sheriff Department boats, and is surrounded by high-rise condos, hotels, apartments, shops, and restaurants. The area also includes the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center, and the Loyola Marymount University boathouse.

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The community is served by the three-mile-long (5 km) Marina Freeway (State Route 90), which links Marina del Rey directly to Interstate 405 and nearby Culver City.

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The area codes of Marina del Rey are 310 and 424. Its ZIP code is 90292.

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Points of interest

• Panoramic view of the marina from a nearby office building

• Ballona Wetlands

• California Yacht Club

• Fisherman's Village

• Lloyd Taber Marina del Rey Library

• Pacific Mariners Yacht Club

• UCLA Marina Aquatic Center

Parks and recreation
Marina del Rey has two main parks. Burton Chace Park hosts community festivals such as the Marina del Rey Summer Concert Series and the Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade. Yvonne B. Burke Park was renamed from the original Admiralty Park in 2009 to honor longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

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Notable People

• Sasha Gabor (1945–2008), actor

• Lucia Berlin (1936–2004), writer

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Education

Marina del Rey is in the Los Angeles Unified School District, although there are no schools in the area proper.[28] Students from Marina del Rey attend either Anchorage Street Elementary (now Westside Global Awareness Magnet School) or Coeur d'Alene Avenue Elementary School, Marina del Rey Middle School, and Venice High School.

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View the school ratings and reviews here.

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Sources:

Wikipedia