In Santa Monica, Everyone Is A Star L.A.’S Beachfront Neighbor Affords A Uniquely Californian Blend Of Hedonism And High-Mindedness

As all the world now knows, one of the occasional hazards of driving in Los Angeles is getting caught up in a police chase, especially if your name is O.J.

Here, however, where the Pacific laps against a 3-mile-long broad and sandy beach, the greater danger is of being clipped by a starlet on in-line skates or a male model pedaling a mountain bike.

In fact, most of those zooming along the seaside bike paths are probably accountants, secretaries, garage mechanics, waitresses and other ordinary working stiffs. But with their dark tans, lithe bodies, stylish outfits and good looks, they seem like starlets, models or even movie stars - and some may be just that. After all, until she married Ted Turner and moved to Atlanta, longtime resident and fitness guru Jane Fonda regularly biked and jogged along Santa Monica’s coastline, and Al Pacino, Emelio Estevez and Arnold Schwarzenegger are among the many show-biz types who live - and exercise - around here.

Earthquakes, riots and high unemployment may have tarnished Los Angeles’ image as Paradise by the Pacific, but this tolerant, affluent and creative community still epitomizes what the sunny outdoor Southern California lifestyle is supposed to be about. In Santa Monica, as the bumper sticker says: “Life is a Beach.”

When polled as to where in the Los Angeles area they would prefer to live, 9 out 10 Angelenos regularly say Santa Monica. Asked why, they usually cite the proximity to good beaches and mountain scenery as well as easy access - via the Santa Monica Freeway - to the entertainment and cultural attractions of westside L.A. Another powerful draw is Santa Monica’s own special character, a uniquely Californian mix of hedonism and high-mindedness.

Jane Fonda is gone, but her ex-husband, state senator Tom Hayden, is still in residence and advocating liberal causes - such as rent control and generous public assistance for the homeless - considerably more popular here than in most communities in the area.

Known as “Conan the Republican” for his GOP fund-raising efforts, Schwarzenegger is politically poles apart from Hayden but also very much a presence in town. He actually lives with his family in posh Malibu, just to the north, but runs his various enterprises from a Santa Monica office.

Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver (John F. Kennedy’s niece), own a popular Main Street restaurant, Schatzi’s. A German endearment, Schatzi means “treasure,” no irony apparently intended. The menu at Schatzi’s features both Southern Calfornian and Austrian specialties: Schlag meets avocado salad, in other words.

The town’s reputation for left-of-center politics long ago led conservatives to dub it “The People’s Republic of Santa Monica.” Locals, however, prefer the artier nickname “Soho Soleil.”

Covering only 8.2 square miles and with a population of just over 85,000, Santa Monica boasts some 65 art galleries. Many galleries are found along Main Street, in the vicinity of the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

Housed in the Edgemar complex - a turn-of-the-century egg processing plant imaginatively redesigned - the museum’s collection is mostly contemporary art by Los Angeles artists. Also in the complex are a pleasant outdoor cafe and a bookstore that only stocks books about Southern California or by local authors.

There are also a number of art galleries on Montana Avenue - particularly on the chic 10-block stretch between Seventh and 17th streets where there are about 150 upscale shops, boutiques, galleries and restaurants.

Santa Monica prides itself on being “an urban village” with a pedestrian-friendly downtown. One of the pleasantest places to stroll is through palm-tree-shaded Palisades Park, which parallels Ocean Avenue and runs along a bluff overlooking the Pacific.

The southern end of Palisades Park is anchored by the beloved Santa Monica Pier, built in 1909 and the oldest amusement pier on the West Coast. There are restaurants and cafes on the pier and also a Ferris wheel and antique carousel. First-time visitors to Santa Monica Pier often have the feeling that they’ve been there before - not surprising, since it has appeared in many movies, often as a stand-in for New York’s Coney Island.

The most recent expression of Santa Monica’s commitment to walkability is Third Street Promenade, between Wilshire Boulevard and Broadway. A three-block-long pedestrian street - lined with shops, restaurants, bookstores, movie theaters and night spots - the promenade was created five years ago and almost instantly became Santa Monica’s al fresco living room.

Planted with trees (illuminated at night by strings of lights) and dotted with benches and kiosks, the promenade invites meandering. Street performers are encouraged, and, at night especially, the promenade becomes a cross between an outdoor theater and a block party as jugglers, jazz bands, clowns, chamber music trios and mimes all vie for attention - and donations.

Santa Monica’s walkability and quasi-Mediterranean feeling make it particularly appealing to Europeans. There is a large resident British community and several pubs where both the decor and clientele are as English as bangers and mash. In the King’s Head on Santa Monica Boulevard, oldest and best known of the pubs, English newspapers are on sale, steak and kidney pie is served, the beer comes warm, and there are more customers from Manchester and Birmingham than Malibu or Brentwood.

Just south of Santa Monica is Venice, part of Los Angeles but with a distinct identity of its own. Third Street Promenade is liveliest in the evening, but Venice Beach’s Ocean Walk - a people-watching spot like no other in the universe - is best taken in during the day, preferably on a sunny summer weekend.

Venice was founded in 1905 by tobacco magnate Abbott Kinney, who wanted to create a fashionable resort modeled after Venice, Italy. Kinney erected a number of buildings in the Venetian style, dug 16 miles of canals and even imported Italian gondoliers to ferry visitors around.

The rich and famous never really took to Venice Beach, however, and it quickly went from high-toned to honky-tonk. Eventually, Los Angeles absorbed the resort, and most of the canals were filled in and paved over.

Beatniks discovered Venice in the 1950s, and in the 1960s, many writers, artists and assorted bohemians in great numbers moved into Venice, drawn by the funky atmosphere, cheap rents and superb beach. Quite a few arty types still live in the neighborhood, but it isn’t the Greenwich Village with palm trees that it used to be.

Ocean Walk runs for about a dozen blocks. The land side is mostly lined with stalls, stands and open-fronted shops selling not only the usual beach resort merchandise - T-shirts, postcards, suntan lotion and hot dogs - but also such indigenous products and services as crystals, incense, tarot cards, temporary tattoos and body painting.

The Pacific side of Ocean Walk is the preserve of psychics, preachers, musicians, mystics, dance troupes and a remarkably varied assortment of street performers. A particular crowd-pleaser among the latter - and a weekend regular - is the guy who in the creative Venice tradition works on the cutting edge of his art: He juggles chainsaws!

Even more interesting than the vendors, hawkers and buskers is the crowd that flows past them down Ocean Walk in a river of Los Angeles humanity: pert nymphettes in dental floss bikinis, massive weightlifters with oiled biceps, leathery grandmothers with short skirts and purple hair, broad-shouldered surfers, petite Asians, bearded survivors of the Age of Aquarius, shaven-headed punk rockers.

A dozen languages. A score of ethnic groups. A multitude of lifestyles. All part of L.A.’s very mixed salad.

The focal point of Ocean Walk is the Venice Beach Recreation Center, a public park that includes basketball courts - where a lot of the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” was filmed - and an outdoor weightlifting area that is the scene of frequent competitions. (Schwarzenegger often competed here in his pre-star bodybuilding days.) With reason, this part of the walk is known as “Muscle Beach,” and men - and women - with big biceps, right out of “Pumping Iron,” are all over the place, strutting and flexing their stuff.

It’s a very different scene in Malibu, Santa Monica’s neighbor to the north, where exhibitionism is definitely not the local style. Lots of wealthy and famous people live in Malibu but usually in secluded, very private and often walled and guarded enclaves.

For visitors, Malibu’s most popular attraction is the Getty Museum just off the Pacific Coast Highway. Founded by the late oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, one of the world’s wealthiest men, the museum is grandly housed in a magnificent building: an exact replica of a first-century Roman villa (the home of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law) discovered during the excavation of Pompeii.

The museum houses Getty’s personal collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, European paintings from the 14th to 19th centuries and decorative arts. There are also collections of drawings, glass, photographs and illuminated medieval manuscripts. The Getty is free, but parking is restricted, and visitors arriving by car must make reservations. Call (310) 458-2003.