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# City Trades 50-Year-Old Boathouse for Bubba Gump on the Santa Monica Pier
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/042502-story/
- Published: 2002-04-25T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:15:16.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pier, #archive-import

Last week, the city won its bid to close the 50-year-old Boathouse restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier to make way for Bubba Gump Shrimp, a movie-themed chain restaurant. Some suggest that the Boathouse needed to be replaced with something that would liven up the pier. However, others think the move is another example of Santa Monica selling out to the highest bidder, drawing it closer to a “chain gang” town.

This week, Q-line wants to know, “If you had to choose from any merchant in the land to occupy the pier, whom would it be and why?”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 25, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)