By Jodi Summers
Santa Monica was founded in 1875 and incorporated in 1886. By 1900, more than 5,000 people were settled here. Crowds gathered in the 1920s, when the McDonnell Douglas military manufacturing company built four world-cruisers that left Clover Field — now the site of the Santa Monica Airport — for the first successful flight around the world.
Airplanes are a mixed blessing in Sunset Park. In the ’40s, Douglas Aircraft brought 40,000 factory workers to labor at the Clover Field facility. Property development boomed. Today, homes in Sunset Park currently start in the low $700,000s, making it one of Santa Monica’s more affordable family neighborhoods.
“I like walking the tree-lined streets in the morning with my wife, evening fog carrying the sound of kids voices from Marine Park, fresh fruits and vegetables within walking distance, the meat at Bob’s Market, small neighborhood businesses, the fact that I know the neighbors on both sides of the street well enough to borrow their truck for an hour, or use that 20-foot ladder, or ask them to help me carry in a new couch,” said resident John Reynolds. “I like having a golf course nearby with all that open space. I like the matter of fact, understated sense of pride I hear in people’s voices when they say, I live in Sunset Park.”
In 2003, Sunset Park had 2,708 single-family houses, 739 condominiums and 699 apartment units. Most of the homes are traditional, one-story houses built in the mid- 20th century. The view streets — Hill, Sunset, Ashland and Bryn Mawr — feature fancier homes at higher prices. In excess of $1.3 million.
A recent LA Times report stated that Sunset Park schools boast 2002 Academic Performance Index scores of 759 and 808, respectively, out of 1,000. John Adams Middle School scored 739 and Santa Monica High, 705. The district also offers a Spanish-immersion school and an alternative school. Santa Monica College, a two-year community college also in the neighborhood, enrolls 31,000 students.
The local neighborhood association, Friends of Sunset Park, works to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood — improve safety, reduce air, pollution and noise, ease traffic, and support the schools and library.
The biggest issue with Sunset Park is the reason the area first developed — the airport. Santa Monica Airport is one of the busiest single-runway airports in the nation. Neighborhood representatives advocate strict aircraft noise enforcement and weight-based landing fees. Airport Commissioner Ofer Grossman is pushing for bimonthly Air Quality Management District tests to better address aircraft emissions.
Current weight restrictions on planes at Santa Monica Airport allow roughly 65,000 pounds at landing and 73,000 at take-off (the additional weight is for fuel). Today, the maximum wingspan is 78 feet.
At a recent meeting of the Santa Monica Airport commission, the topic of conversation was not the March 16 crash of a single-engine plane into a two-story house on Mountain View Avenue in Mar Vista but the noise and the vibration of the corporate jets that use the airport.
“Sometimes I’ll be in my kitchen, and a jet will go overhead, and everything rattles,” said a Sunset Park resident. “I get scared. I wonder, ‘is this jet going to crash into my house, my kitchen?’”
Locals say that the airport noise at Santa Monica Airport has increased more than 150 percent since 1997, when jet airplane landings increased. A jet is an airplane powered by one or more engines. In 2003, there were 142,859 aircraft operations recorded — 16,210, up from 9,608 in 1999. In 2003 there were 302 noise violations — mostly from jets — down 20 percent from 2002.
“Throughout the country people are filing lawsuits over noise and air pollution. These airports are literally ruining people’s lives. Constant loud noise exposure can be a horrible nuisance,” said environmental attorney Stuart Lieberman.
Ironic that the business that built the neighborhood is also the biggest bone of contention in Sunset Park.
“The planes were here long before I was, so I just accept it,” said Gabrielle, who lives near SMC. “There are so many things to like about Sunset Park. It has no pretense and no tourists. Sunset Park is a neighborhood. When we go to Bob’s Market, my kids almost always find someone they know.” (For your real estate needs, , or call (310) 309-4219).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 31, 2004. Read the original PDF.