Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier

This guide to Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier traces the pier back to a 1970s Santa Monica city council vote to tear the whole wooden structure down, after decades of decline that had already claimed the grand La Monica ballroom. It follows the residents who organized and packed council meetings to reverse that decision, sparking one of the city's earliest preservation fights, and the winter storms of 1982 and 1983 that tore away more than a third of the pier's length afterward. The guide covers the long repair years that followed before an amusement park ever opened on this spot.