One of the more affluent of the beach cities, Manhattan Beach prides itself on its exclusivity. The city lays north of Hermosa Beach, and South of El Segundo on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The city itself is broken into several real estate groupings, or "sections". For example there is the sand section, the tree section, the lamp post section, the hills section, and so on.

If you've seen a lot of movies, you've seen Manhattan Beach in the background. The Mira Costa High School gym is used in Rock and Roll Highschool with The Ramones. A small house in the tree section is used in Jerry Maguire as the home for Renee Zellweger's character. The big red and white smoke stacks of the El Segundo Hyperion Water Treatment Plant are in the background of a scene in Blow where the girls are all saying that they are stewardesses. Even Jackass 2 had a moment at Sand Dune Park, rolling one of the boys down the dune in a tube with pee. There are too many movie mentions to name them all.

Photo by mewtate via flickr

Manhattan Beach is an exclusive beach city for several reasons. First there is barely any beach parking available. The locals frown upon tourism, and would rather not share their beach. El Porto, the area just north of Rosecrans Avenue is the one area that is the exception to this, having a long strip of public parking on the beach.

Manhattan Beach is so disdaining of outsiders that they even shoot off their fireworks in December instead on July.

Because of the high prices of homes, and the ocean views, Manhattan Beach has always attracted a lot of celebrities to own homes there, including Pat Sajak, Tara Reid, and even Johnny Depp.

The city's most famous landmark is the Manhattan Beach Pier, that is of course besides the beach itself. Manhattan Beach also has a defunct railroad converted into a compost running trail, as well as having both along the coast a pedestrian walk dubbed "The Strand" and a seperate bike path.

The City is loaded with great places to eat. Mangiamo, on Manhattan Beach Boulevard half a block up from the pier. Reed's is great, located in the Manhattan Village at Marine and Sepulveda. Again, there are too many to list, because it would depend on what you like to eat. They got everything.

For bars Manhattan Beach isn't most people's #1 pick. First of all, there is Hermosa Beach one city over, and they have a LOT of bars. And also Manhattan Beach residents aren't really excited about having drunks in their town. The only area that has anything going on in the El Porto area, which is again the most un-Manhattan Beach area of the whole city. El Porto has Sharkeez, Harry O's and Pancho's. Pancho's being not only a cool bar but also a great restaurant, AND a Manhattan Beach landmark, having been there over 40 years.

Things to know about Manhattan Beach: the town has had a bad reputation with regards to racism. There is a park located at Highland and 24th street where the city claimed public domain and evicted the only black residents in the city at the time. And for years, and to this day, if you're black and driving a shitty car, be prepared to get pulled over by the cops the second you cross westbound past Sepulveda Boulevard. But in the last few weeks the city erected a memorial to the the evicted black residents, in a too-little-too-late attempt to take responsibility for its past behavior.

The locals love to play beach volleyball, surf, and get dark dark tans. If you can find a place to park, head on down to the beach, and let those locals know that NOBODY owns the beach.