Bruce’s Beach

A nice little park in Manhattan Beach! It’s got a few basketball hoops (the court is not regulation size) and little hills with benches and trees that provide shade and a great shot of the great pacific ocean! It’s a perfect spot if you want to relax by the beach without the sand getting all over you. Also can be a bit of a challenge since they only have a two small parking spots and street parking if you’re there early! Have fun!

Great park overlooking the beach. Come out for a picnic, and be taken by the view and fresh breeze.

Great old historic park in Manhattan Beach. An amazing view. The bottom line it is small but it is nice.

This was my favorite find in Manhattan Beach. Perfect for my little dog to run back and forth on the tiered level lawns and enjoy the ocean view and breezes. So awesome!

Bruce’s Beach is a beautiful viewpoint atop Manhattan Beach! If you don’t want to get your toes sandy, I recommend coming to this park to view the sunset or to come with a picnic blanket and some food.

It’s been many years (even before ²⁰⁰⁶⁄₂₀₀₇ & you’ll understand why I’m stating that later in this review)., since I use to come here with my girls when they were little and one was a baby. I couldn’t pry them away to go home. It’s a cute tiny little hilltop park overlooking the beach and ocean. And up until just recently, I had no idea of the story and history behind this park. I pasted a paragraph from Wiki here w/​some short details:
Bruce’s Beach was a small beach resort in the city of Manhattan Beach, California, that was owned by and operated for African Americans. It provided the African American community with opportunities unavailable at other beach areas because of segregation.
As a result of racial friction from disgruntled white neighbors, the property was seized using eminent domain proceedings in the 1920s and closed down. Some of the area was eventually turned into a city park in the 1960s and renamed Bruce’s Beach in 2007.
For more details
I had no idea, I just thought it was named after somebody, but wow, such an amazing little story and history! If you check out the pictures, someone graciously posted some historical pics. Very moving indeed.
It’s a cute little hilltop park, perfect to plop on some chairs (or blanket) and take in the ocean air and views. Take the wee ones, your pets, couples (of course, there has to be that inspirational area for love) and from what I’ve observed people reading, reflecting, etc (I’m just gonna leave it at that, don’t want to give anyone ideas and then it becomes cluttered) :(
Lifeguard training and Strand is right below. There are a few parking meters and some parking around, but it usually becomes challenging finding it when you want to go, so either patience or just park further and walk, still not too far, I’d suggest the longer parking meters versus the 2 hours ones, unless you plan to spend a short visit.
A gem in a already nice city and area.

This area has an amazing view of the ocean from a reasonable distance — but not only that, I can basically go show off and tell them that it’s my beach. I know that it’s named from a different Bruce, but shoot, let me dream, okay?

A very very nice park, if you want to sit and relax and want a great view of the ocean, this is the sweet spot. The park is sloped downward. There’s some metered parking lots near the beach. Most people go to beach so the park isn’t crowed.

This is a small park that’s a stone’s throw away from Manhattan Beach. You can see the beach while sitting on one of the park benches. Lots of nice lush green grass to spread out on and relax if that’s your speed. Because it faces due West and is elevated, you get an excellent view of the sunsets from here.

It’s a park… not a beach so don’t let the name fool you.
It’s pet friendly (on some parts of it) but leashed dogs only since there are no gates or fences surrounding it. You get a great view of the beach as well. It’s near the Lifeguard Training Center and there are restrooms next to it too.

I just love Bruce’s Beach! It’s not a beach, it’s a tiny park sloped on a hill overlooking the beach. There are trees everywhere for you to nap, benches for people watching, and a basketball court for ball playing.
Parking is limited to street parking.

I love love love Bruce’s beach. Great views, quiet park, nice benches, well kept grass — and it’s free! What isn’t there to love?
Please don’t turn it into an obnoxious skating place.

A nice spot overlooking the beach that you can hang out and just talk with little to no disturbances. I often come at night with a group of friends and it is a peaceful place to be and reminisce to the sound of the ocean

Neighbors make this place a bad experience., just let dogs rom freely you scumbags!

Luna, my four legged friend, and I have spent many a day here. Wondering the Strand along the coast and soaking in the warm Cali rays. A favorite spot for a game of horse, especially at sunset. Typically its no trouble finding parking during the week, either on the street or in one of the two paid lots just south of the park. Fab place to get your workout on, as you can easily use the grassy hillsides for various routines, the beach for some soft sand running, the strand for a bicycle ride, or the bars for a little upper body workout. Excellent conditions for an easy stroll or a boot camp style workout. Please note this is actually a park not a beach, dogs are not permitted on the beaches here.

It’s a nice area but overall I’m pissed. Why? BECAUSE ITS NOT A FUCKING BEACH. Sure it’s just a short walk from the beach. You can see it in the picture I added. But it’s not a beach. It’s just a grass area with a few basketball goals. I was hoping for a dog friendly beach. And this said it was a beach and dog friendly. But it’s not. The grass area is called Bruce’s beach. The actual beach is manhattan state beach or city of manhattan beach or something like that. Fuckin’ bullshit.

This has become my go to beach after I moved. A direct shot for me down Rosecrans.
There are no summer hour restrictions on the street, I believe it’s Highland, so once you find parking you are good for the rest of the day.
After reading some reviews I realized why I always see people in training. Yes, I guess the Lifeguard Training Center is right smack in the middle of the beach. Which provides a great feeling of security when I tote my nieces and nephews down their. If they get swooped up by a wave all I have to do is flag down one of the many fit trainees.
It’s generally pretty mellow and calm. A lot of families and active people getting their daily run in. It’s also a great spot to start off a bike ride down to Marina del Rey.

Review 300
My 300^th review was supposed to be about my dinner tonight at Mastro’s that I will be enjoying a much needed steak dinner and great full bodied bottle of Cab for a friends 30^th birthday.
As I was on my way to my bfast destination I made a quick glance to my left as I drove by and noticed a bench on a grassy park that over looked the beach in Manhattan. After a great 299^th review at North End Café I decided to make a stop by to take a minute to reflect on this crazy life and take in some me time and gather my thoughts.
I want to dedicate my 300^th review to a fellow coworker and dear friend of mine Patrick Hillan who was killed by a drunk driver early Sunday morning along with two others on the 101 freeway.
We take life for granted sometimes. See, Patrick recently joined me on my last trip to my happy land of Napa. He drove me NUTS one night, and with a full day and half left of our trip, I gave him short bratty pants Ciara from then on. I continued this trend also as we returned to work. He had no clue that I was irritated with him; if he did, I didn’t know, as he didn’t act any different towards me than he did before the trip. The last time I saw him at work I chatted with him a little more than I had been but was still short. I am beating myself up right now as this chat was the last one I will ever have with him.
As I sit on a bench at Bruce’s Beach with the sun shining on my back, the crisp feel of the ocean breeze on my face, watching two adorable twin boys give me smiles with their rosy cheeks and chocolate covered faces and the sight of the roaring ocean in front of my eyes I can’t help but reflect on the life that I am still able to enjoy. It’s the simple and little things in life that matter. It’s taking time out of your busy day to just stop for a moment and take in the view of the life around you.
My buddy turned me on to Noble Park in Hermosa recently and I easily fell in love. These little beach parks smack in the middle of a busy city are life’s simple treasures that are right out in the open for us to enjoy whenever we please but probably never seem to find the time to do so. I am glad I made a stop today to Bruce’s Beach after breakfast. It truly is a wonderful spot to sit and enjoy life. A picnic here, with a bottle of my favorite summer wine, on a hot summer day will be in the cards as the weather warms up.
RIP Patrick
You were taken from this life to soon but out of the 4 years I have had the honor to know you I know that you were the happiest you have ever been in your life.

First of all, the park is awesome. Grassy area with some basketball courts overlooking the beach. A great place to have a picnic or take a rest on a bike ride. Check it out-​it rocks. Enough said about that.
But how many times have I ridden past Bruce’s Beach, formerly known as Parque Culiacan, and earlier as City Park and Bayview Terrace, and said to myself, «What the heck is this park doing here? It’s surrounded by apartments and condos, why did they not keep building here? Did something burn down that the original owner couldn’t afford to pay for?» Don’t get me wrong-​I love parks… but I’ve always felt that Bruce’s Beach looks like it was never intended to be there, like it was something else and was made into a park.
One rainy day earlier this week on a bus ride to work I got my answer. An elderly woman sitting next to me who had lived in Manhattan Beach her whole life told me the story of «Bruce’s Beach» and how the KKK and eventually the City got rid of an entire African American Community in 1924. The bus driver confirmed this statement.
I found it hard to believe so I jumped on the internet. There I found many links including one Unilocal thread from Cheri A about Bruce’s Beach
and one Wikipedia article

Bruce’s Beach was one of the few beaches in Southern California in the early 1900s that was not off-​limits to African Americans.(What?not everyone could go to the beach???) Developer George Peck established the area in 1912 as a beach for African Americans, which was so against the conventional wisdom of the time, when most beaches in Southern California were white only beaches.
In 1912 Mrs. Willa Bruce bought one of the first lots on George Peck’s site and began to establish a beach resort for African Americans.
The local Manhattan Beach Community reacted to the Bruce’s arrival with disapproval to say the least. The KKK often harassed African American beach goers, burnt crosses on their property and the Manhattan Beach City Council began to push for the Bruce’s removal from the city. Indeed, if you were an African American and you were seen at Manhattan Pier at night, you risked getting arrested or worse. The city eventually declared eminent domain and paid the Bruces $ 14,500 to leave Manhattan Beach-​an amount well below market value. (This left Mrs. Bruce financially ruined.)
After the Bruce’s left their beach, the cottages were burned to the ground (the KKK actually had tried to burn them to the ground when the Bruces still lived there.) The city then tried to build a whites only resort but the NAACP intervened and fearing negative publicity, the city backed down. For years from the 1930’s to the early 1960’s the area was just an unused sand dune, a constant desolate reminder of an unresolved past.
By 1962 though, the city took a renewed interest in the area calling it Bayview Terrace and a park was built. Later it became known as Parque Culiacan, after Manhattan Beach’s sister city in Mexico.
By 2006 a renewed interest in the park’s roots began to emerge and the Manhattan Beach City Council was forced to dig into the city’s not so pretty past. The Council renamed the park ‘Bruce’s Beach’ and eventually celebrated this change in a ceremony on March 31^st, 2007
.
Many have suggested that Interpretive panels and public art should faithfully, completely, and accurately celebrate the proud legacy of Bruce’s Beach and African-​American Los Angeles so that all who visit it can learn of it’s past. Seems to be a reasonable request to me. (I wonder, do the kids of Mira Costa High learn about the history of Bruce’s Beach in their History classes?)
The City of Manhattan Beach has declared that «Friendship, goodwill, and respect for all begins within our own boundries and extends to the world community.» If that is truly the case, why not just give the property back from who they took it from, or at the very least make a better effort to communicate the Park’s history and culture?

Another park review for my ongoing series.
Bruce’s Beach is not a beach at all, it’s a park. A memorial park dedicated to the beach area it watches over.
And it turns out that this park site, the oldest in Manhattan Beach in fact, represents quite a powerful history… namely one of racial discrimination.
Yesterday, when I read the story on the commemorative plaque (see photo), I was so saddened that I just stood there for a long time. Just stood there.
I was thinking that I have driven past this park a zillion times and never knew the sad history of the surrounding area. Isn’t it amazing what we discover when we pause to take a closer look?
The park was renamed about a year ago. I recall that Cheri had posted a thread about the dedication, and I found the link on Google (
). Ah yes, now I recall…
It’s about time, I say, that an acknowledgment has taken place. Seems like very little, however, a lot late.
The park itself is a beautiful spot, especially for watching sunsets. It’s on a steep hill overlooking the sea. It’s almost all grassy, and it’s laid out in tiers, so there is ample flat land to walk on. Quite unusual.
I was humbled not only by the story I just mentioned, but also by a commemorative stone bench shaped like a surfboard (in photos). The plaque on that bench is dedicated to that Manhattan Beach resident who was killed on ⁹⁄₁₁.
Ah yes, I remember that too.
Isn’t it amazing what humans are capable of doing to hurt one another?
Back to the park itself.
It’s directly above the Lifeguard Training Center, which sits on the walking path along the beautiful stretch of oceanfront north of Manhattan Beach Pier. I think this is one of LA’s best beaches, vast and mostly unpopulated.
The homes on the Strand have flower gardens, and there are vintage lamp posts, and old stone stairways leading down to the sand. I often walk here, it reminds me that we live in Paradise. It takes my breath away every single time.
Bruce’s Beach park has metered parking lots that are also in tiers (see photos). I can tell you that on summer weekends, spaces are at a premium, and the surrounding residential area offers very little if any street parking. It’s a densely-​populated place.
But on a weekday, clear sailing, plenty of room.
The park has no playground and no facilities other than the basketball court in the photo.
And there is no restroom either, but there are some down on the beach if you walk in either direction.
Dogs (on leashes) are allowed in half the park only, the lower half. See photos of the signs.
If you drive by Bruce’s Beach, stop and pause to reflect on how precious life is, and how fragile it can be. Feelings are precious too, and this park site generates many.