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WHAT:This February, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM) will recognize and celebrate Black History Month on Third Street Promenade with art installations by local Black artists and a banner program to honor historic Santa Monica Trailblazers for their significant achievements and contributions to the community. DTSM will present three public art displays in storefront windows beginning Wednesday, February 10 through March 15, 2021, from A Brilliant Dummy, Shplinton, and Mira Gandy. Each art installation celebrates the Black experience as part of a greater effort in the City of Santa Monica to deepen the community’s knowledge and foster understanding of other cultures and experiences that have been marginalized or overlooked due to a legacy of slavery and institutional racism. DTSM worked closely with Black Santa Monica Tours and Concierge, Robbie Jones, and the Quinn Research Center, whose mission is to empower community members by being an educational resource that promotes the study and research of Black Family History and Culture in the Santa Monica Bay Area, to feature Black Santa Monica Trailblazers on decorative banners along the Third Street Promenade. DTSM encourages everyone to visit DowntownSM.com to read more about their contributions in our community and to find a full calendar of Black History Month events produced…

Are staycations the new vacations? After all, Americans are staying close to home and taking shorter vacations. They did it this summer, and they’ll do it again this Thanksgiving and Christmas, the other two most popular vacation periods. You could blame the pandemic or the recession for the abbreviation of your vacation, but that only begins to explain what’s happening. The way we take time off is changing — has been changing for years — and this is only the latest stage in the evolution of the American vacation. Jamie Simpson, who is in constant communication with hotel operators in Los Angeles, sums up the staycation trend succinctly: “People are staying closer to home.” But terms like nearcation, homecation or staycation don’t adequately describe this shift. Simpson, the vice president of communications at the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, says Los Angeles residents are checking into hotels in their own neighborhoods, often filling a void left by travelers from out of state. At the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, for example, 85% of current business originates in California, and most of it is local. Properties such as the 1 Hotel West Hollywood are seeing a surge in business from people who walk — yes, walk — to the hotel. That’s called microlocal business…