Playa del Rey, Spanish for "Beach of the King," is a seaside neighborhood on the westside of Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Bay region of Los Angeles County. The community occupies a coastal strip between the Pacific Ocean, the Ballona Wetlands, and the neighborhoods of Westchester and Marina del Rey, and it lies immediately north of Los Angeles International Airport. With roughly 14,400 residents, Playa del Rey is one of the quieter, more tucked-away coastal pockets of the westside. The area's modern history began in the early twentieth century, when the Beach Land Company acquired more than a thousand acres and began promoting the shorefront. An early landmark, the Hotel del Rey, anchored the beach area until it was destroyed by fire in the 1920s. The original 1921 land development, called Palisades del Rey by the Dickinson and Gillespie Company, later came to be known as Playa del Rey. Development of the Del Rey Hills neighborhood followed in the late 1920s, establishing the residential pattern that persists today. The lagoon formed by Ballona Creek historically shaped the landscape before early twentieth-century development and subsequent wetland restoration redefined it. Today Playa del Rey is a predominantly residential coastal community known for its beach, the Ballona Creek bike path, and proximity to the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. Its location near LAX and Marina del Rey places it within easy reach of employment and recreation across the westside, while its low-key, beach-town atmosphere distinguishes it from busier coastal neighbors. A small commercial district serves residents, and the neighborhood's compact geography keeps daily life oriented toward the water and the wetlands rather than the heavy commercial traffic of adjacent areas.