A model poses in the latest Nordstrom fashions at the Santa Monica Pier on Friday, August 24, 2012.

Santa Monica Emergency Manager Ken Semko  demonstrates the latest computer technology enhancements during a press conference and ribbon cutting ceremony of the newly renovated Emergency Operation Center (EOC) on Thursday, August 30, 2012.

The City of Santa Monica has seriously stepped up its commitment to safety with the newly renovated EOC. This state of the art facility will carry out emergency and/or disaster management functions at the most strategic level to ensure the safety of the community. Newly upgraded, this state of the art facility offers a showcase of technological enhancements.  

To insure uninterrupted service, even during a power failure, the EOC is equipped with an emergency generator that can run for several days without electricity.

Ready for Carmageddon II, the new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be activated on the weekend of September 28-30 to manage any issues that may arise from the scheduled closure of the 405 freeway.  

The new upgrades cost $400,000.00

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is located at the City of Santa Monica's Public Safety Facility.

Phillip King plays his harp along the Santa Monica Boardwalk on Saturday, July 21, 2012.

U.S. Navy Special Warfare Operator (SO) candidates run in formation at the Santa Monica Boardwalk on Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Commercial and Fine Art Photographer Stephen Wilkes takes photos off the Santa Monica Pier from a crane for his new “Day to Night” Series on Sunday, Aug 19, 2012.

For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been recognized for his fine-art and commercial photography. He has won numerous awards and has had five major exhibitions in the last five years. His photographs can be found in magazines such as Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, TIME and The New York Times Magazine as well as in the permanent collections of The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film, Library of Congress, Dow Jones Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Jewish Museum, New York. Wilkes is based in Westport, Connecticut, and is represented by Bernstein & Andriulli in New York City, Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica, California. He has won this award for his series "Day to Night." In this series Wilkes photographs a scene for a minimum of ten hours, from the same perspective, capturing a fluid visual narrative of day into night within a single frame.

Go Topless Day 2012 - Images by Fabian Lewkowicz

Equal rights activists march along the Venice Boardwalk wearing pasties during  the 5th annual national Go Topless Day protest  on Sunday, August 26, 2012.The Go-Topless Day rally was meant to proclaim women’s constitutional right to go bare-chested in public. Gotopless.org claims constitutional equality between men and women on being topless in public. Currently, women who dare to be topless in public in the US are repeatedly being arrested, fined, humiliated, criminalized. Many states in the US have adopted the right for women to be topless in public. HOWEVER, in many cases, local ordinances and discriminatory practices result in women STILL being unable to be topless in the same area as men. The purpose of Go Topless Day is top point out the discrimination in these ordinances. The annual national Go Topless Day protest falls on the exact day that the original womens rights bill was signed into effect giving women ALL the same rights that men have. Members of gotopless.org will be giving a petition in Washington DC and requesting an audience with the president to enforce womens rights and make the ordinances either eliminate the ordinance OR remove the name female or woman in the ordinance which will give them the right to cite MEN as well as women for baring thier nipples. To read more about the ordinances, find a city close to you where the parade will be held, donate to help the cause, or get other information please go to www.gotopless.org

Jazz musician Rogelio Mitchell performs at Stewart Park during the 7th annual Jazz on the Lawn on Sunday, Aug 26, 2012.

Families race during the inaugural Cardboard Yacht Regatta at the Annenberg Community Beach House pool on Friday, Aug 25, 2012. Photo by Nick Steers