Village of Santa Monica

The Village of Santa Monica is a typical Highland population center. Located on the Blue Highway world Cecilia's Promise, Santa Monica is named after the mother of Saint Augustine because the settlers claimed waters of the bay to be "as clear as the tears of Saint Monica as she prayed for the salvation of her son, Augustine."
Like many such habitats the center of the village is the parish church, the Church of Saint Monica.  With a population of about fourteen hundred, the Village of Santa Monica is about standard size for a population center on Cecilia's Promise. This does not include the nearby agricultural residences, which make up a separate dispersed settlement.
The architectural style of Santa Monica is post-nano modern. Like all villages the town is a collection of individual residences, commercial structures and official buildings. Official structures, besides the parish church, include the Parish Seat, that is the local government center, the Grand Post Office, and the Transmat Portal.

Official Structures

Parish Seat
The Parish Seat is a two story structure which includes the the office of the village council, the constable's office and the central repository, the local mirror of Cecilia's Promise inter-web.

Grand Post Office
The Grand Post Office is the local branch of the Highland spanning system. In the case of Santa Monica the office itself is attached to Params Deliveries and General Fabrications. The local Postie position is part time, and occupied by the proprietor of that establishment. Message traffic is downloaded vie satellite and package goods delivered via the transmat portal, which is also under the administrative control of Mistress Param, owner of said establishment.

Transmat Portal
Santa Monica's transmat portal is a standard mix use permanent portal. Mixed use means that it is designed to be used by both pedestrians and cargo. Permanent means that it is commonly maintained in an open state, that is both portal openings are more-or-less fixed in their connected state. Dry goods and drums are translated through the portal using transport sleds.  The farside of the portal is located in Ellisa, a small port city near the planetary capital.

Commercial Establishments

Params Deliveries and General Fabrications
Commercial buildings are dominated by Params Deliveries and General Fabrications, which has one of the village's commercial nanotech factories. Hettie Param is the local Postie and also handles commercial package mail. Much of the small industrial raw material importing, used to support home and small commercial nanotech fabrication comes through Params. The General Fabrications portion of the establishment tends to concentrate on the making of low to medium tech quick fabs, which require fairly simple design specs and a limited number of stock materials.

Moranti Livery
The village itself is small enough that every structure is within walking distance, indeed this is one of the criteria that distinguishes a village from a larger entity, such as a town, which may have some form of public transportation network, either transmat or vehicular. However residence do sometimes need to travel to the surrounding agricultural homesteads or desire to visit local wildlands. The irregular nature of such activities makes the personal ownership of transport capsules economically wasteful. Moranti's has capsules for rent at reasonable rates for a multitude of uses. Some are small enough to use the transmat portal, others are large enough to use for general hauling. Autopilot capsules act as taxi's and delivery vehicles.

The Clay Jar Pub
For nearly all of human history there has existed establishments where people could buy meals and enjoy a sociable drink. In many places such businesses become community hubs. The Clay Jar pulls in business from the surrounding agriculture community as well as from Santa Monica.

Wing's Inn
Primarily an eating establishment Hosea Wing's hostel also has a dozen or so bedrooms which can accommodate village visitors. The Inn has two semi-regular residents, but most of the other rooms are typically available for travelers. Breakfast is typically included in the price of a room.

Broadline Fabrications
A general purpose technology fabrication facility, Broadline provides the main local source for nanofactory produced items, which are typically made to order from their extensive design catalog. The dozen or so employees include two design engineers who can spot design items or turn external designs into product at a modest cost. Their large nanofactory machines also provide the main fabrication facilities for the surrounding agricultural community.

Greengold's Market
Primarily an outlet for local agricultural products, such as dairy and meat, Greengold's also carries a small number of processed food items. Most residents travel to Ellisa regularly to get larger quantities of drygoods and stock food items.

Church of Saint Monica
The Parish Church complex includes the church itself, the associated rectory, the residence of pastor Fr. Martin Wolf, St. Augustine Hall, the parish's fellowship building and the parish school. The parochial school serves approximately 800 students.