La Jolla, San Diego, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
La Jolla (IPA pronunciation [laˈhoia], i.e. “lah-HOY-yah”) is a seaside resort community of 42,808[1] residents within the city of San Diego, California. La Jolla borders Pacific Beach to the south and extends north to Torrey Pines State Reserve and Del Mar, California. Along the way it encompasses neighborhoods[2] like Bird Rock, Windansea, The Village of La Jolla (including "downtown La Jolla"), La Jolla Shores, La Jolla Farms, Torrey Pines, Mount Soledad and La Jolla Village (including La Jolla Village Square). Interstate 5 forms La Jolla's man-made border to the east, with the exception of some University of California, San Diego and commercial property east of I-5 and north of La Jolla Village Drive, which is also part of La Jolla.
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[edit] Identity
La Jolla residents and business owners sometimes refer to the "city", "village", or "town" of La Jolla. The U.S. Postal Service has designated "La Jolla" as the only acceptable place name for use in mailing addresses for the ZIP Codes covering the area, even though such addresses lie within the San Diego city limits.[3] These conventions can give the impression that La Jolla is a separate incorporated city, even though it is part of the City of San Diego.
La Jolla has several community groups which work to unify the voice of the community. The La Jolla Community Planning Association advises the City Council, Planning Commission, City Planning Department as well as other Governmental agency as appropriate in the initial preparation, adoption of, implementation of, or amendment to the General or Community Plan as it pertains to the La Jolla area.[4] The non-profit La Jolla Town Council[5] organization represents the interests of the La Jolla businesses that belong to the Council.
Additionally, a group that calls itself Independent La Jolla was formed in 2004 to advocate for the secession of La Jolla from the City of San Diego.
[edit] Neighborhoods
- La Jolla Farms - the exclusive homes on top of the cliffs above Black's Beach and adjacent to the western boundary of the UCSD campus.
- La Jolla Shores - the residential area and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography campus along La Jolla Shores beach and east up the hillside. Also includes a small business district of shops and restaurants along Avenida de la Playa.
- La Jolla Heights - the homes on the hills overlooking La Jolla Shores. No businesses.
- Hidden Valley - lower portion of Mount Soledad on the northern slopes. No businesses.
- Country Club - lower Mount Soledad on the north-west side, including the La Jolla Country Club golf course.
- Village - a.k.a. Village of La Jolla (not to be confused with La Jolla Village) the "downtown" business district area, including most of La Jolla's shops and restaurants, and the immediately surrounding residential areas.
- Beach-Barber Tract - the coastal section from Windansea Beach to the Village. A few shops and restaurants, mostly on La Jolla Blvd.
- Lower Hermosa - coastal strip south of Beach-Barber Tract. No businesses.
- Bird Rock - southern/coastal La Jolla, and the lower slopes of Mt Soledad in the area. Shops and restaurants along La Jolla Blvd.
- Muirlands - relatively large area on western middle slope of Mt. Soledad. No businesses.
- La Jolla Mesa - A strip on the lower southern side of Mt. Soledad, bordering Pacific Beach.
- La Jolla Alta - The neighborhood east of La Jolla Mesa.
- Soledad South - Southeastern slopes of Mount Soledad, all the way up to the top, east of La Jolla Alta.
- Muirlands West - The neighborhood between Muirlands to the south, and Country Club - to the north.
- Upper Hermosa - North of Bird Rock, east of La Jolla Blvd.
- La Jolla Village - (not to be confused with the Village of La Jolla) - north-east La Jolla, east of La Jolla Heights, north and west of I-5, and south of UCSD. This neighborhood's namesake, The La Jolla Village Square shopping and residential mall, including La Jolla's two movie theatres, is located here.
It should be noted that The Village (of La Jolla) and La Jolla Village are often confused (by taxi drivers, for example), but are distinct neighborhoods within La Jolla.
[edit] Education
The University of California, San Diego (including the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the San Diego Supercomputer Center) is the center of higher education in La Jolla. National University is also headquartered in La Jolla. Among the several research institutes near UCSD and in the nearby Torrey Pines Science Park are The Scripps Research Institute, the Burnham Institute (formerly called the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation) and the Salk Institute. The community's prep schools are La Jolla High School, La Jolla Country Day School, The Bishop's School, and The Preuss School UCSD. Elementary schools include Integral Elementary School of La Jolla, Delphi Academy, All Hallows Academy, and Evans. The public high school, La Jolla High School, is in the San Diego City Schools district.
[edit] Landscape
La Jolla, like most of Southern California, is an area of great natural beauty with a mixture of geology - sandy beaches and rocky shorelines good for a variety of outdoor activities. The area has a number of public beaches, parks, as well as shopping areas.
[edit] Beaches
The most compelling geographical highlights of La Jolla is its ocean front, where residents and visitors can enjoy the alternating rugged and sandy coast line and view wild seal congregations. Popular sandy beaches, dotting the coastline from the south to the north, are:
- Wind and Sea Beach
- Children's Pool Beach
- La Jolla Cove
- La Jolla Beach and Tennis property
- La Jolla Shores
- Scripps
- Black's Beach (leading up to Torrey Pines State Reserve)
[edit] Other geographical points of interest
Another geographical highlight of La Jolla is Mount Soledad with the narrow roads that follow its contours and hundreds of homes overlooking the ocean on its slopes. It is the home of the Mount Soledad Easter Cross, the center piece of a Korean War memorial, and a monument of some legal discrepancy.
[edit] Development
The landscape of La Jolla today is shaped by its development. With palm-lined streets, large estate homes in masterplanned and gated developments, La Jolla has become one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the nation.
[edit] Attractions and activities
La Jolla is also the location of Torrey Pines Golf Course, made famous by the PGA TOUR Buick Invitational held there each February (in 2005 and 2007, the competition was held in January). Down the steep cliffs from the Salk Institute and the Torrey Pines Golf Course is the famous de facto nude beach, Black's Beach.
Walking along the beach at all times (but especially at sunset) is popular recreation. Those ambling along may be able to glimpse the “Green Flash”.
Downtown La Jolla is noted for its jewelry stores, upmarket restaurants and hotels. Prospect Street and Girard Avenue also have several famous boutiques and restaurants (including local favorites, such as the Girard Gourmet and Harry's Coffee Shop). Notable for its architectural and historical presence is the La Valencia Hotel, which used to welcome movie stars on retreat from Hollywood during the silent film era.
Skimboarding and surfing are very popular at many of La Jolla's beaches including Windansea Beach.
For many years, La Jolla has been the host of a rough water swim. The events are the 250 meter junior swim for people 12 and under, the 1 mile amateur swim for people 18 and under, the 1 mile masters swim for people 19 and over, and the Gator man, a 3 mile swim from the La Jolla Cove to the Scripps Pier and back. It is available for everyone, but people under 18 must have a note from their coach. In order to compete in the amateur or junior events, one must also be a member of USA swimming.
Spectacular views of the ocean and much of San Diego can be seen from the Mount Soledad Memorial Park at the top of Mount Soledad.
[edit] Origin and pronunciation
“La Jolla” is pronounced /la'hoia/ not /la'hoʒa/, as one might expect due to the pronunciation of the orthographic “ll” in the Spanish of most of Latin America. The area was known as “La Jolla Park” at least as early as 1886. The origin of the name is obscure. Some say it is a corruption of “ahoy”, called out by sailors seeking the attention of people on the shore. Promoters of La Jolla claim it is from the Spanish “la joya”, meaning the jewel. A more likely though less glamorous theory is that “La Jolla” is a corruption of the Native American word “Woholle”, meaning hole in the mountain, referring to the caves in the north-facing cliffs next to La Jolla Cove Park. Most of these have since either collapsed due to ongoing erosion, or have been intentionally destroyed by local authorities to prevent the drownings that were once frequent occurrences.[citation needed]
[edit] Notable residents
- Actors Gregory Peck, Cliff Robertson and Raquel Welch have also called La Jolla home, as have musician Michael Franks and the Hearst family.
- The OC actress Autumn Reeser was born in La Jolla and lived there until the age of 17.
- The OC actor Adam Brody worked at the Blockbuster on Pearl St. in La Jolla.
- Financier Ivan Boesky lived in La Jolla for several years.
- Robin Wright Penn attended La Jolla High School.
- Movie Producer Sun Min Park attended La Jolla High School.
- Conrad Riggs, Executive Producer of Survivor and The Apprentice attended La Jolla High School.
- Former MGM Production executive, Jeff Kleeman is a La Jolla native.
- Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts is a La Jolla Native.
- Film Executive Donald Deline is a La Jolla Native
- Gore Verbinski, director of Pirates of the Carribean is a La Jolla Native.
- Nobel Prize winner Clive Granger lives in La Jolla.
- Sportscaster Dick Enberg lives in La Jolla.
- Rolf Benirschke, an NFL placekicker, attended high school in La Jolla.
- NFL quarterback Doug Flutie makes his home in La Jolla.
- Novelist Anne Rice, author of Interview With the Vampire, moved to La Jolla from the New Orleans area in March 2005.[6]
- Rock guitarists Robin Crosby and Warren DeMartini of the metal band Ratt attended high school in La Jolla
- Until recently, Deepak Chopra ran his Center for Well Being in La Jolla.
- Kary Mullis, a biochemist and surfer from La Jolla, invented PCR (polymerase chain reaction) a procedure employed in genetic engineering and forensic science, for which he won the Nobel Prize.
- Gateway, Inc. founder Ted Waitt built an estate on top of Mount Soledad where he lives with his family.
- Armi Kuusela, winner of the first Miss Universe beauty pageant, back in 1952, lives in La Jolla with her husband, Albert Williams.
- Many of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans live in La Jolla, including Irwin and Joan Jacobs, Margaret Anne Cargill, David C. Copley, and Audrey Geisel (the widow of Theodore Geisel/Dr. Seuss)
- Ellen Browning Scripps, philanthropist, founder of Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Scripps College
- Painter Richard Allen Morris has been living in La Jolla for twenty years.
- Carl Rogers, eminent American psychologist
- David Hall (Oklahoma governor), Governor of Oklahoma from 1971-1975, moved to La Jolla after serving 19 months in Federal prison for racketeering and extortion, and went on to become a successful sales executive there.
- Theodor Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, was a long-time resident of La Jolla, and died there in 1991. Unlike many celebrities, his address and phone number were listed in the local phone book. The main library at the University of California, San Diego, is dedicated to him.
- Sam Hinton, American folk singer and marine biologist.
- Raymond Chandler, an early influential noir novelist, moved to La Jolla late in his career. He died there 13 years later, but not before delivering a bleak aphorism about then-stuffy La Jolla, "A nice place — for old people and their parents."
- Francis Crick, the Nobel laureate who was amongst those who identified the essential structure of DNA, was a long-time resident of La Jolla.
- Notable oceangrapher Walter Munk lives in La Jolla.
- Joel Skinner former manager of the Cleveland Indians and the current 3rd base coach. Was born in La Jolla.
[edit] Cultural references
The title article in Tom Wolfe's The Pump House Gang is about a group of surfers from Windansea Beach in La Jolla who “attended the Watts riots as if it were the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena”. (See [1] for an excerpt.)
One of the main characters in John Steinbeck's novella Cannery Row visits La Jolla to collect specimens in the tide pools of La Jolla.
La Jolla is mentioned the The Beach Boys song “Surfin' U.S.A.”.
The USS La Jolla, a nuclear submarine, is named in its honor.
The fictional superhero team Gen¹³ are based in La Jolla.
Timescape, a science fiction novel by Gregory Benford is partly set in La Jolla at UC La Jolla, before the urban spread of San Diego enveloped the town, and led to its renaming to UCSD.
In Jurassic Park II, a T-Rex marches through downtown La Jolla.
[edit] External links
- San Diego Community Profile: La Jolla
- SANDAG population and housing estimates (PDF)
- La Jolla Light Newspaper
- La Jolla Town Council
- La Jolla Shores Association - serving the La Jolla Shores community
- La Jolla High School Home Page
- La Jolla by The Sea Visitor's Guide
- La Jolla Neighborhood Guide
[edit] References
- ^ Population and Housing Estimates, Zip Code 92037. 2004 Estimates. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.
- ^ map of La Jolla neighborhoods
- ^ USPS zipcode lookup website
- ^ La Jolla Community Profile
- ^ La Jolla Town Council
- ^ "Anne Rice's rebirth", San Diego Union-Tribune, November 3, 2005.
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| Northern | Carmel Valley · Clairemont · Del Mar Mesa · La Jolla · Mission Beach · Pacific Beach · Pacific Highlands Ranch · Torrey Highlands · Torrey Hills · Torrey Pines · University City |
| Northeastern | Black Mountain Ranch · Carmel Mountain Ranch · Mira Mesa · Miramar · Rancho Bernardo · Rancho Penasquitos · Sabre Springs · San Pasqual Valley · Scripps Ranch · Sorrento Valley |
| Eastern | Allied Gardens · Del Cerro · Grantville · Kearny Mesa · Mission Valley East · San Carlos · Serra Mesa · Tierrasanta |
| Western | Hillcrest · Linda Vista · Mission Hills · Mission Valley West · North Park · Ocean Beach · Point Loma · University Heights |
| Central | Downtown (Columbia, Core, East Village · Gaslamp Quarter · Little Italy · Marina) · Golden Hill · Logan Heights · South Park |
| Mid-City | City Heights · College Area · Kensington · Normal Heights · Talmadge |
| Southeastern | Encanto · Mt. Hope · Paradise Hills |
| Southern | Otay Mesa · San Ysidro |
