Ojai, California

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Ojai, California
Location in Ventura County and the state of California
Location in Ventura County and the state of California
Coordinates: 34°26′57″N 119°14′48″W / 34.44917, -119.24667
Country United States
State California
County Ventura
Government
 - Mayor
 - Senate Tom McClintock (R)
 - Assembly Audra Strickland (R)
 - U. S. Congress Elton Gallegly (R)
Area
 - Total 4.4 sq mi (11.5 km²)
 - Land 4.4 sq mi (11.5 km²)
 - Water 0 sq mi (0 km²)
Elevation 745 ft (227 m)
Population (2000)
 - Total 7,862
 - Density 1,786.8/sq mi (683.7/km²)
Time zone PST (UTC-8)
 - Summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes 93023-93024
Area code(s) 805
FIPS code 06-53476
GNIS feature ID 1652763
Downtown Ojai
Downtown Ojai
Ojai Inn, built in 1876.
Ojai Inn, built in 1876.

Ojai (pronounced /ˈoʊhaɪ/) is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The estimated population, in 2003, was 8,006 , making it one of the smaller towns in the county. The town of Ojai is situated in the Ojai Valley, (10 miles long by 3 miles wide, approximately) surrounded by hills and mountains.

Contents

[edit] History

The valley was home to Chumash Indians before becoming one of many Spanish land grants along the California coast. It became a cattle ranch in 1837, when it was granted to Fernando Tico. In 1853 he sold it to prospectors searching for oil, without much success. By 1864, the area had been settled, and in 1874, the City of Nordhoff was founded.[citation needed]

Leading up to and during World War I, American sentiment became increasingly anti-German. Across the United States, German and German-sounding place names were changed. As part of this trend, Nordhoff was renamed Ojai, a Chumash word meaning "Valley of the Moon". The public high school is still called "Nordhoff" and the public junior high school which formerly served as Nordhoff's high school features large tiles with the initials "NUHS" on the steps of the athletic field[citation needed]

The main turning point in the development of the city was the coming of Edward Drummond Libbey. He saw the valley and fell in love, thinking up many plans for expansion and beautification of the existing rustic town. After fire destroyed much of the original western-style Ojai/Nordhoff in 1917, Libby helped design, finance, and build a new downtown more in line with the contemporary taste for Colonial-Revival architecture, including a Spanish-style arcade, a bell-tower reminiscent of the famous campanile in Havana, and a pergola opposite the arcade. These buildings still stand, and have come to serve as symbols of the city and the surrounding valley. To thank Libbey for his gifts to the town, the citizens proposed a celebration to take place on March 2nd of each year. Libbey declined their offer to call it "Libbey Day," and instead suggested "Ojai Day." The celebration still takes place, each year in October.[citation needed]

Today, Ojai is an active, though small, community. Libbey's pergola was destroyed in 1971 after being damaged in an explosion, and was recently rebuilt to complete the architectural continuity of the downtown area. The town completed a new park, Cluff Vista Park, in 2002, which contains several small, themed regions of native California vegetation.[citation needed]

[edit] Geography

Ojai is located at 34°26′57″N, 119°14′48″W (34.449079, -119.246654)[1]. The city is generally at 745 feet above sea level.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.4 square miles (11.5 km²), of which, 4.4 square miles (11.5 km²) of it is land and 0.22% is water.

Ojai is situated in a small east-west valley, north of Ventura and east of Santa Barbara. It is approximately 15 miles inland from the Pacific coast.

Since Ojai is lined up with an east-west mountain range, it is one of few towns in the world to have the Pink Moment [1] occur as the sun is setting. The fading sunlight creates a brilliant shade of pink on the Topatopa Bluffs that stand at the east end of the Ojai Valley, reaching over 6,000 feet above sea level. Nordhoff Ridge, the western extension of the Topatopa Mountains, towers over the north side of the town and valley at more than 5,000 feet. Sulphur Mountain creates the southern ranges bounding the Ojai Valley, a little under 3,000 feet in elevation.

The Ventura River flows through the Ventura River Valley, draining the mountains surrounding Ojai to the north and east and emptying into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Ventura. The Ventura River was once known for its steelhead fishing before Matilija Dam and Lake Casitas were constructed, eliminating habitat for this trout species.

The weather in Ojai is Mediterranean, characterized by hot, dry summers (sometimes exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit) and mild winters, with lows at night sometimes below freezing. The climate is generally mild and temperate. As is typical for much of coastal southern California, most precipitation falls in the form of rain between the months of October and April, with intervening dry summers.

Meiners Oaks Los Padres National Forest
Maricopa
SR 33
v • d • e
 
Santa Barbara
SR 150
U.S. 101 via SR 33		 North Upper Ojai Valley
West   Ojai    East
South
Oak View
Ventura
SR 33		 Santa Paula
SR 150
SR 33-U.S. 101-SR 126
Los Angeles
U.S. 101 via SR 33

[edit] Culture

Ojai is the home of the Ojai Film Festival[2], which showcases independent films from around the world.

There is only one movie theater in the town -- the Ojai Playhouse, located downtown. It houses only one screen.

The Ojai Music Festival, founded in 1947, is an annual festival of performances by some of the world's top musicians and composers, and occurs on the first weekend after Memorial Day. Notable appearances include Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Pierre Boulez, who was festival director in 2003.

The Ojai Poetry Festival[3] began in 2003 as a biennial gathering of poets for two days of readings and discussions. It features poets of national repute such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Galway Kinnell, Jane Hirshfield, Robert Bly, Coleman Barks and Gary Snyder.

Ojai occasionally hosts the "Ojai Classic Rock Festival" [4], featuring cover/tribute acts of various rock groups. There have been five Classic Rock Festivals so far, all taking place at Ojai's Libbey Bowl. OJAI ROCK FEST '08 is scheduled for Saturday July 12, 2008 [5] and will include the legendary Jackie Lomax.

The local public high school (Nordhoff High) also has a decorated music program. Its concert band held the California State Champion title in its division for three years in a row, until state budget cuts ended the festival, and performed in Carnegie Hall in April 2003 and again in April 2007, along with Nordhoff's award-winning choirs. The Nordhoff music department has also toured in San Francisco, New Orleans, Hawaii, Canada, Austria, and Germany.

The famous outdoor bookshop Bart's Books, subject of news programs and documentaries, has been in Ojai since 1964.

Ojai is also home to the annual Ojai Playwrights Conference, a two week playwrights festival that brings professional writers and actors from across the country to Ojai. David Lindsay-Abaire, Lee Blessing, Keith Bunin, and Luis Alfaro are all previous attendees. Many of the plays performed during the conference go on to have successful runs in New York, Seattle and Chicago.

The community is served by the Ojai Valley News.

[edit] Appearance in film and television

  • Ojai is the television hometown of title characters Steve Austin (The Six Million Dollar Man) and Jaime Sommers (The Bionic Woman), with the shows sometimes set in Ojai.
  • Ojai is the location where Green Day's music video for their single "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was shot. The war scenes were shot elsewhere.
  • It is the home of the 101-year-old character Rose DeWitt Bukater (portrayed by Gloria Stuart) in the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic (Cameron's homage to Ojai resident Beatrice Wood, upon whom Rose is partially based)
  • The Ojai Valley Inn was the location for the 1952 film Pat and Mike, which starred Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracey.[6]
  • Ojai is thought to be one of the towns which provided the inspiration for the fictional town of 'Bristo Camino' in the Bruce Willis film Hostage.
  • Ojai is mentioned in the movie Thirteen, when Evie's aunt declares that she and her niece are moving to Ojai so Evie "won't get in any more trouble."
  • A process shot of the Ojai Valley was used for the 1937 film Lost Horizon. [7][8]
  • The film The Two Jakes was filmed at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa.
  • In the 1992 film Mom and Dad Save The World, the main characters get lost after taking a wrong turn onto a road leading to Ojai.
  • Ojai is the town to which Steven Seagal's character flees in Hard to Kill.
  • Academy Award winning documentary "Mighty Times: A Children's March" was filmed and produced in Ojai in 2004.
  • On Animaniacs, Buddy, the classic Looney Tunes star from the 1930s, now works as a nut farmer here.
  • In Brothers & Sisters, the Walker family ranch is located in Ojai, which also inspired the naming of the family business: "Ojai Foods."
  • Ojai can be seen in several car chase scenes of the movie Smokey And The Bandit, starring Burt Reynolds. Both Ojai Liquors and the now demolished Ojai Frostie can be identified, as can Foster Park.
  • In the episode "Sixty Five Million Years Off" from the second season of Psych, Shawn sees a box with a label reading "Ojai Fruit" in the shop of the man whose murder is being investigated. They later visit the fruit stand, but no footage was shot in Ojai as the show is filmed in Vancouver, BC, despite it being set in Southern California.

[edit] Noted residents

[edit] Demographics

As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 7,862 people, 3,088 households, and 1,985 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,773.0 people per square mile (685.2/km²). There were 3,229 housing units at an average density of 728.2/sq mi (281.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 88.01% White, 0.60% African American, 0.50% Native American, 1.58% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 6.26% from other races, and 2.90% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15.84% of the population. (A person can be Hispanic or Latino and of any race, accounting for the percentages adding up to over 100%)

There were 3,088 households out of which 31.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.0% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 29.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the city the population was spread out with 24.9% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 23.9% from 25 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 88.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.2 males.

The median income for households in the city was $44,593, and the median income for a family was $52,917. Males had a median income of $40,919 versus $30,821 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,670. About 7.9% of families and 10.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.9% of those under age 18 and 9.3% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Recreation

The town of Ojai and its surrounding area is home to many unique recreational activities. Los Padres National Forest borders the town on the north, and many backcountry areas within the forest are accessible from Highway 33, which is the major highway through town south to north. Matilija Creek is a favorite spot to enjoy splashing under waterfalls, backpacking, and soaking in a hot spring. To the west, the Lake Casitas Recreational Area offers camping, picnicking, and hiking as well.

The valley is home to the oldest continuously-held tennis tournament in the world, the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament [9], and it has several public courts in the downtown Libbey Park. There are also two major golf courses: the Soule Park Golf Course, and the noted Ojai Valley Inn Golf Course.

Annually, in early April, the town host a bicycle race that draws the top professional and ameuter teams from around the country. The "Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix" began in 2004 as a tribute to a 22 year old cyclist from Ojai who died racing his bicycle in Arizona the previous year. The race is held on a one-mile circuit that circumnavigates Libbey Bowl in the heart of downtown Ojai. Proceeds from event promote cycling safety as well as education in local schools.

In early June, often coinciding with the Music Festival, the Ojai Wine Festival is held at Lake Casitas. Over three thousand wine lovers come to sample the products of over thirty wineries. Proceeds to go charity.

[edit] Education

[edit] Public schools

  • Ojai Unified School District [10]
  • Chaparral high School [11]
  • Matilija Junior High School [12] is a California public school and a California distinguished school.
  • Meiners Oaks Elementary School [13]
  • Mira Monte Elementary School [14]
  • Nordhoff High School [15] is a California public school and a California distinguished school.
  • San Antonio School [16]
  • Summit Elementary School [17]
  • Topa Topa Elementary School [18]

[edit] Other schools

In addition to its public school system, the Ojai Valley is home to several private boarding schools:

The Ojai Valley is also home to the Montessori School of Ojai, a private day school; and Laurel Springs School[23], which specializes in distance education and home-schooling.

Also located at Ojai is the Summer Science Program, currently hosted at the Besant Hill School.

[edit] Camp

Camp Ramah in California is located in the hills of Ojai.

[edit] External links

  1. ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  2. ^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
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Municipalities and communities of
Ventura County, California
County seat: Ventura
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Unincorporated communities