| City of Imperial Beach | |
|---|---|
| — City — | |
| "Surfhenge"[1] in Imperial Beach | |
| Motto: "Classic Southern California" | |
| Location within San Diego County, California. | |
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | San Diego |
| Founded | June 1, 1887 |
| Incorporated | September 17, 1956 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council-Manager |
| • Mayor | Jim Janney |
| • City Council | Brian Bilbray, Jr Edward J. Spriggs Jim King Lorie Bragg |
| Area[2] | |
| • City | 4.485 sq mi (11.616 km2) |
| • Land | 4.161 sq mi (10.778 km2) |
| • Water | 0.324 sq mi (0.838 km2) 7.22% |
| Elevation | 69 ft (21 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • City | 26,324 |
| • Density | 5,869.3/sq mi (2,266.2/km2) |
| • Metro | SD-TJ: 5,105,768 |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 91932 |
| Area code(s) | 619 |
| FIPS code | 06-36294 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1660788 |
| Website | www.cityofib.com |
Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,324 at the 2010 census. The city is the most southern beach city in Southern California and the West Coast of the United States. It is in the South Bay area of San Diego County, 14.1 miles south of downtown San Diego and 5 miles northwest of downtown Tijuana, Mexico.
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Imperial Beach is located at (32.578255, -117.117111) making it the most southwesterly city in the continental United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.5 square miles (12 km2). 4.2 square miles (11 km2) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) of it (7.22%) is water. The city occupies the extreme southwest corner of the continental United States: bordered by Tijuana, Mexico to the south, Coronado, California to the north, the San Diego Bay to east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Imperial Beach is located in San Diego County, the fifth most-populous county in the United States and part of the San Diego Metropolitan Area, the 17th largest metropolitan area in the United States with over 3 million people. It is also part of the San Diego – Tijuana metropolitan area, the largest bi-national metropolitan area shared between the United States and Mexico with over 5 million people. Despite the large population surrounding the city, Imperial Beach maintains a small residential feel.
Founded in June 1887, the city takes its name from Imperial County, California, a desert climate 100 miles east. Farmers and land owners from the Imperial Valley came to the area in the late 1880s seeking cooler weather during summer months. In March 1887, over 2,000 laborers descended upon nearby Coronado, California to construct the Hotel del Coronado, the largest resort in the world at the time. A large amount of the workers stayed in Imperial Beach and some would later make it their permanent homestead. The city would incorporate in 1956, operating its own Mayor-council government providing city fire department service and policing by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
The city has a Mediterranean climate with summer temperatures often in the upper 70s and winter temperatures in the 60s. Because of the comfortable year round temperatures many homes in Imperial Beach are built without air conditioning. Imperial Beach often remains 10 degrees cooler than inland areas of San Diego County. The city is mostly or partly sunny 323 days of the year, with the wettest months in winter. The Farmer's Almanac consistently ranks the area within the Top 10 Best Weather Cities in America. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography operates a weather reporting station at the middle of the Imperial Beach Pier for sky condition, temperature, humidity, pressure, wind and water temperature data.
| Climate data for San Diego (San Diego Airport), 1981-2010 normals | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °F (°C) | 65.7 (18.7) |
65.6 (18.7) |
66.2 (19.0) |
68.2 (20.1) |
69.1 (20.6) |
71.4 (21.9) |
75.2 (24.0) |
76.9 (24.9) |
76.4 (24.7) |
73.4 (23.0) |
69.5 (20.8) |
65.3 (18.5) |
70.24 (21.25) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 49.5 (9.7) |
51.2 (10.7) |
53.7 (12.1) |
56.4 (13.6) |
59.9 (15.5) |
62.5 (16.9) |
65.9 (18.8) |
67.2 (19.6) |
65.6 (18.7) |
61.1 (16.2) |
54.0 (12.2) |
48.9 (9.4) |
57.99 (14.44) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 1.98 (50.3) |
2.27 (57.7) |
1.81 (46) |
0.78 (19.8) |
0.12 (3) |
0.07 (1.8) |
0.03 (0.8) |
0.02 (0.5) |
0.15 (3.8) |
0.57 (14.5) |
1.00 (25.4) |
1.53 (38.9) |
10.33 (262.4) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 6.7 | 7.1 | 6.5 | 4.0 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 5.8 | 41.5 |
| Sunshine hours | 238.7 | 228.8 | 260.4 | 276.0 | 251.1 | 243.0 | 303.8 | 294.5 | 252.0 | 244.9 | 231.0 | 232.5 | 3,056.7 |
| Source no. 1: NOAA [3] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: HKO (sun, 1961-1990) [4] | |||||||||||||
Imperial Beach encompasses just over 6 miles of beach including a dog friendly area and employs a year round lifeguard staff. Beach volleyball, surfing and body boarding are popular in Imperial Beach with activities concentrated north and south of the Imperial Beach Pier and the Boca Rio beach break, one of San Diego County's best surf spots. San Diego Magazine identifies the Boca Rio beach break as the second best surfing location in the county, second only to Black's Beach and the Scripps Canyon area near La Jolla. The area around Imperial Beach Pier known as Pier Plaza showcases plaques placed on surfboard benches that tell the story of how the city's big waves had an impact on surfing from 1937 to the 1950s. Nearby Border Field State Park signifies the most southern beach on the west coast and allows beachgoers in the United States to correspond verbally with beachgoers in Mexico. The city connects to nearby Coronado, California by way of the Silver Strand, a narrow, 7 mile long isthmus. Silver Strand State Beach, a popular beach for camping, bird watching, and bicycling, is located in the middle of the isthmus and includes both bay and ocean beaches.
The San Diego County summer tourist season brings many visitors to the city's beaches each year. For 31 years, Imperial Beach played home to the U.S. Open Sand Castle competition, the largest sand castle competition in the United States, drawing in approximately 325,000 people. The city held the final sand castle competition in August 2011, bringing an end to the annual event and tradition. The city also holds the beach front classic car show every summer and an annual dog-surfing contest. The Imperial Beach Farmer's Market, the only beach front farmer's market in San Diego County, operates from Pier Plaza every Friday afternoon (from November to March) and (from April to October) offering local fruits, vegetables and community art. The South Bay Drive-in, the county's only ocean view drive-in theatre, is located just outside Imperial Beach off Coronado Avenue.
Imperial Beach is home to The Tijuana Estuary, a National Estuarine Research Reserve and State Park. The estuary, located off Seacoast Drive and Imperial Beach Boulevard, is home to many endangered birds and wildlife. This estuary marks the place where the fresh water Tijuana River enters the salt water Pacific Ocean. It is the largest salt water marsh in Southern California.
Imperial Beach has undergone a significant makeover in the last ten years to become more visitor-friendly and commercially viable. In 2004, the City of Imperial Beach began implementing a community redevelopment plan to improve the commercial corridor along Palm Avenue and Seacoast Drive. However, aside from a few smaller hotels, Imperial Beach remains a highly residential city with little hotel or motel accommodation for visitors. Future plans for the city allow for construction of additional hotels along the beach areas of Seacoast Drive. On September, 13, 2010, after many years of planning, demolition officially began on the shuttered 38-room Seacoast Inn located off Seacoast Drive. Construction is now underway for a 20 million dollar luxury hotel and conference facility to be built on the 1.4 acre oceanfront lot.
Imperial Beach boasts a high military population and is home to the US Navy's Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach also known as NOLF Imperial Beach.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department 2008 crime statistics rank Imperial Beach below the national average in all areas reported. In 2009, Congressional Quarterly's "America's Safest and Most Dangerous Cities" publication ranked the City of San Diego as having the sixth lowest crime rate of any major U.S. city with over a half million residents.
San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) provides bus and paratransit services to the city from throughout San Diego County. MTS also provides service to San Diego International Airport (Lindbergh Field) from Imperial Beach. The city is one of five Port member cities making up the Port of San Diego, one of America's top 30 U.S. container ship ports.
Kem Nunn's novel, Tijuana Straits, provides insight into the culture of the border and surfing in Imperial Beach and the Tijuana River Valley, and the environmental problems that impact residents of Tijuana, Imperial Beach and Coronado.
The HBO television series John from Cincinnati was about a dysfunctional surfing family in Imperial Beach set against the backdrop of the U.S.-Mexico border. The series (from Executive Producer David Milch, writer Kem Nunn, and director Mark Tinker) was filmed at a variety of locations in Imperial Beach and in the Tijuana River Valley.
The 2010 United States Census[5] reported that Imperial Beach had a population of 26,324. The population density was 5,869.5 people per square mile (2,266.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 59.26% Non-Hispanic Whites, 5.26% African American, 1.10% Native American, 6.55% Asian, 0.60% Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino of any race made up 29.08% of the population.
The Census reported that 25,705 people (97.6% of the population) lived in households, 619 (2.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.
The population was spread out with 6,696 people (25.4%) under the age of 18, 3,640 people (13.8%) aged 18 to 24, 7,603 people (28.9%) aged 25 to 44, 6,012 people (22.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 2,373 people (9.0%) who were 65 years of age or older. Imperial Beach has one of the youngest median ages of any Southern California city with a median age of 31 years. For every 100 females there were 101.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.5 males.
There were 9,882 housing units at an average density of 2,203.4 per square mile (850.7/km²), of which 2,756 (30.2%) were owner-occupied, and 6,356 (69.8%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.4%. 7,476 people (28.4% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 18,229 people (69.2%) lived in rental housing units.
According to estimates by the San Diego Association of Governments, the median household income of Imperial Beach in 2010 was $49,104 (not adjusted for inflation).
In the state legislature Imperial Beach is located in California's 40th Senate District, represented by Democrat Juan Vargas, and in California's 79th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Ben Hueso. Federally, Imperial Beach is located in California's 53rd congressional district, and is represented by Democrat Susan Davis.
| To the North: Silver Strand (San Diego) |
California State Beaches | To the South Border Field State Park |
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