| Ocean Beach | |
|---|---|
| — Community of San Diego — | |
| The Ocean Beach Pier at sunset | |
|
Ocean Beach
|
|
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | County of San Diego |
| City | City of San Diego |
Ocean Beach (also known as O.B.) is a beachfront neighborhood of San Diego, California.
Contents |
Ocean Beach is located in San Diego on the Southern California coast. It lies on the Pacific Ocean at the estuary of the San Diego River, at the western terminus of Interstate 8. It is approximately 7 miles (11 km) from Downtown San Diego. O.B. is south of Mission Bay and Mission Beach, directly north of Point Loma, and northwest of downtown. The O.B. community planning area is bounded on the north by the San Diego River, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Froude St., Seaside St. and West Point Loma Boulevard, and on the south by Adair Street.[1] However, interpretations of neighborhood lines vary from OBcean to OBcean. (Residents of Ocean Beach often refer to themselves as OBceans, pronounced "oh-BEE-shun".[2][3])
Earlier names for O.B. include Mussel Beach, Mussel Beds, Medanos (Spanish for 'dunes'), Palmer's Place/Ranch, and Palmiro's.[4]
The main street of business is Newport Avenue which has antique stores, restaurants, head shops, tattoo and piercing shops, coffee houses, bars, bike and surf shops, and an international youth hostel.[5] Ocean Beach has three schools - Ocean Beach Elementary (a K-4 public school), Sacred Heart Academy (a K-8 Catholic school), and Warren-Walker (a K-8 private school). The community also features multiple churches, a public library, a U.S. Post Office, an independent supermarket, a vegetarian food co-op, and other amenities. Recreational facilities include the Ocean Beach Recreation Center, Dusty Rhodes Park, and the Robb Field athletic fields[6] and skate park.[7]
Local organizations include the Ocean Beach Town Council,[8] the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association,[9] the Ocean Beach Community Development Corporation,[10] the Kiwanis Club of Ocean Beach,[11] the Ocean Beach Antique District,[12] and the Ocean Beach Historical Society.[13][14] Also, the Ocean Beach Planning Board advises the city regarding growth and development strategies and communicates the community's desires to the City of San Diego.
Local events include the Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cookoff in late June, a jazz festival at the foot of Newport in late September, the Ocean Beach Christmas Parade in early December, and the Ocean Beach Kite Festival on the first Saturday of March. Also, each Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m, two blocks of Newport Avenue are open to only foot traffic and bicycles for a farmers market.[15]
The Ocean Beach Municipal Pier, built in 1966, is the longest concrete pier on the West Coast, measuring 1,971 feet (601 m).[16] The pier, which includes a restaurant and bait shop, is located at the south end of the beach and is available to the public for walking and fishing 24 hours a day. A concrete walkway spans part of the length of the one-mile (1.6 km) beach.
The northern end of O.B.'s waterfront is known as Dog Beach, alongside the channel that empties the San Diego River. It has been set aside specifically for leash-free pets and their owners 24 hours a day.[17] A commemorative plaque at the entrance lays claim to it being the first leash-free dog beach in the United States.
Ocean Beach and adjacent Point Loma are home to a sizable population of feral parrots and their offspring, known locally as the "O.B. air force." The sub-tropical climate is nearly ideal for parrots. There are numerous trees for roosting, and plenty for the intelligent, omnivorous birds to eat. The parrots, mostly Amazons, are especially active and vocal at sunrise and sunset.[18]
Ocean Beach was given its name by developers Billy Carlson and Frank Higgins in 1887. They opened the real estate firm of Carlson & Higgins and proceeded to develop Ocean Beach.
The pair developed the Cliff House, a resort hotel, and subdivided the area into lots. To drum up business for their subdivision, Carlson and Higgins organized a variety of promotional activities, including mussel roasts (thus the early name of "Mussel Beach") and band concerts. Despite their efforts, the development did not do well, because it was 2-1/2 hours by carriage from downtown San Diego. They rented a locomotive, but by that time, the boom ended and the development was put on hold. The Ocean Beach Railroad, launched in April 1888, was a casualty of the economic decline. Passengers could take a ferry from San Diego to Roseville in Point Loma to ride the train to the Cliff House. Later, Higgins' partner committed suicide, and the Cliff House burned down from a fallen chandelier in 1898. Carlson sold the Ocean Beach development to an Eastern financier, and its development would wait another 20 years for permanent rail service – trolley cars – to arrive, carrying riders from Ocean Beach to Old Town. A wooden bridge, built in 1914 across the San Diego River flood-control channel between Mission Beach and Ocean Beach, was demolished in January 1951, thereby cutting off through traffic to Ocean Beach from the Mission Beach and Pacific Beach communities.[19]
But Carlson and Higgins were not the first to file a subdivision map in Ocean Beach. Theirs was filed with the city on May 28, 1887, according to research done by librarian Rhoda E. Kruse.[20] Earlier, on April 22 of the same year, J.M. DePuy filed "DePuy's Subdivision" on 15 blocks in the northern portion of O.B.
The northern end of Ocean Beach was dominated in the early 20th century by the Wonderland Amusement Park, which opened on July 4, 1913 and was constructed on the sand at Voltaire and Abbott streets. It boasted a large roller coaster, dance pavilion, large menagerie, roller skating rink, merry-go-round, children's playground and 22,000 lights outlining the buildings. Wonderland was a popular attraction until 1916, when most of it was washed away by high tides. Some of the bungalows built as tourist accommodations atop the cliffs on either side of Niagara Avenue are still in use as businesses and homes.[21]
Later in the 1910s, Ocean Beach became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars and an extensive San Diego public transit system that was spurred by the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and built by John D. Spreckels. These streetcars became a fixture of this neighborhood until their retirement in 1939.[22]
The small cottages, bungalows, single-family homes and two-storied apartments in the residential areas, were filled with college students from several local colleges, joined by a good number of sailors, retirees and middle-class families. With the dredging and development of Mission Bay and the dismantling of the Ocean Beach-Mission Beach bridge, O.B. became geographically isolated from the rest of San Diego and the other beach communities, until the construction of Interstate 8 in 1967. The westernmost segment of I-8 from Interstate 5 to the terminus in Ocean Beach is officially labeled the "Ocean Beach Freeway".[23] The Ocean Beach Pier, which opened in 1966,[24] added to the attraction of the community's waterfront.
Surfing as a sport and recreation began to take hold in O.B., and became a prominent feature of the community by the early and mid-1960s. Major surfing contests were held at the end of Newport Avenue, a number of local surfers made it to the big-time and several well-known surf shops prospered (Duke Dana for one).
Each spring, Ocean Beach would become a favorite local beach hang-out for many of the area's youth. As in many youth beach towns, friction arose between the youth and local police. 1968 was a particularly explosive year, as there were well-known police-youth skirmishes at the beach during Easter weekend and Memorial Day weekends that year.
Ocean Beach was once known as the Haight-Ashbury of San Diego.[25] The community became an attraction for hippies, who eventually became accepted by many local business establishments. The Black headshop opened on Newport Avenue. Soon to follow was an organic food store – the Ocean Beach People's Organic Food Market – on Voltaire Street.
Beginning in the early 1970s, local development and land interests pressed for the development of Ocean Beach's oceanfront, with plans for tourist-oriented resorts, hotels and a marina outlined in the Ocean Beach Precise Plan. With the passage of a 30-foot (9.1 m) height limit in 1972[26] and the re-writing of the Precise Plan, the development plans for the waterfront were abandoned.
In 1978 the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association (OBMA) was formed with 25 paid members. The OBMA organized Ocean Beach's first Street Fair in 1981, an event that continues today. During the 90s the OBMA co-ordinated improvement projects for Newport Avenue including a tile project, store front improvements, and a Veteran's Plaza at the foot of Newport Avenue. During the 1990s the OBMA trademarked the names "Ocean Beach Street Fair, Chili Cook-off and Fireworks Festival" as well as the name "Ocean Beach Farmer's Market", two regular community events. Every Wednesday Newport Avenue between Bacon St and Cable St is closed to vehicle traffic while The Ocean Beach Farmer's Market is held.[27]
The economy of Ocean Beach is dominated by small, independent retail businesses. Newport Avenue, the main business street, featured family-owned businesses from the 1930s through the 1960s, such as a bakery, drug stores, a book and novelty shop, a shoe store, men's and women's apparel shops, and a family-owned pet store. In the 1960s and 1970s larger stores and shopping malls elsewhere in the city gradually replaced the small local stores. Many of the storefronts were then turned into antique stores, and the area is now known as the Ocean Beach Antique District.[28] Nowadays Newport Avenue is dominated by antique malls, where interior space is leased to small vendors, as well as visitor-serving establishments such as restaurants, bars and surf shops. There are several small independent hotels in O.B., but no nationally franchised hotels.
The community has actively opposed chain businesses opening in Ocean Beach, and only a few exist there. In the 1970s, community protests led a chain of donut stores to drop its plans to open a store in O.B. In 2000 an Exxon station abandoned its attempt to open a gas station there.[29] In 2001, an organized grassroots effort attempted unsuccessfully to block Starbucks from opening a coffee shop in Ocean Beach.[30]
The historic single-screen movie house The Strand Theatre – which opened to screen talkies in 1924 in the middle of town – was converted into a Wings, an East Coast chain selling beach apparel, after several failed attempts to preserve it as a theater.[31] The theater was designated a historic building by the San Diego Historical Resources Board in December 2003.
Ocean Beach's current and former notable residents, politicians and merchants include:
|
||||||||
