Neighborhoods, City of San Diego
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 92106, 92107
Two of the
oldest neighborhoods in the city. In many sections, upscale, a la 1920s and
1930s. Views of San Diego Bay and Pacific. www.mccormacks.com
School
scores high, crime low. In northern area, on the flight path for the
international airport.
Point Loma
counts 39,589 residents and Ocean Beach 13,752 (2006 figures). Point Loma is
also known as the Peninsula and some people will identify themselves as
residents of small neighborhoods of the Peninsula: Roseville, Sunset Cliffs, La Playa, Loma Portal.
Point Loma
is a long peninsula that hooks over the entrance to San Diego Bay. A gentle
ridge about 50 feet high runs down the middle for most of its length. East of
the ridgeline, many homes have views of the bay. West of it, the homes have views
of the Pacific.
Built out.
Some lots for infilling. The lovely views have pushed prices up market.
Fort
Rosecrans, a military base, and a Coast Guard Station take up the south end,
along with a monument to Juan Cabrillo, who discovered San Diego. Good spot for
whale watching in January. www.mccormacks.com
“The
Peninsula” showed 44,720 residents in the 1990 census and 42,004 in 2000.
Almost all the drop can be attributed to the closing of military facilities,
notably the Naval Training Center, which over 75 years trained 1.7 million
sailors. The land was turned over to the City of San Diego.
Retained
or to be built are a golf course, civic arts complex, parks, including one on
the bay, trails, two hotels, 350 residential units, and office and commercial
buildings. Much of work has been done or is underway.
Navy kept
71 acres for 500 housing units. There was some talk of closing the Marine Corps
Recruit Depot, to the north of the airport, but it's still in business.
Of the
peninsula's 16,390 residential units, 9,489 are single homes and 7,219 are
apartments or condos.
East of
Rosecrans Street you'll find hotels, restaurants and stores. The residential
section, to the west of Rosecrans, includes large, older homes reportedly built
for officers. Old-fashioned lampposts decorate the streets. Everything is
well-maintained. The look suggests a quieter, more genteel era. www.mccormacks.com
But
there’s a lot of fairly new here, too. Almost 70 percent of homes built between
1950 and 1980 — some way up-scale, many custom, many modest. Views cost
more, and possibly so does quiet — the noise from jets taking off San
Diego Airport, which is a problem in north sector. Check the flight path.
One of
these years, the airport may be expanded. How this will affect the noise and
takeoff and landing patterns remains to be determined. Many people are pushing
to make major changes in how San Diego County handles civilian air traffic.
Ocean
Beach, called by locals O.B., occupies the northwest section, on the beach.
In the
1960s, it won a reputation as a hippie-liberal community and fought the fight
over neighborhood integrity and keeping out uses that would dramatically force
up home values (and drive out the less-moneyed residents). Residents call
themselves "OBceans" (O-BEE-shuns).
In 2006,
the city counted 7,463 residential units, of which 1,566 were single homes and
6,259 were apartments or condos. www.mccormacks.com
About
1,200 residential units predate World War II. Ocean Beach built about 1,500
units a decade through 1970, then the count dropped to about 1,100, and in the
1980s to about 600.
A lot of
the old, some of the new, and a feeling, rare in California, of a community
with a sense of the past. Some residents probably can trace their OB roots back
several generations. Town council (advisory) helps run the neighborhood, sound
out local opinion.
Farmers'
market. Christmas parade. Fourth of July fireworks. Annual street fair.
Citizens patrol helps keep down crime.
Crime low.
Zero homicides in Ocean Beach in 2005 and 2004, one in 2003, two in 2002. See Crime.
Zero
homicides for the Peninsula from 2000-2005. www.mccormacks.com
State academic rankings, at Ocean Beach
Elementary in the 60th to 80th percentile, at Sunset View Elementary in the 80s
and 90s, and at Point Loma High School in the 60s and 70s. See Schools.
Good
commute. About 3 to 10 miles to downtown San Diego. North Harbor Street is a
nice and scenic alternate to Rosecrans Street and the freeway. If you fly a lot
and want the airport handy, look to these neighborhoods.
Beaches,
water sports, playgrounds, close to downtown — a lot to do. For a scenic
hike, try the Cabrillo Monument and views of the ocean, bay, downtown and
mountains. In the evening, many residents walk the Pacific shore and watch the
sun depart.
Scattered
around the Peninsula are small neighborhood shopping centers. Good choice of
restaurants.
Near
Interstate 5, in an industrial section, away from the homes, you'll find
whoopee. Or more precisely, most of the strip clubs in the city. See also San
Diego in this chapter. www.mccormacks.com
In the
late 1800s, Point Loma was home to the Theosophical Society, which favored
universal brotherhood, welcomed men and women of all creeds, helped the needy
and encouraged the arts. The Depression weakened the society and the land later
was sold to the military. It is now home to Pt. Loma Nazarene University.
• About
30,000 whales migrate each year from Alaska to Baja California. Many pass close
to the shore and can be seen with binoculars. Every January, the San Diego
celebrates a Whale Watch Weekend, the return of the whales. People flock to the
Cabrillo Monument to take in the whales.
• In 2006,
funding was advance to renovate six historic buildings on the former Naval
Training Center. The buildings are to be used for dances, concerts and
community events and offices for civic groups. About 22 more buildings are to
be restored with the intention of turning the historic section into a
cultural-community promenade.
• In 1982,
Laura Jehl, on her way to UC-Berkeley, Harvard, the Sorbonne and a career in
the State Department, graduated from Pt. Loma High and at the graduation ceremony
tossed her mortarboard hat into the air. This violated school policy and she
was not awarded an official diploma. In 2006, at the request of a friend, the
school awarded her the diploma. Congrats, Laura. Incidentally, graduates these
days are allowed to fling the mortarboards. www.mccormacks.com
