City, Ventura County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 93041, 93042, 93043, 93044
Coastal
city with essentially just three neighborhoods, all bordering a
military-civilian port. Deep port. Big ships. Population: 22,202. Pronounced
WHY-KNEE-ME. www.mccormacks.com
Click for regional or detailed map
Within
Port Hueneme city limits, the state in 2008 counted 8,108 housing units, of
which were 2,493 single detached homes, 2,202 single attached, 3,372 apartments
and 41 mobile homes. In the 1990s, the city added about 1,500 residents.
Median age
of residents is 30. Children under 18 make up 28 percent of town. Family town.
Well kept.
Long beach, run by the city. Lovely trail with parks glides through most of the
town; popular for evening and weekend strolls.
The town’s
name, murky in origins, may have derived from an Indian word meaning “resting
place.” For a while, newspapers called the place “Wynema.”
At Port
Hueneme, nature shaped an aquifer (water-permeated rock and soil) that
discharged fresh water to the ocean, created a deep canyon, and somehow calmed
the waves. A pioneer developer thought the site ideal for a wharf and one was
constructed. www.mccormacks.com
In the
1870s, a town was laid out and in following years added churches, a school and
later a fairgrounds with a track for horse racing. A boardwalk and pavilion
were built; visitors promenaded along the shore.
But
despite many efforts, Hueneme as a tourist destination didn’t take off. The
town drifted through the first three decades of the 20th century and in the
1920s civic leaders and business people pushed for a deep-water port, to be
dredged out of the shore. A bond was floated, the work begun, and the job
finished in 1939.
Two years
later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Navy, needing ports, purchased
all of Port Hueneme and 1,700 acres.
Warehouses
and docks were built, more dredging done, more rail track laid. The Navy base
trained Seabees (construction workers) and became one of most active ports on
the West Coast.
At war’s end, the Navy held on to the
Seabee base but many of the facilities have been turned over to an agency
controlled by the cities of Port Hueneme and Oxnard. The port is a major entry
point for bananas and cars. www.mccormacks.com
The
Seabees still train there and stage a Summerfest with a parade and tour of
ships.
A few
miles down the coast, at Point Mugu, is a naval air base. The air base and the
facilities are linked together and called Naval Base Ventura County or NBVC.
This base at both Point Magu and Port Hueneme is staffed with 9,000 military
personnel and employs 6,000 civilians and 1,000 contractors and is major source
of revenue for Ventura County. (But cuts may be made in operations and staffing
in a few years.)
Following
the war, civic leaders won voter approval to incorporate the town as city
(1948). This gave the locals control over planning before housing boom started.
The boom
came in the 1950 and blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s. In these two decades,
the town built about 55 percent of its current housing, favoring the
three-bedroom tract home. But Port Hueneme’s opportunity to grow was thwarted
by the rapid annexation of the surrounding land by Oxnard. After the boom
ended, Port Hueneme was confined to:
• Housing north of Channel Islands Boulevard. This consists of what appears to
be a retirement village between Patterson Road and Ventura Road. And fairly new
single homes and townhouses between Patterson Road and Victoria Avenue. The
retirement portion lays out its homes in an unusual pattern: single homes,
connected, and lined up like row housing. www.mccormacks.com
The new section is
composed of single homes and townhouses in separate complexes with homeowner
associations and recreations centers with pools or clubhouses. Many trees.
Clean. Some complexes are walled, giving them extra privacy.
• Housing between Victoria Road and J Street. Mostly single homes,
three-bedroom, two-car garage, built in the 1950s and 1960s, a well-maintained
if slightly faded neighborhood. Many streets are laid out as ovals. Part of the
old downtown also falls in this section: city hall, cottages and bungalows,
some restored, apartment complexes, patio homes, a mix of the old and the
fairly new.
• The waterfront, south of Port Hueneme Road. Many condos and apartments. Some
single homes. Much of the housing here is new (within 25 years). Security gates
limit traffic access to some complexes. Fishing pier. Ocean presence strong;
sand blows in on some streets; sea gulls hover above.
Cultural
center. Library. Community center. About six parks. Lovely beach. Close to
sport fishing, restaurants, etc. Tennis center. Usual sports for kids and
adults (soccer, softball, etc.) Beach sports. Annual film festival. Annual air
show.
Most of
the children attend schools in Hueneme Elementary School District, then move up
to Hueneme High School in the Oxnard High School District. Some kids attend
elementary schools in the Oxnard Elementary District. www.mccormacks.com
Against
other California public schools, the elementary students score from the 20th to
60th percentile, a real mix. Hueneme High scores generally in the 40th
percentile.
In 1997, 2000 and 2004, the Hueneme district passed three bonds to
renovate and modernize its schools and expand their libraries. Good support for
education.
The high school district has also passed renovation-construction
bonds.
Four
homicides in 2005, one in 2004, zero in 2003, one in 2002, zero in 2001, one in
2000, zero in 1999 and 1998. The counts for previous years are one, zero, zero,
two, three, two.
Commute a
little more difficult and longer than some other Ventura cities. Three to five
miles to Highway 1, which connects to Highway 101. About 75 miles to LAX.
Metrolink (commute rail) can be picked up in Oxnard. www.mccormacks.com
Being a
city, Port Hueneme has control over its parks, planning, police and civic
amenities. It is able to capture taxes and put them to civic uses. The city
also gets revenue from the port operations.
For decades,
the town has been polishing and sprucing up and using tax targeting
(redevelopment) to fix up its downtown.
The trail
park ties some of the neighborhoods together.
Chamber of
commerce (805) 488-2023.
• Hueneme
school district is seeing its enrollments decline, forcing budget cuts.
City web
site: www.ci.port-hueneme.ca.us
