Oceanside – eclecticism reigns

Oceanside Blvd. beach rip-rap, Fire Mountain incursion, airport death, growing up in Camp Pendleton housing, Oceanside Pier, Samoan gangs, Saint Malo, harbor vs. surfers

Author

Geoff Bouvier, Susan Vaughn, Ken Leighton, Ken Harrison (RIP), Steve Sorensen, Ian Anderson, Chris Ahrens

Publish Date

Homes at end of Oceanside Blvd. claim emergency
The city never got approval,” says Mackin. “They just started doing it. These homeowners had carte blanche to put as much rip rap as they wanted on public beach. They might have been losing some sand in front of their houses. But none of these homes were in danger. What our staff did was it waived the need to get all the necessary permits which is unheard of. This has never been done before.”
By Ken Leighton, Dec. 10, 2019

"These homeowners had carte blanche" (Drone photo taken July 20)

Oceanside – California's best kept secret
The year was 1965, and just as they had the previous two Augusts, my parents rented one of Robert’s Cottages, those pink dollhouses planted in the sand just south of the pier, somehow avoiding McMansionization to remain as humbly quaint as ever. Dad repeatedly told us to take care of the place, because he was paying $100 a week.
By Chris Ahrens, Oct. 16, 2019

Sunset from the Oceanside Pier.

The end of South Oceanside
“I remember when moms would wear pretty dresses just to go and shop in a little market,” says Clare Trotter-Michel who grew up a block away from Red & White Market. She was born in 1959, the same year that the full-service market was officially taken over by the Spano family. “Now it’s people wearing flip-flops.”
By Ken Leighton, July 30, 2019

"I do not need 12 kinds of cake mixes that I end up getting rid of."

A meeting in Fire Mountain about David Fischbach
Twenty homeowners met May 9 in a living room in the upscale Oceanside Fire Mountain neighborhood. They weren’t carrying pitchforks, but they were fuming, outraged that an aggressive entrepreneur with a dubious history was building two sober living facilities in their rustic backyard. Fire Mountain homes often resell in the $1 million to $1.2 million range.
By Ken Leighton, May 20, 2019

Work in progress on a Fischbach home on Yucca Rd.

Camp Pendleton Marine faithful to homeless brothers
Like many Camp Pendleton Marines, Anthony White had a post-Corps life plan when his four years of service was over in 2015. “When I got out I had a place to stay and a job lined up with my friend who was starting up a security business,” says White, 28. “Come to find out, my friend had to move back to Colorado. Before I knew it, I was spending nights in my truck.”
By Ken Leighton, Feb. 11, 2019

Anthony White (far left): "I stayed at the parking lot at Lowe's because their wi-fi covered the parking lot."

Monday night's death in fog
Tim Broom was not happy that a small plane crashed about 700 yards from his home near Highway 76. Broom, a computer systems analyst, told News 8 reporter Heather Hope that he and other neighbors had filed over 200 complaints with the city of Oceanside over the last seven years warning of “dangerous activities” connected with the airport.
By Ken Leighton, Jan. 30, 2019

The single engine plane crashed into a ridge about 125 feet above Highway 76.

Camp Pendleton: A hell of a place to grow up
Live or on a recording, Taps plays every night, on just about every American military installation in the world, while the American flag is lowered and folded up to be put away for the night. This meant the sun was going down and practice was over for our youth soccer team, the Lasers, representing the central housing areas of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
By Ian Anderson, Aug. 2, 2017

We lived on Pendleton in the neighborhood called San Luis Rey Housing. We called it the 17 Area.

Oceanside Pier rehab
Perhaps in preparation for this year’s predicted El Niño weather pattern and its accompanying big waves and high tides, the Oceanside Pier is getting some extra support. Construction crews will be under the pier for the next two weeks replacing some of the rusted-out, dangling metal-pipe crossbeams; the beams strengthen the pier’s wood pilings by tying them together.
By Ken Harrison, Sept. 4, 2015

Work crew aligning and pounding in bolts to support crossbeams

Samoans live and die in Oceanside
“And then I got into a gang, the Deep Valley Bloods,” he says in a tone that implies he knows how stupid that decision was. “I was about 13 or 14. And me and my other friend, I’m not going to say his name, but we were the youngest out of the whole crowd. The jump-ins were crazy. On Arthur Street, we used to make two lines."
By Geoff Bouvier, Feb. 20, 2008

Trailer park ocean views
Eight years ago at 6:30 in the morning, if you surfed the beach breaks closest to downtown Oceanside, you’d see the underworld scurrying home like cockroaches getting back to the rocks. The crystal meth/prostitute element has been largely squeezed out for two reasons. For one, prices of homes west of I-5 have exploded. My house has tripled in value in the past decade. The other reason may have to do with Oceanside cops and their overzealous activity.
By Ken Leighton, Dec. 24, 2003

Halfway between Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo
They called it “Oceanside’s best-kept secret” — an enclave of 75 French Norman-style homes along the banks of the Pacific. They said the little 28-acre community of white-and-blue-trimmed houses closely resembled a French fishing village on Brittany’s coast. They said both places were called Saint Malo.
By Susan Vaughn, April 1, 1999

Even the Kennedys vacationed in faux-Saint Malo during the 1960s.

Surfers versus Oceanside Harbor
Oceanside today is a city on the move. They're hustling. They're tired of being a grimy little beach town next to the marine base, more famous for their prostitution, porno joints, grubby pool halls, tattoo parlors, and bus stations, than for their popular harbor and white beaches. And they want to do something about it. In cooperation with the marine corps, they've been able to ease some of the problems.
By Steve Sorensen, March 3, 1977