San Diego and Mission Beach
The Big City
The History of Mission Beach would not be complete without some
background to its greater community-San Diego. Mission Beach is located just
north of downtown San Diego. Mission Beach is not really a city, simply a
community inside a bigger city. To see a city map of where Mission Beach is
located inside San Diego, take a look at a Yahoo Map. 1601
The city had great influence in Mission Beach. Many people from
the city saw how prosperous was the community. In fact, many people
moved to Mission Beach from other places in San Diego just to be closer to
water. It was a safe place full of good times as seen by this beach picture.
Just like other areas of San Diego, Mission Beach has a certain lifestyle
that is simply appealing. Everyone wanted to be there and just have a good
time. Looking back over the years, that was one of the things which
attracted people to Mission beach. 1602
Mission Beach wasn't the only beach community to develop. There was also
Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, La Jolla, and Coronado. All four of these places
had huge success. Pacific Beach is the area just north of Mission Beach. It
looks very similar to Mission Beach probably because both communities grew
together. They both developed more or less around the same time and they are
next to each other. Mission Beach, however, had the luck of having a Bay
side and amusement park. 1603
Just north of Pacific Beach lies La Jolla. This beach community is quite
unlike the other two. It is secluded by the mountains and also has a north
facing beach. La Jolla is often remembered for its high class living and
wealth residents. Some of the wealthiest people live there having huge
hidden estates. It closes resembles Newport Beach, some 60 miles to the
north. 1604
There is not too much information on Ocean Beach probably because it is
one of the smallest beach community. It was however, one of the first beach
communities to become popular before Mission Beach. It is located just south
of Mission Beach, on the other side of the jetty. It has a very rocky coast
in comparison to the other beaches which is called Sunset Cliffs. There also
used to be an amusement park similar to the one in Mission Beach however it
did close due to its poor location. Ocean Beach itself is difficult to
reach. In addition to all these beaches, there are also many others in San
Diego. 1605
In addition to all the beaches, there is Mission Bay and Mission
Bay Park. The picture to the right is that of Mission Bay after its
renovation. Mission Bay was used to be mostly inaccessible to large boats
and commercial water traffic. It was just was too shallow. This was mostly
caused by the San Diego River dumping silt into the bay. Around the middle
of the century, there was an effort to revive the bay. First, in 1929, the
Sate of California made Mission Bay Park one of the state's 72 parks. But,
1930, the City's master plan had little effect in the area. In 1940, Frank
Seifert proposed that the area be used for recreational purposes. Also,
there was a plan to fill in the southern marshes with sand to make another
airport with a mile-long runway. The chief figures in the development of the
bay, however, were Glenn C. Rick, the City's Planning Director, and Mayor
Knox. It turned out that there were several plans for the Bay. The one that
was favored at the time was to make the area very commercial with ballparks
and hotels. But, it didn't happen that way and Mission Bay and Mission Bay
Park became home to such activities as water skiing, sailing boats, and fire
rings. 1606
The marshes of Mission Bay were not all converted to a
recreational park. The south side of Mission Bay was converted to an
airport. Until this time, San Diego had a very small air field. However, the
city planners saw how San Diego was expanding and knew they needed a larger
airport. Originally built to be an express route to Los Angeles in the
north, Lindbergh Field is the name of San Diego's International Airport
today. The name come from Charles Lindbergh's historic flight over San Diego
which can be seen in the picture to the left. 1607
