Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Why does no one refer to Mission Beach as “M.B.”?

Mission Beach

Mission Beach is one distinctive neighborhood. Of course there's the roller coaster, but I'm thinking of a completely different distinction. I mean that Mission Beach cuts quite the geographical figure. It is a true promontory, an actual peninsula, a mere spit, an almost isthmus, a gestural jut of land that, at its thinnest, could be transnavigated by the throw of a stone. Pretty distinguishing. Pretty cool. And then there's the unique infrastructure: only one single road — Mission Boulevard — threads north-south through the neighborhood, and that boulevard's crisscrossed by 60 tiny courts and places named for waterside communities in other areas: Nantasket, Portsmouth, Redondo, Rockaway, even Venice. Predominantly, Mission Beach is a maze of alleyways and patios angling between two beachside boardwalks.

I don't know about you, but I'm always hard-pressed to say precisely where something is in Mission Beach. "Um, it's on the left side, before the roller coaster, about halfway down." And I never drive there, not if I can help it, not unless I'm ready to crawl in traffic. Anyway, the only way to really see the place, to get the true feel of it, is to walk or skateboard, to Rollerblade or ride your bicycle.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Actually the best view in Mission Beach, and therefore the best perspective from which to see it all, is afforded from the top of the Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. It's one of those ancient, rattling, wooden coasters, and its 80th anniversary (notwithstanding the 14 years it was shut down) will be next Fourth of July.

Mission Beach also boasts the Plunge, which was once the largest indoor saltwater pool in the world. Years later, after they switched it over to freshwater, it was the largest indoor pool in Southern California. Nowadays it's just a nice big indoor pool.

It's a fact that there are almost no cheap houses in Mission Beach. This reality dates back to the original 1914 plan that drew up the neighborhood as a resort community. That plan won honors at the Second Annual Exhibition of Landscape Architects in 1925. Even today, a height-control mandate has kept all the architecture in Mission Beach under 30 feet. That's why no building in the whole vicinity is taller than three stories.

Somehow Mission Beach has been lucky enough to avoid the clipped nomenclature that afflicts its neighbors to the north and south. There's the often misunderstood "P.B." and the suggestive and atrocious "O.B.," but you'll never hear anyone mention "M.B." Wonder why that is?

As far as Mission Beach's claims to fame go, even this community's name reminds us of a piece of San Diego's history, of the mission that Father Junípero Serra embarked upon in 1769 to establish the first Spanish church in Alta California. And in 1927 Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis passed directly over Belmont Park — which, at the time, was called the Mission Beach Amusement Center. In archival aerial pictures of this event, you can see old Mission Beach, proudly glittering with its dinosaurian roller coaster slicing a figure far below.

I like Mission Beach most of all, I think, for the sheer option of shoreline. It's the one place in San Diego where I can stake a wide swath of sand and have it all to myself all day. Or, if it's too cool and windy on the ocean side, there's always placid Mission Bay, a stone's throw away.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Hip-hop artist Don Elway makes movies for his music

Not Ordinary EP tells a story of life on the streets
Next Article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Mission Beach

Mission Beach is one distinctive neighborhood. Of course there's the roller coaster, but I'm thinking of a completely different distinction. I mean that Mission Beach cuts quite the geographical figure. It is a true promontory, an actual peninsula, a mere spit, an almost isthmus, a gestural jut of land that, at its thinnest, could be transnavigated by the throw of a stone. Pretty distinguishing. Pretty cool. And then there's the unique infrastructure: only one single road — Mission Boulevard — threads north-south through the neighborhood, and that boulevard's crisscrossed by 60 tiny courts and places named for waterside communities in other areas: Nantasket, Portsmouth, Redondo, Rockaway, even Venice. Predominantly, Mission Beach is a maze of alleyways and patios angling between two beachside boardwalks.

I don't know about you, but I'm always hard-pressed to say precisely where something is in Mission Beach. "Um, it's on the left side, before the roller coaster, about halfway down." And I never drive there, not if I can help it, not unless I'm ready to crawl in traffic. Anyway, the only way to really see the place, to get the true feel of it, is to walk or skateboard, to Rollerblade or ride your bicycle.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Actually the best view in Mission Beach, and therefore the best perspective from which to see it all, is afforded from the top of the Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. It's one of those ancient, rattling, wooden coasters, and its 80th anniversary (notwithstanding the 14 years it was shut down) will be next Fourth of July.

Mission Beach also boasts the Plunge, which was once the largest indoor saltwater pool in the world. Years later, after they switched it over to freshwater, it was the largest indoor pool in Southern California. Nowadays it's just a nice big indoor pool.

It's a fact that there are almost no cheap houses in Mission Beach. This reality dates back to the original 1914 plan that drew up the neighborhood as a resort community. That plan won honors at the Second Annual Exhibition of Landscape Architects in 1925. Even today, a height-control mandate has kept all the architecture in Mission Beach under 30 feet. That's why no building in the whole vicinity is taller than three stories.

Somehow Mission Beach has been lucky enough to avoid the clipped nomenclature that afflicts its neighbors to the north and south. There's the often misunderstood "P.B." and the suggestive and atrocious "O.B.," but you'll never hear anyone mention "M.B." Wonder why that is?

As far as Mission Beach's claims to fame go, even this community's name reminds us of a piece of San Diego's history, of the mission that Father Junípero Serra embarked upon in 1769 to establish the first Spanish church in Alta California. And in 1927 Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis passed directly over Belmont Park — which, at the time, was called the Mission Beach Amusement Center. In archival aerial pictures of this event, you can see old Mission Beach, proudly glittering with its dinosaurian roller coaster slicing a figure far below.

I like Mission Beach most of all, I think, for the sheer option of shoreline. It's the one place in San Diego where I can stake a wide swath of sand and have it all to myself all day. Or, if it's too cool and windy on the ocean side, there's always placid Mission Bay, a stone's throw away.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

India Hawthorne is common in coastal gardens, Citrus trees are in full bloom

The vernal equinox is on March 19
Next Article

Celebrate Holi, Borrego Springs Music Festival

Events March 23-March 27, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.