Del Mar
From the archives
Village Square

Del Mar, the town and the racetrack

Sea rise, body surfers, Kaaboo, Del Mar by foot and by bicycle, bridge from Torrey Pines, sick racehorses, Crest Canyon, Old Del Mar artists, Terrace Rats,

Author
Publish Date

  • Not ready to move 600 homes inland

  • As Del Mar sees it, they've worked tirelessly to amend their local coastal plan to account for sea rise. Flooding, beach loss, and coastal bluff erosion were all considered, and the adaptation plan put into their community plan. Done, and done.
  • By Sheila Pell, Oct. 22, 2019
1750 Ocean Front, Del Mar. Not ready for managed retreat.

  • How to bring poor people to Del Mar

  • Will Del Mar horse groomers and fairground carnies be the next group to get squeezed out in the ongoing housing shakedown? Those temporary Del Mar fairground employees may eventually feel the pain due to a state law that mandates more affordable housing for permanent residents.
  • By Ken Leighton, Nov. 26, 2018
Del Mar City manager Scott Huth: “It may be laughable but it’s the law.”

  • The lifeguards clear out a section for us

  • In 2012 , a group of beachgoers were hanging out on the sand in Del Mar. They started recognizing each other as regular beachgoers, started socializing and going out to eat. But they had one thing in common — they loved to body surf.
  • By Ken Harrison, April 30, 2018
Del Mar BodySurfing Club. Ten hardcore bodysurfers show up in the wintertime. In the summer, 20–30 members.

  • "We created a ginormous version of a noise-canceling system"

  • Last year, the Union-Tribune reported that in 2015, “Del Mar officials said the city received dozens of voice mails and emails complaining about noise over the [Kaaboo] event. Organizers said they set up a complaint hotline, which received 91 calls.”
  • By Mike Madriaga, Sept. 16, 2017
Weezer at the Del Mar Fairgrounds September 15

  • Racing season visitors are a tradition

  • As high tourist season approaches, Del Mar is on edge. What will happen with vacation rentals? Last month, the city council drew a line in the sidewalk, separating homes and commerce. Interpreting the zoning code, they decided that rentals of less than 30 days are illegal in residential neighborhoods.
  • By Sheila Pell, May 15, 2017
Del Mar Airbnb page. Jackson suggested permits and regulations, as Solana Beach has. “If say, quiet hours are broken, they get a ding on their permit.”

  • Tour Del Mar

  • Like most San Diegans I'm familiar with the touristy parts of Del Mar (Del Mar Fairground/Racetrack and the beaches) – the scenic coastal village between Soledad Valley and the San Dieguito River – but didn't know much beyond Highway 101/Camino Del Mar. So I set out to properly explore the town one day on my bicycle.
  • By Smorg , Feb. 10, 2015
Path from Del Mar's L'Auberge hotel down to the Powerhouse Park and beach.

  • Circumnavigate Del Mar on foot

  • Combining beach, lagoon, crest, and canyon, this looping hike touches upon every natural landscape the community of greater Del Mar (the west-of-Interstate-5 part, anyway) has to offer. On a typical early-summer day, with a tepid temperature and a good breeze, the journey of six miles is a one-water-bottle effort.
  • By Jerry Schad, June 22, 2006

  • Scandal Bridge

  • The three lanes of Torrey Pines Road between the state reserve of the same name and Del Mar crown a half-mile sand berm separating the Pacific Ocean to the west and Los Peñasquitos lagoon to the east. Near the north end of the berm, the road narrows to two lanes as it crosses a concrete bridge erected in 1932.
  • By Ernie Grimm, Jan. 30, 2003
North Torrey Pines Road showing south bridge (left) in San Diego and north bridge (“high bridge”) owned by the City of Del Mar

  • Just Say Nay

  • San Diegans flock to the Del Mar racetrack each summer, making it the most successful racing plant in the land, in terms of attendance. For nonregular racegoers, Del Mar is a another excuse for a party. For racetrack regulars, however, a shadow hangs over the sport they love.
  • By Bob Owens, Aug. 24, 2000
Del Mar before race time. The only drugs that can be given to a horse on or near race day are furesomide and a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory called Butazolidin, or bute.

  • Explore obscure Crest Canyon

  • Crest Canyon, an open-space park within the city limits of San Diego, helps insulate woodsy Del Mar from the upscale, bustling sprawl of Carmel Valley to the east. The canyon, rather like a shallow bowl with an upturned lip on three sides, slopes down from Del Mar Heights Road on the south to San Dieguito Lagoon on the north.
  • By Jerry Schad, June 10, 1999

  • Narrow, seldom-trodden pathways

  • Familiar to most Del Martians but unknown to most outsiders, the Torrey Pines State Reserve Extension conceals itself amid the coastal bluffs inland from Del Mar and just north of the main Torrey Pines reserve.
  • By Jerry Schad, June 11, 1998

  • Artists who lived on the original street of old Del Mar

  • According to the photographs displayed in the mock-Tudor shopping square five blocks from here, I was living on the original street of Old Del Mar. In the 1880s a resort hotel stood on the several lots nearest the bluff. What remained were five small white cottages, designed originally to accommodate those elaborate rituals which occupied elder Victorians on any approach to the ocean.
  • By Cal Bauser, Oct. 3, 1985

  • The Terrace Rats

  • Once the crew building Interstate 5 in the early 1960s went home for the day, the kids growing up in Del Mar Terrace had the time of their lives. The Terrace is the area immediately south of Del Mar, a small community nestled into the side of sandstone bluffs above the slough and west of I-5. First the kids scaled the six-foot, heavily treaded tires of the earthmovers, and then they put all their weight behind the enormous gearshifts,
  • By Bonnie ZoBell, Feb. 27, 1997
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Terrace Rats from left to right: Joe Gooding, Johnny Carter, Larry, Eddie Polloreno, Larry Polloreno. The Terrace Rats had finally met up with their inland counterparts—the ones across the freeway who’d also enjoyed playing on the earthmovers used to build I-5.
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