No Boards On The Pacific Beach Boardwalk...Or Fun Of Any Sort

I like to walk, and one of my favorite places in the world to walk is the ocean front boardwalk in Pacific Beach.

   Looking south at 7:00am from the far north end of Pacific Beach, two lone souls out for a stroll

The boardwalk, which incidentally is not a boardwalk in that it is not made of wooden planks but rather concrete - so it's actually more of a wide sidewalk that runs parallel with the ocean from a bit north of the Crystal Pier down to the Mission Beach jetty, is usually packed with interesting and/or amusing people.

            The people you see in the early morning are a bit different than the afternoon crowd

Everyday I'm in San Diego I walk the little more than six mile roundtrip in the morning, and if I have the time and opportunity, I'll walk it in the evening as well.

                                    Gnarly anklebiters this morning...can't surf that 

It's not the freakshow that Venice Beach is, but there are almost always one or two people that are living outloud, and those are the best people to watch.

                                             Enjoy a hot cup o' joe at Woody's

Years ago, the boardwalk was a little more of an adventure than it is these days, primarily because the city of San Diego has banned just about everything that was fun and exciting.

                           Nothing says oodles of fun like a well-regulated visit to the beach

There are still plenty of people walking, running, riding and just plain old hanging out on the boardwalk, but it's a lot quieter than it was when I was a kid.

Getting their stretch on at the far southern end of the boardwalk in Mission Beach

Not having obnoxious drunks mooning tourists or trying to jump over bonfires is probably a good thing, but it somewhat takes the fun out of the walk.

                                  Bayside was much more tolerant when I was a kid.

Why did the city of San Diego ban everything on the beach that was perfectly legal for over 100 years? Well, the cynical answer is Money.

There are two things that Money really, really hates. First and foremost, Money doesn't like anything or anyone messing with it's means to make more money.

   Third listing down - $5,500.00 a WEEK, That's $38,500.00 for the seven weeks it's available

Vacation rentals are huge business in Pacific & Mission Beach, the two areas the boardwalk winds through. Rowdy behavior by a few knuckleheads was blamed for the area developing a reputation as a haven for hooligans, and a rep like that can put a damper on rental property revenue quicker than a coed can get drunk in a Garnet avenue bar.

             Money will not stand by and allow threats to revenue go unchecked

Second, Money doesn't like to have to deal with riff-raff, undesirables, ragamuffins...you get the gist.

Money that wasn't able to buy a place in La Jolla moved south and to the oceanfront side of P.B. and even further south to Mission Beach.

When you buy a multi-million dollar view, you expect it to be miscreant free

Years ago, Money that moved south of La Jolla would live Bayside where they would sip their Gin & Tonics on their walled in patios, away from the riff-raff. 

But Bayside is fairly small, and the lack of available homes to purchase meant that if Money wanted to live in P.B., it would have to start purchasing property on the ocean side.

Once that happened, Money was not too happy with the escapades of the regular denizens of the boardwalk, and now that P.B. was Baja La Jolla, Money manipulated the politicians into doing what it wanted done.

                                      One of the better free views still available in P.B.

Just like Money always has and always will.

So no more fun allowed. Don't even think about it.