Encinitas | Neighborhood Spotlight
Welcome to Encinitas! Home to roughly 65,000 residents, just nestled between Carlsbad and Solana beach. The area itself is surrounded by the Batiquitos Lagoon and the San Elijo Lagoon. The climate here is just incredible, it's what you'd expect from a beach side community. 72 degrees, pretty much every day. Never really gets above 85 and never gets below 40. Average rainfall per year is about 10 inches. Some of our notable residents in this area are: Tony Hawk, uh, Rob Machado, who actually owns a store here with his wife called salt culture, and Michael Chang, all-time great tennis player, among many others. In 1769, Gaspar de Portola, who was the Governor of Baja California, was on the Portola expedition up the coast of California and when he came across this area, he met the indigenous people here, the Kumeyaay people, in their village located very near the San Elijo lagoon.
He named this area Encina Cañada which means Canyon of the Oaks. So after Mexican independence in 1842 land was granted to build Ranchos Las Encinitas. So that area is actually the Olivenhain and New Encinitas area if you're familiar with the community. Encinitas actually means little Oaks in Spanish, which is just kind of a cool little tidbit. Encinitas was actually formed in 1881 by Jabez Pitcher who filed a claim for 160 acres of land, where we're actually standing now, just outside the Encinitas Civic Center. This place is also a legendary spot for the skateboarding community. Bam Margera dropped in, and rode this down into the street and Brandon Turner, a local San Diego legend did it switch more recently.
In the 1920s Encinitas actually became this bootlegger stop off. People woud drive down from San Francisco or LA to buy alcohol in Tijuana, they would stop off in Encinitas to party. A cool Hollywood tradition started happening, so dating back to the 20's, Charlie Chaplin used to come down here and ended up buying a house for his Mom in 1923 in Downtown Encinitas, and then opened the La Paloma theater in 1927, which is still open today, 93 years later, which is crazy. And then in the sixties, Sammy Davis, Jr. Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, etc. used to come down here and party whenever they would go down to the Del Mar racetrack. The Beach Boys actually dropped "Swami's Beach" in their infamous "Surfing USA" record. Another cool tidbit about the community. Encinitas is absolutely one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Diego. I feel like it really encapsulates the city, it's outdoor lifestyle, skate and surf culture, and just the community as a whole.
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