![]() ![]() With the cost of living rising fast - Zillow estimates that home values are up about 25% in the last year - “we have to be careful because of gentrification,” he added. “I believe we’re now up to eight coffee shops in downtown,” said Gumaro Escarcega, chief operations officer of the civic nonprofit MainStreet Oceanside. Industries - the Australia-based surfboard empire of shaper Jason Stevenson - opened last year on Wisconsin Avenue, offering $800 surfboards in a converted garage that’s painted flat black, like the Green Room. Tenant businesses include Communal, a very popular coffee shop-florist-gift boutique Bottlecraft, a beer bottle shop and bar Atacama Surf Shop the online surf magazine Stab Brixton clothing a courtyard cycling studio called Verve and a poke-and-tacos-and-beer place called Shootz.īagby Beer Co., a brewery and pub that opened in 2014, stands back to back with the collective and faces the Coast Highway. But it’s got to move,” said Jonny Gomez, 84, owner of the Esquire barber shop since the early 1960s.Įxhibit A in the city’s evolution might be the Tremont Collective, a restaurant-retail complex that opened in November, replacing an old warehouse. Census numbers.īut, as new businesses multiply, Oceanside is looking a bit more like its civilian neighbors to the south (Carlsbad and Encinitas) and north (San Clemente). It’s also more culturally diverse, according to the most recent U.S. With so many active and retired military on hand, the city has a more blue-collar, conservative feel than most other SoCal beach towns. Around downtown, you still see several military surplus stores, tattoo parlors and barber shops, where many Marines get their “high-and-tight” haircuts weekly. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (population about 38,000) has been the northern next-door neighbor to Oceanside (population about 174,000) since it was established during World War II. ![]() He was fit, his haircut was short, and I had him pegged as a moonlighting military guy. On the afternoon I first walked the pier, a young guitarist named Zachary LaMontagne was playing “Stairway to Heaven” for tips. It’s in between, with plenty of surfers and strolling couples. Is it a pageant of volleyball and prosperity like the Manhattan Beach Strand? No again. Is the beachfront scene a random humanity situation like the Venice boardwalk? No. Tourism officials say a new pier eatery probably will open later this year, as will new restrooms and other improvements just below the pier and along the Strand, a mile-long beachfront street that’s mostly pedestrian and full of runners, walkers and cyclists, especially around sunset. It’s got plenty of anglers, a bait shop halfway out, an empty restaurant space at the end where a Ruby’s Diner used to be, and usually several surfers below, riding dangerous close to the pilings. Built in 1887 and rebuilt five times since then, it stretches for 1,942 feet, which makes it a focal point of the city’s three-mile coastline and one of the longest wooden piers on the West Coast. Since long before the first Marine showed up, newcomers to Oceanside have been starting with the pier. ![]() But the city’s changes reach far beyond that neighborhood. Or maybe I’ll try to see a gig at the Oceanside Moose Lodge #1325, founded in 1948, which now books rock shows and promises that “this ain’t your grandpa’s lodge.”Īnyway, I’m now a fan of South O. Next trip, I’ll try the Privateer, a coal-fired pizzeria, or South O Brewing Co., which opened in late 2021, pushing the city’s brewery tally to about 15. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times) ![]()
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