San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Ocean Beach … ‘It’s Beside the Point’

by

OB lifeguard returning after a rescue. Photo by Annie Lane

OB lifeguard returning after a rescue. Photo by Annie Lane

If you visit Ocean Beach in anything more than beach gear and flip-flops, there is a very real danger of being overdressed. Casual and colorful, Ocean Beach is San Diego’s land of hippies, surfboards, street music and weekend BBQs. And let’s not forget some pretty good-looking — er, hard-working — lifeguards.

This community is punctuated by older one-story homes, wild lawns, hand-painted fences, and open doors. There is an ever-present aroma of weed, and the number of dogs on the street sometimes ties the number of humans.

The Ocean Beach Farmers Market is hosted every Wednesday from 4-8 p.m. running east and west along several blocks of Newport Avenue, and is one of the most diverse in San Diego. It features food from some of the city’s best restaurants, flowers, spices, crafts, and live music.

In addition, Ocean Beach is home to several bars, antique stores, the famous OB Hostel, a very popular dog beach and restaurants galore — including the late Mike Hardin‘s Hodad’s, one of the best burger joints in town. The OB Pier is great for walking and fishing.

For more articles on Ocean Beach, click here.

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Editor’s note: Welcome to our newest column, Progressive San Diego! We received an email from Dave, a reader in Liverpool, UK, who’s visiting San Diego later this year. He had one simple question: What are some progressive places to visit?

That got us thinking. There’s nothing really available online that’s broad and comprehensive with regard to San Diego’s progressive history and locales — a directory of sorts. We want to change that.

And so each month we will feature a person, place or thing that has done something to contribute to our important cause and culture. Given our time and resource restraints, each feature will be short and sweet, or pulled from other sites with permission. Please feel free to add information in the comments. We would love this to be organic and ever evolving.

If you a suggestion for a feature, or want to submit an article of your own, please email us at contact@sandiegofreepress.org and put “Progressive San Diego” in the subject line.

Staff

Staff

Comments

    • It’s a quite popular license plate frame around these parts…alternatively “seven square miles surrounded by reality.”

      • Thx Dave. I usedta live in PB (where the slogan was “another boring day in paradise”) so I didn’t know.

  2. Terrible misrepresentation of this community. Stating there is an “everpresent aroma of weed” and that there are really any more “hippys” here than anywhere else clearly demonstrates the author’s failure to grasp anything meaningful about the OB community. Shameful coming from a local rag.

    • While everybody in OB is not a hippy (in fact most are not), I’d say there is still much more of a hippy presence than anywhere else in San Diego. The ever present smell of weed I can sah is a lot more prevalent than where I live.

  3. Hodad’s is good,and they have great malts, but don’t sell Raglan short for its burgers – and it within sight of Hodad’s. (1851 Bacon).

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