Hitchikers’ Guide to OB

Citizen Cane’s guide to the nuances of Ocean Beach

Bench Tour of South Ocean Beach

July 25, 2011 by Citizen Cane
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With all the recent drama at Del Mar Avenue, I decided to take a tour in search of other viewing benches in the area. Working from North to South our tour begins at the dead end alley known as Cape May Place. This lone bench is in the style of memorial benches, but bears no plaque. The view here is spoiled by a trash can and the exposed rip rap at the Northern edge of Saratoga Park. Sadly the bench also suffers from that most ineffective mating ritual known as graffiti. I think the bench should be relocated out to the far corner of Saratoga Park. At the very least it should be angled more toward North Ocean Beach. I would also screen the back of the bench from public view with a single dome-shaped lemonade-berry plant.

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The Hitchikers’ Guide to Ocean Beach, Attraction #5: Space Dock XIB

May 23, 2011 by Citizen Cane
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by Citizen Cane

Ocean Beach is known as a popular destination, but someday it will also be an important point of departure. That’s because Ocean Beach is home to Space Dock XIB, the longest concrete space dock on the West coast. When the end is near, a large spaceship will dock with the pier and rescue those fortunate folks that received XIB identity numbers from Clint Carey, the Spaceman of Ocean Beach. I not only have a number from Spaceman, but I also have the dubious distinction of being one the Kings of a ten foot section of railing.

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The Hitchikers’ Guide to Ocean Beach, Attraction #4: The Mysterious Quadripool

April 4, 2011 by Citizen Cane
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by Citizen Cane

There is a four sided tidepool at Sunset Cliffs known to some as the Mysterious Quadripool. Visting scientists from the United Kingdom sometimes call it the Tetragon Tidepool, but that term should only be attempted by people capable of the proper accent.

Erosion from waves and marine organisms have clearly altered the walls of the tidepool, but it appears that it was once a perfect four foot square. The walls of the Mysterious Quadripool are very close to facing the four points of a compass.

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The Hitchikers’ Guide to Ocean Beach, Attraction #3 The Incredible Shrinking Park

December 6, 2010 by Citizen Cane
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By Citizen Cane

The Incredible Shrinking Park can still be observed in Ocean Beach at the intersection of Green and Soto Streets. It’s officially known as Collier Park, and consists of approximately 6.7 dedicated acres if you include the Point Loma Native Plant Reserve. That might sound large, but it’s barely a fraction of the original size of the park before it began shrinking.

Travel back in time with the aid of the Fall 1957 Thomas Brothers Map, and you can see the park was bounded by Soto, Green, Valeta, and almost to Wolcott (about two blocks from the present day Stumps Market.) If we make a comparison to some streets that are more familiar in Ocean Beach, then readers should be able to visualize the size of the park a little better.

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The Hitchikers’ Guide to Ocean Beach, Attraction #2: Rogers Island

November 9, 2010 by Citizen Cane
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by Citizen Cane

At the far northern end of Ocean Beach is a rocky patch of land called Rogers Island. It was named back in the early Sixties by a young boy named Roger that was clever enough to call dibs on the place. I tried to convince Roger that it was more like a peninsula, but he insisted it was an island. We later found out that we were both correct at different tidal levels.

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The Hitchhikers’ Guide to Ocean Beach: Attraction #1- The Sideways Tree

November 4, 2010 by Citizen Cane
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by Citizen Cane

This is the first part of a series of stories to give people a view of Ocean Beach that can’t be found in the usual tourist guide books.

Our first attraction is the Sideways Tree of Ocean Beach.

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