Encinitas

In 1769 Gaspar de Portolá, governor of Baja California, passed through on the Portolá expedition and met the Kumeyaay people. They lived in a nearby village called Jeyal, also spelled Heyal, close to the San Elijo Lagoon. Portolá named the valley Los Encinos for the oak forest along El Camino Real. There was also a village that was probably the one known as Hakutl, in what is now New Encinitas.

After Mexican independence, land was granted to Andrés Ybarra in 1842 for Rancho Las Encinitas, in what are now Olivenhain and New Encinitas. The city takes its name from it. Encinitas is a Spanish name meaning little oaks. Jabez Pitcher formed the town of Old Encinitas in 1881. German immigrants started the Olivenhain Colony in the late 19th century under the Homestead Act of 1862.

The modern city is younger than most people expect. Encinitas was incorporated in 1986, with 69.3 percent of voters in favor. It was assembled from five existing communities, historic Encinitas, New Encinitas, Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the-Sea and Olivenhain.

Old Encinitas is a small beachside area along Coast Highway 101, the historic US 101. A mix of businesses and housing styles sit here, along with the Encinitas welcome arch, the Swamis surf break and the early 20th-century La Paloma Theatre. The low ridge divides it from New Encinitas, which includes areas such as Village Park.

Leucadia is a coastal community with tree-lined streets, art galleries, unusual stores, restaurants and beaches such as Beacons and Grandview. Cardiff-by-the-Sea is the southernmost oceanfront community. Its streets are named after British cities and classical composers, and it has the Lux Art Institute and the San Elijo campus of Mira Costa College. Olivenhain is the semi-rural part of the east side, mostly single-family homes, a 4-H Club and several private equestrian facilities. It connects to Rancho Santa Fe by Encinitas Boulevard.

Surfing comes first. Swami's, named after Paramahansa Yogananda, the founder of Self-Realization Fellowship, is rated among the top five surf locations in the world. It gets a mention in a verse of the Beach Boys song Surfin' U.S.A. It is reached by steep stairs down the bluff from the small city park of the same name. Moonlight Beach, at the north end of town, has lifeguards in season. Cardiff State Beach has oceanfront camping that books up early for summer. The YMCA Skate Park is described as one of the first and still one of the best skate parks in the world, and Tony Hawk is a regular sight.

The Self-Realization Fellowship temple and Hermitage have been a landmark since the 1930s, and Yogananda took up residence at the Hermitage in 1936 and wrote Autobiography of a Yogi there. The meditation gardens are open to the public. The San Diego Botanic Garden, formerly the Quail Botanical Garden, specializes in tropical rainforest plants and has the largest display of bamboo in the world. The San Elijo Lagoon Reserve protects coastal wetlands, and Manchester Reserve is good for a nature walk or light hike.

Two statues and one mosaic get most of the attention. Magic Carpet Ride, nicknamed the Cardiff Kook, is a 16-foot bronze statue in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. The San Diego Architectural Foundation gave it an Onion, its award for the worst architecture of the year, in 2007. The nickname is surfer slang for a wannabe, since the statue's form was far from correct surfing. The town loves it anyway, and it gets dressed up through the year in a lucha libre mask, a shark costume and an Uncle Sam outfit.

In 2011, Mark Patterson and Robert Nichols illegally installed a 10 by 10 feet mosaic of a surfing Virgin de Guadalupe on the train bridge at Encinitas Boulevard. The media named it the Surfing Madonna, and a fight began over whether to remove it or keep it. The bronze statue Humanity, by Maidy Morhous, was installed at the J Street Overview in 2018.

The calendar is full. A two-day street fair fills downtown every April, and a one-day Fall Festival follows in November. The Wavecrest Woodie Meet, on the third Saturday of September at Moonlight State Beach, is described as the largest rally of wooden-bodied vehicles in the world. The Switchfoot Bro-Am, an annual free surf competition and music festival, is usually held in early July at Moonlight State Beach, with proceeds going to local charities. There are classic car cruise nights on Coast Highway 101 on the third Thursday of each month from May to September. The Lima Bean Faire and OktoberFest are in September.

Downtown Encinitas runs on small local businesses, including salons, restaurants, shops, bars and art galleries. The Encinitas 101 Main Street Association has worked since 1982 to keep downtown historic, beachy and economically healthy. The city is described as a wealthy suburb of San Diego, and the numbers agree. In 2023 the median household income was $150,471 and per capita income was $82,289, according to a Census Bureau estimate. About 7.3 percent of the population was below the poverty line.

The median age in 2020 was 43.8, and 20.2 percent of residents were 65 or older. Of 24,390 households, 65.0 percent were owner-occupied. Encinitas is something of a hub for the New Age community, which fits with the presence of the Self-Realization Fellowship Hermitage. A five-member city council runs Encinitas, with a mayor and four council members. In elections in November 2012, voters agreed to elect the mayor directly, for two-year terms, instead of having the council choose one for one year. The first direct election for mayor took place in 2014. The deputy mayor is chosen by the council members from among themselves.

Interstate 5 runs just inland, and the Encinitas Boulevard exit leads into town. Coaster trains stop at Encinitas station several times a day, every day, on the run between Oceanside and San Diego. Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner also stopped here from 2013 to 2017 but dropped the stop because too few people rode it. Most of downtown, including the beach and many restaurants and shops, can be reached on foot. Bikes can be rented. The North County Transit District also runs buses. San Diego International Airport is the closest commercial airport, and McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad is the nearest for general aviation.

Public schools come from the Cardiff School District, the Encinitas Union School District and the San Dieguito Union High School District. Public high schools include San Dieguito Academy and Sunset Continuation High School, and middle schools include Diegueño and Oak Crest. Private schools include the Grauer School, a college preparatory high school, and Encinitas Country Day School. The San Elijo campus of Mira Costa College is in Cardiff. Higher education also includes the California Institute for Human Science and St. Katherine College, and Watts Atelier of the Arts teaches visual art.