Monterey Bay

    

Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, south of San Francisco between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey. The roughly semicircular bay is ringed by a segment of State Route 1.

The Monterey Bay Area, or sometimes just the Bay Area, are local colloquialisms sometimes used to describe the whole of the coastal communities of Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.

Monterey Bay is home to many species of marine mammals, including sea otters, harbor seals, and bottlenose dolphins; as well as being on the migratory path of Gray and Humpback Whales and a breeding site for elephant seals. Many species of fish, sharks, mollusks such as abalone and squid, birds, and sea turtles also live in the bay. Several varieties of kelp grow in the bay, some becoming as tall as trees, forming what is known as a kelp forest.

The Monterey Canyon, one of the largest underwater canyons in the world, begins off the coast of Moss Landing, exactly in the center of Monterey Bay.

In 1992 the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was created, protecting over 4,000 square nautical miles (14,000 km²) of the bay and the surrounding ocean.

Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach is a small coastal unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. Best known as a resort destination, the area is home to the famous golf course, Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Technically, Pebble Beach is not a city at all, but rather a corporation owned by the Pebble Beach Company. Residents therefore pay homeowners' fees for road maintenance as well as Monterey County property taxes. The community's post office is named Pebble Beach, but the U.S. Census Bureau regards the land as part of the larger census-designated place of Del Monte Forest.

The area is also partly administrated by the Del Monte Forest Foundation, a non-profit organization designated by Monterey County and the California Coastal Commission, and comprising a volunteer board of 12 members working to preserve the open space within the Del Monte Forest. Except for two representatives of the Pebble Beach Company, all must be property owners and residents of the Forest.

The ZIP Code is 93953, and the community is inside area code 831.

Demographics

The community has 4,531 residents and is relatively affluent, home to many retirees and well-educated workers in the social service (education and health care), management and finance sectors. While Monterey County has a very large Hispanic population, Pebble Beach is more ethnically homogenous, with 91.4% of the population being White, 5.3% Asian, 2.3% Hispanic or Latino and 0.4% African American. The median household income is $99,788, with 54% with incomes between $50,000 and $150,000 and a little more than a quarter of households, 26.2%, with incomes exceeding $150,000. Household income figures, however, may not accurately reflect the area's wealth as 50.8% of households received social security income and 30.8% were retired. Less than half of the population 16 or over, 46.4%, are employed. Of those who work, the plurality (25%) are employed in the social service, education and health care sector, followed by the management (15%) and finance sectors (15%). 2.3% of the population lives below the poverty level. The area's adult population is fairly well-educated, with 61% having at least a Bachelor's degree, and 98% having a high school diploma, compared to 25% and 80% at the national average, respectively.

Golf

Pebble Beach has seven public and private 18-hole golf courses. Pebble Beach Golf Links, The Links at Spanish Bay, and Spyglass Hill are owned by the Pebble Beach Company and are all public courses. The other four courses in the town are Poppy Hills which is public, the private Cypress Point Club, and the private Monterey Peninsula Country Club's two courses, the Dunes Course and the Shore Course. The Pebble Beach Company also owns a nine hole par-3 course in Pebble Beach called the Peter Hay course, and Del Monte Golf Course a few miles away in Monterey, which is the oldest continuously operating course in the Western United States. Several of these courses are widely celebrated, especially Pebble Beach Golf Links, which is the most famous course in the Western United States, and the only course which has ever beaten Pine Valley Golf Club to top spot in Golf Digest's biennial list of America's 100 greatest courses.

The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (formerly known as the Bing Crosby 'clambake') is held here every year in February.

History

The Pebble Beach Company was originally created as the Del Monte Properties Company in 1919 by F.B. Morse, grandson to Samuel F. B. Morse, an American painter and the inventor of the Morse Code and telegraph. In the early 1900s, Morse was appointed manager for the Pacific Improvement Company, an affiliate of the vast Southern Pacific Railroad, which had extensive real estate holdings on the Monterey Peninsula, and in 1919 he formed the Del Monte Properties Company and acquired those holdings, which included the Del Monte Forest and the popular Hotel Del Monte (now the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey).

F.B. Morse died in 1969. Alfred Gawthrop, Jr., was Chairman of Del Monte Properties for some time before its sale to Marvin Davis.

In 1978, 20th Century Fox, then chaired by Davis, purchased the company and renamed it Pebble Beach Company. When the film company was sold to Rupert Murdoch in 1985, Davis kept several company assets not directly related to the film and TV industry, including the Pebble Beach Company and the Aspen Skiing Company.

In 1990 Davis sold the Pebble Beach Company to the Japanese businessman Minoru Isutani, who made it a subsidiary of the Japanese resort company Taiheiyo Club Inc. under a holding company called the Lone Cypress Company.

In 1999 the Pebble Beach Company was acquired from Lone Cypress by an investor group led by Clint Eastwood, Arnold Palmer, and Peter Ueberroth. In 2000, the company initiated Measure A, a controversial development proposal. Eastwood appeared in a $1 million advertising campaign urging voters to help save the forest. After the initiative passed in 2001, the public called the campaign 'bait and switch' when it became clear that the proposal included cutting down 18,000 trees and developing protected wetlands to make way for a golf course, homes, equestrian center and resort development. In 2006, the plan went before the California Coastal Commission for approval. When it was clear that Measure A would be denied, the Pebble Beach Company pulled it. On June 14, 2007, the plan was submitted again. Commissioner Sara Wan called it 'wholesale destruction of the environment,' and Measure A was denied in an 8 to 4 vote. Opposition to the plan was led by David Dilworth, Executive Director of Helping Our Peninsula's Environment who fought the project in its 3 versions beginning in 1992 and filed suit in 1996. While Dilworth originally headed the Sierra Club effort in the early 90's Mark Massara joined in to lead the Sierra Club effort in 1996 Mark Massara, a surfer and attorney who heads the Sierra Club's coastal program.

Geology

Pebble Beach owes much of its picturesque qualities to the granitic rock outcroppings visible along the coast. These are characteristic of the Salinian Block, a geologic province which runs from the Baja California Peninsula and up through California west of the San Andreas Fault.

Environmental issues

There are several habitat types within Pebble Beach, including intertidal zone, littoral zone and pine forest. There are a number of rare and endangered species in the Del Monte Forest either in Pebble Beach or in adjacent Monterey. One of the rare and endangered plants found in the Del Monte Forest is Hickman's potentilla, where this plant was first discovered by Alice Eastwood in the year 1900. After a survey in 1992 by Earth Metrics Inc. this plant was listed as a protected species by the U.S. Government.

Other features

The Lone Cypress, a symbol of the city, as seen from 17-Mile Drive

Pebble Beach has few businesses apart from those owned by the Pebble Beach Company (except the golf courses, a private school, one gas station, and a deli) and no sidewalks. Most of the very expensive houses are hidden behind old-growth trees. It is quiet, secluded, and somewhat gloomy in foggy weather, which occurs quite frequently on the Peninsula in general, and in particular here where it meets the Pacific head-on.

Pebble Beach is a gated community, but differs from most gated communities. The Pebble Beach Company gets $9.25 in revenue per car from tourists driving along the 17-Mile Drive. Residents are issued small license plate badges that are attached near their cars' license plates.

Another famous Pebble Beach attraction is the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance auto show. It focuses on classic cars, but manufacturers have lately begun introducing new luxury car models there.

The public schools serving Pebble Beach are Carmel High School, Carmel Middle School, and River School, all located in Carmel, and Forest Grove School, Pacific Grove Middle School, and Pacific Grove High School, all located in Pacific Grove. Pebble Beach is also home to Stevenson School, a coed half-boarding, half-day private high-school, and KSPB an alternative radio station run by the high school.

Famous residents
* Clint Eastwood, actor-director
* Greg London, singer-actor-impressionist
* Alan Shepard, astronaut
* George Lopez, comedian

 

 Monterey Bay USA Map

This webpage was updated 27th January 2020