Sunset Profile: The Creation of LaPlaya Village

Last and first stop on the N-Judah line.

La Playa – “the beach” in Spanish – is the name of the street between 48th Avenue and the Lower Great Highway that stretches from Lincoln to Kirkham. The adjacent neighborhood encompasses a variety of commercial and historic landmarks: the N-Judah turnaround, Java Beach Cafe, Other Avenues Food Coop, Celia’s by the Beach, Sealevel Studio, Shirley Chisholm Village, and a number of popular restaurants and bars.

Residents consider their neighborhood to be so special that it deserves its own designation. “La Playa feels like a distinct community. It is the end of the N Judah line, a place where people meet up,” says Shanta Sacharoff, who has lived and worked in the neighborhood for more than 35 years. 

Steve Ward, who was searching for the perfect wave when he arrived more than 25 years ago, notes La Playa “has its own idiosyncrasies, but out here, people are wonderful. They share interests and a relationship to one another and the area.” 

Steve and Rachel Grant co-chair the La Playa Village Council, which spearheaded an effort to have the city officially recognize the neighborhood as La Playa Village. Supervisor Engardio submitted a resolution to that effect that was voted unanimously at the September 9 Board of Supervisors meeting.

“Being recognized as a community will draw attention to La Playa’s special needs and contributions,” Steve says. “The name tells you where it is and characterizes the nature of the neighborhood as a laid-back, ocean-oriented, family-friendly decompression zone.”

La Playa may be laid back, but there is nothing like a collaborative project to awaken its community spirit. In 2003, Pat and Buffy Maguire, proprietors of the Java Beach Cafe, along with then-Supervisor Fiona Ma, decided to tackle the trash-strewn center median in front of their cafe. Thanks to their labors, La Playa Park was born, a peaceful spot next to the N-Judah turnaround with benches hewn from granite boulders interspersed with colorful perennials.

The success of that endeavor ignited Steve Ward’s creative energy and he decided to join forces with the Maguires and tackle the median south of the turnaround. Volunteers rallied, city departments pitched in, and from a derelict patch, two bocce courts, a birdbath, a block of lush plantings, and edible landscaping emerged. Historic street lights, retrieved from a dump at Golden Gate Park, add atmosphere (but no lighting - yet).

“People saw the work and found ways to help out,” Steve says. “A contractor offered landscaping boulders. A neighbor donated the use of construction equipment. The Department of Public Works installed a water line.” 

What was once an eyesore is now an amenity.

That sense of creative energy stretches back to the late 1800s. When the city discarded its outdated street cars in the sandy dunes of the Outside Lands, people claimed the cars as housing. A community known as Carville was born. After the earthquake and fire of 1906, the neighborhood attracted San Francisco residents made homeless by the catastrophe. As newcomers built more permanent homes, they began calling the new community Oceanside.

Almost as soon as the fires were quenched, neighbors banded together in 1906 to build Oceanside's first church. St.Paul’s Presbyterian Church was a labor of love, erected in just 90 days on Kirkham Street. The congregation grew, and in 1923, built a larger church at 43rd and Judah, a building that stands today.

In 1925, the Ocean Breeze, a local newspaper, looked to the future of the neighborhood and predicted in an editorial, “For the most part we will be made up of Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen…The sort of person who, after all, is the mainstay, the foundation of our country, is the sort of person who will live here.”

Today, the La Playa Village Council works with neighborhood partners, including the La Playa Merchants Association and the La Playa Watch Group, on projects that include neighborhood beautification, crime abatement, recreation, and traffic and pedestrian safety. This spring, the community celebrated the installation of Pacific Transit, a series of 10 sculptures by artist Jesse Schlesinger that stretch along the Judah Street commercial district. 

“I have lived in the neighborhood since 2010,” says Rachel Grant. “I am an entrepreneur working from home, and for a small town girl who grew up in Oklahoma, I was so glad to discover this gem of a neighborhood. I actually know my neighbors, the pace is slow and easy, and the community works together to make it a great place to live!”

Reported and written by volunteer community journalist Jan Cook. We encourage residents with journalism experience, retired journalists, and student journalists in high school and college to volunteer as writers for Supervisor Engardio’s newsletter. Interested? Apply here. Do you know a story you would like to see featured in the newsletter? Tell us about it here.