La Jolla (pronounced la-HOY-a), derived from the Spanish La Joya which means "the jewel," is indeed a jewel. It has seven miles of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean, the climate is close to perfect, averaging 70.5 year round, and it is the only city of 46,000 residents in the USA that I know of where you can shop for a BMW, Cadillac, Bentley, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Bugatti, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Maserati, Lotus or several other exotics all within a five block radius.
This morning while walking down to the beach I was reminded, once again, why I was never comfortable living and working in La Jolla.... the place reeks of money, racism, arrogance, privilege, old money and new money. It is hard for me to come to grips with the excesses of a place like this when there are children who are hungry because there is no food to feed them, mothers who die because of no health care.
La Jolla has a history of antisemitism going back to the early years of the 20th century when La Jolla shores was developed. In order to keep out the Jews(and other undesirables) , only people with pure Caucasian blood were allowed to purchase property there and in La Jolla Hermosa, another exclusive neighborhood. Housing
restrictions were thought to be enough to keep "undesirable" ethnic
groups from living in La Jolla, until the 1948 Supreme Court case Shelley v Kraemer prohibited such restrictive covenants. After that
ruling, real estate companies used less obvious tactics to keep Jews out
of La Jolla. Real estate agents would be fired if they sold a house to
Jewish clients. There were no for-sale signs put up on properties,
requiring the prospective buyer to go to a real estate office to find
out what was available. If a real estate agent suspected that a
potential home buyer was a Jew, they would demand higher down payments
and display green cards on their dashboards marked with the Star of David to warn the seller. The sellers would also send codes to
their real estate agents: if their porch lights were on during the day,
they did not want Jewish buyers. Today things are different in La Jolla, to a degree. Racism and bigotry is not as obvious as it was when I first came here in 1968 but its still here, nonetheless. And, taking advantage of the demographics, Karl Rove has chosen La Jolla to have a book signing. (see the images attached)
It is, however, a jewel and if you ever make it to San Diego be sure to visit La Jolla.
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