A Marine Town’s Changing Vision

There was a time when Oceanside was proud to call itself home to one of the nation’s most populous Marine Corps bases.

But time--like a good Marine--marches on and now Oceanside is trying to refashion its downtown as a resort and entertainment center, with a beachfront hotel, museums, a 16-screen movie theater, restaurants and more.

The downtown businesses that have long catered to Marines--the late-night barbershops, dry cleaners, check-cashing firms, military equipment stores, shoe repair shops--are no longer part of the civic vision of the future.

They’re seen as a retrograde reminder of the city’s notorious past, a bit of an embarrassment, a waste of prime real estate that could be used for restaurants, shopping, Starbucks and other things to lure suburbanites and tourists.

In the words of an emergency ordinance adopted by the City Council last week, the Marine-centric businesses are a “threat to public health, safety or welfare.”

The ordinance slapped a freeze on the approval of any more “personal service” businesses in the downtown, the kind of businesses that cater to young Marines.

“The character of downtown is changing to a beach-residential-entertainment area from a warehouse-industrial-personal-service area,” said City Manager Tom Wilson. “We would never try to deny that we are linked to Camp Pendleton, but we think we are much more than that now.”

The vote was 4-1, with Mayor Dick Lyon dissenting. “This is an outrage,” said Lyon, a retired rear admiral.

The first business to be turned down was a quickie-loan store that has outlets outside a half-dozen military bases across the United States and Germany. The same night, the council approved a restaurant / nightspot called Atlantis.

“Maybe 10 years from now, Oceanside will have succeeded in becoming Laguna Beach--goodie for them if they do--but I hope it doesn’t happen on the back of young Marines,” said David Brahms, a retired Marine Corps brigadier general and lawyer who represents owners with space to rent in downtown.

The Marine influence and economic boon to Oceanside is immense: Next to a city of 160,000 is a military base with 37,000 active-duty personnel, 25,000 reservists and 4,700 civilian employees. The annual payroll tops $800 million.

Mindful of those numbers, city officials are quick to stress that they are neither anti-Marine nor philosophically opposed to businesses that cater to Marines. They just wish those businesses--21 at last count--were not clustered in one area of the city.

That kind of distinction is lost on the rank-and-file Marines. As the mayor feared, the message being heard by the young Marines who spend their off-duty hours downtown is a negative one.

“I get the feeling Oceanside doesn’t want the Marines downtown anymore,” said James Paad, 18, a private from Harsens Island, Mich. “It’s not the businesses, it’s us.”

“These are the people we’re trained to protect and fight for, and now they say they don’t want businesses that serve us to be downtown,” said Joseph Davis, 20, a private from Providence, R.I. “It’s not right.”

The moratorium on the personal-service businesses is not spurred by any civic feeling that the businesses or Marines that patronize them cause law enforcement problems. The language about a threat is legal boilerplate to justify the ordinance becoming effective immediately.

The emergency ordinance does not mention strip-joints, tattoo parlors or massage establishments. With a couple of minor exceptions those kinds of ventures have long since withered or been chased away.

The late Gustav Hasford, whose novel “The Short-timers” was made into the movie “Full Metal Jacket,” remembered the Oceanside of the 1970s as “a pocket paradise of institutionalized sleaze.” Those days are gone.

The council’s action is borne of the belief that after two decades of political controversy and economic setbacks, efforts at downtown renovation are finally on the cusp of success.

In November the multiplex theater is set to open at Coast Highway and Mission Boulevard with eateries and shopping attached. According to a sign on the construction fence, “Coming Attraction: The Rebirth of Downtown Oceanside.”

The California Surf Museum has moved into a spot on the Coast Highway. The 1950s-vintage Star Theatre has been so handsomely revitalized that it won plaudits from the county’s annual orchids-and-onions contest.

Across the street from the surf museum is the new Longboarder’s Cafe and down the block is an old movie theater now restored for stage plays. The Pacific Coast Players open their fall season with “Dracula” in October--discount tickets are available for Marines.

Jarhead’s Sands and Suds, long a Marine favorite, has been replaced by the Caribbean Grill, which specializes in a fish dish sprinkled with vinegar, garnished with Jamaican scotch bonnet peppers and onions and accompanied by champagne--a world away from the beer, burgers and billiards at Jarhead’s.

The downtown already has a natural amenity that tourists crave: Just a few blocks away is one of the widest, sandiest public beaches in Southern California, complete with a municipal pier popular with families and anglers. And the beachfront is dotted with upscale condo complexes.

Plans call for a 12-story resort-hotel, nine-story time-share condo project and 3,000-seat entertainment pavilion (with a retractable roof) cater-cornered from the pier.

“It’s all beginning to snowball in the right direction for downtown,” said redevelopment director Doug Clark.

The freeze on personal-service businesses will last for at least 45 days and possibly up to two years as city officials study what kind of permanent restrictions to impose. The Marine Corps has taken a position of neutrality.

“We need to be more selective on what we allow downtown,” Clark said. “The personal-services businesses are uses that just don’t fit the new Oceanside.”

“There will always be a place for Marines in downtown Oceanside,” said Rick Wright, owner of One Hour Photo and vice president of the Downtown Business Assn., which supports the freeze. “We just need a timeout on these kind of businesses so we can decide how best to help Oceanside return to its glory days.”

The view of the council’s action at places like ABC Laundry is decidedly different.

“When there’s a war to fight, everybody loves the military,” said clerk Ralph Beilharz, an Air Force retiree. “When there’s no war, everybody just wishes the military would stay out of sight.”