![]() “Well, people didn’t come to Point Loma! Except to see the lighthouse at the end of the road.”Īlan Ziter, executive director of the NTC Foundation, the nonprofit in charge of transforming the sprawling former Naval Training Center into an arts district, is showing me around Liberty Station (2825 Dewey Rd., San Diego, ). “The only reason people came to Point Loma was…” my tour guide trails off. But it’s still retained and nurtured its humble beginnings, and so is the perfect starting point for a reintroduction to my old stomping grounds. ![]() In the last two decades, like so much in San Diego, Point Loma has changed dramatically. On the docket this go-round: Point Loma, the formerly quiet fishing village and naval base across San Diego Bay from downtown, known for being the landing place of the first European explorers in California. And as such, it is my desert dweller duty to vacation in San Diego each year when the summer heat begins to make the Valley unbearable. So, fine, I tentatively admit it: I’m a Phoenician. After years living on this side of the state line, I marvel at how much things have changed and realize reluctantly that I no longer know every hidden gem, every great fish taco spot, or every righteous surf break, dude. I left San Diego with my family before I’d lost all my baby teeth and only returned for a four-year collegiate sojourn. But the reality is, if we’re comparing years and experiences, Phoenix wins. When I go back to San Diego, I try to blend in as a local and fear being found out as, horror of horrors, an Arizonan. Over the years, Gila Bend has become a signpost that signals I’m close to home – brown desert in one direction, blue sea in the other. Torn, I wrote about Gila Bend, best known as a bathroom break for Phoenix road trippers on their way to San Diego. The assignment had been to identify your hobbit hole, or the place that makes you feel most at home. “Phoenix,” I’ll say, followed quickly with, “but I’m originally from San Diego.” In grad school, I even published an essay on my conflicted feelings of being “from” both places. I get defensive when people ask where I’m from. Once a sleepy fishing village and naval base, this reconceived slice of San Diego is embracing a new era.
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