Palos Verdes
Palos Verdes is a group of coastal cities in the Palos Verdes Hills on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The Palos Verdes Peninsula cities include Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates. It is often abbreviated locally as "P.V." or the "Hill".
The peninsula is an affluent community known for its dramatic ocean and city views from the Palos Verdes Hills, distinguished schools,[1] extensive horse trails,[2] and high home prices
History
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[edit]Native Americans
The peninsula was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieliño Native Americans people for thousands of years. In other areas of the Los Angeles Basinarcheological sites date back 8,000 years.[4][5] Their first contact with Europeans in 1542 with João Cabrilho (Juan Cabrillo), the Portuguese explorer who also was the first to write of them. Chowigna and Suangna were two Tongva settlements of many in the peninsula area, which was also a departure point for their rancherias on the Channel Islands. Legend has it that the Native Americans blessed the land of Palos Verdes, making it the most beautiful place on Earth.[citation needed]
[edit]Spanish and Mexican era
In 1846 Jose Dolores Sepulveda and José Loreto received a Mexican land grant from Alta Governor Pío Pico for a parcel from the huge original 1784Spanish land grant Rancho San Pedro of Manuel Dominguez.[6] It was named Rancho de los Palos Verdes, or "ranch of the green sticks", which was used primarily as a cattle ranch.[7]
[edit]American era
By 1882 ownership of the land had passed from the Sepulveda through various mortgage holders to Jotham Bixby of Rancho Los Cerritos, who leased the land to Japanese farmers. After the start of the 20th century most of Bixby's land was sold to a consortium of New York investors who created The Palos Verdes Project and began marketing land on the peninsula for small horse ranches and residential communities.
[edit]Commerce
Areas of commerce include historic Mediterranean Revival style Malaga Cove Plaza, the Promenade on the Peninsula, and Lunada Bay Plaza. Smaller shopping centers include the Peninsula Center, Dominos, and The Village.
The largest peninsula commercial district is in Rolling Hills Estates, with many shopping centers including The Promenade on the Peninsula with amegaplex movie theater and an ice rink.
[edit]Transportation
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Transit Authority provides bus service within and to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The Palos Verdes Peninsula is within 30 minutes of both Los Angeles International Airport and Long Beach Airport, which together provide access to most of the U.S. aboard all major carriers.
[edit]Education
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District has one of the highest rated API scores in California[8] and has one of the highest average SATscores[9] and one of the highest percentage of students successfully completing the Advanced Placement exams[10] in the county. There are three high schools, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (formerly called Rolling Hills High School), Palos Verdes High School (the latter located just a half block from the Pacific Ocean), and Rancho Del Mar High School (located in Rolling Hills). Marymount College, a co-ed Roman Catholic four-year college is located in Rancho Palos Verdes.Silver Spur Elementary. A private K-12 school, Chadwick School, is also located there. Rolling Hills Preparatory School, a private 6-12 school is also located on the peninsula. Rolling Hills Country Day School, adjacent to the Botanic Garden, offers a private K-8 education.
[edit]Libraries
The Peninsula is served by the Palos Verdes Library District which operates the:
- Peninsula Center Library
- Miraleste Library
- Malaga Cove Library
[edit]Parks and recreation
- South Coast Botanic Garden - 35 hectare (87 acre) landscaped botanical garden, event venue, and arboretum with over 150,000 landscape plants and trees from approximately 140 families, 700 genera, and 2,000 different species. It is a classic example of land recycling by reclaiming a site that was previously a sanitary landfill and open pit diatomite mine from 1929 until 1956.[11][12][13][14]
- Point Vicente Park is a popular spot for watching the migration of gray whales to and from their breeding lagoon in Baja California.
- Fort MacArthur Military Museum is located near Point Fermin in San Pedro.
The area is frequented by runners, hikers, horseback riders, bird watchers, surfers, scuba divers, and bicyclists. The area is home to several golf courses and country clubs. In addition, nude sunbathers formerly frequented Sacreds Cove (or "Smugglers Cove") until the city of Rancho Palos Verdes enacted a 1994 ordinance that ended such use of that beach.
The infamous Palos Verdes surf spots have been in the spotlight many times over issues of "localism". The most notorious surf spot for localism in Palos Verdes is Lunada Bay, which can hold any winter swell and has been known to rival Sunset Beach, Hawaii on a big day. Localism in Palos Verdes reached a turning point in 2001 when a civil rights lawsuit was filed after a particularly violent confrontation with Hermosa Beach surfers.[15] Surveillance cameras were placed in the surfing area but were later removed.[16]
The Trump National Golf Club is a Donald Trump venture with a golf course on the Ocean Trails cliffs. The 18th hole of the prior golf course fell victim to a landslide caused by a leak in the sanitary pipes underneath it. Trump has been heavily criticized for poorly managing the property, including dismissing employees en masse, failing to keep it in business, and upsetting locals with unnecessary and/or unapproved construction. In the summer of 2006, the Trump Organization illegally erected a 70 foot flagpole but was allowed to retain it after a City Council vote.[17]
The Marineland of the Pacific site near Portuguese Bend is currently home of Terranea, a luxury oceanfront resort.[18]
[edit]Notable places
- The Wayfarers Chapel, a transparent glass chapel in a Redwood forest, was designed in 1951 by the renowned architect and landscape architect Lloyd Wright. It is under the stewardship of the Swedenborgian Church, a well-known landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, and overlooking the ocean at the western entrance of Portuguese Bend.
- Portuguese Bend is one of the most geologically unstable areas in the world. Constant shifting of the soil (approximately 1/3 of an inch a day) and rock slides mean that Palos Verdes Drive South, the main road through the bend, is under constant repair.
- Point Vicente Lighthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places.
- Point Fermin lighthouse in San Pedro.
- Lunada Bay on the north western edge of the peninsula is a famed surf spot, noted for its large swells, at times comparable to Hawaii's Sunset Beach.
- Korean Bell of Friendship is located near Point Fermin in San Pedro.
- Marineland of the Pacific is the location of the former aquatic theme park on the coast.
The area where Marineland once stood subsequently served as an outdoor set for commercials, film productions, and, in 1996, the MTV Beach House. Fox filmed some scenes of its teen drama, The OC, at locations in and around Palos Verdes.[19]
[edit]Wrecks
- The wreck of the Dominator, a freighter that ran aground in 1961, was for years a rather bizarre attraction for those willing to hike down the cliffs to the shoreline. Very little is left of the ship today.
- In 2006, the 45 foot cabin cruiser Lady Hawk sank 2 miles from the Palos Verdes coast due to an engine fire.[20]
[edit]In popular culture
The novels The Tribes of Palos Verdes by author Joy Nicholson, and The Mark of Conte by Sonia Levitin, describe life from a teenager's perspective in Palos Verdes.
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean films were partly photographed on and off the coast of Palos Verdes Peninsula. A tent city for production was constructed in the Redondo Beach Marina. TheBlack Pearl and several production vessels were seen on the waters daily as were helicopters filming for overhead shots.
Overhead shots were used for the fictional town of Costa Verde in Heroes, in the episode "I Am Become Death".
In a 2010 episode of South Park, the character of Towelie went to a Rehab center in Rancho Palos Verdes.
In 1962, the "Big W" scenes from the ensemble comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World starring Sid Caesar, Spencer Tracy, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers and others were filmed on the grounds of a private estate locally known as "Portuguese Point" near Abalone Cove shoreline park.
MTV's sitcom Awkward. is set in Palos Verdes.
In the 1994 film The Stoned Age, the main characters reluctantly attend a party in Palos Verdes hosted by Muldoon (Jake Busey).
In the 2008 film Step Brothers, a scene depicting a Catalina Island wine mixer was actually filmed on land at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes.
In the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, the character "Nice Guy" refers to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Ladera Heights as "the black Palos Verdes".
[edit]Notable residents
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