Input on Oceana High School, Pacifica and living in Pacifica, CA

[beccatree]

This is such an interesting thread. I have the same questions as the original poster, so hopefully people will reply even though this is old.

People are so divided on Pacifica - people I know in real life as well! We, too, are considering a move to Pacifica to be closer to work. Luckily for us we live in San Jose so we plan to head up there several times to get a sense of it before deciding.

I'm especially interested in the schools (middle and high school) as I want to live somewhere that is right for our kids. I really don't want the high-pressure type schools that you read about. On the flip side, of course I want my kids in good schools that will give them a great education. On paper, it looks like Pacifica (with Oceana High) might be a good middle ground.

Vdav and Reikiwoman, or others who have lived there - I am truly curious about the community. Do you find a lot of community events? We drove up there a few weekends ago, but with no downtown really, it was hard to figure out where we could go hang out to sort of get a feel for things. Do you find the people to be easy to get to know on the whole? What do teenagers do when they are not in school? What if you don't surf, will you feel like you need to learn? (Kind of a specific question, I know!) A couple of people have mentioned it seems like an older community...is this your impression, living there with kids? Or is that perhaps compared to a big city where people do tend to be younger overall. I'm used to living in the suburbs so this may be the same population we have already.

I'm not sure what else to ask. I would love to be in contact with people who live there now, to get a real idea of what it is like to live there - especially with teenagers as we will have those before I know it.

[outdoorman]

Today I decided to see what others are saying about Pacifica and came across this post.
Let me say this is the first time I have posted anything publicly but I will tell about my experience living in Pacifica from 1971-to about 1979.
In 1971 my mother decided to move us from San Francisco where my brother and I had grown up to Pacifica.
My brother spend 1/2 yr there before graduating HS at Terra Nova while I had 2 & 1/2 yrs left of school.
I was the first black student in the band, the football team, the track team and the 2nd to graduate (my brother being the first).
Pacifica back where we lived backed to it's southern most areas, then seemed so far from SF and as I was to learn was basically occupied by working class whites with real blue collar values who were pretty intolerant to black people.
My experience at Terra Nova was not good and being rather naive back then, I did not know to report the racial harrassment and physical threats I received from the white male students at the school.
I recall my first semester being called a big black ape, being told another time that if I tried to talk to a white girl I could be lynched in the bathroom, and just being made to feel like an outsider by most of the student body. I even remember this one old teacher, Mr Donald Yoder who taught social studies harassing me in class by calling on me to tell what I thought of all the racial protests that were going on by groups in the bay area and in Calif. Heck, I wasn't even keeping up with the news back then or interested in current affairs but he would choose me when it came to asking about the black panther or patty hearst incidents that were happening in the day.
Made me feel real uncomfortable and put on the spot in front of class full of white students who were not friendly towards me....don't recall that I ever had an answer to him just felt uncomfortable.
I remember this football team member taking a full out tackle on me from the side during practice enough to almost crack one of my ribs. Although, he had never spoken to me, I knew he didn't like me and took pleasure in the hit.
Having no friends in the community, I spent every day walking my dog and I would walk miles. I walked the mountains behind the coastside corral and would walk from there to Linda Mar and back most days of the week. It got so everyone recognized the only black kid with the dog walking the entire community. Sure sometimes, I was uneasy when these smalltown white kids in cars would drive by and yell racial slurs at me while out walking or when I walked through certain neighborhoods while varying my route.
Well eventually my mother decided to move out of Pacifica and I relocated back to SF.
You know how people look forward to their high school reunions? Well I would never go one of mine! I recognized 10,20,30,40 and finally 50 yrs have gone by and although I eventually got invitations on fb, I had no reason to go back. Most of my memories are of racist white kids, teachers and community.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by outdoorman

Today I decided to see what others are saying about Pacifica and came across this post.
Let me say this is the first time I have posted anything publicly but I will tell about my experience living in Pacifica from 1971-to about 1979.
In 1971 my mother decided to move us from San Francisco where my brother and I had grown up to Pacifica.
My brother spend 1/2 yr there before graduating HS at Terra Nova while I had 2 & 1/2 yrs left of school.
I was the first black student in the band, the football team, the track team and the 2nd to graduate (my brother being the first).
Pacifica back where we lived backed to it's southern most areas, then seemed so far from SF and as I was to learn was basically occupied by working class whites with real blue collar values who were pretty intolerant to black people.
My experience at Terra Nova was not good and being rather naive back then, I did not know to report the racial harrassment and physical threats I received from the white male students at the school.
I recall my first semester being called a big black ape, being told another time that if I tried to talk to a white girl I could be lynched in the bathroom, and just being made to feel like an outsider by most of the student body. I even remember this one old teacher, Mr Donald Yoder who taught social studies harassing me in class by calling on me to tell what I thought of all the racial protests that were going on by groups in the bay area and in Calif. Heck, I wasn't even keeping up with the news back then or interested in current affairs but he would choose me when it came to asking about the black panther or patty hearst incidents that were happening in the day.
Made me feel real uncomfortable and put on the spot in front of class full of white students who were not friendly towards me....don't recall that I ever had an answer to him just felt uncomfortable.
I remember this football team member taking a full out tackle on me from the side during practice enough to almost crack one of my ribs. Although, he had never spoken to me, I knew he didn't like me and took pleasure in the hit.
Having no friends in the community, I spent every day walking my dog and I would walk miles. I walked the mountains behind the coastside corral and would walk from there to Linda Mar and back most days of the week. It got so everyone recognized the only black kid with the dog walking the entire community. Sure sometimes, I was uneasy when these smalltown white kids in cars would drive by and yell racial slurs at me while out walking or when I walked through certain neighborhoods while varying my route.
Well eventually my mother decided to move out of Pacifica and I relocated back to SF.
You know how people look forward to their high school reunions? Well I would never go one of mine! I recognized 10,20,30,40 and finally 50 yrs have gone by and although I eventually got invitations on fb, I had no reason to go back. Most of my memories are of racist white kids, teachers and community.

Thanks so much for sharing that story. I'm so sad that kids flat out had no interest in getting to know you bc of racism. What a blessing that you had your family and your dog, bc dogs only care about the person you are. They remind us of our worth when people try to tear each other down. Well hopefully, life in SF was much better after that and that you've had a good life in those subsequent years. Enjoy the years ahead in what is hopefully a much improved if imperfect society!

[vunderbar]

Originally Posted by outdoorman

Today I decided to see what others are saying about Pacifica and came across this post.
Let me say this is the first time I have posted anything publicly but I will tell about my experience living in Pacifica from 1971-to about 1979.

Wow, thanks for sharing your experience. A bit of real-world stuff for us (mostly) white folks Do you have any idea if things have changed since then? I'd love to hear from a Black perspective.

[Snackmaster]

I used to get my hair cut from a woman who moved her business to Pacifica. We are both lifelong Bay Area residents. It's hard to describe, but we both got a weird vibe from that town. Not necessarily hostile, but something struck us a bit odd about that town. I don't recall seeing a single black or Asian person in that town, which might have something to do with it.

[outdoorman]

Originally Posted by vunderbar

Wow, thanks for sharing your experience. A bit of real-world stuff for us (mostly) white folks Do you have any idea if things have changed since then? I'd love to hear from a Black perspective.

When we moved back to San Francisco, I never looked back to Pacifica.
Although Linda Mar and Park Pacifica really isn't that far from San Francisco, it was like moving to what you would expect the racist south of the 1960s to be like.
The only thing good I could say about Pacifica was the coastal hills that I spent alot of time alone walking my dog; really beautiful open spaces.

[angelenomoreno]

Originally Posted by vunderbar

Wow, thanks for sharing your experience. A bit of real-world stuff for us (mostly) white folks Do you have any idea if things have changed since then? I'd love to hear from a Black perspective.

Don't know how I landed on this thread so randomly, but my black family (me, my wife and my son) have lived in Pacifica for the past eight years. I don't know too much about the what happened in the past, but I don't think racism is a big issue here now. The longstanding families here are mostly white and working or middle class, and then you have a lot of new families in town, who are racially mixed and more affluent/highly educated. Everyone seems to get along fairly well, my son's friend group is like "one of each": white, black, South Asian, Hispanic, East Asian.

The one thing I have been slightly annoyed by is that it's seems obvious to me that people aren't entirely forthcoming about various kinds of extracurricular activities available to kids, especially sports and camps and the like, and so if you're not really on it yourself, your kid could miss out. I'd call it "opportunity-hoarding" more than racism though. Maybe it would look different to us if we were white, I don't know.

[vunderbar]

Originally Posted by angelenomoreno

Everyone seems to get along fairly well.

Thanks for your input!