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San Luis

ObispoBy Cristian Ponce

Photos by Brady TeufelArticle by Wikipedia

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San Luis Obispo (Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop)

is a city in Califor-nia, located roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Fran-cisco on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junípero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities. The city, referred to locally as San Luis or SLO, is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County and is adjacent to California Polytech-nic State University. The population was 45,119 at the 2010 cen-sus.

History

The earliest human inhabitants of the local area were the Chu-mash peoples. One of the earliest villages lies south of San Luis Obispo, and reflects the landscape of the early Holocene when estuaries came farther inland. These Chumash people exploited ma-rine resources of the inlets and bays along the Central Coast and inhabited a network of villages including sites at Los Osos and Morro Creek.

San Luis Obispo was also a popular stop on

both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 with the rise of car culture. Due to its popularity as a stop, it was the location of the first motel, the Mile-stone Mo-Tel.

Among San Luis Obis-po’s historical build-ings is the former San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library, located at 696 Monterey Street. The San Luis Obispo Carn-egie Library was built in 1905 with a grant of $10,000 from Andrew Carnegie, who funded the establishment of 142 California librar-ies in the early 1900s. The Romanesque style

building was designed by architect W. H. Weeks of Watsonville, California and was built by contractor Jo-seph Maino of San Luis Obispo.

Demographics

The 2010 United States Census reported that San Luis Obispo had a population of 45,119. The population density was 3,489.4 people per square mile (1,347.3/km²). The racial make-up of San Luis Obispo was 38,117 (84.5%) White, 523 (1.2%) African American, 275 (0.6%) Native Ameri-

San Luis Obispo has breathtaking views throughout the entire area. Nature at it’s finest exists in here.

History of S.L.O.

A look back at the richhistory of San Luis Obispo

can, 2,350 (5.2%) Asian, 65 (0.1%) Pacific Island-er, 1,973 (4.4%) from other races, and 1,816 (4.0%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6,626 persons (14.7%).

The Census reported that 43,937 people (97.4% of the popula-tion) lived in house-holds, 967 (2.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 215 (0.5%) were institu-tionalized. There were 19,193 households, out of which 3,178 (16.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 5,690 (29.6%) were opposite-sex mar-ried couples living to-

gether, 1,336 (7.0%) had a female householder with no husband pres-ent, 586 (3.1%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,104 (5.8%) un-married opposite-sex partnerships, and 124 (0.6%) same-sex mar-ried couples or partner-ships. There were 20,553 housing units at an av-erage density of 1,589.5 per square mile (613.7/km²), of which 7,547 (39.3%) were owner-occupied, and 11,646 (60.7%) were occupied by renters. The home-owner vacancy rate was 1.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.7%. 17,225 people (38.2% of

the population) lived in owner-occupied hous-ing units and 26,712 people (59.2%) lived in rental housing units.

Culture

The Madonna Inn is a famous local landmark. Established by Alex Madonna in 1958, the inn is famously ec-centric. The Fremont Theater, a historic Art Deco theater from the 1940s, still plays first run movies on the huge screen. Murals adorn the walls of the main theater while neon swirls light the ceil-ing. The Palm Theatre boasts solar heating and is home to the San Luis Obispo Interna-tional Film Festival. Another destination is Bubblegum Alley. Since about 1960, people

have been sticking chewed gum on the walls of this alley. The doctor’s office on the corner of Santa Rosa and Pacific streets is one of very few com-mercial buildings de-signed by Frank Lloyd Wright. San Luis also has a Carnegie Library which is now home to the San Luis Obispo County Historical Mu-seum. A sculpture of a child and bear at the Mis-sion in downtown San Luis Obispo. A fish was added after the photo-graph was taken.

Lots of mystery sur-rounds the “under-ground city”, or the series of tunnels that exists beneath the city.

One of the largest Mardi Gras parades

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There’s always a piece of history lying around here.

S.L.O has never lost it’s roots through the times.

Photo by Brady Teufel

Photo by Brady Teufel

Photo by Brady Teufel

DemographicsA look at the numbers

Cal Poly gets a massive amount of visitors each year.

West of the Mississippi used to be held in San Luis Obispo, but it has been canceled recently because of difficulties related to crowd control and alcohol consump-tion.

Cal Poly’s open house, Poly Royal, was held annually from 1933 to 1990. It was can-celed in 1945 due to war rationing. It began as a show-and-tell for students to display their projects. It traces its origins to the 1904 Farmer’s Institute and Picnic Basket. By the 1980s, as the college became “the most popular...university in the 19-campus CSU system”, Poly Royal

began drawing over 100,000 people from throughout the state, including 126,000 people in 1985. Concerts, parties, and other entertainment were added and it earned $3–4 million in revenue for the city every year.

Following a “mini-riot” in 1989 at an off-campus apartment during Poly Royal, the events in 1990 would cancel the event “indefinitely.” Two nights of rioting on April 28–29 led to 127 arrests, over 100 injuries and 14 police injuries on top of “sev-eral hundred thousand dollars” worth of dam-age. A liquor store near campus, Campus Bottle, was destroyed by revel-ers demanding alcohol.

San Luis Obispo is a great place to explore and there’s always something to do.

The second night was much larger than the first as people were leaving a concert on campus and parties off-campus were broken up and revelers flooded the streets. Mayor Dunin called the events “the worst experience in the history of San Luis Obispo.” After a meeting between Mayor Dunin and University President Warren Baker the follow-

ing Monday, Poly Royal was canceled from that point forward. The name Poly Royal returned in 2001 as “Open House Presents Poly Royal”, a scaled down version that was designed for students and parents. San Luis Obispo has been home of several other events, including a stop on the way of the Olympic Flame Relay, the Tour of Cali-fornia bicycle race, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, an annual Mozart festival, held every July, and a long-standing Christmas Parade. Another attrac-tion is the development of Edna Valley into a well-known wine region. Just south of the city, people can spend an afternoon wine tasting several wineries in the area with a very short drive. The wine region extends north

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CultureS.L.O.’s proud traditions

The beach environment should keep you satisfied

beyond Paso Robles (30 miles north) and south to Santa Ynez (70 miles south).

During Summer months, local residents and visi-tors congregate in the Mission Plaza for a free

outdoor concert every Friday evening. The event is called Concerts in the Plaza. Other noteworthy events include the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, Festival Mosaic, and the Plein Air Festival.

San Luis Obispo hosts a Farmer’s Market every Thursday night from 6-9PM on Higuera Street, between Osos and Ni-pomo Streets. During this weekly event, the street is closed to vehicle traffic while vendors sell food and goods and various visual and music artists perform for the crowds.

Since June 2000, the first Thursday of every month is The Bike Happening (also known as Bike Nite) in San Luis Obispo. Peo-ple gather after the Farm-er’s Market at the Mission Plaza with their bikes. The bikers then go around on multiple circuits on the main streets of downtown adhering to the traffic laws (for the most part). The ride is considered a fun/social ride meant to encourage people to get back on their bikes and to

have fun. Each Bike Hap-pening has a theme and a large portion of the crowd is in some costume adher-ent to the theme.

One of the cultural fo-cal centers of San Luis Obispo is the Christopher Cohen Performing Arts Center built on the Cal Poly Campus, which was constructed utilizing the donations of local busi-nesses and individuals. The Performing Arts Center consists of mul-tiple venues, including the original Spanos Theatre. The largest venue, Har-mon Hall, seats 1,300. Many high school and college programs are scheduled. Local artists perform plays, music and dance. The addition of the Performing Arts Center attracts many touring performances which are usually not found in com-munities of comparable

Photo by Brady Teufel

Photo by Brady Teufel

Photo by Brady Teufel

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