Marina Mockery

Every time I’m in the Marina, I feel at home.

I should explain. I’m from Santa Barbara, Ca. It’s a beautiful ocean-side playground for rich ex-hippies and trendy young people. My experiences in the Marina are quite reminiscent of my days at home.
Both locales sit right on the beach. Each has its signature coastal drive –Marina Blvd. for the Marina, Cabrillo Rd. for Santa Barbara. Both places have a single street where most of the restaurants and bars are located. A walk down Chestnut for me is eerily similar to a stroll down State St.

The places are alike in terms of demographics. Both are predominantly white, though surrounded neighboring areas of high minority concentration. Each his made up of a large population of families with solid community of college-aged singles that takes over after dark.

Statistics on paper don’t really do justice to the resemblance between the Marina and Santa Barbara. What really stirs up the nostalgia in me is more intangible. There’s just an indefinable air that hangs in these two places. I can almost smell an odd combination of self-satisfaction and insecurity.

I know the people in Santa Barbara to be a strange bunch. They live in a culture that necessitates material affirmations of success- huge house, great clothes, beautiful partners- but there is also a liberal sensibility that makes them appear ashamed of their opulence. Their former hippy beliefs make them uncomfortable with the Stepford they’ve created so the try to inject culture into their live in whatever way they can, as long as it doesn’t interrupt their hard-earned social class. It’s a hilarious dance between comfort and culture.

This is what I see in the Marina as well. From the Zin Festival at Fort Mason, to the high level of foodies per-capita, to excessively ethnic events like Siberian throat singing. It’s all a compensation for a lack of real culture. Marina residents know that they’ve chosen security over diversity. They try to make up for it by seeing Rent (watching a play about poor people is like meeting real poor people, right?) These are my people. I am one of them.

Readers may notice that I have a lot of critical things to say about the Marina, but I kid because I love. Santa Barbara is my favorite city in the world. I mock the Marina because I’m really mocking myself. I am a child of a Marina-like culture, so I have license for criticism that most don’t. Time in the Marina shines a lens on my own upbringing. It’s like Jewish people making cheap jokes or black people using the N-word. You claim negativity in order to make it part of who you are.

One of my personality quirks is that I make fun of those I like. The amount of playful ridicule I give is directly proportional to the amount of genuine affection I have. Under these criteria, the Marina should be flattered.


U.S Census Info For the Marina

Fort Mason Events

Marina Map