Loma Portal (from Latin ''porta'' "gate") is a neighborhood in the community of
Point Loma
Point Loma ( Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community in San Diego, California, United States. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the ...
in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, California. It is a hilly area northwest of Rosecrans Street and northeast of Nimitz Boulevard, overlooking
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port in San Diego County, California, near the Mexico–United States border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of ...
.
Features
Loma Portal is home to
Point Loma High School
Point Loma High School is a public high school in San Diego, California, United States. It is part of San Diego Unified School District. The school is located in the Loma Portal neighborhood of Point Loma. The school serves the neighborhood ...
,
Dana Middle School, and several elementary schools. Also, Plumosa Park, a 1.4-acre passive park, is located in Loma Portal. The neighborhood also includes the James Edgar and Jean Jessop Hervey Point Loma Branch Library, which opened in 2003, replacing a smaller public library. The area is primarily residential, with a business and retail center located on Voltaire Street.
Loma Portal lies directly under the takeoff flight path for nearby
Lindbergh Field
San Diego International Airport is the primary international airport serving San Diego and its surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. The airport is located northwest of downtown San Diego. It is the busiest single-r ...
, making it the home of the “Point Loma Pause” where all conversation ceases temporarily because of airplane noise.
Loma Portal is known throughout San Diego for its neighborhood holiday decorations. Several blocks of Garrison Street near Chatsworth are particularly known for elaborate decorations. Also, a neighborhood-wide lighting of
luminarias
Luminaria is a term used in different parts of the world to describe various types of Christmas lights, holiday lights, usually displayed during Christmas. In English, the term most commonly refers to a specific type of simple paper lantern ...
occurs each Christmas Eve in the Plumosa Park area.
Major north-south roads are Rosecrans Street, Chatsworth Boulevard and Catalina Boulevard. Many of the east-west roads are broken into several disconnected segments due to the steepness of the terrain. The east-west streets form part of what are known as the "alphabetical author streets." This series of streets begins in the adjacent
Roseville neighborhood of Point Loma and is named for authors in alphabetical order from Addison to Zola, with a second partial series from Alcott to Lytton. Another distinctive feature of this neighborhood is the placement of street lights in the middle of intersections instead of on the sidewalks. A 2014 book, ''Reading Between the Lampposts'', gives details about each of the authors for whom the streets are named, as well as referencing the unusual street lights.
References
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Neighborhoods in San Diego
Point Loma, San Diego