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Traveler Photos: Brady Teufel Editorial: Wikipedia
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SLOtraveler.org
Welcome
San Luis Obispo is a great home for young college students, as well as a great place to raise a family.
San Luis Obispo (Spanish for St. Louis,
the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. JunĂpero 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 Polytechnic State University. The population was 45,119 at the 2010 census.
The Carrizo Plain National Monument is the largest single native grassland remaining in California. SLOtraveler.org
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The earliest human in-
History
SLO has been around for years.
habitants of the local area were the Chumash 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 marine 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 SLOtraveler.org
Pirates Cove is an attraction in San Luis Obispo where many residents will go to hang out.
popularity as a stop, it was the location of the first motel, the Milestone Mo-Tel. Among San Luis Obispo’s historical buildings is the former San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library, located at 696 Monterey Street. The San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library was built in 1905 with a grant of $10,000 from Andrew Carnegie, who funded the establishment of 142 California libraries in the early 1900s. The Romanesque style building was designed by architect W. H. Weeks of Watsonville, California and was built by contractor Joseph Maino of San Luis Obispo.
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One of the many great views from a one of the many great places to hike in SLO.
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Culture Getting to know the SLO vibes
he Madonna Inn is a famous local landmark. Established by Alex Madonna in 1958, the inn is famously eccentric. 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 ceiling. The Palm Theatre boasts solar heating and is home to the San Luis Obispo International 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 commercial buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. San Luis also has a Carnegie Library which is now home to
SLOtraveler.org
the San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum. A sculpture of a child and bear at the Mission in downtown San Luis Obispo. A fish was added after the photograph was taken. Lots of mystery surrounds the “underground city”, or the series of tunnels that exists beneath the city. One of the largest Mardi Gras parades 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 consumption.
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 Cal Poly’s open house, 28–29 led to 127 arPoly Royal, was held rests, over annually from 1933 100 injuto 1990. It was canries and celed in 1945 due 14 police to war rationing. It injuries began as a show-and- on top of tell for students to “several display their projects. hundred It traces its origins thousand to the 1904 Farmer’s dollars”
worth of damage. A liquor store near campus, Campus Bottle, was destroyed by revelers demanding alcohol. 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 following Monday, Poly Royal was canceled from that point forward. The name Poly Royal returned in 2001 as “Open House Pres-
SLO residents love going to Farmer’s on thursday nights.
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ents 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 California bicycle race, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, an annual Mozart festival, held every July, and a long-standing Christmas Parade. Another attraction 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 beyond Paso Robles (30 miles north) and south to Santa Ynez (70 miles south).
San Luis Obispo hosts a Farmer’s Market every Thursday night from 6-9PM on Higuera Street, between Osos and Nipomo 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. People gather after the Farmer’s Market at the Mission Plaza During Summer with their bikes. The months, local resibikers then go around dents and visitors on multiple circuits congregate in the on the main streets of Mission Plaza for a downtown adhering free outdoor concert to the traffic laws (for every Friday evening. the most part). The The event is called ride is considered a Concerts in the Plaza. fun/social ride meant SLOtraveler.org
Demographics
Other noteworthy events include the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, Festival Mosaic, and the Plein Air Festival.
Getting to Know SLO People
SLO is home to many hidden beauties of nature.
to encourage people to get back on their bikes and to have fun. Each Bike Happening has a theme and a large portion of the crowd is in some costume adherent to the theme.
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 communities of comparable size to One of the cultural San Luis Obispo. The focal centers of San Summer of 2007 was Luis Obispo is the the opening concert of Christopher Cohen the Forbes Pipe OrPerforming Arts Cen- gan, which was built ter built on the Cal elevated into a side Poly Campus, which wall of Harmon Hall was constructed utiand required the dolizing the donations nation of a further $3 of local businesses million for purchase and individuals. and installation. The Performing Arts Center consists of multiple venues, including the original Spanos Theatre. The largest venue, Harmon Hall, seats 1,300. Many high school and college programs
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he 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 makeup of San Luis Obispo was 38,117 (84.5%) White, 523 (1.2%) African American, 275 (0.6%) Native American, 2,350 (5.2%) Asian, 65 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 1,973 (4.4%) from other races, and
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ples living together, 1,336 (7.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 586 (3.1%) had a male householder The Census reported that with no wife present. There were 1,104 (5.8%) 43,937 people (97.4% of unmarried opposite-sex the population) lived in partnerships, and 124 households, 967 (2.1%) lived in non-institution- (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. alized group quarters, There were 20,553 housand 215 (0.5%) were ing units at an institutionalized. There average density of were 19,193 households, out of which 3,178 1,589.5 per square (16.6%) had children un- mile (613.7/km²), der the age of 18 living in of which 7,547 them, 5,690 (29.6%) were (39.3%) were opposite-sex married cou- owner-occupied, 1,816 (4.0%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6,626 persons (14.7%).
and 11,646 (60.7%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.7%. 17,225 people (38.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 26,712 people (59.2%) lived in rental housing units.
Farmer’s Market is a big attraction to both young people and families.
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C
alifornia Polytechnic State University or California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo,[6] also known as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo[6] or Cal Poly,[7] is a public university located in San Luis Obispo, California, United States. Founded in 1901 as a vocational high school, it is currently one of only two polytechnic universities in the 23-member California State University system.[8] Comprising six distinct colleges, the university offers 64 bachelor’s degrees, 32 master’s degrees, and 7 teaching credentials. [9][10] The university does not confer doctoral degrees.
From the top of Bishop’s Peak, you can see SLOtraveler.org every inch of San Luis Obispo.
Cal Poly is a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Cal Poly is known for its “learn by doing” educational philosophy that encourages students to solve real-world problems by combining classroom theory with experiential laboratory exercise. Cal Poly is one of four California State Universities that participate in the Big West Conference in athletics.
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Soccer
he Cal Poly Mustangs men’s soccer program represents California Polytechnic State University in men’s soccer at the NCAA Division I level. Cal Poly is coached by former US Men’s National Team and 1998 World Cup Head Coach, Steve Sampson. Like most teams from Cal Poly, they play in the Big West Conference. The Big West Conference stopped sponsoring soccer in 1991, but resumed soccer in 2001. Over this period, Cal Poly competed in a regional conference called the MPSF. Since the return of soccer to the Big West, the Mustangs have appeared in 1 NCAA tournament. Posting the program’s best record in 2008 (11-6-6), Cal Poly placed 3rd in the Big West and qualified for the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time in the school’s history. Cal Poly managed to upset #11 UCLA 1-0 to advance to second round before
losing 0-3 to #14 UC Irvine. The Mustangs play in Alex G. Spanos Stadium (capacity of 11,075) on the campus of the California Polytechnic State University. In 2011, collegesoccernews.com chose the Cal Poly vs UCSB soccer game as the #1 rivalry in college soccer.
Cal Poly Men’s Soccer fills the stands at every home game.
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