One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Coronado Beach is Awesome, Says Beach Expert
Photo by Aine D via Flickr
It's not really breaking news that San Diego has amazing beaches, but it's still always nice to be recognized. That's why we are frolicking about with joy over the fact that Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, a coastal expert and professor at Florida International University, has named San Diego's own Coronado Beach the number one beach in America.
Leatherman -- who also goes by the nickname Dr. Beach -- has been ranking the nation's top ten beaches every year since 1991. On his website, he explains how he got started:
An unexpected inquiry got me started rating beaches. In 1989 I received a telephone call from a travel magazine writer who wanted a listing of the top 10 U.S. beaches. I was on my way to catch a plane to China for an extended trip as an exchange professor with Peking University in Beijing. Pressed by the reporter, I rattled off the first 10 wonderful beaches that came to mind.
When the list was published, Leatherman writes, he heard from both cities whose beaches made the list and those that didn't. The latter group wanted to know what his criteria was, to which he responded, "Criteria? I didn't have any criteria. All of this hoopla made me think about how seriously Americans take ratings everyone wants to know what is best. We rate everything from hotels and restaurants to graduate programs in universities, so why not beaches?"
The environmental expert went on to create 50 criteria for awesome beaches, including noise level, sand softness and wind speed, and has been ranking away ever since.
Coronado Beach, he writes, "is popular for swimmers, surfers, sunbathers and beachcombers... [and] is very flat, making it great for skim boarding and walking, and the sand has a silvery sheen because of the presence of mica."
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
