Carmel - California

by Ethan Cole
 
 

Carmel, California might once have been a sleepy little hamlet which existed in relative obscurity, but in the last few decades has been put on the map by its very characteristics. Its offerings to tourists and its famous residents testify to Carmel’s wonder.

Besides featuring some of the finest, most beautiful and renowned golf courses on the west coast (such as Pebble Beach), Carmel, California has stunning beaches, inviting shops, clubs, and spas, and the classic aquarium—the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Carmel, California, originally dubbed Carmel-by-the-Sea, is sparsely populated, with only 4,081 residents (in 2000), the ages of whom average in the mid-fifties. Of the residents, almost everyone has a high school diploma, over half have a college degree, and almost a quarter of the people carry a post-graduate degree.

 

About 35 percent work in Carmel, while the rest commute an average of no more than twenty-five minutes away—to jobs nearly equally worked in education, health services, and social services (a few over 16 percent); retail/trade (a few over 14 percent); the arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (again, a few over 14 percent); professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services (about 14 percent); and the rest in either finance, insurance, or real estate.

Of those working in the arts and entertainment fields and living in Carmel, California, we are familiar: Jennifer Anniston (of Friends fame), Brad Pit, Kim Novak, Betty White, and Doris Day live or have lived there; writers Mary Austin, Beverly Cleary, James Ellroy (THE BLACK DAHLIA, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL), Robinson Jeffers, Robert Louis Stevenson, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, and Robert Heinlein (of SF renown) have set up house there; and I’m OK, You’re OK psychiatrist Eric Berne and genius nature photographer Ansel Adams have made Carmel home at some time or other. Of course, it must also be mentioned that Clint Eastwood took the post as Mayor of Carmel, California in the late eighties.
Carmel-by-the-Sea is quaint and classic, yet contemporary and accommodating, especially for visitors. You will LOVE Carmel. You need only remember that of the abundant beauty and inviting calm, there are two quirky laws still on the books in the town: 1) You cannot eat ice cream while standing on a sidewalk there; and 2) wearing high-heeled shoes is against the law!

What a laugh!