Home Care In Del Mar, CA

Few realize that beyond the laughter of I Love Lucy and the glamour of Hollywood, Desi Arnaz found peace in Del Mar. More than just a getaway, the coastal town became his sanctuary—a place where he could embrace his greatest passions: horse racing, music, and family.

Arnaz’s connection to Del Mar began in the 1940s when he first visited the racetrack, a glamorous destination founded by Bing Crosby and frequented by Hollywood’s biggest stars. But for Desi, it wasn’t just a social scene—it was a true love affair with the sport. He owned and bred thoroughbreds, frequently attending races and becoming a well-known figure at the Turf Club.

Mac McBride of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club recalled, “I never officially met Desi, but I’d see him coming and going from the Turf Club or at local horse sales, either buying or selling horses he’d bred. He loved the action at the racetrack and loved Del Mar even more.”

Lucille Ball, too, shared in his love for Del Mar, often accompanying him to the races. Photos from the era capture the couple in their element—laughing in the grandstands, placing bets, and rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood elite. Their presence added to Del Mar’s reputation as a playground for the stars, where the entertainment industry and California’s coastal charm blended seamlessly.

A Hollywood Revolutionary: Creating I Love Lucy

Arnaz’s Hollywood career skyrocketed when he met Ball in 1940 on the set of the RKO film Too Many Girls. The pair married later that year, creating a powerhouse partnership that redefined entertainment. Arnaz, along with Ball, formed Desilu Productions, which revolutionized television. He pioneered the multi-camera setup, live audience format, and syndication rights, cementing his place as a media innovator.

Arnaz eventually built a home in Del Mar, where he enjoyed a quieter life away from the pressures of show business. Though his marriage to Ball ended in 1960, Del Mar remained a constant in his life. Their children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., often joined him at the track, carrying on the family’s love for racing.

Marriage, Kids, and a Tumultuous Love Story

Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s marriage was as passionate as it was turbulent. Together, they had two children: Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Despite their shared successes, the pressures of fame and personal struggles took a toll on their relationship. The couple divorced in 1960, but they maintained mutual respect and a shared love for their children. Ball once remarked, “Desi was a great producer, a great talent, and a great father. He was just not a great husband.”

Later Years and Life Beyond the Spotlight

After his divorce from Ball, Arnaz married Edith Mack Hirsch and stepped back from the limelight, choosing to focus on his personal life. In his later years, he split time between his homes in Del Mar and Baja California. Arnaz spent much of his time breeding horses, fishing, and enjoying the peace of coastal living.

Despite retiring from showbiz, Arnaz occasionally appeared on TV and published his autobiography, A Book, in 1976, which offered candid insights into his life and career.

Death and Legacy

Arnaz passed away from lung cancer on Dec. 2, 1986, at the age of 69. True to his love of the sea, his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. His legacy endures not only through I Love Lucy but also in his contributions to the television industry and the vibrant life he led in Del Mar.

Even after stepping away from Hollywood, Arnaz’s heart remained in Del Mar. Whether cheering on a winning horse, hosting lively gatherings filled with Cuban music and laughter, or simply enjoying the ocean breeze, he had found a place where he could be more than just Ricky Ricardo—he could be Desi.

Today, his influence is still celebrated in Hollywood and beyond, with honors such as the Television Academy Hall of Fame recognizing his groundbreaking work.

Fun Facts About Desi Arnaz

Debbie L. Sklar is a long-time contributing editor to the Times of San Diego. For more historical stories about Hollywood’s Golden Age visit here.

Sources

Tagged: "I Love Lucy, buried, death, Del Mar, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, Desi Arnaz, episodes, history, homes, kids, Lucille Ball, marriages, obit, San Diego

In the city of Del Mar, near San Diego, most agree the train tracks must move off eroding bluffs. But debate over its new route has stalled the project while climate change raises the risks.

Surfers on their way to the beach in February crossed the rail line atop the bluffs in Del Mar, Calif. Erosion is threatening the rail line’s stability.Credit...Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

Listen to this article · 8:12 min Learn more

Kate Selig reported from New York, and Vik Jolly reported from Del Mar, Calif.

Perched atop craggy bluffs in a beachside city north of San Diego, a railroad line offers passengers a sweeping view of the Pacific Coast. But the ground beneath it is crumbling.

No one denies the problem, but a fight over how to solve it highlights a broader challenge, and a worrisome reality, for California residents: how to adapt to climate change that threatens coastal living, a way of life that has long defined the state’s identity, from its economy to its culture.

The segment of track on the bluffs in Del Mar, Calif., connects San Diego to the rest of the state and the country, and is part of one of the busiest intercity passenger rail corridors in the nation. But the bluffs are eroding rapidly, and the track in some places is now only a few yards from the cliff edge.

Officials and residents in Del Mar and nearby communities broadly agree that the tracks need to be moved, but argue over where they should go. The debate has slowed progress, even as climate change accelerates the risks to the bluffs and the rail line.

On Friday, local representatives on the board of the county’s regional planning agency — the San Diego Association of Governments — voted to narrow the potential alternatives to four options, down from more than a dozen that were assessed in a recent report. But a final decision remains far off.

“It’s at a dangerous point, and with all the bureaucracy involved, it makes us wonder whether it will even be in our lifetime before it’s solved,” Barbara Myers, a former Del Mar school board member, said of the problem. She lives near the proposed location of a tunnel entrance to relocate the rail line, and she worries about toxic fumes or the possibility of street collapses.

With sea levels rising and stronger waves battering their shores, many other communities like Del Mar see a need to adapt, but are finding the options difficult.

Cliffside homes and apartment buildings teeter on the edge, some of them abandoned or demolished preemptively because of the threat of collapse from erosion. Infrastructure has taken a beating up and down the California coast: Sections of scenic Highway 1 have closed repeatedly because of landslides, and the Santa Cruz Wharf, a popular tourist attraction, was torn apart by towering waves in December. Communities are racing to protect shrinking beaches, reinforcing them with barriers and dredging sand from other areas in an effort to maintain and replenish them.

“The situation in Del Mar is a microcosm of a larger battle that’s unfolding,” said Charles Lester, a former official with the California Coastal Commission, a state agency that manages development along the coastline. He now directs the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “What are we going to prioritize and try to maintain as these environmental changes happen?”

More on California

The Del Mar track is part of a 351-mile coastal rail corridor stretching from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. It is used by passenger, freight and military trains, including Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, whose name evokes the way sections of the route hug the coast. Millions of trips are taken along the route each year.

But the same coastal proximity that gives passengers scenic ocean views also makes the track vulnerable to erosion. Construction crews are now working on the fifth project since the early 2000s to stabilize the Del Mar bluffs, a $90 million effort that will, among other things, install additional support columns and retaining walls.

These projects are not a long-term solution. The rising ocean and erosion continue to pound the bluffs, leading to costly emergency repairs and repeated service disruptions. On average, the bluffs retreat a few inches a year, but there can be sudden collapses that chew away more than 20 feet at once. And not just in Del Mar: Erosion is also destabilizing parts of the rail corridor farther north, in San Clemente.

“Realistically, time is not on our side, with the acceleration of climate change,” said Fred Jung, who chairs the rail corridor’s board of directors. “We are forced to act right now.

City officials in Del Mar — a community of about 4,000 residents in an area of less than two square miles — have been talking for decades about moving the tracks off the crumbling bluffs. In 2017, the county planning agency completed a study outlining five possible new routes.

The idea gained momentum in 2022 when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state budget that allocated $300 million for relocating the tracks. In June 2024, the association of local governments announced that it had narrowed the options down to three, all involving inland tunnels.

The reaction was swift. Del Mar residents raised concerns about tunnel construction and operations beneath their homes, citing risks from vibration and pollution. People who lived near the entrance and exit points of the proposed tunnels worried that homes would be demolished.

A proposed route running through a lagoon was opposed by environmentalists because of how it might affect sensitive habitats. A route that would tunnel under the San Diego County Fair grounds and into neighboring Solana Beach met resistance from that city and from fair organizers.

And looming above the debate is the question of money. The project is expected to cost billions of dollars, and county voters rejected a half-cent sales tax increase in November that would have raised money for regional transportation and infrastructure projects, including the Del Mar track relocation.

In light of all that, the agency re-examined the issue, ultimately leading to the vote on Friday. Three of the options now on the table would move the line off the bluffs; a fourth would keep the track where it is, reinforce the bluffs and add a second track next to the existing one.

As required by state and federal law, the agency would also study a fifth option: no project at all.

The meeting, with two hours of discussion, grew emotional at times, as officials and residents voiced concerns about the proposed options. Mayor Terry Gaasterland of Del Mar abstained from voting.

The mayor said in an interview before the meeting that none of the remaining options is likely to satisfy everyone.

“We’re going to need to step back and minimize the sum total of the unhappiness,” she said. “And also spread it out.”

That debate was on display on a recent Saturday in Del Mar, as construction crews were working to stabilize a section of the bluffs supporting the tracks. Near the top, workers used excavators, a giant drill and other heavy equipment. In several areas, chunks of the bluffs had eroded and crumbled, sending dirt, rocks and vegetation tumbling down onto the beach.

Officials acknowledge that neither the current stabilization project nor emergency repairs offer a long-term solution to the challenges of the rising ocean and coastal erosion.

Jim Hindman, 64, a financial consultant, lives with his family just one house away from the bluff-top tracks. His voice was sometimes drowned out by the construction trucks that kicked up dust as they pulled in and out of his street, which ends at the tracks.

Mr. Hindman said the option to add a second track to the existing rail line would alter the character of his neighborhood and the bluff. He said the bluffs were a beloved community space where people gather to watch sunsets, spot whales and dolphins, and even celebrate weddings.

“Tranquillity by the sea? Not happening for the next couple of years,” he said, referring to the stabilization work and the potential for a tunnel project to follow.

Richard Sfeir, 66, has lived for three decades in Del Mar Heights, a San Diego neighborhood bordering the city of Del Mar. Many houses in the Heights perch high above downtown Del Mar along narrow, winding streets. One relocation proposal would route the tracks through a tunnel under the neighborhood, an idea that he called “crazy” because of its cost, timeline and impact on a protected environmental area.

But Mr. Sfeir, a businessman, said that something needed to be done.

“No solution is not an answer,” he said, “unless you get rid of the train, period.”

Kate Selig is a Times national reporter and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their career. More about Kate Selig

A version of this article appears in print on March 5, 2025, Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: A Destabilizing Debate Over Relocating a Scenic Route. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

See more on: California Coastal Commission, Amtrak, Governor Gavin Newsom

Sign up for California Today The news and stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state), delivered weekday mornings.

Related Content

California state leaders and local leaders met in San Diego County on Saturday to discuss the importance and funding of the Del Mar Bluff Stabilization Project.

“This is a must do project, not a would be nice to do. We are not going to have the train falling into the sea,” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff said.

Schiff’s visit to discuss and tour the project marks his first official visit to San Diego since being sworn in as a U.S. Senator.

The tour included other leaders like California State Senator Catherine Blakespear, SANDAG CEO Mario Orso, San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, Mayor Pro Tempore of Carlsbad Priya Bhat Patel, North County Transit District CEO Shawn Donaghy and California State Transportation Agency Policy Advisor Anthony Serna, among others.

The Bluff Stabilization Project is currently in Phase 5. During this phase, more support columns and drainage improvements will be added along with new retaining walls, according to SANDAG.

Phase 5 is expected to cost approximately $88 million dollars.

“Right now, we put in about 100 plus million dollars in the stabilization in five different stages. The current stage is an $88 million dollar project that is basically putting piles on the beach to try to hold up the bluffs,” SANDAG CEO Mario Orso said.

Federal funding is important along with the state and local funding for the project.

“I am gravely concerned about the temporary halt or freeze or imperiling of funds for this project and many others,” Senator Schiff said.

On Friday, SANDAG also moved the proposed Lossan Corridor Rail Realignment Project into the environmental review process. Local leaders are continuing to urge the federal government to partner with them to bring the project to a successful completion.

“We are so grateful for the State of California for that initial funding but ultimately the federal government will need to step in for a project that can cost anywhere from $1.5 billion to $5 billion dollars in the long run,” San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava said.

Editor's note: This article was updated to note Mayor Pro Tempore of Carlsbad Priya Bhat Patel was also a part of the tour.