Greetings from . . .

Along the Southern California waterfront, next door to the Playa Vista development that may or may not rise in sight of the ocean, is a town that, like much of coastal California, began with big plans that went belly up and a different name from the one it bears now.

Playa del Rey was part of a vast system of sand dunes, squared on the west by the ocean and on the north by Ballona Creek, where the Los Angeles River once coursed.

In 1885, when titans clashed over a location for the city’s harbor, hopeful developers built a railroad terminus and a pier there, but “Port Ballona” went bust. By 1902 it was called Playa del Rey, the King’s Beach, and the king of transportation, Henry Huntington, made it a tourist stop for his Red Cars. “This is one of California’s noted Beach Resorts,” read a 1906 postcard message. “This view is taken looking towards China, it is a little too far to see.” In 1910, tourists also jammed the “piepan,” a mile-round motordrome built of two-by-fours, where racecar drivers sped for two seasons until the track burned.

Two beachfront cash cows, oil and real estate, converged at Playa del Rey in the 1920s. Tiny lots bore tinier houses with ocean views--if you peered through the oil rigs. The oil played out by World War II, but the housing boom endured--most recently with the Playa Vista development next door. And Playa del Rey--port town, Red Car station, racetrack--still finds life inextricable from transportation, for the jets of LAX shriek daily overhead.