Bonita

Bonita is a suburb of San Diego with a population of 13,082. Bonita is in San Diego County and is one of the best places to live in California. Living in Bonita offers residents a suburban feel and most residents own their homes. In Bonita there are a lot of bars, coffee shops, and parks. Many young professionals and retirees live in Bonita and residents tend to lean liberal. The public schools in Bonita are highly rated. 

"Bonita: Known for horses, citrus and some famous residents Bonita in the Sweetwater River Valley was carved out of the Rancho de la Nación, part of which was incorporated as National City in 1887. Scotsman Hiram Murray Higgins cultivated what he called Bonnie Brae lemons, and other citrus farms followed. The valley was periodically flooded, most devastatingly in 1916 when the Sweetwater Dam failed. The area became popular for wealthy residents and their horse stables, a South County version of Rancho Santa Fe. How it got its name: Henry Ernest Cooper Sr. named his ranch Bonita (“beautiful” in Spanish) in 1884, and the local post office adopted the name. Landmarks: Richard Allen built Glen Abbey Memorial Park in 1924 with landscaping by Balboa Park horticulturist Kate Sessions. The Little Chapel of the Roses, opened in 1925, is a replica of Victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson’s chapel in England. The 1915 Little Church of the Valley was moved and rebuilt after it was washed away in the 1916 flood. U.S. Grant Jr., son of the president, built a home in the 1890s on Sweetwater Road. In Dutch colonial revival style by San Diego architects William S. Hebbard and Irving J. Gill, it is being restored and incorporated into the Phair Co.’s new Carriage Hill Estates subdivision. Did you know: Dead Man Mountain, about a half-mile south of Ellen B. Allen Elementary School, was where 27-year-old Elmore I. Shoudy died in a glider crash on Dec. 3, 1928, before a crowd including his wife and two children. Things to do: Bonitafest is held every fall." (June 22, 2018 Union Tribune by Roger ShowleyContact Reporter)