This is a sampler presenting the contents of three colorful volumes that record daily community and political life in the 1.8-square-mile seacoast city of Del Mar, California, just north of San Diego. Del Mar provides a home to 4,300 residents, stunning natural vistas, the most beautiful racetrack and fairgrounds in the country, and a lagoon that is the gateway to the San Dieguito River, extending 70 miles to the east. The stories of the people and the environment, reaching back into history, are told in newspaper columns, lively pictorial pages, and excerpts from the city’s major land-use documents. A larger theme of civic engagement and human interaction in a civil society emerges from a chronological and thematic unfolding of profiles of individuals active in the community, celebrations, events, neighborhoods, and issues of land use and public policy.