There is no ‘heart of the city’ in Marina. Instead, there are many hearts.

Bruce Delgado, mayor of Marina, describes his city as a “diverse, down-to-earth, working-class, quiet beach town with military history and university influence.”

Incorporated in 1975, Marina is a small city of 23,000 people, with an annual budget of $24 million. Its 9.8 square miles contains a municipal airport, parts of CSU Monterey Bay, expanding housing developments, a big box mall with a VA clinic and a multiplex theater, sandy beaches and dunes (with approved plans for a new State Parks campground), abandoned military buildings, two busy commercial arteries, part of the Monterey Rec Trail, and one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the state; due to its proximity to Fort Ord, the former U.S. Army Base, many soldiers and their families ended up settling there after their military service was complete.

If a downtown is broadly defined as the busiest commercial district of a city, or the heart of its cultural and civic life, Marina doesn’t have one such place, but several smaller such places.

They exist, collectively, in strip malls like Marina Village with its Wells Fargo, Otter’s Den sports bar, I Am Thai restaurant and Grocery Outlet. Marina Town Plaza contains the Asian Pacific Market, QQ Noodle and the Friends of the Marina Library Bookstore. Marina Square mall offers a menu of Ace Hardware, Michael’s Grill & Taqueria, Ocean Grown streetwear, McDonald’s and Salad Nueva Imagen which recently taped up a cardboard sign in the window: “Atencion! Nuevo horario, abierto 5:30am, cerrado 10:00pm.”

But if there is an expectation that a downtown is walking-friendly, these business clusters don’t fit that description, judging by the preponderance of parking lots accessible by four-lane arterial roads.

Layne Long, Marina’s city manager, writes: “Marina’s ‘downtown’ encompasses approximately 320 acres that follows Del Monte Road from Highway 1 to Reservation Road and follows Reservation Road to Salinas Avenue.”

These adjoining corridors are anchored by small shopping malls, grocery stores including Grocery Outlet and Lucky, and restaurants like Noodle Bar.

Asked about the “heart” of Marina, and Delgado lists the Sunday farmers market, the Marina Library and Coffee Mia – all within walking distance of each other, but still geographically spread out.

Asked if there are any downtown revitalization efforts in Marina, along the lines of Monterey’s Alvarado Street or Seaside’s lower Broadway, and Long says there is – Marina’s downtown vitalization plan.

“We are in the process of completing a plan to create a unique and identifiable downtown core for Marina that is vibrant and pedestrian-oriented,” he notes.

That effort will focus on 225 acres that run along Reservation Road from the post office and MST bus terminals to Del Monte Boulevard, and down Del Monte to Reindollar (at the Shell gas station). That zone will be anchored by City Hall, the community center and playground, and the police and fire stations.

The city is developing plans to extend Del Monte Road all the way to 2nd Avenue, to connect with The Dunes development where a whole new community has sprouted up. So there is still the inclination for the city to spread out and connect its disparate parts.

The city website has a history of Marina that begins with its origin in the 1880s as farmland and cattle grazing, and stops at about 2005. It reads, in part, “Good things are happening in our young city and people are taking note and showing interest.”

That reveals a humble civic pride, but doesn’t quite capture the specialness of Marina, which is more of a living experience than a visiting one, and is greater than the sum of its parts.