Downtown living is for people without kids, IMO. So for me, it holds no appeal at this point in my life. I live on a cul-de-sac, in a townhouse, with a dozen kids around me, of various ages. Right now, my boys are riding their bikes with the neighbor kids, who just stopped by while we ate dinner, and the dog is running around behind them. I could never have this kind of close and spontaneous playtime for my kids in most San Diego neighborhoods, and definitely not downtown. Yet we live close enough to shops that my son rides his bike to the gym, and my kids can walk to Robeks juice or the movies. So I feel I have the density of downtown, but without the noise. I have the trees, the quiet, the large park w/ pool and tennis courts and dog park nearby, the trails to go running…What does downtown have over this? Perhaps it has proximity to the airport, the freeways, but that is just noise and pollution. It doesn’t have the city feel of German cities, because the Gaslamp is just a bunch of restaurants; very boring if you just ate and want something to do.

So my first question, what do you like about downtown living?

What it is missing right now…what downtown SD needs to be a vibrant place where you can do more than go barhopping, and dining.

It seems if more of the condo owners actually lived in their condos, a critical mass of people would be reached, which would draw in shopping, theaters, art galleries, book stores, coffee houses…

Encouraging employers to move there would help too. In Germany, there is a very cute style of shops/businesses on the first floor, condos above. Why didn’t the condo developers develop their buildings with this in mind? Or did they? I have never set foot in a downtown SD condo.