I guess I like the extremes. I lived in many places in Normal Heights and Talmadge since the early 80’s. I owned two houses in Normal Heights.We moved from a 1600 sq. foot house in Normal Heights that I had for many years before I got married. It was a very comfortable size but as soon as I had kids I wanted to get away from the density.

I don’t like cookie cutter suburbs but can see the location advantages of some. I like San Carlos a lot for a suburban choice. We have friends there and we go watch fire works down by Lake Murray every couple of years… sometimes we go trick-or-treating there. It always feels great to be there.

I moved to the foot hills in Jamul.Price and land space had plenty to do with it. We choose a vacant lot to build on.It’s 20 acres in a rural suburb…or maybe the boonies? Wanting to build had a big impact on our choices of locations.

Now the old hood is too hectic for me, especially with the kids… I think it is a great place for many things. We still have a lot of ties to people and places in the neighborhood, but I would move to a lot of places before moving back there.

The other most important factor is that we wanted a school that was calm for the kids. Not as worried about it having an amazing rating. Still we are happy with the school,teachers, my kid’s classmates and the parents we meet. Still managed to put our kids in dual language immersion, which we wanted very much. The high school looks pretty good.

The area has nice sports fields and a YMCA is going in on our commute path.Our kids are almost always signed up for something… so if you plan on that you might consider what kind of environment you will find yourself in on many nights and weekends. Of course, from the city it is easy to join leagues in other communities. You won’t have consistency with the other kids and parents like you do when you participate in your own community.