A huge part of San Diego is very affordable. But I agree, these areas have a junky, dingy, low end feel. That is one of the interesting aspects of San Diego, it has this great weather, landscape and places like La Jolla…but SOOO much of San Diego are these dingy, dumpy, completely uninspiring places, like all that I listed. But they are very affordable.
There was a person that posted a while back about thinking about moving back to Minneapolis. See a place like MN, even the blue collar neighborhoods have character. They are tree lined streets with interesting older unique homes, grassy lawns, etc… Pleasing to the senses. But the 2nd and 3rd tier neighborhoods in San Diego are just so junky and eyesores. Central El Cajon? Spring Valley? Parts of Vista, Oceanside, etc.. They are just not aesthetically pleasing areas at all.
To me in San Diego you either have these dingy crappy neighborhoods with houses that look like Mississippi sharecropper shacks below $250k, or you have the soulless cookie cutter stuff in North Coutny with strip center shopping and zero uniqueness in the better neighborhoods (Rancho P, RB, Scripps, Eastlake…everywhere!). I think San Diego in general is just very, very un-appealing architecturally. Except for a few small pockets like Bankers Hill, Mission Hills, and maybe Kensington.
I’m personally mixed on San Diego. I’m not one of those people that are “gaa gaa” over San Diego and think it is the greatest place on earth.
Postives:
1. climate (although the lack of seasons has started to bore me terribly)
2. It is a large enough city with a lot to do and has economic diversity and ethnic diversity
3. You have the hilly topography next to ocean which is very cool and unique
4. There is some really nice hiking that is very accessible close to the urban areas of SD
5. The congestion and traffic is not bad here compared to places like Boston, LA, Bay Area, NYC, DC, Seattle, Chicago. It is super easy to get anywhere you need to go in 15-20 minutes, I love that. That is NOT the case in Boston, SF or LA…it can be a HUGE pain to get places.
Negatives:
1. It has a very, very low mentality in general and does not have an intellectual or progressive feel (that say SF, Seattle, Boston, Manhattan have). The values, personal tastes of people here, etc… are tacky and cheesy. It is very mainstream and heavily commercialized. It’s kind of a big beach “cow town”. And I don’t mean that politically (I’m in the center politically, not left or right).
2. As mentioned above it is a very architecturally UN-inspiring place. It has no quaintness or character. Lot’s of eyesore strip centers, cookie cutter stuff or the crappy 1950’s-1970’s neighborhoods. Like Clairmont for example, I think that place is just so ugly. It is a collection of these nasty 1950’s houses and eye sore strip centers. It’s so hard on the eyes and senses! And even PB, it’s just not attractive, there’s a ton of fast food places and crappy 1960’s apartment buildings.
3. It has the beach, but the water is too cold to swim in 12 mos a year
4. You can’t getaway drive to beautiful pristine mountains and skiing (like you can in say SF, Seattle, Boston, Denver). I think Julian is very, very average and even Idywild and Big Bear is just not that great. It’s NOT Vail CO, Lake Tahoe, The Cascades or Vermont. Not even close. In those cities you can have a getaway cabin or 2nd home you can drive to in 3hrs or less in a super pretty, pastoral, pristine mountain setting.
5. There are ZERO natural lakes or beautiful rivers in Southern Cal. I personally love boating in hanging out around tree lined natural lakes and rivers. There is nothing close to that here.
6. It’s fairly surface oriented and fake here, people are really into stupid s**t like the brand of their cars here. And they wash them constantly (LOL). That has been the rap on SoCal for decades, and it is really true. Not quite as bad as places like Orange County, but close.
7. There is a lot of tackiness and cheesiness here (Like the Gaslamp for example). Fine dining for people is some national chain with 27 gigantic big screen TV’s.
8. B/c it’s the desert it lacks trees, lush grass, greenery… It is very brown here. it’s amazing going back to the New England states in the summer, they are so green and lush compared to here.
9. Lack of a sense of community
So what that guy said from Minneapolis who wants to leave really connected with me. I just find my soul just feels really unfulfilled here. There is just something empty about the place. But there are very cool things about too it like the climate, hills, beach. So it’s kind of a love/hate place for me. The lack of culture and eye sore architecture just kind of “grinds” on you after a while.
