i know this is an old thread, and i don’t even think i’m going to check back to see if anyone responded to my comment, but i think a little dissent/constructive dialogue is always a good thing. so i thought i’d disagree and copy-paste two entries from my own blog, about why i hate san diego. here they are:
i’ve moved around quite a bit in my life. i’ve lived, throughout my life, in 5 states, traveled to almost all 50, and 7 countries. i’ve been to a fair amount of places, but i have to say that san diego rates pretty low on my list of favorite places. don’t misunderstand- it’s ok for some people. but i’m different than most people, and just because other people like it doesn’t mean that i will. also, it has its benefits. and i am glad i had the chance to live here- i met the most amazing girl in the world here. buuuuut, i feel about as eager to leave san diego as i was to leave kentucky. here’s why:
10. its environment. the amount of smog in the air has been coming to my attention a lot more lately. also, there is such a dearth of cutting-edge environmental spectacles. for instance, i never see waterless urinals in this semi-arid climate, i don’t see many cfl lights in this blackout-prone city, and it’s more common to see a 4×4 monster truck than a civic.
9. its military complex. goes hand-in-hand with the 4×4 monster trucks. yes, people here support the american terrorism in iraq because many of the soldiers in iraq were deployed from san diego. in some areas of this city, the type-a alpha males rule, and if you are not like them, you are “feminine”. here, strength precedes intelligence. reminds me a lot of the south.
8. its lack of good coffee/tea shops. to repeat a friend from the bay area, “this is starbucks territory”. i must pay respects to three coffee shops san diego really needs. these are pannikin (any location), rebecca’s coffee house, and influx cafe. other than these (and a couple other places), there’s really not much to brag about. good luck finding a tea shop here: the best place to get loose-leaf tea is a place in old town- the service is terrible, it closes early, and there’s no seating.
7. its complacency. people here are comfortable with where they are in life (no matter where that may be), and feel no need to grow or challenge or be different. i’m sick of being stared at because i don’t follow the norm. and if i challenge what is the mainstream opinion, i get ostracized.
6. its superficiality. one word to describe san diego? superficial. if you’re ever in san diego, don’t try to talk to anyone about something that actually matters. if you do, you’re a very strange person. if you’re a female visiting san diego and want to blend in with the locals, come prepared with too much make-up and too much time to spend looking at yourself in the mirror. the superficiality even seeps into public spaces: sdsu’s campus green areas are not meant to be walked on or sat on; they’re meant to be looked at. there’s not much to do in balboa park beside walk in the developed areas.
5. its culture/history. san diego has it. but it’s solely oriented around surfing. this area is not known for its art, its sophistication, or its finesse. there’s history here, too, but the problem is that cabrillo and his successors wiped it out to establish their own history. people here tend to forget about that. on a side note, although i am very tolerant, respectful, and supportive of the northern mexico culture, i personally don’t like it very much; but this culture is very prominently displayed and ingrained here.
4. its citizens’ attitudes. i can’t figure out why people here are so far removed from their relationships. your friends don’t reveal their soul to you. in fact, unless you know someone well, they will hardly make eye contact with you. moreover, your friends don’t introduce you to more friends- that’s up to you.
3. its exclusivity. everything’s 21-and-up, which isn’t a hindrance for me anymore, but these rules make it hard to have younger friends. before i turned 21, i couldn’t find anything to do here, believe it or not. it’s also exclusive in terms of prejudice: they expect certain things from certain people, making stereotypes normative.
2. its political atmosphere. i’ve gotten the impression here that you shouldn’t challenge the government, that things going on in city hall are not my business, and that republicans are god’s children. i want to hide from people that i vote neither democrat nor republican, and don’t politically support anyone i disagree with. i carry many socialist ideals, but that doesn’t mean i’m a socialist either, a concept incomprehensible to most people here.
1. its inaccessibility. everything worth going to is disconnected from the rest of the city: south park has 1 bus running through it, ocean beach is almost literally disconnected from the city, and north park has jems, but they are also spread out. i want to live in a city connected by public transportation and that allows walking. try living in san diego without a car. yeah. it would suck.
And here’s the other:
I have listed in a previous post a few of the many reasons I hate san diego. since then many things have changed: I am now nearing the completion of my M.S., I am working at a well-paying job that i love, and I have gotten to know the city much more.
My unhappiness being here in this city has increased.
There are times when i would rather be back in Kentucky than be here. i think the only thing that has kept me sane is that i’ve learned of a couple places that i really enjoy (and can now afford).
There are three things that I am going to add to the list of reasons I hate San Diego. I am doing this as a method of coping; yes, this city has set me into such depression that I need something to help me get by.
1) When I first started my new job, one of the first things that I loved about it was the fact that a couple of my coworkers read. Yes, you read correctly. I suddenly realized something I’d been missing when I said to one of them: “wow, I don’t think I’ve had a single conversation with someone about books since I left Kentucky. Not one person in my graduate cohort has mentioned a book they were reading for fun.” Nobody in my cohort (or at my job, for that matter) has heard of Bukowski. So this reason for hating San Diego is because reading is does not register on peoples’ priority lists. Seattle, where I will move in September, is the most literate city in the country, has as a city landmark the central library (check out the pictures below), and has one of the highest-educated populations in the country. There is an alternative, San Diego.
2) I looked at locations advertised on a low-brow art web site (Juxtapoz) and found that Seattle has about 30. I looked and the Los Angeles area has probably 60. San Francisco has about 50. Just for curiosity, after I saw these numbers, I looked at San Diego. Three. Yes, three. As in the number 3. Honestly, as soon as I saw this I understood what I’ve been missing here. I’ve already been to all 3 of those galleries, and this is why I’m depressed here. My expectations were not met. At that point I turned my thoughts to my coworkers: is there anyone in my department– nay, my company– who I could converse with about art? No. I’ve tried: I tried striking up conversations about my trips to the Museum of Contemporary Art, I tried responding to their questions about contemporary art (I showed them Frank Stella and Yves Klein), and I’ve tried explaining the lack of art to them, and nobody understands or listens for very long. They (San Diegans) are simply not interested in art.
3) God, these weirdos. I’m sorry if you or someone you know are/is a San Diegan, but they are the weirdest people I’ve ever met! Blank stares, quick look-aways when you make eye contact, the “duuuuude” mentality, the eagerness to go surfing, the fright at the thought of walking a couple blocks, the satisfaction with chain stores, the desire to move out to the suburbs… so weird… Small minds. I’ve met full-grown native San Deigans who have been to Coronado two or three times. I’ve met full-grown native San Diegans who have never left the county and have no desire to whatsoever. One time when I remarked that I couldn’t believe their lack of travel experience, they actually asked rhetorically, “why would I want to leave San Diego?”.
4) Chain stores. I’ve never met a population so content with chain stores. I find that I am usually the one taking the San Diegans to locally-owned restaurants of which they’ve never heard. Actually, I’m usually the one educating San Diegans about their city in general. Not ‘educating’ in the condescending meaning of the word, but educating in the sense of exposing them to things they didn’t know about this city: its history, culture, bars, restaurants, neighborhoods, and current events. But back to the point, this is chain-store country. Avoid anything north of the 8 (in particular Mission Valley), east of the 15 (except for City Heights’s international areas), and south of J or K.
To a degree, “a city is what you make of it”. But I moved here to go to progressive, quirky, environmentalist California (basically, as I understand it, north of Fresno). And I’m just so tired of living in places that I hate. I try with San Diego every day, and it just seems like this city doesn’t allow it. The people who are comfortable here are people that were San Diegans before moving here- they love all these things I hate about it. And to those people, I wish them happiness and am glad they found a city they love.
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At risk of making this too incredibly long and boring, let me just say that, like in my post, I am not an unhappy person, and I don’t *enjoy disliking San Diego. But this city has just been a trainwreck for me. But I’m glad you seem to like it.
