I lived in Silvercrest for 2+ years, so here’s the dump on it…
-Location is not too bad, considering you still get coastal breezes, it is close to the new Sprinter station, close to Cal State, close to major shopping center, not too far from the coast compared to similar priced areas in Temecula, Escondido etc. Also close to the 15 and 78. New Sprinter is not the big deal they thought it would be – it is generally quite. The City of San Marcos itself impressed me alot – including the actual management, fire, police who were all very responsive. Go to city hall, walk around, and you will find a city government that is engaged in the community and working to make it better.
-Neighborhood – No sense of community whatsoever. When I lived there, with few exceptions, neighbors didn’t know each other at all and there was alot of turnover and flipping. It is the most diverse area I have ever lived, with 1/2+ Asians, and people from just about every continent except Antarctica living there! I found this to be a positive given my intense interest in meeting people from around the world, but it also had downsides. By and large, the Asian families completely segregated themselves from the rest of the neighborhood and were never, ever outside – ever. EG: A family that lived right across the street from us, from China, refused to say hello to me for two years, and the day we left we remarked how sad it was that we never even met them in two years. On the school bus one day, one of our neighbors kids were told to ‘go to the back of the bus’ because the were white and sitting in the Asian section!
-Overall assesment – Silvercrest shares many of the issues that all new communities here face and is far from the American utopia where neighbors trade pies and the kids play baseball together and BBQ on weekends. Go to Nebraska if you want to find that. Maybe over time a sense of community will develop, with the various cultures coming together and actually taking the time to get to know each other. It is the story of this country in many ways, and will require everyone to leave their own comfort zones. When I lived there, that just wasn’t happening in Silvercrest…
