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Old 02-11-2019, 03:43 PM
 
8,256 posts, read 17,298,690 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis View Post
Thanks for sharing your opinion.

I am definitely concerned about the racial climate in any place I live. I understand there is racism and prejudice everywhere. I refuse to live in a place where I have to think about running into that type of dysfunctional foolery. If there is a hint of Neo Nazi in MAGA hats, San Diego is a no go!!! isn't that only in areas of north San Diego County? This isn't the first time hearing or reading about that.

Given my criteria, Austin is nice but a no go because it doesn't appeal to me. Dallas doesn't seem slow. I live in St. Louis and love it.

I guess we are looking at things through different lenses. That's ok.
SD in the city is fine. Like the urban areas that you seem interested in. Like any city, going to the suburbs can be a drastic change, and due to SD's geography, the suburbs can be pretty close. But in neighborhoods like La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, Hillcrest, North Park, and all over downtown, you won't have any problems whatsoever. It's just when you get into North County (military) and East County (weird rural white people in lifted trucks and dirt bike vibe). Also, DinsdalePirahna's location is Huntington Beach. Beautiful city, but they get the inland Riverside crowd (similar to the East County SD people) frequenting their bars and beaches. You would almost never see that in the above-mentioned SD neighborhoods.

To ease your worries about SD, it's a small footprint of a city within basically one singular county. If you put the same logic into it, no city in the US would work. LA gets the MAGA idiots in the SGV, the desert communities, and the IE. SF gets them in the deep East Bay. NYC gets them in deep Jersey and lots of LI. Chicago gets them in quite a few burbs. Philly gets them in Northeast and parts of South Jersey. You can't avoid them sadly. But don't let MAGA idiots in North and East County deter you from SD. Their influence is not prominent in the city. You might sometimes see the drunk marines venturing down from North County, but your friends and peers on a daily basis will not be like them. They only crawl out on weekend nights to the douchebro clubs and bars where someone of your caliber and demographic will not be frequenting.
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Old 02-11-2019, 04:19 PM
 
7,108 posts, read 8,927,345 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jessemh431 View Post
SD in the city is fine. Like the urban areas that you seem interested in. Like any city, going to the suburbs can be a drastic change, and due to SD's geography, the suburbs can be pretty close. But in neighborhoods like La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, Hillcrest, North Park, and all over downtown, you won't have any problems whatsoever. It's just when you get into North County (military) and East County (weird rural white people in lifted trucks and dirt bike vibe). Also, DinsdalePirahna's location is Huntington Beach. Beautiful city, but they get the inland Riverside crowd (similar to the East County SD people) frequenting their bars and beaches. You would almost never see that in the above-mentioned SD neighborhoods.

To ease your worries about SD, it's a small footprint of a city within basically one singular county. If you put the same logic into it, no city in the US would work. LA gets the MAGA idiots in the SGV, the desert communities, and the IE. SF gets them in the deep East Bay. NYC gets them in deep Jersey and lots of LI. Chicago gets them in quite a few burbs. Philly gets them in Northeast and parts of South Jersey. You can't avoid them sadly. But don't let MAGA idiots in North and East County deter you from SD. Their influence is not prominent in the city. You might sometimes see the drunk marines venturing down from North County, but your friends and peers on a daily basis will not be like them. They only crawl out on weekend nights to the douchebro clubs and bars where someone of your caliber and demographic will not be frequenting.
Okay. I was getting ready to mark SD off my list. Its okay now you brought it into perspective.
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Old 02-11-2019, 05:06 PM
 
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
5,888 posts, read 12,976,264 times
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Jessemh431 made a pretty fair assessment of Southern California.

Yes, don't let the MAGA hats scare you.
Tide is changing, and the last election totally flipped Orange County from Red to Blue.

And yes, While I love living in Huntington Beach, the Downtown area can get very douchey during the summers when the 909ers and inland Bros show up. But Huntington Beach has 10 miles of ocean front, and the Harbour Area is developing very nicely as a "locals" downtown alternative.
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Old 02-11-2019, 05:12 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna View Post
10 miles of ocean front...
You just sold me again. Lol.

How is shopping, food(grocery stores, farmers markets and restaurants) in SD?
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Old 02-11-2019, 05:27 PM
 
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
5,888 posts, read 12,976,264 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis View Post
You just sold me again. Lol.

How is shopping, food (grocery stores, farmers markets and restaurants) in SD?
its definitely not a food dessert.

Grocery stores (including Trader Joes) are abundant. Most neighborhoods have some form of farmers' markets. Some are much better than others. Some are really bad.

Really good Mexican Food, and as an Ex New Yorker, I've found some very good italian restaurants (sorry, no saint louis-style pizza, but you can always buy matzo, ketchup and velveeta if you get a hankering)
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Old 02-11-2019, 05:44 PM
 
Location: San Diego, CA
3,416 posts, read 2,434,832 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jessemh431 View Post
Looks like average is 2.173% in Dallas and San Diego is 0.781%. Not sure how accurate this is
https://smartasset.com/taxes/texas-p...tor#6TOaioGpNg
I have no idea where this website got its info. California is 1% of the sale price for life and it can only go up 2% a year with voter approved bond measures. Most of SD county is from 1.06-1.22%. This doesn’t account for new builds that get hit with Mello Roos which is essentially an additional tax for X amounts of years to pay off the infrastructure (i.e. schools, roads, utilities) with the project. If you’re buying a older place you won’t ever have to deal with them.

Tax Rate Search Results

On a side note I don’t know where the MAGA hat comment came from. I can probably count all of them I’ve seen around the county on one hand the last few years, and some were meant as jokes. San Diego County is about as accepting of all races, religion, sexual orientation, etc of any place in this country.

I also wouldn’t worry about your age. While I can’t comment on it within the gay community, as a whole if you’re active people could care less how old you are. I’m 43 and surf with people much younger and older than me. I’m in the same boat, pun intended, with the crew I race with in regattas. This is true too with my golf group that all walk when playing. For what it’s worth, my wife is 13 years younger than me as well. The point, like mentioned before, is people don’t care around here. With the exception of going away to school, I’ve been here since I was 6 if that helps with my credibility on the topic. Good luck with your search.
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Old 02-11-2019, 05:46 PM
 
7,108 posts, read 8,927,345 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna View Post
its definitely not a food dessert.

Grocery stores (including Trader Joes) are abundant. Most neighborhoods have some form of farmers' markets. Some are much better than others. Some are really bad.

Really good Mexican Food, and as an Ex New Yorker, I've found some very good italian restaurants (sorry, no saint louis-style pizza, but you can always buy matzo, ketchup and velveeta if you get a hankering)
Seems like a great place. I love farmers markets. Trader Joes is my favorite grocery chain.

Not a fan of St. Louis style of pizza St. Louis is better for BBQ and Soul Food imo. I won't be looking for that in SD. I am not a vegan yet but I love the idea of having many options for clean healthy eating.
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Old 02-11-2019, 05:54 PM
 
7,108 posts, read 8,927,345 times
Reputation: 6415
Quote:
Originally Posted by TacoSoup View Post
I have no idea where this website got its info. California is 1% of the sale price for life and it can only go up 2% a year with voter approved bond measures. Most of SD county is from 1.06-1.22%. This doesn’t account for new builds that get hit with Mello Roos which is essentially an additional tax for X amounts of years to pay off the infrastructure (i.e. schools, roads, utilities) with the project. If you’re buying a older place you won’t ever have to deal with them.

Tax Rate Search Results

On a side note I don’t know where the MAGA hat comment came from. I can probably count all of them I’ve seen around the county on one hand the last few years, and some were meant as jokes. San Diego County is about as accepting of all races, religion, sexual orientation, etc of any place in this country.

I also wouldn’t worry about your age. While I can’t comment on it within the gay community, as a whole if you’re active people could care less how old you are. I’m 43 and surf with people much younger and older than me. I’m in the same boat, pun intended, with the crew I race with in regattas. This is true too with my golf group that all walk when playing. For what it’s worth, my wife is 13 years younger than me as well. The point, like mentioned before, is people don’t care around here. With the exception of going away to school, I’ve been here since I was 6 if that helps with my credibility on the topic. Good luck with your search.
Thanks for your information. SD seems like a place that would really be good for lifestyle options. I am not sold on the cost of living thing. I do okay financially but the cost of living seems like it may impact my buying power in a drastic way.
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Old 02-11-2019, 11:15 PM
 
Location: South Park, San Diego
6,109 posts, read 10,853,232 times
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San Diego is a fine city but it is outrageously expensive, it is almost always among the top five most expensive places in the country. If you don’t already have connections here or a strong affinity for the city I would think it could be somewhat challenging for you. It also has a very small black American population, I don’t know if that would be important for you - in the larger community as well as in the LGBT community most everybody gets right along, with the few cliques that you are gonna find in everywhere. I’ve never experienced anything but inclusiveness within that community - but I think it is somewhat lacking in those ethnic/cultural stratifications that are seemingly more evident in other large cities. Which I imagine could be a positive support system as part of living in a new city.

There is a strong arts scene here. We are involved with and have season tickets to many of the local institutions; ballet, theater and galleries, neighborhood festivals/tours. Something though you would easily find in both St. Louis and Dallas.

I don’t know a thing about Dallas other than what I’ve garnered online or meeting friendly Texans ready to talk it up. I loved my week in St Louis as part of a group of friends visiting with a gay couple we knew from San Diego who moved back there and really showed up the city in style- but it was vacation mode and I think your description is also apt. Also I think that Mid-Westerners are a particularly tough nut to crack (and I come from Mid-Western stock) when you are not already in an established group - all the more so as we get older and often have less opportunities to meet new people. Dallas strikes me as maybe a somewhat suburban city (also with imperfect weather) but filled with a heck of a lot of fun and friendly people that would be much easier to meet and become part of a community. Also Atlanta- its been years since I’ve been but it only seems to be getting better with a more urban moving direction right in the city and the scene there was very friendly and mixed when I was there. And those cities are so much more affordable than San Diego, giving all the urban lifestyle you would ever need.

Again, San Diego is great, but gawd we couldn’t afford our house today we bought 20 years ago even as we are a married professional couple with good jobs! I don’t know how many folks do it here even as there certainly is an established strata of very well off folks here, and plenty like us who just happen to buy in at the right time. If you are not quite comfortable financially you better be fine in living in much more compact, spare and in less than ideal neighborhoods to enjoy all the good life that is here.

Best of luck, and if you came out here I would be happy to show you around and maybe it would be everything you would want it to be but it’ll cost ya.

Last edited by T. Damon; 02-11-2019 at 11:33 PM..
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Old 02-12-2019, 07:25 AM
 
1,038 posts, read 782,686 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna View Post
On the negative side, there is a very vocal group of Neo-Nazis in MAGA hats, if you stay away from their rallies, you won't even notice them.
I'd have to say that of the seven cities I've lived in, SD is the most diverse and integrated ethnically and racially, and with the least in the way of racial tension. Everyone just seems to get along. I live in coastal SD and have never seen a neo-Nazi in 16 years. And I travel to the East County fairly frequently.

You mentioned an interest in performing arts. You might want to check out SD's theater scene. It's quite rich though few people know about it, likely because it doesn't fit the SD stereotype. I'd heard once that more Broadway plays originate in SD than any other city in the US (not sure if this includes NY itself).

https://www.sandiego.org/explore/thi...e/theatre.aspx

Good luck whatever you choose.
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