Reasons not to move to San Diego/Southern CA (San Francisco: short sales, cliquey)
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Another person who left CA because they couldn't afford to live they way they really wanted to... and now they're complaining about how horrible CA is... 6 whole years later...
If you really like living in the middle of nowhere and not having to deal with any people, then fine. Good for you.
But "all the earthquakes" and the "humidity"... ha! laughable.
I've lived my entire 40 years in SoCal, and felt almost every earthquake during that time. The worst damage I've ever received is a broken wine bottle.
I believe Oklahoma has had more earthquakes than CA has this year...
Of course SoCal is crowded... all the good places are.
I think those that can't really afford to live a good quality of life here get down on the city or complain about it.
I have to laugh. Why are people who don't like SD being 'psyched out'? Why can't it be that those who don't like SD don't like for the reasons we stated? Because I could say that those of you who make out SD to be The City of Gold "The poster doth protest too much" LOL -- what are you hiding? I think you just like SD. I don't think you MUST have a hidden agenda.
Perhaps age does have something to do with it, as I said before. I went to a party the other night and met a California retiree transplant who moved away from SD about 10 years ago. He had a great home, with a view of the ocean, and he just couldn't take all the people, cars, traffic, earthquakes -- and TAXES -- anymore.
I couldn't afford a home with an ocean view, but I could live quite well in SD. I chose and still choose not to live there for the reasons I stated. It's a great place to visit for a short while. I just don't want to live like a sardine, trapped in traffic and waiting for the next earthquake. LOLOLOLOLOL
And what about all the San Diego people I know who would move from SD in a heartbeat if they could? Oh, I know -- they are just figments of my imagination.
People who love SD are allowed to state their opinons, but so are the people who don't. And people who are thinking of moving there should hear from the people who don't like it. There are pros and cons to everything.
Fran,
I don't think anyone is trying to say San Diego is perfect in every way. Because it certainly isn't. Every city has it's "warts".
I also laughed when I read the poster complaining about all the people, cars, humidity and Earthquakes.
Any major metropolitan area in the world has it's fair share of people, cars, traffic. So my question to you and others are what other major metropolitan cities in the USA do you prefer vs. San Diego. I'm just curious. It's one thing if you are tired of city life in a big city and want to live in a smaller city. But most major metro areas are going to have lots of people, traffic and cars. Definitely though I can see people that get tired of a bigger city and want to move to a smaller town. But there are lots of areas around San Diego where you can find that.
Absolutely there are cons here and many of us have pointed them out many times. Namely the horrible job market and poor economy, expensive real estate and high taxes. But I'd kind of group that category together as I consider all of those things as financial issues in a way. I still say the biggest gripe for most people will be financially related and stemming from not being able to live the kind of life they would like to in San Diego.
Like others mentioned, the poster lost credibility to me when they listed Earthquakes and humidity as major gripes.
Absolutely I'll agree with the high cost of living and high taxes. I will even include some other negative things like a large amount of homeless people in the downtown area. I do agree when you factor in the cost of living to include cost of buying a house or even renting in a nice area and wanting to get ahead of the game....then San Diego is NOT for the vast majority of people out there.
But I'd love to hear from people that prefer to live in major metropolitan areas and what city they prefer vs. San Diego that doesn't have "lots of people, traffic and cars"??
San Diego certainly isn't perfect but it sure beats the majority of the major Metropolitan cities out there. JMHO.
I lived in San Diego and Orange County for 45 years. There are many things I still love about it -- there is SO much to do and I miss the ocean very much -- but I left almost six years ago, and I'll never go back (I visit, but I will never live there again), and here is why. These are things you have to think about before you take the leap, and, as is always suggested before we settle down in a new place, do rent before you buy.
The state of CA has somewhere between 37-39 million people. San Diego County and Orange County EACH have over 3 million. (The state of NM, which is only a little bit smaller in total area, than CA, has a total of 2 million people.) There is almost NO way to get away from people.
Traffic will rule your life. Every single day, before you go anywhere, you will have to take traffic into consideration, because traffic is horrendous. And unless you live miles away from a major highway/freeway, you will hear that traffic. Morning and night. After a while you won't consciously hear it anymore, but if you vacation in a relatively quiet place, you will realize how noisy San Diego/Southern CA is.
If you ski, you will have a horrible time in the winter getting home from the ski areas on a weekend (and often times getting to the ski areas), due to traffic, and if you go to the beach (during the summer), you will have a horrible time trying to find parking. And good luck trying to get out of your car if you even find a way-too-skinny parking place -- anywhere.
The air pollution is very bad. I didn't know I couldn't breathe until I woke up four days after moving to my retirement state and realized that I could actually breathe. It was a new and different experience. Also, my bad skin cleared up within the first six months of not living in Southern CA.
Another reason I left is because the earthquakes, which I had lived with for 45 years, became more frequent and more intense over the years, and your new love for CA might go downhill after you've been through your first bad earthquake and especially one that causes damage to your property.
Southern CA, and that well includes San Diego, has become more and more humid as the years have gone by. And there is no real change of seasons -- most of the time it's just good weather -- day after day -- year after year. But too much of a good thing is too much.
The cost of living and state taxes are very high.
Every time I visit, the ocean is my first stop, and I wonder why I ever moved away. (Well, wondering why I moved away happens less and less.) But by the time it's time to go home, I can't wait to leave.
If San Diego had half its current population (and, remember that almost every adult current living in San Diego has at least one car), I would move back in a heartbeat. (Hmmm, maybe not -- I got REAL tired of those earthquakes.) As I said before, there is so much to do in Southern CA. It has to be the playground capital of The US, second only to NY -- and maybe not second to NY at all. But if you like your own space (I will not live like a sardine in a can) and you don't want to spend half your life sitting in traffic (and you don't want to pay A LOT in state taxes), find another place.
BUT if you really want to live there, you will find a way. And, yes, I have to admit that I miss it (until the end of annual visits LOL). I miss all the things there are to do (which I rarely did because I didn't want to fight the traffic). I miss the myriad weekend mornings, all year long, that I was at the beach before daybreak. There were few people there, I could easily find a parking place, and those were great mornings at the beach. There is nothing that takes the place of the ocean at daybreak. :-)
I think the general tone of your post is accurate, but I will disagree on a few points. The smog in Southern California has gone down significantly over the last 30 years, and even over the last 10 years. San Diego never had the horrible smog problem that places like Los Angeles & Riverside do, and the smog even in those places is not as bad as it used to be.
I seriously doubt the humidity in San Diego has changed in recent years. Even if it is true, the weather seems to be changing in a lot of places. You can't really count on anything but change in today's world. This was always true, but it seems even more true these days.
I will strongly agree with you on the earthquake issue. California is overdue for a big earthquake, and I think people who live here seriously underestimate the risk/impact such a quake would have on their lives.
I'm going to totally dismiss the earthquake fears as I don't think most people living in San Diego worry about that risk at all. Maybe in other parts of California but not in San Diego.
That's part of the problem. People don't take the risk seriously. People are generally bad at assessing risk, especially risks that aren't immediate.
Even if a big quake doesn't hit SD directly, SD will still be severely impacted by the social fallout if one were to hit, say, LA or the Inland Empire.
Also, I find it very ironic and troubling that the original poster complained about taxes but then talked about their hefty government retirement package. Who do you think funded that, the tooth fairy?
I have lived in San Diego for fifteen years and moved last summer to the Midwest after I got a great job offer, 20K above my SD salary. My cost of living is also about 40% less than in San Diego, and there is so much less stress. I was unaware how stressed out I was when I lived there, trying to make ends meet. I have a JD and an MA and had a hard time finding a job that paid enough to live without having to get a roommate. There are so many people in SD, crowds everywhere. With regard to traffic - yes, it is a problem in SD county. If you can live in Del Mar and don't have to get on the 5 south freeway at 7:30 am, or drive north around 4 pm you can pretty much avoid getting caught up in it. Driving from Del Mar, where I lived, to UCSD where I worked was a very short distance and easy, but most people don't live in Del Mar and work at UCSD. I used to live in Oceanside and went to law school in San Diego, and that commute was horrendous. I had to fill up my car twice a week; once a week when I lived in Del Mar. Where I live now nothing is further away than 5-10 miles (work, home, shopping, my son's college) and if I want to go out on the town I take a train or bus (or my car and accept parking issues) to Chicago. Gas is cheaper and I fill up only once every three weeks or so. When I got my job I had to leave my daughter and her family (including granddaughter) behind - who are living with in-laws to afford re-careering into nursing, but I hope they will move out here, too. It is so much nicer and people are friendlier. For children in school it is easy to feel marginalized in the crowded San Diego schools that cater to the slowest learners. I was disappointed with the teachers in the public schools my kids went to. But after the housing cost I could not afford private schools for them. My 23 year old son grew up in San Diego, graduated from a high school with 4000 students and came with me to the Midwest. He is attending college here now with 20 students per professor, and he recently said to me that moving here was the best thing he ever did, in his entire life. And we both know, that if someday we want to change, go back or go elsewhere, we will be able to. I have a feeling we won't go back to San Diego, but we will visit. Just like the other commentator alluded to, nice weather every day is just as wonderful as filet mignon every day.
I have lived in San Diego for fifteen years and moved last summer to the Midwest after I got a great job offer, 20K above my SD salary. My cost of living is also about 40% less than in San Diego, and there is so much less stress. I was unaware how stressed out I was when I lived there, trying to make ends meet. I have a JD and an MA and had a hard time finding a job that paid enough to live without having to get a roommate. There are so many people in SD, crowds everywhere. With regard to traffic - yes, it is a problem in SD county. If you can live in Del Mar and don't have to get on the 5 south freeway at 7:30 am, or drive north around 4 pm you can pretty much avoid getting caught up in it. Driving from Del Mar, where I lived, to UCSD where I worked was a very short distance and easy, but most people don't live in Del Mar and work at UCSD. I used to live in Oceanside and went to law school in San Diego, and that commute was horrendous. I had to fill up my car twice a week; once a week when I lived in Del Mar. Where I live now nothing is further away than 5-10 miles (work, home, shopping, my son's college) and if I want to go out on the town I take a train or bus (or my car and accept parking issues) to Chicago. Gas is cheaper and I fill up only once every three weeks or so. When I got my job I had to leave my daughter and her family (including granddaughter) behind - who are living with in-laws to afford re-careering into nursing, but I hope they will move out here, too. It is so much nicer and people are friendlier. For children in school it is easy to feel marginalized in the crowded San Diego schools that cater to the slowest learners. I was disappointed with the teachers in the public schools my kids went to. But after the housing cost I could not afford private schools for them. My 23 year old son grew up in San Diego, graduated from a high school with 4000 students and came with me to the Midwest. He is attending college here now with 20 students per professor, and he recently said to me that moving here was the best thing he ever did, in his entire life. And we both know, that if someday we want to change, go back or go elsewhere, we will be able to. I have a feeling we won't go back to San Diego, but we will visit. Just like the other commentator alluded to, nice weather every day is just as wonderful as filet mignon every day.
Definitely traffic can be an issue here in San Diego. But my point was that it is fairly bad in most major metropolitan cities of this size. Definitely Chicago is really great city full of great people, great restaurants and a great atmosphere. The biggest negative to me would be the brutally cold winters. You don't know cold until you go through a winter in Chicago. But I agree with you the public transportation system here in San Diego for this size city isn't good.
But again it sounds like your biggest gripe was financially/job related. I do find that to be the biggest negative about the City. The higher cost of living yet the fairly low paying jobs. I've met several people that are highly educated yet are waiting tables, working in retail stores or worse yet...unemployed.
Definitely you can have a much higher quality of life and make more money in other major cities. I totally agree with you all there.
As to the Earthquake thingy. I'm not saying that there isn't a possibility of an Earthquake. Only that most people aren't in fear of one or their daily lives aren't affected by them. The other OP made it sound like it was a constant problem.
Also, I find it very ironic and troubling that the original poster complained about taxes but then talked about their hefty government retirement package. Who do you think funded that, the tooth fairy?
The only San-Diego-specific reason not to move here is the weak job market and expensive housing markets. If you are a bioscientist or firmware engineer you can do well, but this just isn't a city that you move to because you want to get to the top of a career ladder. There are very, very few jobs paying 125k+ in San Diego, and personally I feel that is the minimum if you are looking for a comfortable middle class life or home ownership and all the typical lifestyle accoutrements. You will generally pay through the nose for any sort of upper-middle-class lifestyle here.
If you are a low income earner with few prospects for the future, I would not move here at all.
Everything else mentioned, i.e. traffic, rude people, etc, is the same as everywhere else, better or worse depending on the person, day of week, etc.
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Also, my bad skin cleared up within the first six months of not living in Southern CA.
