Central Connecticut heading to SD (to live, license, CPA)

[CBerger]

Hello all, I'm back to post up some thoughts about the last two years I've lived here in SD and both the pros and cons I've found of my adopted city. I'll try to keep this random stream of ideas organized and concise.

I absolutely love San Diego and the decision I made to move here. I've lived in PB the last two years right on Garnet. It has the reputation of the drunk frat boy part of town and many people give me the stank face when I tell them I live in PB but I'm a believer that location is what you make of it. There are drunk douchebags everywhere and it's all about who you associate with. It's a transient area but I look at that as a positive because you're able to meet people from many different places with different backgrounds and I've formed a strong circle of friends because of this.
The best part about San Diego I've found is a feeling of community. Making friends with neighbors, or people in your neighborhood is so easy and its not really necessary to hop in a car and drive to spend time with people when I can ride my bike down the road or walk across the street.


The Job market (in relation to my field) and cost of living have been my main misgivings with San Diego.

I should clarify that I mean career market and rents. I found a job working as a line cook in a Little Italy restaurant the first week I moved here and stayed there for a year half. I left the job when I was being underpaid in relation to my responsibilities. I searched for 4-5 weeks and started another job as a cook in pt loma and worked there for 5 months or so.
Then I found a dream job working in Mira Mesa as a studio assistant to an artist. A career that I could hang my hat on for a while. Unfortunately that only lasted 6-7 weeks before I was laid off due to the artist not being able to afford my wage. So I pretty much went from working two jobs 7 days a week between the art studio and the restaurant to now attempting to gain unemployment and EBT while I work full time job searching pretty much.
I don't currently have a car and it's actually worked out pretty well. I can bike to mostly anywhere I need to go (la jolla ob downtown, pt loma, hillcrest) Parking anywhere in this city is pretty much a nightmare and I enjoy being able to save on the auto expenses and just ride around.

I would like to work in the arts in some capacity either as an artists assistant, gallery or museum worker, full time artist etc. I've put in an application to the SDMA as a volunteer to possibly get my foot in the door and network for potential jobs. I'm going to keep trying to meet and network with people in the art field and hopefully gain a position out of it but it is tough for anyone, anywhere working in the arts, not just SD For all the wonderful things I love about San Diego, it's not exactly a cultural and artistic epicenter and I realize that for what I want to do, SD may not be the place that can happen.

I live in a 2 br apartment in PB at a cost of 1275 a month split between two of us. Not bad at all for this area, but still not cheap. You pay for the atmosphere and environment in SD I've come to believe. The other expenses (gas, water, groceries, a meal out etc) I've found are fairly reasonable and not much different from where I lived previously or most other cities. When people say SD is an expensive place to live I agree on the housing aspect, but most other expenses seem fair to me.

Coming from the east coast, I most definitely can say that for the last 2 years I've been living the california dream. When people imagine moving to San Diego I think I'm pretty much doing that. I don't know if I'll be here forever or even another year but even at the hardest of times just hopping on my bike and riding around the beach areas at sunset make me truly appreciate it motivate me.

Sorry that was kinda all over the place and I could say tons more but please ask any questions or make any comments to open up a dialouge. Thanks

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by CBerger

...
Sorry that was kinda all over the place and I could say tons more but please ask any questions or make any comments to open up a dialouge. Thanks

No apology needed! Your post, as a real experience versus a thought experiment, is worth ten of anything we could post unless we also were posting real experiences.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

We dont get many back on the forums after they move here or 'think' about moving here.

FWIW, its about the journey not the destination. Now you have your own stories to share contrary to all the reasons why you should/shouldn't do something.

Good luck. Keep this thread updated whether you wind up staying or leaving.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Cool, stick with it, it sounds like you are scrappy enough to make it work here. Good luck.

[Lynnemarie1016]

I'm so happy that you updated this thread. I myself am planning on taking the plunge and driving across the country to see how living will be on the West Coast. I, myself have lived in Connecticut most of my life...recently moving to White Plains, NY to get some kind of "city" outdoor , walkable life style. And I love it over here. I have a great job and apartment but I still have to deal with the winter. I feel like I'm wasting half of my life inside since I don't do any winter sports. I play softball, love to go to the beach, love walking, being outside and taking in the sun. I feel like we have very similar reasons for wanting to move out to San Diego and I'm very happy to hear that you are getting everything out of it (aside from the career aspect). I'm looking into Little Italy area. Any recommendations ?

My fiance and i will be moving together this summer so hopefully we can get two incomes going shortly after arriving. I have a B.B.A. in accounting , however I do not practice. I would still be looking for something in the business field, just not accounting. I want to be SAFE. Want to be able to walk to restaurants and close to the beach. Will be bringing one car with me. Any recommendations based off what you've learned taking this daring chance? I am not someone who makes many risks so this is VERY big for me. Any information would be helpful. Thank you

[T. Damon]

Great to hear back from you and that you are making a pretty good go of it here, in what is a far from easy city to accomplish that.

You've probably already been made well aware of The San Diego Art Institute but just in case you haven't it might be a very good place to get your toe in the door and see if you can make any connections there. My mom has been a long time volunteer at the Mingei museum which is in the same building as well as an arts writer for some of the local neighborhood newspapers and two of my former neighbors have good full time jobs there- they always seems to be some cool stuff going on (history of surf boards and three progressive local architects exhibits) and they have a pretty big crew, both volunteers and paid staff. The SDAI has a "C Note" sale twice a year; local artists offering paintings for $100, $200 or $300 where we've managed to collect a household of original art on the cheap. I'm not sure how they choose the artists to represent but it would be a great opportunity for someone like yourself if you were so lucky, - I'd try to find out if I were you.

San Diego Art Institute - San Diego Art Institute - San Diego Art Institute
C-Note Opens November 22 - SDAI Balboa Park - San Diego Art Institute
Mingei

Good Luck. Glad you are sticking it out for a while.

[moved]

The OP hasn't posted since August of 2014. You're better off starting your thread, plus searching for the information that you want.

[CBerger]

I'm still here. In fact I lurk this forum more often than ever (just read all 20 pages about the chargers situation) but just don't post much

Lynnemarie1016, Little Italy is a nice area albeit you'll need a higher budget. I worked there for almost 2 years and it's walkable, safe, close to attractions (harbor, downtown, balboa etc) and has plenty of restaurants, shopping and nightlife options, and 10-15 min drive to OB/PB/MB. Definitely a top neighborhood in my opinion. Two incomes is always a good and will help with the sticker shock that can come from apartment hunting in SD, especially areas like little italy. Granted, I don't know anything about your financial situation (savings, nest egg, budgets etc)

I'm no expert on your field but would definitely do what you can to set up at least some interviews in a career type job. San Diego being a desirable place to live makes it a transient town - with that comes a lot of younger people coming in and looking to work as servers, bartenders etc until they find something "real", myself included in this group.

I could go off for a while on my philosophies and beliefs about things like this, but I'll just say that putting wheels in motion is the best method to improving any situation. All the planning and strategizing in the world is helpful, but nothing beats just pulling the trigger and going for it. Too often people become stagnant and content in a comfort zone, take a chance, think on your feet, and react to situations, you'll be ok.


Please feel free to ask any more questions, I'll do my best to answer and hopefully some of the more active/helpful posters (moved, sassberto etc) will chime in.

T. Damon thanks so much for that info, I am aware of the SDAI but haven't actually seen anything about that C Note sale you've referred to so I'll check that out.

I've still been on a roller coaster ride as far as consistent work goes. However, I feel like I'm definitely on the cusp of breaking through and something good coming my way. I volunteered in Nov at the balboa SD art fair, I've networked with some big gallerists here in SD, been exposed to resources like rising arts leaders SD, and also been hand picked to participate in various art shows (RAW artists at FLUXX in oct, a few galleries in the ever growing Barrio Logan arts community and a various others) It's not quite showing financially for me yet, but I'm grinding it out. If your mom can put in a word by all means (wink wink)

I'll try to be more active on these boards in the future, and add my experiences

[NYSD1995]

Thanks for coming back and updating this thread, that never happens!

[loveautumn]

LynneMarie, having a degree in accounting is a real door opener for you as there is a high demand for accounting graduates (even though it is competitive). If you have your CPA, even better. If you can get your CPA before you come here, even more better! If you don't have any accounting work experience, I would suggest going to an agency like AccountTemps or something similar or go to a head hunter, as I think that would help you find a position a lot faster, even though it would be entry level.