Ocean Beach vs. North Park for a young couple (San Diego: sales, apartments)

[Airplanemoo]

I am graduating college in May and my wife and I are moving to San Diego so I can take a job at the naval complex on Point Loma right after I graduate.
We are moving from the greater LA area.
My wife is a studio artist and I am in the science/tech field. We both care about where we live, but we don't mind a little gritty and interesting. We like thrifting and estate sales and sailing. We don't have kids.
My wife thought Ocean Beach and North Park might be viable choices for renting. I'm fairly cheap (at least until student loans are payed off) so we're looking to rent a small guest house/cottage-type for between 1000-1200. I really don't like apartments at all. Here are my questions about both of these areas:

How's traffic? I've had to endure 3-hr round trip commutes to El Segundo for internships and I'm pretty sure I'm done with commuting. I thought riding my bike from Ocean Beach to the Point Loma complex (3 miles) would be pretty much a dream. Is this realistic? North Park looks farther, but maybe still a viable commute on bike? If not, does traffic get worse than LA? I don't want to get up at 4:30am to avoid traffic anymore.

How's parking? My wife lived in Newport Beach while she was an undergrad and parking sucked. I assume Ocean Beach is the same. We can deal with it, but it would be nice not to. What about North Park?

How is the commute to SDSU/UCSD? My wife eventually wants to go for her MFA and I plan on getting my Masters, so this is a minor consideration.

How are the people? The part of LA I hate the most is the west side. There can be a lot of pretentiousness. I'd like to avoid that.

Any major differences between these two areas that we should keep in mind?

Thanks for any advice you can throw out!

[oddstray]

Traffic in both areas is heavy, but if you live near to where you work that's less of an issue.

Parking in North Park is horrible. Parking in OB is a bit worse. In either place, make sure you rent a place that has a parking spot reserved for you.

Parking at both SDSU and UCSD is horrible. Worse, I believe, at SDSU. Here's the public transportation info - if you could make that work you could save yourselves the hassle of parking: San Diego Metropolitan Transit System

There's not much pretentiousness in either OB or North Park. If there's any at all, it's probably in the North County areas.

North Park is hipster. OB is aging hippie, with a added flavoring of homeless.

[kanjelman7]

For UCSD, you can park at the regents lot and take the shuttle to the main campus.

[NYSD1995]

I feel like living at the beach is just a prerequisite for young people moving to SD. Do it for a year or two and then decide if you are in love with the beach lifestyle or not. I did 2 years in OB before progressively moving east (University Heights, North Park, etc). Now that I'm older, I'm glad I did it when I was young, because to me, the beach cities seem really crowded and unless I had a mansion in La Jolla it's just not worth the price premium to not be able to park your car.

[Airplanemoo]

I like the idea of old hippies as my neighbors. As for the parking, it sounds like I expected for both areas. I'll just have to get around as much as possible on foot and bike. Is getting to other parts of San Diego in a car fairly quick from both locations (notwithstanding rush hr traffic)?

[kettlepot]

Looking at your want list:

Good commute
Cottage style over apartment
Parking
Artsy
SDSU/UCSD proximity

Everything you want is available, but none of it is available in the same place.

For a good bicycle commute (for you), Ocean Beach or Little Italy.

Cottage style apartment - those are most prevalent in southern North Park, but can also be found in larger numbers in Normal Heights, University Heights, South Park and Golden Hill. These are often called "California Cottages" and come 6 or 8 to a lot. Usually built from the 1910s to the 1940s, they are a charming alternative to apartments. However, they often don't come with adequate parking, so be careful to ask about that. I'm assuming you are going to be a one car household. That would certainly ease your parking anxiety.

Artsy: Normal Heights or North Park are becoming quite the locale for the creative types.

Proximity to SDSU or a quick mass transit commute to SDSU so that you don't have to pay for very expensive parking, look at Normal Heights or Kensington and the #11 bus line, or somewhere along Park Boulevard or El Cajon Boulevard in the neighborhoods of North Park/Hillcrest border, University Heights, Normal Heights, southern Kensington, or Talmadge. Further east on the #15 bus route, your commute to Point Loma becomes too long. One possibility is to bike or bus to a trolley stop. Take the Trolley to Old Town and then get back on your bicycle to finish your commute to Point Loma.

Finally, most of these neighborhoods fall within the catchment area for the "Car2go" rent by the hour alternative to having more cars than you really need.

So, here's one possibility: Live in southern Kensington. You could ride your bicycle down Fairmount to the Grantville trolley stop, or take the 13 bus. Take the trolley to Old Town, then complete your commute to Point Loma. Your wife would be within 2 to 3 blocks of either the 11 or 15 bus routes to SDSU. Kensington is charming, is one neighborhood east of Normal Heights. The question is, you may or may not be able to find a cottage style apartment. Kensington doesn't have them in the quantity that 30th Street in North Park has them.

[lrmsd]

North Park for your budget and living in a cottage, as well as some grit, and feels more artsy than OB [see 'Ray at Night' and SD art institute (I think that's the name).] Commuting to either sdsu or UCSD is easier, b/c getting in and out of OB is a pain most of the time [only one road; everyone's using it.]

OB parking in my opinion is worse, though it will entirely depend on where you live, as far as North Park being better.
Also check neighboring University Heights and Normal Heights-they will give you similar to north park with cottage rentals typically available.

Getting to other parts of SD is much easier, overall, from North Park-you can hop on the 15 or 805/8 and not far to 5 from there. From normal heights [next to kensington] the 805 and 15 are right off Adams Ave. the main thoroughfare of NH....the 8 is an exit off the 805, OR just take Texas St in NH, down the hill, and you land in the center of Mission Valley with the 8 access, a couple of exits to the 5. Easy to get to Pt. Loma [though obviously OB is quite close to Pt Loma]

North Park has more hipsters and feels more artsy. OB has the old hippie vibe BUT caveat [and others have written this on past threads, as well] OB has much more transient and drug activity these days. OB's beach can definitely be seedy. And I think most folks in OB like OB the way it is-I'm just elaborating to paint a greater picture. OB also has SD's long time food co-op [People's!] It's awesome and worth going even if you don't live in OB.

[North Park is hit or miss-some upscale areas and some iffy]. OB has great older residential areas, but finding a rental, let alone one bedroom in yoru range, in those areas, will be probably impossible. Choose your street wisely. Also, double check traffic in the flight path, if applicable or of concern to you. [airport downtown] North Park has seen gentrification in the last decade or so, to give you an idea of that area. North Park: You will probably be able to bike to balboa park.

South Park is also really cool, if you can find a rental in your budget.
Kensington, as mentioned, is fantastic as well. You might find something in 'South Kensington' in your budget [which is really city heights, so research the area well before choosing].

I don't find either of these areas pretentious at all (though the hipster vibe can be, but North Park definitely has a mixed crowd as far as demographics). SD as a whole is pretty laid back and live/let live.

Good luck!

[Airplanemoo]

Wow. All fantastic information. I will need to check out Kensington and Normal Heights, among the other suggested locations, when we visit for the weekend. I didn't know public transportation was a viable option in San Diego. In LA, it still really isn't. A trolley system!? Getting excited about this move now.

[kettlepot]

FYI: When I say southern Kensington, I actually do mean Kensington... south of Adams but still north of El Cajon Boulevard. The southern side of El Cajon Boulevard is City Heights as mentioned by lrmsd but is not what I am suggesting.

The key to making transit work in San Diego is to live near direct routes to where you want to go. During rush hour, the express bus along El Cajon Boulevard which will take you to the SDSU trolley station is going to run every 10 minutes.

for a graphic of the route:

midcity-rapid-bus-intro

Or as I mentioned take the #13 bus north on Fairmount to the Grantville Trolley station (Green Line).

Regional transit map here:

Regional Transit Map

Or looking at the map, take the Rapid Bus downtown rather than to SDSU and then ride your bike along the Harbor Embarcadero all the way to the Pt Loma Naval Base. Wow! That would be a pretty awesome morning bicycle ride, SD Bay and City skyline views all the way and better than taking the trolley to Old Town and then trying to navigate along Rosecrans.

[Pedro2000]

Originally Posted by Airplanemoo

Wow. All fantastic information. I will need to check out Kensington and Normal Heights, among the other suggested locations, when we visit for the weekend. I didn't know public transportation was a viable option in San Diego. In LA, it still really isn't. A trolley system!? Getting excited about this move now.

Public Transportation is about as viable in SD as it is in LA and LA has an actual metro that takes you places, the trolley is really limited. And neither are all that impressive to me if you actually need to use them all the time. Using them now and again is a nice option, all the time, it becomes long commutes.

If you need to go to work and/or school and take the bus or trolley to do so, it's just one of those things you are forced to do. You can't take the trolley and get to OB or PB or any of the beaches. You can hop on a couple of buses to get you there, but it's not exactly fun. If you live in say North Park and take a bus over to PB, you probably wouldn't do it all that often or you'd find a buddy who has a car to drive you there.

It's like anything. If you spend a lot of your time on a bus and/or trolley to get to school and work, you probably don't want to get home, rush, and then hop on some more buses to go over to the beaches.

California is a car centric culture. You can use public transportation to get to many places. But hopping on a couple of buses to get to Old Town, and then hop on the Trolley to get out to SDSU, isn't exactly fun. And if you don't have to do it, you probably won't.