Possible move to San Diego/La Jolla (Santa Cruz, Del Mar: fit in, apartment complexes)

[biggap]

I have recently been offered a job in La Jolla for the summer. I will be graduating from college this spring, and am hoping to move to a larger city (I grew up in and went to college in [two different] small towns). If I choose to take it, I hope to find another job in the San Diego area once I am done with my summer job - if I end up happy there. Although there is much that attracts me to the San Diego area, I have my reservations. I have been doing some digging on this site to get a feel for what San Diego is like. Below are my ideal qualifications for a city to live in. I realize it is impossible to find a city that is a "perfectly fit," however I hope this might help people give advice:

I am looking for a medium-large sized urban environment. I am looking for a sizable LGBT community. I want to avoid "shallowness" and materialism, and am looking for some degree of intellectualism and a vibrant social scene that is not pretenious. I love the outdoors - from a good hike to a swim in the ocean - although I dislike overly commercialized beaches. I love the sun, and prefer warm weather, but really sunshine is so important. I will not have a car, so the ability to bike or good public transportation is a big plus. I am hoping for moderate rent prices for a decent apartment.

Okay, this post is getting longer than it needs to be. What I am concerned with is that La Jolla is said to be "pretentious" and "materialistic" by many on this site. I understand that every location has diversity within itself, but I am concerned about the general "vibe" of La Jolla. I have thought that living in a community like Hillcrest might be a better fit for me, but after looking at transportation options, it seems that biking or taking the bus are not viable options.

I will not have the opportunity to visit before I decide on the job, so I can only make judgements of the area from afar. If anyone could provide any help, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

[Pedro2000]

Hillcrest would be the better choice in my opinion. Plus La Jolla really doesn't have a ton of public transportation options. If you live in downtown La Jolla without a car, you pretty much become stuck in downtown La Jolla and the beach areas.

What do you do for work and how do you plan on getting to/from work? Neither Hillcrest or the downtown area of La Jolla are job centers. And neither are exactly cheap.

[AADAD]

Hillcrest in a very nice part of town open and eclectic where one can find many places and friends. It is however smallish in terms of size 10 blocks x about 7 blocks (correct me if I am wrong). Open and a bit pricey. You would need a small car. Parking can be an issue.

La Jolla is materialistic plain and simple. Doesn't mean there are not good people just typically wealthy. The other qualities you seek outdoors beach non manicured beaches are some of the best opps in the world.

I recommend you come down and put up with those areas/ideas which are less than your goal and see what you think. The job market is competitive and if you are here you have an advantage imho. If you get a job you will already know what it is and where it is you like and where you do not. It is actually a really good way to get to know the area without the risk.

Best of Luck.

[lrmsd]

The areas around Hillcrest are good, too: Normal Heights, North Park, South Park and University Heights.

You are right, buses and biking are not really do able. This is So CAL and a car is really the best strategy.

That said, I don't agree that LJ is materialistic; it's simply wealthy and an old money wealthy area, as is Del Mar.
Newer money tends to be pretentious and superficial, older money communities have lovely homes and obvious signs of wealthy, but are not as ostentatious. Anyway, so cal is filled with superficial materialism, but in SD there are areas you can avoid it somewhat, such as the central SD hipster/GLBT friendly/artsy areas. [Though I find hipsters have their own brand of pretentious.]

The part that concerns me most about your interests is the part about: intellectualism and a vibrant social scene
It's definitely not an intellectual city, regardless of political leanings or even student status. It's very laid back and live and let live, but overall is apathetic and more materially driven [or the converse: laid back, surfer or partier driven]. The beaches are not commercialized for the most part-All beaches in CA are free and public. This helps. Torrey Pines State Beach is pristine. You can find an almost empty beach during the week, during much of the year. But, you'll never feel like you got 'out of the city' to do it. It's urban suburban. There are no real isolated nature areas-b/c the canyons are also places that people in SD enjoy hiking and running in. And the new 'get fit' focus has brought a lot of folks onto the trails with their music playing [inexplicably, WITHOUT headsets????]. You can find times of the week and year where you have the trail mostly to yourself, but otherwise, you'll need to go to the desert to get this and even then, so cal day trippers like the more common hikes, as well. I'm not saying it's like Yosemite park in the summer or something like that. Just that you will find more pristine and wild feeling beaches in northern CA, but will have relatively cooler and foggier weather.

I think Santa Cruz and the Bay Area sound more up your alley than anything in SO CAL. [Or maybe even somewhere like Austin or Denver, tbh, for sunshine and outdoors, plus some intellectual vibe and less pretentious]. If you could visit SD first, you'll have a better idea. You can definitely live without materialistic pretentious affecting you on a daily basis, but the larger culture does fit into this category, throughout so cal. That said, it's a mix and match area here in SD. You can find all types of people and interests, in my experience. And it is very live and let live, as mentioned. People are not really that interested in what other people are doing-lol. That apathy again. Go Chargers! (:

If you live in LJ, look at UTC where a lot of UCSD students live. It's suburban high rise apartment complexes, but there's an Indie theater [Landmark-there's also one in Hillcrest], whole foods and trader joe's, as well as a few ethnic restaurants and lots of chains. [welcome to SD on the chain restaurant front!]. Hillcrest has far better restaurants and cool local shops.
LJ proper, as well as Birdrock area [north PB], has a number of young professionals these days, along with the old time LJ residsents and some second home owners. Also, LJ is VERY FUNNY, b/c many of the folks you'll see walking around downtown acting pretentious are VISITORS who come from out of town or other parts of SD/So cal for the day. The same thing happens in Del Mar-I live a couple of miles from there. The place we like to eat at is kind of a local secret gem and is totally down to earth. But when you walk around that place, especially on a weekend or in the summer, the attitude many people have is comical. And it's mainly folks from other places. Also, the Del Mar and LJ Farmer's Markets are really great! I grew to dislike the Hillcrest one despite previously living walking distance to it for many years-b/c it has become to trendy and pretentious! So, these things go in cycles, and even a place like Hillcrest, b/c it represents trendy lifestyle things [eco friendly, foodie, yuppie] and is also an affluent area can also have its negatives [make no mistake, you cannot be broke in Hillcrest any more than you can in LJ, unless you are homeless].

My .02. I don't think it's LJ that you won't like so much as the fact that SD/so cal as a whole may not be your cup of tea. It's very sterile suburban and freeway oriented. There are only a few areas with 'character'. hillcrest doesn't have great public transit, either, just slightly better than LJ. But that's only to go to other areas of central SD. Getting to beaches really requires a car, unless you have inordinate amounts of time to spend getting to one.

Good luck w/your decision.

[biggap]

Thank you all for your thought out responses. Especially to you, lmrsd, that really helped!