La mesa as a place to live (San Diego, El Cajon: sales, lease)

[citysnoop]

Any and all thoughts are welcome.

[RosieSD]

La Mesa is pretty spread out, with a lot of different areas - from working class neighborhoods to million dollar homes. There are also unincorporated areas with La Mesa addresses that are not within the city limits of La Mesa.

So it is hard to generalize and say "ALL of La Mesa is like XYZ."

A lot depends on which part of La Mesa you're talking about.

Are you considering a particular area in La Mesa? If so, which area(s)?

[hitman619]

What Rosie said, La Mesa is Pretty Spread out
I Live in the far right hand corner,one block from El Cajon city. It still is a retirement community for the most part with most home owners living in their houses at lease 50 plus years. It is Changing at record pace as, it's still one of the few affordable places to buy home and live in San Diego County. With all of the brewery's and new Restaurants popping up here i don't plan to leave.
Map of La mesa
http://www.cityoflamesa.com/Document...on-Plan?bidId=

[djxpress]

I also live in the "top right" corner of La Mesa - Severin Manor specifically. Area has a lot of nice midpriced houses, most residents are either older people that have lived in the house for decades, or younger couples moving in once the older seller passes away. Lots of Estate Sales in the area.

As everyone said, La Mesa is very spread out. There are really nice areas and there are also super sketchy areas. The area I'm in is literally a quarter mile from El Cajon border and a mile from the San Diego city border.

I've found the city services are top notch. Police are very responsive and generally very nice to citizens. City works is great. They've come out and filled a couple of potholes within a couple of weeks and replaced a stolen street sign within a week of me calling. When you call the city, you get a live person, and it doesn't take 20 minutes to locate the service/person you're looking for, like it does in San Diego city.

The Village area has been changing within the past few years with a lot of new restaurants, bars, and shops coming in. A lot of the old knick knack shops, title and escrow places, etc. are starting to pack up and move which I like (some people don't like this). It's close to the 94, 125 and 8 freeway which means you can get to downtown, the beach, or central San Diego in 15 minutes. Overall, I really like it.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by djxpress

I've found the city services are top notch. Police are very responsive and generally very nice to citizens. City works is great. They've come out and filled a couple of potholes within a couple of weeks and replaced a stolen street sign within a week of me calling. When you call the city, you get a live person, and it doesn't take 20 minutes to locate the service/person you're looking for, like it does in San Diego city.

I don't live in La Mesa, but have many friends who do, and have been watching La Mesa and El Cajon for the last 35 years.

I think this is a major difference between the two largest East County cities -- La Mesa's city government seems to be much more on top of things and better managed than El Cajon's. To me, it shows in a lot of ways, from the way the city's general infrastructure looks and runs to the way the homeless situation is dealt with. You cross that border line from the city of La Mesa to the city of El Cajon and the difference is immediately apparent. (That's not to say that there aren't some perfectly nice areas in the city of El Cajon; I'm just contrasting it with La Mesa for the sake of discussion).

I think for *some* people, a potential negative about La Mesa in general might also be the relative lack of newer housing. La Mesa probably won't thrill you if you're looking for a sparkly new "master planned" community. That doesn't bother me (I like settled and less cookie cutter) but I could see how it might be a con for some.

And, La Mesa isn't "cheap." It's just more reasonable than most of the coastal areas. And that seems to be changing quickly, especially in the "starter home" price range. When my daughter and son in law were shopping for homes last year in La Mesa, I was shocked at how much competition there was for homes there, with multiple offers, all cash offers and lots of homes that were obviously being flipped. (That's part of the reason why my daughter/SIL ended up buying elsewhere in East County even thought they really wanted to live in La Mesa).

Still, I LOVE what is going on in the Village. It used to be dead there and I know there was a lot of grumbling when the city started the redesign and a lot of the older businesses got pushed out. But, it's so great to see everyone from 20-somethings to young families to retirees out and about now, checking out all of the new restaurants and coffee shops. Again, compare and contrast with El Cajon's constant efforts to "revitalize" their downtown and you get a pretty good snapshot of the differences between the two cities.

[01Vespa]

I lived in La Mesa for 2 years south of University on Parks Ave. BAAAAAAAAD area! But there are nicer areas, I just couldn't afford them!
Good luck!