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Old 04-18-2008, 06:15 PM
 
Location: Hollywood, CA
258 posts, read 1,505,170 times
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Can someone who has lived in both areas give me some insight? I'm looking to move to Mission Beach (SD) or other close beach areas like Pacific Beach. I'm wanting to compare it to Manhattan Beach (LA) or other similar areas like Hermosa and Santa Monica. I think I would personally prefer San Diego over LA just because its a much smaller city. However everyone keeps telling me the job marketplace is terrible in SD. And from what I've researched there may be some truth to it. This has caused me to look for a similar area in LA. I'm just looking for someone to compare the two areas and what area in LA would most be like SD.
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Old 04-19-2008, 10:39 AM
 
9,526 posts, read 30,477,668 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by california??? View Post
Can someone who has lived in both areas give me some insight? I'm looking to move to Mission Beach (SD) or other close beach areas like Pacific Beach. I'm wanting to compare it to Manhattan Beach (LA) or other similar areas like Hermosa and Santa Monica.
San Diego's beach cities are not nearly as dense or commercialized as LA's. Even Redondo Beach is probably bigger than most of SD's beach cities. Somewhere like Seal Beach is really closer to SD's vibe. Manhattan Beach or Santa Monica is really almost antithetical to San Diego's identity as a small, laid back, old-school California beach town.

Mission beach is dense with small lots like Manhattan beach or Hermosa. But the mansion-ization trend of to-the-lot-line concrete bunker palazzos has not taken hold in Mission Beach like it has in LA. You have a lot of small properties in that little narrow strip of land. Nowadays the trend is to scrape and build 4-6 unit luxury condos. You can see it on the waterfront. However the 80's-era condos and pre-war beach cottages are mostly still there. There is some conversion and rehabbing happening in the larger apartment and condo buildings in PB as well, but a block or two away from the beach it starts to taper off.

Mission Beach still has a grimyness that Manhattan and Hermosa do not. I think this is because of the high rental population. Many of the buildings are essentially falling apart. South of Mission Boulevard is more residential and is probably as close to Manhattan or Hermosa as you'd get.

I would say that Del Mar (the old section, west of 101) is the closest you will get to Manhattan Beach in terms of wealth and property style. However Del Mar is very small and to the East is basically nothing but sprawl. La Jolla, Bird Rock, and the north side of PB are also good options.
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Old 04-19-2008, 11:20 PM
 
Location: Proud home of the Parkview Little Leaguers
489 posts, read 1,956,782 times
Reputation: 259
I've not lived up there but have spent time and agree--"dense" is the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the LA beaches, and more urbanized than ours, with a different vibe. To me Santa Monica doesn't compare to anything down here in terms of similarity. I would say vibe-wise, Huntington Beach seems somewhat similar to Mission Beach because of the high college student presence there (UC Irvine, etc. not far), especially on weekends.

You didn't mention Venice Beach--we certainly don't have anything down here to compare to Venice Beach--don't think anyone does!
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