San Diego, San Diego... I'd like to love it! (Los Angeles: crimes, job market)

[Matts]

thanks kattlepot, very useful....

[andtm66]

Matt,

San Diego was like paradise when I lived there! ... I felt like I had a 3 year vacation! ... I'm actually planning to move back soon.

The best things for me were:

1. The weather
2. Being near the bay/beach
3. The people

I lived and worked near downtown (and the bay) and the weather was always very mild and sunny (okay - except for May Gray and June Gloom!). Average temperature was 65-80 degrees. Perfect to me! Not too hot and not too cold. The fall/winters are the best part. Sitting on my porch in shorts in November - amazing! You can't beat it.

One thing about San Diego as well is that it doesn't get humid (like Florida or New Jersey would).

If you like being near the water, this is the place to be! ... So many beautiful places to walk near the bay and the ocean.

The people that I met and knew were incredibly friendly and laid back. I loved the ethnic diversity of living there.

As far as needing a car, it depends where you live. I went without a car the first year I lived in SD, but I lived a mile from work and took the bus to the grocery store, etc. San Diego is very spread out, so if you want to go without a car, your best bet would be to find a place to live near where you get a job.

The cost of housing is very expensive ... and the pay is quite low (at least for administrative/accounting type of jobs). But, if you can figure out how to work that out, I'd say "Go for it!"

So, good luck ... and I hope that you decide to try SD ... You won't regret it.

[Matts]

nice story, I wish I could bring myself in SD!

Hey does exist any job agency in SD which works not only on internet but phisically as well? Are there foreigner people who use job agencies for finding a job? Because I'm trying to find a job (sponsorship) on internet but I get no answers from any company.

Let me know please,

Matt

[RideLikeTheWind]

Hi Matt,
I guess at your age SD may be cool. Personally, I grew up here ( on the beach ) now live in a very rural area becuase IMO SD is ruined. You cant go anywhere without a crowd ( especially the beaches ) Gas is the most expensive here then any other part of the country as well as property taxes that keep going up every year and thats just the beginning of how expenive it is to live here. Any open spaces are being destroyed by the developers who are again, IMO, raping this place ! Traffic is as bad as LA on some days but you watch it will be LA here soon enough. Try going to Julian in the fall for a country drive ! The place is bumper to bumper every weekend. I have 2-3 years that I have to stay then we are selling and getting the heck out !

[kettlepot]

Originally Posted by Matts

nice story, I wish I could bring myself in SD!

Hey does exist any job agency in SD which works not only on internet but phisically as well? Are there foreigner people who use job agencies for finding a job? Because I'm trying to find a job (sponsorship) on internet but I get no answers from any company.

Let me know please,

Matt

Matts, you've never mentioned what your field of work is.

Regarding employment, usually US companies have to prove that they can't find American workers who meet their requirements before they can sponsor an immigrant. This either means the foreign worker has a high tech specialty, or they are farm workers. Your best bet for sponsorship is if you have a PhD in a science field.

The bulk of immigration to the US consists of other foreign born persons sponsoring their extended families.

Or of course there are the 1+ million illegal migrants who enter every year, but that's for a different section of this website.

[northcountystooge]

Originally Posted by RideLikeTheWind

Hi Matt,
I guess at your age SD may be cool. Personally, I grew up here ( on the beach ) now live in a very rural area becuase IMO SD is ruined. You cant go anywhere without a crowd ( especially the beaches ) Gas is the most expensive here then any other part of the country as well as property taxes that keep going up every year and thats just the beginning of how expenive it is to live here. Any open spaces are being destroyed by the developers who are again, IMO, raping this place ! Traffic is as bad as LA on some days but you watch it will be LA here soon enough. Try going to Julian in the fall for a country drive ! The place is bumper to bumper every weekend. I have 2-3 years that I have to stay then we are selling and getting the heck out !

Isn't there some law that limits how much property taxes can go up? Hyperbole, anyone? The drive to Julian is pretty easy, it's once you get there. It's a tourist strip of a town; it's busy so many weekends a year. What's unusual about that?

Gas is more in San Francisco, isn't it? Hawaii?

[sliverbox]

Hey Matts,
You mentioned you wanted somewhere warmer than up North ( NYC and Pennsylvania) and with a decent economy.Most of the people here seem to be from the coasts- east coast, west coast. Those two regions are extremely different but similar in that they are incredibly expensive places. The higher wages in California and New York do not compensate for the higher costs of living either. In reality, if you want to live comfortably in either, meaning you have what most Americans consider a middle class lifestyle, then you'll need to pull a $200k ( $200,000) a year job.

I'll step in and recommend an alternative: Texas and parts of the Southeast. Austin TX has the same liberal and artistic atmosphere as CA and NY. It does get hotter, but is warm most of the year. Raleigh, North Carolina was named the best city to live in the US and has the fastest growing tech and research industry in the country.Just look up the "I-80 Tech Triangle". Other cities in the region like Atlanta and Nashville are also growing fast and have a diversifying job market. Atlanta is actually now the youngest city in the country: many from NY and the Northeast who've graduated college move there as it offers a more affordable living.

How much more affordable? Well seeing as that the average home in CA is around 600k while the same home can be had for 100-150k in any off these places I mentioned means that just by that figure alone, the cost of living is more than a 1/3rd the cost as it is in NY and CA.

To be honest, the weather in SD is probably some of the best in the country. But these other places I mentioned by far have much better weather than anywhere in the Northeast. They do have seasons, but winters are short and sometimes mild with short cold spells. That and they get hotter and more humid. But you can figure how much is it worth to pay for the weather. Sometimes weather is more important to people than anything else. But that price tag is high in CA so you'll have to decide what's important to you. good luck.

[Matts]

Hey silverbox, very detailed question thank you so much!

I have a question about Atlanta, population is about 470.000, such a pretty small town, unemployed is 14%, do you think it's easy to find a job? What about SD, population is 1.250.000, it's pretty big, so it could be easier to get a job. And NYC? There shoud be more opportunities, employers, companies, more than 8 milion people live there. What do you think? Anyway this site is so rich in information, very good.

Matt

[Matts]

[quote=RideLikeTheWind;800510] Any open spaces are being destroyed by the developers who are again, IMO, raping this place ! QUOTE]

What does IMO mean?

[sliverbox]

Matts, the Metro Atlanta area is actually more like 1.5 million people. Southern US cities function differently than West Coast and East Coast cities: Most people live outside the cities in suburbs. The economy in Atlanta is fairly decent:

"One of seven American cities classified as Gamma world cities, Atlanta ranks third in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in its metropolitan area, behind New York City and Houston.[23] Several major national and international companies are headquartered in Atlanta or its nearby suburbs, including four Fortune 100 companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot, and United Parcel Service in adjacent Sandy Springs. The headquarters of Cingular Wireless, the largest mobile phone service provider in the United States,[24] can be found a short distance inside the Perimeter beside Georgia State Route 400.[25][26] Newell Rubbermaid is one of the most recent companies to relocate to the metro area; in October 2006, it announced plans to move its headquarters to Sandy Springs.[27] Other headquarters for some major companies in Atlanta and around the metro area include Arby's, Chick-Fil-A, Earthlink, Equifax, Georgia-Pacific, Oxford Industries, Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, and Waffle House. Over 75 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta area, and the region hosts offices of about 1,250 multinational corporations."

The city has a large percentage of people in the poverty level demographic, which explains the 14% unemployment. But if you are a working professional, there are quite a few opportunities.Atlanta also has a large cable television industry.

As for my opinion, the area has been developing almost too quickly and the freeways and transportation system hasn't been able to keep up with the additional people moving in. So the traffic is AWFUL.... but not as bad as NYC or believe it or not- LA or San Francisco, CA. But as for the Southern region, it has some off the worst traffic. Some say it has too much urban sprawl, meaning too many chain stores and fast food eateries.

There is a balance here: either pay substantially more to live in a city likee SD and perhaps never actually own your own home or live in a city like Atlanta and have perhaps less perfect weather, more strip malls and so forth.

I would also consider cities like Raleigh/Durahm NC. This is a smaller area but what it has going for it is the same dynamic as the Bay Area ( San Francisco) It has a educated, more liberal smaller city called Chapel Hill, a larger semi-industrial city called Durahm, and a technology and research focussed city called Raleigh- all three within relative proximity. Inbetween these are smaller communities. Raleigh Durahm is being called the next Silicon Valley and many multinational companies are setting up offices there. These areas also have their own unique sense of cultural identity that differs from California cities.

The last question to you would be are you planning on moving to the US permanently or just for a few years? The reason I ask is because if you are simply planning on coming here and renting, etc etc, then Choose the city off your first choice- SD. Reason being is that as far as younger transient people go, places like LA, SD, and NYC are fine because rents in comparison to buying are still very inexpensive ( except NYC) The problem arises if you want to actually live there forever, get married or whatever and realize that the cost of buying is ridiculously expensive no matter how much you make. Most cities like SD are very transient anyway, so if you were there only temporarily, you'll be in similar company.

Overall, CA is an interesting place to live. I've certainly enjoyed it. But just remember that there are literally hundreds of other cities that also have rather interesting characters. Anyhow, good luck and let us know what you do.