Relocating please help (San Diego, Poway, Spring Valley: crime rates, houses, transfer)

[navy wife]

We may be relocating to San Diego as per my husbands job. I was just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction of areas close to the naval base to live that are not bad neighborhoods and have some good schools. I've been kind of looking online at places to live and the price, well i'm not going to say is not an issue, but I am born and raised in hawaii so high prices don't scare me as much as long as we have a good safe neighborhood

We have a 5 year old who needs to get into school also wherever we go. We have choices of virginia, washington and san diego. Not sure where yet but I am trying to get a feel for the areas and housing and schools to help us make a decision. The weather is winning for me in san diego of the 3. I'm used to hawaii weather so right now we are freezing up in new hampshire, and this hawaii blood needs some warmer weather. Plus I guess it's a lot closer to hawaii for me as my friends and family are there, but...

I guess you can get a lot more in way of housing in the other states for less money. I 'm just wondering if I'm looking in the wrong direction or wrong cities, etc. for places to stay and just need some help to point me in the right direction for cities to be looking in.

Thank you!

[socketz]

You mean 32nd street right ? If so, I'd live in North County inland (Poway School District) and tell your old man to commute to the base. Where I lived in RB, I think 40% of the people on my block were from either Miramar or 32nd street (officer types). I've seen alot of people stationed on 32nd street live out in Lemon grove, Spring Valley, South Bay, but there is no real comparison of the schools in those areas to Poway. The commute is also not that bad as I used to live in Scripps Ranch and commute to 32nd street every day for a couple of years. Not desirable, but not bad at all considering the much better quality of live North County offers. Besides, military types have duty every few days anyway and don't have to commute anyway :-)

[kettlepot]

You also might consider Kensington. Kensington is a gorgeous, safe, small town-like community. (See the Images of San Diego thread by sdurbanite) I believe the elementary school is Edison, and should be good. I've not heard bad things and I live in a nearby neighborhood - though with no kids to bring home first hand reports. Not all of the kids in the school will come from the big old expensive houses, but your child's classmates will be kids, not gang-bangers. Now, once your child hits middle school and he has to travel a bit further out of the area you'll have school issues, but the USN will transfer you again before that happens. The other big benefit is that your husbands commute will be SOOOOO much better. The difference between happy Dad and grumpy Dad will probably be worth the smaller house.

[navy wife]

Thank you for the responses. At least this is pointing me in the right direction of places to look! When you come from a small island like hawaii , moving to the continental US is kind of overwhelming! I got lucky on our move to NH, I picked a good neighborhood and nice house not too far from base, but I figure not everyone is lucky everytime and it took me months at the computer to look find it. The navy housing personel is not very helpful!

[EM2Wife]

Did you have any luck I am about to be going through the same thing.

[Imperial1904]

I've recommended Tierrasanta to a few people here. It's also a huge military community. It's close to MCAS Miramar which you can use for your grocery needs.

Murphy Canyon is the military housing community although it used to be for Navy, it was turned over to the Marines when Miramar changed to MCAS. It's not too far from 32nd Naval and close to just about everything. There are 3 shopping areas and 7 schools in the same zip code.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierras...go,_California

Serra High School was named one of the best high schools in the country.

[junedubois@aol.com]

most of san diego is plenty safe enough, as long as you aren't letting your 5 year old wander the streets alone. at this age which school isn't nearly as important as whether or not you read to your child. that's the biggy. read read read!

but! when choosing between washington, virginia, and san diego--you have a hard choice there! washington is beautiful! lived there a long time - my issue is too many cloudy days for me. i'm sure it's not nearly as cold as new hampshire though. what you already have in winter clothes will probably be more than enough for washington (i lived on whidbey island-known as "the banana belt" of washington. we didn't have much snow.) virginia may be easier on the pocketbook which can help you influence your child because you can more easily entertain them.

i read the posts and i live in san diego - specifically in the poway school district and although i chose this school district for the same reason mentioned above--it has a golden reputation---i think it's more farce than reality--and i'm getting my last of 3 kids through school. if you are only going to be here for say, 4 years, your child will only be 9, and you, personally, have a huge scope of influence at that age, on your child, so i don't think it will be nearly as important "where" you are, as much as it will be "that" you are involved in their life. if you are going to be here for their entire school life, then i would contact the board of education of each area and take their advice to heart. i did that when i came to poway, and the board of education told me that the district was a good one but not THE ONLY ONE. they were right, though i didn't see it at the time.

i grew up in the navy community and i know washington and san diego are fine. (i work for a police agency in san diego and yes, some areas are a lot less safe than others - but honestly - that is everywhere. personally, in san diego, i prefer to be north of interstate 8 but my mother lives in southeast and her area has a bad reputation, but her neighborhood has been fine for us. in general, though, all of san diego's crime rates are a lot better than they used to be.) if i were definately moving to san diego now, and choosing for an extensive time - i would look north of interstate 8, not too close to the beach. we have a group called sandag that does publically available crime reports that you could check. the lower the crime rate, though, the higher the rent. also if you are still here when your child is in high school, i think the smaller high schools are easier for a lot of reasons.

i will say this, the schools in washington (port orchard) when my kids were very young were superior to the schools here in san diego (murphy canyon) at that age--but that was probably 15 years ago, and schools change a lot! i'm betting virginia is more economical, and probably has a good school reputation, too.

i think it will be what you make of it, no matter which one you go to.

good luck