Is West-side Chula Vista the place for us? (San Diego, Montebello: crime, custom home)

[Lasirena]

My husband, 1yr old baby and I are looking to buy a house in SD. I'm a 3rd generation San Diego native but my family has always centered in the 92116 Normal Heights/ University Heights area. My husband and I lived in L. A. for a few years in an old mostly Hispanic neighborhood called Highland Park. Many peeps from the west-side of LA were freaked to go to Highland Park, but we loved it because of the old houses, parks, trees, diversity, and cute weird down town area. There we loads of gang bangers but really they didn't care about us, and we didn't get in their way.

Today in our home search for a multi-fam or single-fam home I re-discovered old Chula Vista. It was soooooo cute, clean, and felt totally safe. I'm not gonna kid myself- I know no-where is totally safe but relativley it felt like an area I could go for an evening stroll with my kid.
Am I totally delusional?? It was the area between 3rd and Hilltop and D St. to G St. Also, I really don't care for the new, just-add-water communities so I really don't care to hear about developments in east Chula Vista thx.
ALSO- I work in the Balboa Park area- is this a heinous commute at 8-9 am and 6-7pm??
Thanks in advance!

[sdlife619]

The West part "Old school" Chula Vista is cool, like you, I don't like the all the newer made up, bland boring master "Just Add Water" (I like that one!) planned communities like Eastlake, so what if they got all the amenties, there's nothing unique about it, typical suburbia. We got enough of that **** in San Diego, those new expensive water wasting master planned homes, don't help with the affordable housing crisis SD has and will have until the end of time, some homes are in the 700K range that are totally not worth the asking price

Broadway can be pretty ghetto looking, but nothing like LA ghetto, or is it? But yeah, areas around the downtown Chula Vista is decent, some really old homes surround the place, honestly I was ever to move to a new location in SD, the old Chula Vista would be my choice, because of the many Hispanic people I feel more comfortable being around my own kind, and little old homes, it just feels more real, and not all fake, you know what I mean? Not to mention all the gazillion different types of small businesses that are everywhere, can't get that in Eastlake/Eastfake can you?

[Lasirena]

Eastfake, that's funny! I was looking at the crime map last night of CV and the crimes were pretty well distributed on both sides of the 805...interesting. Did you live in the area? Would you live on the other side of 3rd (west side)? Is there a street you would draw a line at?

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by sdlife619

The West part "Old school" Chula Vista is cool, like you, I don't like the all the newer made up, bland boring master "Just Add Water" (I like that one!) planned communities like Eastlake, so what if they got all the amenties, there's nothing unique about it, typical suburbia.

Except pedestrian (bike/walk) trails connecting the entire neighborhood to a myriad of parks and one or more town center/retail areas isn't really typical of American suburbia, is it? Isn't that one beef about American suburbia- you can't foot it or bike it anywhere? I know in my search for my top places to retire, I've been SPECIFICALLY looking for entire neighborhoods which have those trails and parks and retail, that are pedestrian friendly but not astronomically expensive for that metro area. And in my searches, those are few and far between. And CERTAINLY few and far between looking just in suburban areas. From the research I've done, a pedestrian oriented suburbia IS unique. Or are they a dime a dozen and everywhere you look in CA? Heck, I searched the SD area and all I could come up with were eastern Chula Vista, Santee, and 4S Ranch. Oops, scratch 4S Ranch since I said not astronomically expensive for the metro area. All I could come up with were eastern Chula Vista and Santee.

[sandiegogolfer]

Beautiful area.

Maybe the prettiest area in Chula Vista.

Not a big crime area by any means.

[sdlife619]

Never lived in CV, but I would like to

3rd ave is nice in certain spots, I think the further away you go from downtown the more "hood" it gets.

[elcamino0]

"Am I totally delusional?? It was the area between 3rd and Hilltop and D St. to G St...."

No. You can even broaden your search to west of 2nd to L street.

Your area covers part of what is known as the Hilltop area, though generally it goes from about F street to about K or so, then you run into the Country Club area. Go over on Hilltop between F and H and check out the million dollar homes (though honestly there were more 3 years ago). There are even a couple gated communities tucked in there (Peppertree area).

This area is stable. It hasn't changed much in 40 years.

[elcamino0]

"You can even broaden your search to west of 2nd to L street."

Sorry, I meant east of 2nd.

[Lasirena]

Thanks for the info especially from sdlife and elcaminoo... I just drove around to stalk the area at night (and to put the baby to sleep!) and it seemed great. Just hope we can find a place there!

[elcamino0]

Check out Center street between 1st and Hilltop, Roseview off Center, Montebello and Davidson off 1st, Minot and Alpine between E and H, Vista way, etc. F street and G street next to Hilltop, area between Hilltop and the freeway between F and H (though expensive). Good luck.

You'll see tract homes and older (literally) mansions built in the 1920's or earlier, and custom homes. Check the historic houses at the bend where Hilltop becomes F.