The awful truth about El Cajon CA. (San Diego, Chula Vista: 2009, violent crime)

[crashingsucks]

This might upset some people but our town here is:
92% White
7% Hispanic-I think this % should be higher I think only 7% answered the door during the censes.
.1% Black- I am friends with all three of them.
.9% Other-

[TheCaliforniaBear]

Some of the things written about El Cajon are silly. People exagerate how "redneck" it is. It's not redneck, it's just scumbag. It's like a wild west, criminal culture basically. It reminds me of the rough parts of Vegas. Lots of hard drugs and violent degenerates in a desert town, doing what they do.

I moved out of El Cajon a month ago, out of the whole country actually. And although I have family in El Cajon now, I will never live there again. I can't stand it there. It's a backwards place. Backwards, backwards, backwards. And dare I say it.... anyone who actually likes El Cajon is part of that backwards, macho, goon culture.

Worst of all, compared to other places in the USA it is incredibly expensive and the job prospects out there suck.

I spent a total of about 4 years in El Cajon off and on. I had so many bad experiences there. Just about every day several things would happen that rubbed me the wrong way. Usually nothing too serious, just the kind of stuff that you have to deal with when you live in a rough, ugly place. Someone giving you a very dirty look, someone being incredibly rude, someone being really loud and inconsiderate, etc. it's an everyday thing.

There is a lot of random violence and buffoonery. Lots of people just walking around and driving acting like total goons, brainwashed by gangsta culture.

El Cajon is not a very murderous place, I wouldn't worry about getting killed. But minor fights, arguements, robbings, and people threatening or yelling stuff happens regularly. I never got into a fight there, but I almost got into more fights then I could count. If you go out late at night, you gotta watch out.

The day before I moved out of El Cajon I was riding my bike by the mall at about 4:00 in the afternoon and some fat guy wearing a sideways hat yelled at me "What's up cuzz, you got a problem???" And I didn't even look at him until after he yelled this at me.

Fabulous huh?

[TheCaliforniaBear]

Originally Posted by HHollywood

Well, I've just moved (from the UK, a month ago) to Mount Helix and spent a fair bit of time in El Cajon. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. I got the impression from reading other threads on this board I'd be wondering into some kind of redneck nightmare of bar brawls and strung out junkies lining the streets.

It's fine. Looks like a place that's trying hard to polish itself up - I like the new road sign on Main street, gives the place a bit of identity. There are a few empty stores but, overall, I like the place. Feels perfectly safe to me. Sure, some people are a little less 'sophisticated' here but - one thing I have noticed already - is that there are a whole lot more community events in El Cajon than in Mount Helix or Rancho San Diego. I've noticed two (extremely polite) homeless people outside Vons on Chase, and that's about it.

Not that I have an axe to grind at all (I like lots of different parts of San Diego from what I've seen, would live in Encinitas if it were closer to where I work and Coronado if I had limitless cash) but this 'East County hate' does seem kind of odd to me - like people have a chip on their shoulders about it. From what I've seen, East County has bigger, cheaper houses, fantastic schools and people who have been extremely welcoming and kind to outsiders like us. What's not to like? I'm still smiling about the view every morning.

Take a bicycle ride around El Cajon in the evening. Surely you'll see what we are talking about.

[SDnative619]

I was sleeping over at my cousins apartments on ballentyne yesterday and there were some shots fired.When I got there there was a gang of black people wearing red hanging out of his apartments and they were just giving us mean looks

[Jay619]

Why would you stay in El Cajon????? ew. ahaha sorry but really.. why??? National City is even better than El Cajon. But true... I've seen the mountains and hills and all that... the views look amazing... and El Cajon has potential to become a beautiful area... but it just fails and needs to be fixed. I think. thats just me.

[iskray917]

Originally Posted by Jay619

Why would you stay in El Cajon????? ew. ahaha sorry but really.. why??? National City is even better than El Cajon. But true... I've seen the mountains and hills and all that... the views look amazing... and El Cajon has potential to become a beautiful area... but it just fails and needs to be fixed. I think. thats just me.

National City? please...

[jksouthbay88]

Originally Posted by iskray917

National City? please...

We(Ntl City) has came way up in the last 5 years.Last year was the first year sense the 1960's NC was homicide free for a whole year.Plus other great things are going on there.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by crashingsucks

Growing up in El Cajon in the late seventies early eighties I had 6 bikes stolen i have had my truck broken into twice and someone got into my garage and stole my tools. My sister had her car stolen and a week later they found it near the border. I was shot at when I lived on Sunshine Ave, and I dare you to hang out on Emerald Ave at night time -not towards the Junior High but the other direction. I am not scared of much but I would be careful raising a family there. People that live on any of the hills are in the nice areas and only drive down to Vons then back up the hill. Across the street from Vons on Chase was where the original Vons was located if the buildingis still there you might still see the bullet holes in the ceiling around where the registers were located. Later that day someone else tried to rob them but they had no money left to give him because of the first robbery. When we were kids we would explore the wooded areas around Avocado, about half way up the hill on the right side there was a little trail when we first went up the trail we came across a field full of grown pot plants. When we livee on Naranca someone robbed the bank on 2nd street and decided to hide in our back yard-I could figure out why helicopters were flying over my place. When I was a teen and I would walk at night from Chase Ave over to Naranca I would be asked by at least five people if I wanted to buy drugs..again mid 80's so someone said the city is getting better ???I hope so...Maybe Im now accustomed to where I live now. When my wife would drive down the street at night here she would see kids bikes sitting out on the curb and run up to peoples home and tell them that their bikes were still outside-they would be like so??? My wifes health became so much better not having to stress about crime and traffic. She used to get sick In San Diego all the time but never gets sick here. Like I always say to people who live in my city here in Southern Utah San Diego is a great place if you removed all the people...My parents live in a nice area in Lakeside and I wouldnt mind living there.

Boy isn't that the truth!

Don't know if I would agree with you on the Lakeside thing though.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by iskray917

National City? please...

I agree. Naturally shytty...oops...I mean nasty city...National City that's it. I think you get where I'm going with this lol

[crashingsucks]

There is no way NC went entire year without a murder...What happened is all the people that were murdered were illegals and no one knew they were missing.