The awful truth about El Cajon CA. (San Diego, Orange: landscaping, neighborhood)

[TheCaliforniaBear]

Off and on, i've lived in El Cajon since 2001. And spent a total of about 4 solid years in the city. First of all I want to say that I am not "slamming" El Cajon here. I am simply sharing my honest opinion after living in El Cajon for a significant amount of time.

It is a very strange place. A very rough town.

It is not uncommon to see people going crazy on hard drugs, or losing their minds from mental illness on the streets. A drive across town and you will see dozens of such people. Some of them are regulars who I have seen since the beginning. Constantly wandering up and down Broadway and Main streets. I have nothing at all against homeless people, in fact I have love for them and I want to help them when I see them, but most of the ones you encounter in El Cajon are not the harmless, down on their luck types, they are more like the hardcore, mean, drug addict types.

As for the "regular" people in El Cajon. I would describe them as hedonistic, trailer trash. Now don't get me wrong, I am a working class guy myself, i've even lived in trailer parks, and I am about as far as you can get from having a silver spoon in my mouth. But the culture in El Cajon makes me feel like a high-class gentleman. Big lifted trucks, gangsta/thug mentality and extreme machoism are the name of the game in EC. Lots of MMA looking people wearing TAPOUT shirts, lots of women who look like tacky strippers, lots of gangsta types with sideways hats, lots of "bros" wearing black socks pulled way up and flat-bill hats. A general culture of anti-intellectualism and outlaw thuggishness.

Everyone in El Cajon seems t have a paranoia of each other. Avoiding eye contact. Getting nervous if eye contact is made. They seem to be afraid of each others violent tendencies.

The interesting thing is that if you travel east into La Mesa it instantly changes into a much more family-friendly sort of environment, with healthy looking people jogging and people carrying themselves in a more peaceful, relaxed manner.

Then you go into San Diego. And it suddenly turns into that stereotypical, laid back, California beach culture. It is amazing how fast it changes.

This is the fasicinating thing about El Cajon to me. That it is not isolated, it is a mere 15 miles from San Diego I believe. Yet the culture and entire way of life is so radically different. Somtimes it seems like there must be something in the water in El Cajon. I just cannot believe that the people act the way that they do, yet they seem to be oblivious and unaware of it. To them, this way of life is normal

It is too bad. El Cajon is a place with beautiful weather, surrounding by gorgeous hills, close to San Diego, close to the desert. It has a lot going for it. But the culture is just unsavory.

So, am I just crazy? Or is there some truth to what i'm saying here?

[sdurbanite]

I'm not too familiar with El Cajon, but you seemed to describe what I've seen in the downtown area. Like you said, the surrounding hills are very nice, ie, Fletcher Hills, Mt. Helix, Calavo Gardens, Grossmont, but Central El Cajon is the pits.

[kettlepot]

Like attracts like. Once even a hint of reputation is established it becomes self-perpetuating. All of the Hippie wannabes are moving to Ocean Beach. The college crowd is heading out to Pacific Beach. The Hipster crowd is moving to North & South Park. These patterns will just keep intensifying and intensifying in a "postiive" feed back loop.

[T. Damon]

The one thing about the San Diego area is that if you want to hang out like a hippie in Haight Ashbury, aspire to live like the cast of "Housewives of Orange County", or join a militia, have a lifted truck to vacation in Glamis, and live in a neighborhood like the deep south there is place for you here and people just like you.

[sdlife619]

Yeah it's all true from what the OP said. El Cajon is vastly different from San Diego. It's strange how the people differ as well from "normal" San Diegan's. Living in El Cajon is like living in South, the people are backwards, lack intelligences, and work heavily in the construction industry, landscaping, roofing, and are socially messed up. Basic contractor work is apparent in East County, especially El Cajon and Santee. Lot's of truckers, proud to be a "MAN" mentality. Everybody seems to drive a Ford car/truck, patriotism is important, owning a gun is almost a given, religious fanatics marching down thestreets desperately trying to save people from Satan, and there evil ways is also alive and well in El Cajon/Santee. I have seen this happen on many occasions, a group of church goers were screaming out of a loud speaker on the corner of East Main st., that you need to be saved, or else your going straight to hell. They even were speaking to gays, saying stuff like "your filth is destroying you", "Forgive yourselves, the lake of fire is wide open for you". Seriously I heard this talk while at a stop light in El Cajon, it's really sad, and it just shows you that even supposedly Gods followers would say such a thing, regardless of there sexuality. There is no reason to lash out and speak that way towards the gay community, and I'm sure God wouldn't want anyone to condemn one another, or hate on them.

It does feel like there is a lot of anger and tension in El Cajon. Not sure why I feel that way, but there is a sense of hostility.


El Cajon sucks.

[TheCaliforniaBear]

Originally Posted by sdlife619

Yeah it's all true from what the OP said. El Cajon is vastly different from San Diego. It's strange how the people differ as well from "normal" San Diegan's. Living in El Cajon is like living in South, the people are backwards, lack intelligences, and work heavily in the construction industry, landscaping, roofing, and are socially messed up. Basic contractor work is apparent in East County, especially El Cajon and Santee. Lot's of truckers, proud to be a "MAN" mentality. Everybody seems to drive a Ford car/truck, patriotism is important, owning a gun is almost a given, religious fanatics marching down thestreets desperately trying to save people from Satan, and there evil ways is also alive and well in El Cajon/Santee. I have seen this happen on many occasions, a group of church goers were screaming out of a loud speaker on the corner of East Main st., that you need to be saved, or else your going straight to hell. They even were speaking to gays, saying stuff like "your filth is destroying you", "Forgive yourselves, the lake of fire is wide open for you". Seriously I heard this talk while at a stop light in El Cajon, it's really sad, and it just shows you that even supposedly Gods followers would say such a thing, regardless of there sexuality. There is no reason to lash out and speak that way towards the gay community, and I'm sure God wouldn't want anyone to condemn one another, or hate on them.

It does feel like there is a lot of anger and tension in El Cajon. Not sure why I feel that way, but there is a sense of hostility.


El Cajon sucks.

It's funny that you mention "a sense of hostility". Because a lot of people in El Cajon actually wear shirts that say HOSTILITY in huge letters. And i've seen huge stickers on the back of trucks like that. It's some kind of brand that's popular I guess.

I'm glad i'm not the only one who realizes all this about El Cajon. Sometimes I feel like i'm living in the twilight zone or a twisted carnival or something. Just a bizarre place to me with a very unnatural vibe, quite depressing at times. I will never be able to find it normal.

But since it's the cheapest place to live around SD, some people just get stuck out here to save money.

It's all good though, i'm probably going to make my escape in about a month On to greener pastures.

[windnsea00]

I don't go out to El Cajon unless I need to haha.

[YoungSanDiegoDude]

Originally Posted by TheCaliforniaBear

Off and on, i've lived in El Cajon since 2001. And spent a total of about 4 solid years in the city. First of all I want to say that I am not "slamming" El Cajon here. I am simply sharing my honest opinion after living in El Cajon for a significant amount of time.

It is a very strange place. A very rough town.

It is not uncommon to see people going crazy on hard drugs, or losing their minds from mental illness on the streets. A drive across town and you will see dozens of such people. Some of them are regulars who I have seen since the beginning. Constantly wandering up and down Broadway and Main streets. I have nothing at all against homeless people, in fact I have love for them and I want to help them when I see them, but most of the ones you encounter in El Cajon are not the harmless, down on their luck types, they are more like the hardcore, mean, drug addict types.

As for the "regular" people in El Cajon. I would describe them as hedonistic, trailer trash. Now don't get me wrong, I am a working class guy myself, i've even lived in trailer parks, and I am about as far as you can get from having a silver spoon in my mouth. But the culture in El Cajon makes me feel like a high-class gentleman. Big lifted trucks, gangsta/thug mentality and extreme machoism are the name of the game in EC. Lots of MMA looking people wearing TAPOUT shirts, lots of women who look like tacky strippers, lots of gangsta types with sideways hats, lots of "bros" wearing black socks pulled way up and flat-bill hats. A general culture of anti-intellectualism and outlaw thuggishness.

Everyone in El Cajon seems t have a paranoia of each other. Avoiding eye contact. Getting nervous if eye contact is made. They seem to be afraid of each others violent tendencies.

The interesting thing is that if you travel east into La Mesa it instantly changes into a much more family-friendly sort of environment, with healthy looking people jogging and people carrying themselves in a more peaceful, relaxed manner.

Then you go into San Diego. And it suddenly turns into that stereotypical, laid back, California beach culture. It is amazing how fast it changes.

This is the fasicinating thing about El Cajon to me. That it is not isolated, it is a mere 15 miles from San Diego I believe. Yet the culture and entire way of life is so radically different. Somtimes it seems like there must be something in the water in El Cajon. I just cannot believe that the people act the way that they do, yet they seem to be oblivious and unaware of it. To them, this way of life is normal

It is too bad. El Cajon is a place with beautiful weather, surrounding by gorgeous hills, close to San Diego, close to the desert. It has a lot going for it. But the culture is just unsavory.

So, am I just crazy? Or is there some truth to what i'm saying here?

No, you are not crazy. There is some truth to what you are saying but as someone who has had to go to El Cajon many times, I can tell you that it is really not that bad. I feel much safer there than I do in the area of SD from 32nd and Commercial to Encanto and 78th.

I agree that El Cajon is not the most "attractive" area in SD county, but the bad rep that it has is exaggerated quite a bit. Also, the weather is not that perfect. It's gets pretty hot this time of the year (according to news 8, it's supposed to be 106 there today), and pretty chilly during the winter at night.

[Just1Lion]

i have learned so much about sd county from this website. it will definitely save me alot of wasted time with realtors. i dont think ill be looking in el cajones.

[iskray917]

You aren't that crazy. A lot of what you said is true of the core of El Cajon. But there are also several nice areas around the edges of El Cajon as well, so it's not all that bad.