Moving From Canada (San Diego, Compton, Poway: apartment, rental, violent crime)

[Derpendur]

Hi, I am moving from Canada on a TN visa for work. What are the areas of the city I should avoid, both for living and in general? I mean from a crime perspective. Any recommendations on a nice, upscale neighborhood?

[moved]

What's your rental budget per month, and what area of San Diego is your job in?

[Derpendur]

My rental budget is $1700 per month, my job is located in 'Carmel Mountain' west of Poway.

[oddstray]

From a safety perspective, there are very few unsafe areas in San Diego. And none around Carmel Mountain Ranch or Poway. Stuff happens everywhere, of course, but generally San Diego is safe.

Your rental budget is pretty good, so the next question is what you prefer in a neighborhood. Single? Night-life? Family-oriented? How important are good schools? Are you hoping to avoid long commutes?

[earlyretirement]

That entire general area is safe so you won't have to worry about crime. You might find that area boring unless you have a family. LOTS of families in that Carmel Mountain, Poway, Rancho Penasquitos, Rancho Bernardo area.

Carmel Valley has a lot of families too but there are also many young professionals there so you might want to check out that area and it's close to the beaches of Del Mar. $1,700 is a good budget if you only need a 1 bedroom apartment in that area. Closer to work you can get 2 bedroom places for that budget.

If you're in Carmel Valley you can easily get to work via I-56 or if that gets congested, depending on where you live, you can take Del Mar Heights to Carmel Valley and there isn't usually much traffic on Carmel Valley heading all the way over to Rancho Bernardo/Carmel Mountain.

[Derpendur]

Hello again,

Thanks for all the helpful thoughtful replies thus far, I hope it is representative of people in general in San Diego!

I'm 25, single, and (happily) unattached. I wouldn't mind living close to some night life or beaches, but my main concern is living in a nice neighbourhood. You have to excuse my bias coming from Canada where our urban centres are generally smaller and have less incidences of violent crime. But you are absolutely right that stuff happens everywhere so I should keep things in context. Mainly I was looking for if there are any neighbourhoods that I should avoid without question.

I don't mind longer commutes, but my main preference would be to either rely on public transportation or a bike to get to work. I don't even own a car atm, but it looks like a car is a necessity in socal.

[oddstray]

Public transportation isn't wonderful in Carmel Mountain Ranch. So it sort of depends exactly where you're working. If you're not working near a public transit stop, then you'll probably want to live in CMR itself and bike to work. CMR is not a very lively place for a 25-year-old, I would think.

If you're working near a public transit stop, then you can be more flexible about where to live.

Here's the public transportation for San Diego County: Transit.511sd.com

And yes, even if you use public transportation to commute, you'll eventually want a car to play. Or maybe you'll only need it occasionally, and might just rent a car when you need one.

[sschibuola]

I moved down from Toronto 18 years ago and am still alive! I know from firsthand experience the Canadian apprehension with American cities and gun violence - its a bit overblown, certainly in SD. Sure, there are shady areas, mostly in the southeastern part of the City of San Diego itself, but nothing like a Compton or South-Central LA. I'd say the shady areas are on par with some of the rougher parts of Toronto eg Jane-Finch.

[sschibuola]

Another thing - and you may be exploring this already - a TN visa is really convenient but by its nature it's meant to be temporary - I renewed mine a LOT but if you think you might be staying more than a couple of years, may want to look into an H1B or something like that.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by sschibuola

I moved down from Toronto 18 years ago and am still alive! I know from firsthand experience the Canadian apprehension with American cities and gun violence - its a bit overblown, certainly in SD. Sure, there are shady areas, mostly in the southeastern part of the City of San Diego itself, but nothing like a Compton or South-Central LA. I'd say the shady areas are on par with some of the rougher parts of Toronto eg Jane-Finch.

^^ This.

As a general rule of thumb, I would guesstimate that most crime in SD is isolated to a few specific areas of concentration. While there are some crimes outside of those 'hot' areas, you will hear about residential type crime like the occassional burglary, stolen car or drunk in public etc.
Even many of those crimes tend to be targeted from what I have read in reports from the Sheriffs Dept.

The grey area between these types of crimes vs gang warzone is pretty wide. Yes that is an extreme analogy, but I think most of the regular posters here on city-data would say that San Diego is genreally pretty safe. The big difference between the underserved communities and the nicer areas are quite obvious and can be black and white in terms of aesthtics, functionality and overall neighborhood pride (eg dumpy houses mixed in with well kept older homes)
Its also likely that some of these unsafe areas where you would live are more bedroom communities or car centric where you would need to drive outside the area to get stuff anway.