San Diego adults with their apartment life (university, living)

[djxpress]

sdlife619 summed it up:

In San Diego, you either-
1. Have enough money to live a good life
2. Live paycheck to paycheck just to survive.

I've lived here long enough to know, in Sandy Eggo you either got money, or you don't.

[sav858]

Some of you on here make way too many assumptions about people that you have never met and don't know anything about. The extremes that some of you describe is just not my experience here.

[jkoz]

Originally Posted by sdlife619

I believe most of the wealthier people that do live in SD own their own business, thus allowing them to have more free time to go out and shop and have fun. Because that's one huge thing I notice about this place, you will see a ton of people out in about throughout the day in malls, in stores, hanging out at Starbucks sitting down doing nothing but surfing the web on wack IMacs

That's okay on weekends, but that lifestyle every day could get old for some, too. I am always amazed at how many people seem to be off on any given day of the week, and they're not all tourists.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by jkoz

That's okay on weekends, but that lifestyle every day could get old for some, too. I am always amazed at how many people seem to be off on any given day of the week, and they're not all tourists.

My buddy (lives in Solana Beach) says that whenever he goes to "Daddy Day" at his kid's elementary school... he is the only Daddy dressed for work. All the other daddys are wearing shorts and sandals, chattering on cell phones about real estate deals.

In a recent round of job interviews I was surprised to repeatedly discover that the CEO's were never from San Diego... many of them were from New York!

There is a lot of inherited money, fixed income retirees, real estate millionaires, moneyed transplants etc.. in San Diego. All this wealth sure didn't come from the local job market. Look at areas with a high percentage of native-born San Diegans (like Lemon Grove or La Mesa) if you want to see how people with "regular jobs" live.

[JLay36]

Originally Posted by NoUserNamesLeft

San Diego is generally a terrible place to build a career. The cost of living is astronomical compared to pay levels. I left in 2004 because the only way to advance in rank and pay within my career in SoCal was to go to LA or Orange County. Within two years of my leaving, every professional friend I had made in San Diego had also left because of the utter lack of opportunity there. I am talking about some 10 people. Maybe there are some exceptions to this rule (BioTech? University Research?), but even then they are slim exceptions that would not make a difference for most people.

I left in '01 for the same reasons. I had a young family, good job, lived in an apartment in off of College Ave in Oceanside (so nothing flashy), and I had to deliver pizza at night just to make ends meet. There comes a point where you get tired of the time spent in the car driving to or from your multiple jobs adds up to more time then you spend awake with your family. It's great when you're a kid, but reality hits you quick!

[Axxlrod]

When I was in college at USD, I lived in Mission Beach, which was full of 30+ year old guys, who lived together in crappy apartments, and did odd jobs to get $. But mostly they just surfed all day and partied all night. Smoked a lot of weed too. We called these guys "skoades". SD is full of them, especially at the beach cities.

[JakeDog]

I'm doing well as a Gen-Ex'r (house, family, only debt is home) and have a good deal of friends similarly situated. In fact, a lot of people seem to be doing just fine raising families and being grown-ups here. I think there are a lot of people here, just as there are throughout the nation, that just can't come to terms with the fact they simply are not qualified for a job that pays well and they believe that if they move somewhere else it will all somehow be "better". Yes, there are more jobs available in SF and LA, but you can build a career here just as you can in Phoenix, Portland, Denver, and other similar mid-sized markets. But just with those other markets, you may not succeed here either.

[JLay36]

Originally Posted by JakeDog

I think there are a lot of people here, just as there are throughout the nation, that just can't come to terms with the fact they simply are not qualified for a job that pays well and they believe that if they move somewhere else it will all somehow be "better".

That's wonderful Jake, and it's so nice to hear the pearls of wisdom from the "qualified", next time give me a heads up when you're going to post. I'll take notes.

[Rickers]

I grew up in San Diego on a surfboard and I have seen and met many of the Portland Oregon type of street hippies and they are generally polar opposites. Street hippies are dirty young dropouts and heroin addicted runaways who beg for a living for the most part, (there are exceptions of coarse) but most surfers are fairly straight athletic folks of all ages, very fit and healthy decent folks who love surfing as much as their high salaries and professional careers. There are still a few "surf bums" too. I used to surf long-boards without a leash as well as short boards and I've skied down every avalanche chute on Mammoth mountain, I can say with certainty that surfing is as fun as skiing but a lot more work and is harder to learn as well as much more physically strenuous (in large surf at least.)
I can't live in San Diego anymore, not enough income to live well and way to packed with sub human preditors of all kinds.

[JakeDog]

Originally Posted by JLay36

That's wonderful Jake, and it's so nice to hear the pearls of wisdom from the "qualified", next time give me a heads up when you're going to post. I'll take notes.

Anyone with a computer and an opinion is qualified to post, but if you don't have an MD, your not qualified to be a doctor. if you don't have an advanced degree from a good university, you will probably have trouble getting a "good" job anywhere in America. My point is that it isn't unique to San Diego, but a lot of people in San Diego (at least on these forums) seem to believe they are entitled to an upper middle class job without the education/experience/risk taking. And San Diego isn't the problem, it's their own expectations. Your response has nothing to do with that point.