Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
SD has a 51 walk score and a 37 public transit score. Very auto-centric, unless you live in the Gassylamp, perhaps.
I live 2 miles from the GasLamp (walkable to it in 35 minutes or so) and where I live has a walk score of 81, and this is without a library or theater nearby.
True, getting to work would take an hour an a bus vs 15 minutes by car but we can easily go Uptown through Downtown every 12 minutes on the #2 Bus from a stop a three minute walk from our house which we do all the time. When I worked downtown my car grew cobwebs- it still does every weekend even though we are going all over the place, if not for work I would rarely drive- and go just about everywhere I need to go.
SD Trolley has over 40M rides a year, 120k daily weekday rides, plus the 10s of 1000s on the Coaster and the Sprinter. Over 100M rides a year with the trolley and bus system, it is one of the top transit systems in the country outside of the big five cities.
The suburbs can be a Transit never land but the core is good.
quality of life - DC for me. I think SD becomes more boring/sterile as a city. Nice beaches, but otherwise bland nightlife - DC. SD is boring with obnoxious surfer bars. daytime activities - Tie. DC is better for indoor activities (museums, monuments, etc.). SD is better fo outdoors. culture - DC by a mile shopping - DC. Larger metro area, more choices. dining - DC by a mile. SD has very good Mexican food, but nothing else is very impressive. scenery - Tie. SD for its natural beauty. DC for its parks/greenery. economy - DC by a mile. Tons of jobs in government or high tech. SD has some good biotech jobs, but very few F500 companies.
Overall, I'd have to say DC wins by a lot. There wasn't a list for weather, which SD would win by a landslide. However, I just think DC has a lot more to offer. If you want the laid back, beachy vibe of CA, go to Santa Barbara. If you want a bigger city on the West Coast, go to LA or SF.
quality of life - DC for me. I think SD becomes more boring/sterile as a city. Nice beaches, but otherwise bland nightlife - DC. SD is boring with obnoxious surfer bars. daytime activities - Tie. DC is better for indoor activities (museums, monuments, etc.). SD is better fo outdoors. culture - DC by a mile shopping - DC. Larger metro area, more choices. dining - DC by a mile. SD has very good Mexican food, but nothing else is very impressive. scenery - Tie. SD for its natural beauty. DC for its parks/greenery. economy - DC by a mile. Tons of jobs in government or high tech. SD has some good biotech jobs, but very few F500 companies.
Overall, I'd have to say DC wins by a lot. There wasn't a list for weather, which SD would win by a landslide. However, I just think DC has a lot more to offer. If you want the laid back, beachy vibe of CA, go to Santa Barbara. If you want a bigger city on the West Coast, go to LA or SF.
What's a surfer bar? Mexican food only? It's not the freakin' '80s for Christ's sakes. Shopping, well, I'm not a woman so don't care a whit about that.
San Diego has grown up tremendously in the last 20 years. The whole city is being rebuilt as we speak, districts being defined, new urban villages being established. More Broadway-bound play emanate from SD outside of NYC than just about any other city and it has a very established and recognized progressive foodie restaurant scene. Museums in Balboa Park, neighborhood festivals every week, stickball tourneys in Little Italy, Barrio Logan for some gritty yet dynamic local Latin culture with bars, galleries and restaurants feeling like a mini-Brooklyn, Beer Boulevard of the USA (30th St.)
If you want to die of boredom, go to Santa Barbara. If you want a city with one of the most vibrant, compact urban cores around, surrounded by stunning natural beauty and canyons downtown, the most diverse landscape in the country, 70 miles of beaches in the city, strong Biotech, military and manufacturing economy, come to San Diego. Take advantage of the quick trip up to the much bigger and more happening city that LA is just a short hop away, we do it all the time (and be thankful you don't live there).
I love D.C. to visit, lived there as a kid and have visited often with my SO's company (military contractor) based there. It has, outside of NYC, and even besting it in some ways, the best museums and monuments in the country and some great urban neighborhoods. But Gawd! The humidity, the traffic, the insufferable social/business climbers, the crime and screwed up local politics. Other than Georgetown or Adam's Morgan, and even then you couldn't replicate what we have now for less than $3M - A historic house on a 5500 sf lot on a canyon, amazing village neighborhood out the door and walking distance to downtown and the Bay. Even then I would still have to put up with the intrinsic negatives I know all too well about.
If you're a fan of nature and scenery (and a suburban atmosphere), then SD wins by a landslide. You get hills, mountains, and beaches all in the city proper. It's also far safer than DC.
However, if you're a fan of a compact, walkable city with strong public transit, then DC wins by a landslide.
If you're a fan of nature and scenery (and a suburban atmosphere), then SD wins by a landslide. You get hills, mountains, and beaches all in the city proper. It's also far safer than DC.
However, if you're a fan of a compact, walkable city with strong public transit, then DC wins by a landslide.
Yes, DC is very walkable.
I parked my car and walked everywhere, very good in that regard.
Take away the climate from San Diego, and it easily loses the race. There's a lot more going on in DC in general. It's not really even a contest, in my opinion.
Take away the climate from San Diego, and it easily loses the race. There's a lot more going on in DC in general. It's not really even a contest, in my opinion.
The reasons people like DC would probably make them dislike San Diego and the same goes for people who like San Diego. They offer completely different things and you can't find the same lifestyle that either option provides compared to the other city.
DC provides an urban, dense, walkable, non-car commuting environment. It has urban cosmopolitan vibrant neighborhoods with Michelin starred restaurants and one of the best job markets in the nation. It has four seasons and is booming adding more multifamily units than any of it's peer urban dense cities in America (NYC, DC, Bos, Philly, Chi, San Fran) outside of NYC. The built environment in DC is becoming less attractive to raise kids with high rises being built all across the city and commercial corridors extending to the edges of the city.
San Diego provides a great laid back suburban style environment with low density neighborhoods that are spread out and lack vibrancy compared to urban neighborhoods in the big 6. The city is defined by car commuting with easy parking in comparison to DC. There are great beaches and weather to enjoy all year and the city is also booming but lacks the bones to ever be built like the big 6. You can find suburban style historic houses and safe neighborhoods great for raising children. People who have kids and decide to leave areas like Manhattan or DC etc. for the suburbs move to cities like San Diego because it provides the opposite of places like DC and Manhattan etc.
DC and San Diego are both great cities and both offer completely different lifestyles that can't be found in the other city. This boils down to preference. Would you like to live in a fast paced, dense, vibrant, urban, walkable city or a spread out, suburban, outdoor city with great weather and access to the beach and a laid back lifestyle?
two different cities but both very well liked. which do people generally prefer?
quality of life
nightlife
daytime activities
culture
shopping
dining
scenery
economy
etc.
Quality of life: San Diego. Hands Down. It isn't just the sun and surf there. It is also the toxic stress of DC.
Nightlife: Probably DC. San Diego has a more mellow nightlife in my opinion. DC has more energy.
Daytime activities: San Diego. Hands down. Surfing, boating, anything at the beach really, hiking, cycling etc all possible year round. DC has museums etc. Not much comparison here.
Culture: San Diego. The quintessential CA beach city vs the cesspool of American corruption. Hmm...
Shopping: Who goes out to shop anymore? Amazon.com anyone ? So Tie because who cares.
Dinning: Tie. Both have great food scenes.
Scenery: San Diego. Again, hands down. Amazing mountains ringing the sea.
Economy: DC. Obviously. It is the nations capital. There is a lot going on economically.
I scored this 4-2 in favor of San Diego with 2 ties.
The reasons people like DC would probably make them dislike San Diego and the same goes for people who like San Diego. They offer completely different things and you can't find the same lifestyle that either option provides compared to the other city.
DC provides an urban, dense, walkable, non-car commuting environment. It has urban cosmopolitan vibrant neighborhoods with Michelin starred restaurants and one of the best job markets in the nation. It has four seasons and is booming adding more multifamily units than any of it's peer urban dense cities in America (NYC, DC, Bos, Philly, Chi, San Fran) outside of NYC. The built environment in DC is becoming less attractive to raise kids with high rises being built all across the city and commercial corridors extending to the edges of the city.
San Diego provides a great laid back suburban style environment with low density neighborhoods that are spread out and lack vibrancy compared to urban neighborhoods in the big 6. The city is defined by car commuting with easy parking in comparison to DC. There are great beaches and weather to enjoy all year and the city is also booming but lacks the bones to ever be built like the big 6. You can find suburban style historic houses and safe neighborhoods great for raising children. People who have kids and decide to leave areas like Manhattan or DC etc. for the suburbs move to cities like San Diego because it provides the opposite of places like DC and Manhattan etc.
DC and San Diego are both great cities and both offer completely different lifestyles that can't be found in the other city. This boils down to preference. Would you like to live in a fast paced, dense, vibrant, urban, walkable city or a spread out, suburban, outdoor city with great weather and access to the beach and a laid back lifestyle?
While your general statements are true, I think you are misjudging the density of core San Diego. True, there are four zip codes in DC with about 100k people total where their density is far greater than the densest SD zip codes. After that the cities are about equal. There are about 316k people in DC that are living in zip codes with greater than 9000 ppsm, (including those four dense zip codes) and there are 363k people living in SD in zip codes with greater than 9000 ppsm. That is not a huge density, but it ain't low density surburbia with little vibrancy. My neighborhood is well over 12,500 ppsm and I am 2 miles out of downtown, in a SFH, but with compact urban lots and walkable neighborhoods with vibrant "village" centers for miles around me that I can easily walk, transit, bike or ride share around me- I would never drive.
Adams Morgan, DuPont Circle and Georgetown are absolutely denser, but they are not necessarily that much more vibrant than South/North Park, Hillcrest and University/Normal Heights, where in pockets, they have comparable slices if not as large.
Last edited by T. Damon; 08-27-2017 at 10:56 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
