Safe & Reasonable in Central/Mid-City/Southeast? (San Diego, El Cajon: apartment, rent)

[ElleGee]

Hi there! Thanks in advance for any info you’d like to share. Here’s my situation. My husband will be in a training program with his job for the next 18 months so our move to SD won’t be permanent. He will be working downtown so I wanted to make sure we get something reasonably close to save on gas. He will only be making about 50K during training. I am really sweating the rent because I would like to be able to stay home with our 3 year old during this time. I know the map I’ve posted covers a large area, but I’ve noticed that there seems to be some reasonable rents interspersed within. I’ve gathered from reading posts that many of these areas are not the best, but we figure as long as our son is not in school yet and the neighborhood is safe enough, we would be willing to sacrifice for a couple of years. Can you please take a look and tell me which areas we should avoid at all costs and which ones are working class but safe? In case you can't/won't open the attachment, the boundaries of the area I'm interested are roughly I-8 to the North, I-5 to the West, MLK Frwy/Hwy 125 to the South/East. I really want us to stay together, but I will end up staying in TX if we can’t swing it financially. Please feel free to suggest other areas that are near downtown if you know of any. Thanks again!

[Imperial1904]

Honestly, you should look into other areas of San Diego. Mid-City and Southeast San Diego are hot spots for crime.

[kettlepot]

There are lots of good areas within the freeway loop you've described.

University Heights, west of Park Blvd, North of Washington.

North Park, north of Adams between Park Blvd and 30th.
North Park, from Balboa Park north about two blocks.

South Park, if you stay north of Ash and a block or two away from 30th... Area is kind of funky... need to be tolerant of diversity.

Normal Heights north of Adams.

Kensington north of Meade.

Talmadge north of Monroe.

College/El Cerrito, at least one block north of El Cajon Blvd, and a few blocks away from SDSU.

Rolando east of College... Sassberto can give you info on particular blocks if you get that far in your search.

Mission Hills is nice but I suspect you won't be able to afford the nice parts, but if you see something you are interested in ask us.

Mission Valley... not part of your loop, but the trolley to downtown runs through there, and the condos are mostly all new. Kind of sterile.

Lots of interesting older communities in the Midcity area. There are a few crime hot spots, and some areas were infilled with tacky, underparked apartment buildings from the 60s and 70s. But if you know where to look you can live comfortably in the areas I've mentioned.

Be sure to review the Sticky Neighborhoods Map if you are unsure of neighborhood locations.

[NYSD1995]

Kettlepot meant Rolando, East of College ;-)

[PhotogRyan]

Mission Valley is great for a commute. I used to live there and drove to downtown, which was about 15-20 minutes with light traffic. The condos are about $1200-1400 for a 1bd, look up Club River Run (I've never lived there, but I did check it out).

It's close to shops and all that, but people don't like it because of whatever reason. It was fine when I lived there with my gf, and we still frequent Mission Valley whenever we go out (we live in Little Italy right now).

[eastsandiegobornandraised]

Originally Posted by ElleGee

Hi there! Thanks in advance for any info you’d like to share. Here’s my situation. My husband will be in a training program with his job for the next 18 months so our move to SD won’t be permanent. He will be working downtown so I wanted to make sure we get something reasonably close to save on gas. He will only be making about 50K during training. I am really sweating the rent because I would like to be able to stay home with our 3 year old during this time. I know the map I’ve posted covers a large area, but I’ve noticed that there seems to be some reasonable rents interspersed within. I’ve gathered from reading posts that many of these areas are not the best, but we figure as long as our son is not in school yet and the neighborhood is safe enough, we would be willing to sacrifice for a couple of years. Can you please take a look and tell me which areas we should avoid at all costs and which ones are working class but safe? In case you can't/won't open the attachment, the boundaries of the area I'm interested are roughly I-8 to the North, I-5 to the West, MLK Frwy/Hwy 125 to the South/East. I really want us to stay together, but I will end up staying in TX if we can’t swing it financially. Please feel free to suggest other areas that are near downtown if you know of any. Thanks again!

University Heights, Mission Hills, North Park moreso towards downtown, South Park, parts of Golden Hill, lots of big, nice, older homes that are close to downtown

Alot of southeast, east of euclid is not that bad(dont believe alot the hype). North Encanto going towards Lemon Grove, Jamacha/Lomita area, most of Emerald Hills, Offerral Park, Paradise Hills and parts of Skyline. Middle class to upper middle class living with some gang activity here and the but nothin to worry about

At 50,000 a year I'd stay out of most the mid-city area except for Kensington and Talmadge which are the nicer parts, Normal Heights north of adams is nice too.

But if your only gonna be here temporarily, I'd suggest Mission Valley, lots of new nice condos down there and there's freeways all around for commutes to work, and decent public transportation via the trolley

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by eastsandiegobornandraised

Alot of southeast, east of euclid is not that bad(dont believe alot the hype). North Encanto going towards Lemon Grove, Jamacha/Lomita area, most of Emerald Hills, Offerral Park, Paradise Hills and parts of Skyline. Middle class to upper middle class living with some gang activity here and the but nothin to worry about

It's true some rough areas do have pockets of nice areas. Even Compton, CA has some nice areas.

You honestly can't tell this woman that the gang activity is nothing to worry about. If you were talking about gang activity in Poway or Scripps Ranch (or similar areas) then yes, there's nothing to worry about, but in the areas well known in San Diego for gang activity like shootings, homicides, robberies, etc. it IS something that she should worry about.

[eastsandiegobornandraised]

Originally Posted by Imperial1904

It's true some rough areas do have pockets of nice areas. Even Compton, CA has some nice areas.

You honestly can't tell this woman that the gang activity is nothing to worry about. If you were talking about gang activity in Poway or Scripps Ranch (or similar areas) then yes, there's nothing to worry about, but in the areas well known in San Diego for gang activity like shootings, homicides, robberies, etc. it IS something that she should worry about.

The chances of her getting shot, robbed, etc. are slim. The most she's probably gonna have to worry about is getting her car broke in. Its 2007, crime in San Diego isn't exactly at an all time, if this was 1992 I'd be telling a different story, but alot of areas have cleaned up and people don't give these communities enough credit.

But I grew up here, and I know where and where not to go, what and what not to do in this city, so yeah maybe she should look at it with a little more caution.

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by eastsandiegobornandraised

The chances of her getting shot, robbed, etc. are slim. The most she's probably gonna have to worry about is getting her car broke in. Its 2007, crime in San Diego isn't exactly at an all time, if this was 1992 I'd be telling a different story, but alot of areas have cleaned up and people don't give these communities enough credit.

But I grew up here, and I know where and where not to go, what and what not to do in this city, so yeah maybe she should look at it with a little more caution.

I agree, if it was the '90s it would be different. Random crime can happen anytime though like that one shooting at a dessert restaurant.