Where to live with kids? (San Diego, Encinitas: cul-de-sac, to rent, houses)

[bloom]

My wife was offered a job in La Jolla (by aquarium). We have two elementary school age kids and are coming from Boston. I love where we live now - a part of the city but is filled with Victorian homes, parks, an arboretum, etc. It is economically and otherwise diverse, more liberal leaning, lots of families, very convenient. Our kids go to public schools – a lot of work (parent involvement) but an overall good experience. In San Diego, we would love to find a similar community, if it exists, and perhaps better schools (same level of great teachers but better resources and creativity). We’ll rent at first but want to rent where we are likely to stay long term as we do not want to change schools again if we can avoid it. Not into suburban areas where all the houses look alike but would like a yard/garden and small townish is okay. Any suggestions on neighborhoods, cities, towns within ~30-45 min commute? We are looking to spend ~$2,000 to $2400 per month.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by bloom

My wife was offered a job in La Jolla (by aquarium). We have two elementary school age kids and are coming from Boston. I love where we live now - a part of the city but is filled with Victorian homes, parks, an arboretum, etc. It is economically and otherwise diverse, more liberal leaning, lots of families, very convenient. Our kids go to public schools – a lot of work (parent involvement) but an overall good experience. In San Diego, we would love to find a similar community, if it exists, and perhaps better schools (same level of great teachers but better resources and creativity). We’ll rent at first but want to rent where we are likely to stay long term as we do not want to change schools again if we can avoid it. Not into suburban areas where all the houses look alike but would like a yard/garden and small townish is okay. Any suggestions on neighborhoods, cities, towns within ~30-45 min commute? We are looking to spend ~$2,000 to $2400 per month.

In San Diego you will find that good schools and diversity may be hard to come by in the same neighborhood. Also given the urban environment you are used to, you will find San Diego to be more suburban, generally.

In the core urban residential neighborhoods of the SD City (Balboa Park and surroundings) you will find the gamut of diverse, liberal-leaning neighborhoods from the top to the bottom of the socioeconomic scale. Almost universally however, you will find bad public schools in the neighborhood.

So with that said: most people who live in the city of SD and have kids send them to charter, magnet, or private schools. The city has open enrollment so it's geographically pretty unimportant which neighborhood you choose (as long as you are able to provide transportation in some cases).

La Jolla might be a good place to start because it's close-in and has good schools, generally. Give us some more info about what you can afford when you buy... you could rent in La Jolla for 2500/mo, but buying there is a whole other story.

[bloom]

Thanks for the reply. I guess it is very hard to say what we'll be able to afford if we buy as I still need to find a job but I doubt we'd be able to buy in La Jolla.

How do magnet and charter schools in SD compare to the "good" schools in Poway or La Jolla? We'd need to enroll our kids for September so would magnet/charter schools be already full for this year?

As far as suburban - we are not completely against the idea. Here we thought we'd someday move to a suburb that was more like a town with a center than a bunch of developments and strip malls calling themselves a town. Does that exist?

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by bloom

How do magnet and charter schools in SD compare to the "good" schools in Poway or La Jolla? We'd need to enroll our kids for September so would magnet/charter schools be already full for this year?

Depends. Poway / RB / Carmel Valley schools have student populations that are very homogenous socioeconomically. In the SD metro magnets you get a huge mix of kids from all over the city. Which is "better"? It depends on what is important to you. For some people test scores are very important.

Originally Posted by bloom

As far as suburban - we are not completely against the idea. Here we thought we'd someday move to a suburb that was more like a town with a center than a bunch of developments and strip malls calling themselves a town. Does that exist?

Some will disagree, but no. Most of the recent master-planned developments attempt to consolidate the stripmalls into a "town center" (Eastlake, San Elijo Hills) but anything pre-2000 is pretty much gonna be typical stripmall/cul-de-sac tract homes. Poway's commercial area, for example, is just one big giant stripmall stretching from end-to-end.

[CalGrown]

My suggestions would all be considered suburban areas, but you have school-age kids and put an emphasis on the quality of schools. Inland, you could look at the Poway/Rancho Penasquitos area (I've always preferred Poway over RP, but that's just my opinion) paying close attention that you would be within the Poway school district.........VERY heavy parental involvement. Closer to the coast, look at Carmel Valley and Solana Beach.......SB being my personal favorite of all the suggestions. If you can go a bit north, Encinitas has very good schools.