Which San Diego neighborhoods would you recommend?

[mjhs]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your suggestions. Just in case someone looks up this thread in the future, I found these resources also very useful:

The website

www.walkscore.com

gives a score between 0 and 100 for how walkable an address is. I've tested it with places I've lived before, and the number it gives isn't perfect, but it's a reasonable first approximation.

Also very useful, San Diego Police Department's annual data about crime in various neighborhoods:

Crime Statistics and Maps | San Diego Police Department

The website www.apartmentratings.com
also gives a good idea of what kind of a place an apartment complex is.

Thank you again!
MJ

[skelaki]

I'd say based on your criteria for being near work, Del Mar or a nearby community would be the best bet overall. Just expect traffic to be a mess during the Fair and, to a lesser extent Race season. As far as wanting to be in an urban environment, Downtown San Diego would definitely be the choice but your commute would be generally be longer than 40 minutes.

Del Mar has a nice downtown with a village feel as does Solana Beach. La Jolla, unfortunately, has lost much of that Village feel.

[tonyinsd]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

In the purest sense of "urban' fitting the description you are speaking of, it would be the Marina District downtown. Ralphs there is a "Signature" store, thus they have some really nice gourmet items that a regular Ralphs might not have. Restaurants and shopping aplenty as well all within blocks of each other for the most part. if you are familiar with urban environs, then the homeless, city noise and such wouldnt bother you as its no different to any other downtown city. Actually our downtown core is far less hectic than others.

I live in the Marina district and it's just about perfect for me. If you want to experience the nightlife, walk a couple of blocks and you're in the Gaslamp. The Ralph's is right there. And Horton Plaza is just a few blocks away if you need to buy clothes or toys or something.

You very quickly get used to the noise from the city. I don't even wake up for the sirens at night anymore.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by tonyinsd

I live in the Marina district and it's just about perfect for me. If you want to experience the nightlife, walk a couple of blocks and you're in the Gaslamp. The Ralph's is right there. And Horton Plaza is just a few blocks away if you need to buy clothes or toys or something.

You very quickly get used to the noise from the city. I don't even wake up for the sirens at night anymore.

Yeah I totally agree tonyinsd. I lived down on 4th and J which is right on the border of the Gaslamp and Marina, (technically Chinese District) for 6 years and still go down there to visit friends etc quite often still.

Downtown is a tough place to nail down for folks that simply visit the Gaslamp for a bite or shopping Horton Plaza for a few hours. For many folks that dont venture out into the Marina district or hang out in Pantoja Park, I can see that. Typically, there are tons of homeless in the core areas that would just scare people off or simply annoy an otherwise fun time.

I left a pretty swanky condo and bought a house east of downtown last year.
Over the 6 years living down there, we went from knowing and talking with most of the "regular" homeless (volunteering with Mamas Kitchen), to not knowing any at all. The homeless population just grew exponentially the last couple of years we were there. In some cases, got more aggressive.

The Marina District is by far the nicest area to live downtown, if one can afford to live there. We had been in at least 90% of the buildings over the years from Horizon, Electra, Pinnacle, Meridian, Harbor Club, City Front etc. I love the layouts in the buildings that were built pre-bubble.
Over the years, there was TONS of inventory coming on the market and the prices, simply outrageous. There are better deals there now, but not enough for me to really sink my teeth into.
We still consider buying another property down there, as there are loads of great projects coming fruition along the marina etc. I think the Downtown will really be a great place to spend time and enjoy the weather near the water. I just heard that the defunct former cop station behind Seaport Village will become incorporated into Seaport Village with shops etc.
Tie that in with the new open space proposal up and down Harbor Drive and its really going to be nice.

There are times we really miss living down there. For reasons like it just being our neighborhood and frequenting our favorite restaurants, walking to ralphs, World Market and bike riding down to Pt Loma. Considering the trade offs, we are really glad we made the decision to leave when we did. Still one of the best decisions we ever made for many reasons.
For having the options that we have in San Diego to live, I still think its one of the BEST places to live anywhere up and down the coast out to the moutains and desert.

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by mjhs

...Just in case someone looks up this thread in the future, I found these resources also very useful:

The website

www.walkscore.com

gives a score between 0 and 100 for how walkable an address is. I've tested it with places I've lived before, and the number it gives isn't perfect, but it's a reasonable first approximation. ...

FWIW, I don't find this site useful at all. It scores neighborhoods like Carmel Mountain Ranch far too high. It seems to ignore things like actual walking distances, multi-lane streets that you have to cross, amount of car traffic, and lack of sidewalks next to the driveways that you than have to walk up to get into the shopping centers.

[mjhs]

Originally Posted by oddstray

FWIW, I don't find this site useful at all. It scores neighborhoods like Carmel Mountain Ranch far too high. It seems to ignore things like actual walking distances, multi-lane streets that you have to cross, amount of car traffic, and lack of sidewalks next to the driveways that you than have to walk up to get into the shopping centers.

You're right about those factors, though it does consider the actual walking distance. But if a place has a walking score of say, around 30, you can be reasonably confident that it's very car dependent, and if it has walking score of 80 or above, it's more or less walkable.

If you're interested, this is their white paper, explaining their methodology:
http://http://www2.walkscore.com/pdf/WalkScoreMethodology.pdf (broken link)

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by mjhs

You're right about those factors, though it does consider the actual walking distance. But if a place has a walking score of say, around 30, you can be reasonably confident that it's very car dependent, and if it has walking score of 80 or above, it's more or less walkable.

If you're interested, this is their white paper, explaining their methodology:
http://http://www2.walkscore.com/pdf/WalkScoreMethodology.pdf (broken link)

Exactly. IIRC they rank Carmel Mountain Ranch 80 or 85. That is *not* what I consider a walkable neighborhood, for the reasons I mentioned above. As far as distance, many of the residences in CMR are located far enough from shopping that it should have lowered the score. And I'd never allow young children to walk around there alone due to the hazardous conditions that weren't counted in the score.

I did look at their methodology. I concluded that they're not counting some very important criteria. So I still don't think it's a very useful site.