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I was born and raised in Palo Alto. I also lived in Saratoga and Los Gatos. I am very well acquainted with the Bay Area. I left because I HATED the traffic! I also love the beach, but it is not convenient to get to any old time you please and even then is not always nice (or even often for that matter). The Bay Area has some beautiful areas for sure. With respect to tech jobs they are a dime a dozen in the Bay Area. Did I mention I am a veteran real estate agent with 38 years in the business?
I never imagined San Diego as affordable. But, compared to the Bay Area it is! And, the beach is close even if you live inland 7 miles (15-20 minutes to great beach). Traffic (which I still HATE) is bad in certain areas at certain times, however life is about priorities. There are lovely communities here in San Diego where traffic is not bad, prices are reasonable, there are tech jobs, schools that are award winning, and the beautiful warm beach is only 15-20 minutes away. Your dream for such a quality of life is achievable. I am not saying these gems are hard to find, but I have always been able to find them for my relocation clients for the past 6 years to realize that same dream. I haven't failed yet. And none of my clients have regretted their move.
My husband is an electrical engineer who is also from Palo Alto. While we love Palo Alto, we would not give up our quality of life here in San Diego. I was very skeptical when I first relocated 6 years ago. But, I found so much natural beauty here, and I go to the beach for lunch nearly everyday! By the way, I don't live in a Million Dollar house, which I did in the Bay Area. And I am happier than I've every been. Also, my husband has never had any problem securing 6 figure tech jobs down here, and he's been here 30+ years.
Thanks kvanness, that is helpful! If things move do forward, I will definitely inbox you with questions
Thanks, metoque - that is super helpful and kind of sums up how I was feeling about the three destinations. The weather in Seattle unfortunately is enough to keep us from ever moving back there now that we've sampled the California weather. If things move forward, I'll definitely inbox you with some questions
18montclair - goodness, we have got a bee in our bonnet, haven't we. It's funny because you really do sound like you might be losing sleep. Do you know what I do when I read a post that irks me? I ignore it and move on with my life. But since you seem to have taken umbrage with me and my opinions, and, based on your high reputation here you're clearly not a nasty troll, so let me assume your personal attack is due to a bad day and address your points again.
18montclair, have you actually been to Seattle? I lived there for 6 years so I know a thing or two about it. The city is surrounded by water on almost all sides. It's splitting hairs to say the Puget Sound is not ocean. Ocean, Sound - it's the same thing. We lived in North Seattle and could drive in under 10 minutes and be sitting on Golden Gardens, a sandy beach with waves, sand dunes, tide pools, seals, sailing boats, beach umbrellas, ice cream, the whole shebang. Google Map it if you still refuse to believe me. It's not California beaches, but it is still beaches. To get to the beach from where I currently live, we have to drive 90 minutes in heavy traffic. 90 minutes vs 10 minutes. I'm not sure if I can say it any other way. Seattle is closer to the ocean than San Jose. But in any case, my original post was not comparing distance to Seattle beaches vs distance to Bay Area beaches; I'm comparing distance to SD beaches vs distance to Bay Area beaches.
Crime in Almaden is at an all-time high: 176 Burglaries in 90 Days: Residents of San Jose's Almaden Valley Neighborhood Say They're Under Attack | NBC Bay Area
Comparing Almaden crime rates with Seattle is futile and personally does not bother me as, again, I'm not comparing Seattle and SJ, I'm comparing SD and SJ. My original post stated that the crime rates for both SJ and SD are similar. And if you think Almaden Valley doesn't have a drug problem, you're hallucinating.
Your opinions are valid. Racism is not. Nowhere did I state any feelings about being around Mexicans (your choice of word). Sir, that is funny and perhaps a reflection of how you feel about SJ? If that was in any way true, why would I be looking to move to a city that is 20 minutes from the Mexican border? I think you're just teasing me.
These are your opinions and you're entitled to them, but don't confuse how you feel about a city with how I might feel about it.
Sleep well.
Don't let the rep count fool you, Monty is rather sensitive when it comes to criticism of the Bay Area, trust me lol.
While we love Palo Alto, we would not give up our quality of life here in San Diego. I was very skeptical when I first relocated 6 years ago. But, I found so much natural beauty here, and I go to the beach for lunch nearly everyday! By the way, I don't live in a Million Dollar house, which I did in the Bay Area. And I am happier than I've every been. Also, my husband has never had any problem securing 6 figure tech jobs down here, and he's been here 30+ years.
I used to do that quite often as well when I worked in Carlsbad. I lived in Pacific Beach and in summer when traffic on the 5 is terrible, some days I would just go straight to the beach after work, swim in the ocean, and lay out until traffic died down; it's really the best way to end the work day imo. You just cannot do anything like that in the Bay Area and it's kind of the lifestyle I was referring to that I miss so much.
I am not really sure what you mean by conservatism in OC or everyone being like everyone else. If you mean fiscally conservative in OC, I will grant you that and will remain very proud of that fact. OC is very purple politically, but remains, happily, fiscally conservative. If you think there are, for example, no gay people, no counter culture, no artists in OC, etc., you would be very wrong. Don't listen to people who claim, for example, that since they have visited Ladera Ranch, as an example, and spent time at say the tot lot there, that people were "conservative". Ladera Ranch is OC's Poway and it has just what one would expect to find in a place like that. As it stands now, areas closer to the beach have plenty of "different" (read: interesting) folks but there is a sort of decorum that I have found with different people here that is quite nice and dignified.
For example, south OC has tons of gay people and artists in South Laguna and Laguna Beach (and increasingly, all over and near the beaches). These gay people are not like North Park people (or even Long Beach) with ten million piercings etc. Why? I think that is self evident. People here tend to be more successful financially and need to blend in more than one circle.
I did not comment on gay's. I commented on the conservatism of San Diego compared to Seattle and the Bay Area, and also asked the op what type of community they are looking for. If they are used to the laid back liberal attitude of the Bay Area and Seattle then they might not necessarily like Carlsbad and other San Diego master planned areas.
Irvine, Newport Beach, Scottsdale, Carlsbad, are very image conscious, keep up with the Jones. Not saying that's good or bad but the op could visit first, and see if they like the people and the strict hoas.
I could never live in irvine or Newport beach, but I could tolerate Carlsbad if I lived there.
I agree with you about Laguna Beach, nice place and more liberal.
LA and Palm Springs are also more to my liking due to their liberalism.
I've lived and worked in Seattle, SF/SV, OC, and SD. I loved Seattle, but the overcast skies got to me and this past summer I returned for the first time in years and the traffic from Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond was a nightmare. Nothing like purposely avoiding downtown hotels because you don't want to spend 90 minutes commuting after work.
You won't find Google in SD. People can pretend all they want, but many people work for companies like Google because they pay well and they love working for them. They are always rated as one of the best companies to work for, even if you're not in SV. You would not live in SD if you needed to go to a local Google Office. It's up in Irvine and also a short drive to Newport Beach.
But beyond that, there are no companies like Google in SD. So it might be a career shock if you go from Google to a place like Qualcomm or Sony or some smaller place. And those two companies are more holding on for dear life compared to doing moonshots. Huge difference regardless of matching salaries. And I won't even get into culture and attitudes. SD is far more laid back than SV. Some people love that. Some people hate that. Especially when it comes to work.
And therein lies the biggest factor that most people in SD always seem to ignore and it kind of tells you many things about SD. Somebody that works at Google probably isn't going to be happy working at some Government Contractor in SD. Maybe it's time for a change, but location and weather won't mean anything if 40-60 hours a week your life is boring or hell due to your job. And places like SD have a huge issue where you might be able to jump jobs to another place at same salary, but be stuck in a similar kind of company and job. You will discover that many of the "tech" companies in SD don't even have tech people working for them. It is an odd thing, but it's very very common here. Again, some people like this, but if you love working for Google, it might be a huge issue and culture shock.
I rarely ever see anybody talk about anything but weather and salary, but for most normal people, you spend 40-60 hours a week working somewhere, the weather and location won't mean anything if you hate your job and many of the jobs around here will probably offer the same kind of experience. I say this because I know people who work or worked at Google and the various other big "cool" companies in SV. Now Uber and Tesla and SpaceX are all the rage for many people I know. If you're used to those kinds of companies, no company in SD is going to come close.
I did not comment on gay's. I commented on the conservatism of San Diego compared to Seattle and the Bay Area, and also asked the op what type of community they are looking for. If they are used to the laid back liberal attitude of the Bay Area and Seattle then they might not necessarily like Carlsbad and other San Diego master planned areas.
Irvine, Newport Beach, Scottsdale, Carlsbad, are very image conscious, keep up with the Jones. Not saying that's good or bad but the op could visit first, and see if they like the people and the strict hoas.
I could never live in irvine or Newport beach, but I could tolerate Carlsbad if I lived there.
I agree with you about Laguna Beach, nice place and more liberal.
LA and Palm Springs are also more to my liking due to their liberalism.
I kind of understand what you are saying. Los Angeles, the Bay Area cities, and Seattle just have an overall different type of feeling compared to most of San Diego and Orange County. There is somewhat of a small town vibe in San Diego even though the county has 3 million people. Orange County and a lot of North San Diego is boring suburbia with no character. I mean the houses in places like San Carlos, Rancho Bernardo, and Tierrasanta pretty much all look the same with ticky tacky homes. You can find a lot of the same in Orange County and places like Temucula as well. Lots of keeping up with the Joneses for sure. I think the small town vibe might be due to the military and overall "sleepiness" of the area. San Diego is just not a place for innovation and creativity like LA, the Bay Area, and Seattle are. The job market in San Diego is terrible and doesn't match the cost of living. It seems that all people really praise San Diego for is the weather and great outdoor recreation. Also in regards to another poster what exactly is fiscal conservatism? Useless trillion dollar wars? Huge tax cuts? Drilling for dirty fossil fuels? I think you can tell I'm tired of some aspects of San Diego. Good luck with your move.
I kind of understand what you are saying. Los Angeles, the Bay Area cities, and Seattle just have an overall different type of feeling compared to most of San Diego and Orange County. There is somewhat of a small town vibe in San Diego even though the county has 3 million people. Orange County and a lot of Nortn San Diego is boring suburbia with no character imo. I mean the houses in places like San Carlos, Rancho Bernardo, and Tierrasanta pretty much all look the same with ticky tacky homes. You can find a lot of the same in Orange County and places like Temucula as well. I think the small town vibe might be due to the military and overall "sleepiness" of the area. San Diego is just not a place for innovation really like LA, the Bay Area, and Seattle are. The job market in San Diego is terrible and doesn't match the cost of living. It seems that all people really praise San Diego for is the weather and great outdoor recreation. Also in regards to another poster what exactly is fiscal conservatism? Useless trillion dollar wars? Huge tax cuts? Drilling for dirty fossil fuels? I think you can tell I'm tired of some aspects of San Diego. Hahaha. Good luck with your move.
The San Diego metro is more liberal in areas with more young people like the beaches and near the universities.
But even some of the moderate places like Carlsbad are more liberal on the environment, the city is 40 percent open space.
Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, are solidly republican family oriented communities. The people are very nice but if you're liberal and artsy, you won't fit into southwest riverside County.
To be fair, Montclar does have a point about drive time from Seattle to the ocean. I have been to Seattle many times and, while you can get to salt water quick enough from anywhere in Seattle, getting to the actual Pacific ocean requires a much longer drive than 10 minutes. But maybe the OP lived way outside of Seattle, perhaps over on one of the islands close to the Pacific?
The San Diego metro is more liberal in areas with more young people like the beaches and near the universities.
But even some of the moderate places like Carlsbad are more liberal on the environment, the city is 40 percent open space.
Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, are solidly republican family oriented communities. The people are very nice but if you're liberal and artsy, you won't fit into southwest riverside County.
SD has been known to be the Red Part of Blue California. It's been very conservative over the years. I think things have changed, but SF and SV and Seattle are far more liberal and progressive than SD. At least the people who vote and rule over the county.
The Coastal areas are filled with people who always turn down new developments, offices, buildings, etc. Hell, Mitt Romney owns a house in La Jolla and has been spotted now and again in places like Encinitas. San Diego voted to ban drinking and bonfires on the beaches. Many areas are trying to ban medical marijuana dispensaries before any new laws happen.
Things might be changing, but you have to remember it's a big military and tourist town and the current Mayor is a republican.
To be fair, Montclar does have a point about drive time from Seattle to the ocean. I have been to Seattle many times and, while you can get to salt water quick enough from anywhere in Seattle, getting to the actual Pacific ocean requires a much longer drive than 10 minutes. But maybe the OP lived way outside of Seattle, perhaps over on one of the islands close to the Pacific?
I think the OP is confused. If they want the Puget Sound in SD, they are going to be disappointed. Far different water experiences and expectations.
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