Possible move from Bay Area to San Diego. Would you do it? (Long Beach: house, neighborhoods)

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by cheryllouise

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.

Yawns. Like I said, tell it to the Seattlites in the Seattle forum who all concede that the actual ocean is about 3-4 hours away.

THIS. is the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_u3kd4edWw

Seattle is closer to the ocean than San Jose.

Saying it over and over again isnt going to make it so.

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.

No, you said you said Seattle is closer to the ocean than San Jose and that is patently FALSE.

Comparing Almaden crime rates with Seattle is futile

But you acted in your original post as if crime is not something you had in Seattle whereas it is a CON in San Jose---which is false because Seattle has a higher crime rate than San Jose, regardless as to whatever hysterical news articles you post about a spike in crime in an area that is still relatively safer than Seattle.

...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.

Sweetie, the difference between your outrageous exaggerating and my posting is that I dont have apply a double standard to my reasoning.

Seattle doesnt have a drug problem? LOLOL How is Almaden Valley especially bad as far as drug use vs. Seattle? What a joke. And you think San Diego is a drug free utopia? hahaha get real.

Your opinions are valid. Racism is not.

You can't invalidate an 'opinion' whether it be about racism or anything else.

I am simply pointing out that you have made some statements that are statistically false(distance to the ocean), schools being sketchy, etc AND/ OR you are applying a double standard using rose-colored glasses regarding Seattle I might add. Crime is higher in Seattle and drug use is definitely worse in Seattle than in the Almaden Valley.

Nowhere did I state any feelings about being around Mexicans (your choice of word).

Yes, but I can at least respect an honest opinion, and not statements that are patently false and/or misleading.

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.

Which you havent really articulated apart from you hate it(an opinion so I dont have to address that), Seattle is closer to the ocean(ABSOLUTELY FALSE), Almaden Valley has sketchy high schools(once again, NO), and that drug use and crime are somehow an issue in San Jose but not Seattle(just stop).

You are entitled to your opinion( God Bless).

But you are not entitled to your own facts.

Sleep well.

Darling, is there any other way to sleep?

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by cheryllouise

Apologies if this becomes a long post but I want to put as much info here as possible so you can get an idea of our situation, wants and needs etc. My husband and I and our two sons (2 and 4) live in Almaden in Silicon Valley. We've been here for about 18 months and I hate it. Before this we lived in Seattle for five years, which we adored and were sad to leave but had an offer from Google that we literally couldn't refuse. The things we miss most about Seattle (obviously not the weather) are being close to the ocean and skiing and just the overall beauty of the state of Washington. We love being outdoors and I especially am happiest when I'm near the ocean. If an opportunity arose to move to San Diego, my husband and I were talking recently and both agreed we would love to move there in a couple of years. We've visited a few times and fell in love with it, particularly the coastal towns, but of course we know that visiting somewhere and living there permanently are very different. I've read the sticky on house prices but I thought I'd also ask for the opinions of you lovely insightful people here.

The options to move would either be if my husband could transfer to a position within Google in SD; stay with Google but commute to Bay Area weekly; or accept a job in SD for a different company. He doesn't want to commute to Bay Area or leave Google for another company. At the moment, he is lucky that he has a great job with Google with a really really good six-figure salary, shares, bonus etc - enough that we can afford a large 5-bed house in south San Jose and he is obviously reluctant to lose this. (I run a non profit organization in San Jose, which I work pro bono for, so there's no income coming from me right now.) The areas we were looking at - Encinitas, Carlsbad, Del Mar, Solana Beach etc - would be our top choice for proximity to the ocean, good public schools, but of course are the most expensive.

As I see it, and feel free to add any I've missed, the cons of living in SD are exorbitant house prices, high cost of living, terrible traffic, and high crime and drug rates (my husband jokingly added the risk that our sons would want to join the Navy).

The cons of living in the Bay Area are exorbitant house prices, high cost of living, terrible traffic, and high crime and drug rates. Our local K-8 is good but the public high school is pretty sketchy. And did I mention that I hate it here.

I'm aware that this sounds like first-world problems and that we're privileged that we could even contemplate such a move, and maybe this is a grass-is-always-greener scenario, but for the sake of my mental health (and therefore the rest of my family's happiness), it seems like somewhere we could be really happy.

So I guess my question is this: is this just a pipe dream that we should give up on? Or based on our quality of living now, is it something that is actually achievable if a job opportunity arose that allowed us to move? I'm just wondering whether I'm getting carried away with the romanticism of living back by the ocean or whether I should keep researching in case we can actually make it happen. The market is so crazy in the Bay Area that I know we could rent or sell our house here in a heartbeat.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's lived in both Bay Area and San Diego and who could give an unbiased comparison of them. Would you do the move again knowing what you know now? Am I missing something? I fear my head is too far in the clouds to clearly see the reality of a move to SD. But I really really hate it here.

Thanks in advance!

You made a mistake choosing Almaden. Sure, homes are larger there and newer for the same price than say, Willow Glen. But at the end of the day you are in a mini pit within the grand pit of the Bay Area core. Regarding your love of water. Maybe consider something like Foster City, Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. The trade off would be the commute.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Pedro2000

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.

Not sure how that means San Diego is conservative when the Bay Area is even more anti-development. Booze was banned in Ocean Beach in SF and Santa Cruz County beaches long before San Diego too. SD is very moderate, calling it "conservative" in comparison to the Bay Area isn't saying much considering every place in the country is more conservative than here.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

You made a mistake choosing Almaden. Sure, homes are larger there and newer for the same price than say, Willow Glen. But at the end of the day you are in a mini pit within the grand pit of the Bay Area core. Regarding your love of water. Maybe consider something like Foster City, Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. The trade off would be the commute.

BTW - the commute from Almaden to The Googleplex is pretty darned nasty. HMB to Goog would be no worse. Foster City to Goog even better. Plus, there's the Google bus system. Could split a drive and bus commute from HMB.

[NewbieHere]

Be thankful for the good job at Google especially when you have no income. Your husband will not get anywhere near to that kind of job outside of Silicon Valley. Not in SD, not in OC. I live in all 3 areas so I know.

[JohnS_15]

Seems like the biggest issues for you are the frenetic pace of life in Silicon Valley and the type of people who are living and thriving in that environment right now. I agree with some of your sentiments on these issues.

It also seems like you've picked the wrong neighborhood for your family to live in. There are a lot of great neighborhoods in the bay area within commuting distance to Google. Maybe for the short term look into moving? You'd have to down size but I'd think you'd be a lot happier living somewhere like San Mateo, Burlingame, Milbrae. The drive down to the beaches in Pacifica is not too far from there.

As others have said - San Diego will bring you a lot more chilled out lifestyle. But the offsets to that are that it might be difficult for your husband (and you for that matter) to find work that is as fulfilling as what you have now.

I also agree that it's a pain to get out of the bay area to some of the other great places in northern/central California. Driving out to Tahoe on a Friday afternoon will make you want to kill yourself. While I think localized traffic would be better in SD - to get anywhere else you have to fly somewhere or else drive through the greater LA area (or cross the border!). And that can make one feel very cut off.

Someone else mentioned the Poway area. It's very nice - but it's a lot of malls and strip malls and big suburban homes just like you don't like in south SJ.

Good luck on your decisions.

[fluffythewondercat]

Shorter OP: Like hundreds of thousands of tech workers before us, we came to the Bay Area for the money but we just can't get over the fact that it's not absolutely identical to the place we came from. So we'll move to San Diego because I won't believe it's not absolutely identical to the place we came from until I see it for myself.

I especially enjoy the complaints about traffic. Hello! You're part of the problem!

[NYSD1995]

Unless the Goog job is with some of the ex-Motorola stuff, I think he's going to be working in Irvine, not SD. It's not a reasonable commute, and OC is very nice, I would look at Lake Forest. Unless you are bringing a whole lot of home equity and Google stock I would not move here in the prime of your careers, do it later when the kids are grown and you can enjoy it and actually have enough money to be laid back.

[elchevere]

....or Playa del Rey in LA, opening up Manhattan Beach, Marina del Rey, or Santa Monica (my choice) as livable options:

Playa Vista turning into Silicon Valley South as tech firms move in

Originally Posted by Sassberto

Unless the Goog job is with some of the ex-Motorola stuff, I think he's going to be working in Irvine, not SD. It's not a reasonable commute, and OC is very nice, I would look at Lake Forest. Unless you are bringing a whole lot of home equity and Google stock I would not move here in the prime of your careers, do it later when the kids are grown and you can enjoy it and actually have enough money to be laid back.

[NewbieHere]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

Unless the Goog job is with some of the ex-Motorola stuff, I think he's going to be working in Irvine, not SD. It's not a reasonable commute, and OC is very nice, I would look at Lake Forest. Unless you are bringing a whole lot of home equity and Google stock I would not move here in the prime of your careers, do it later when the kids are grown and you can enjoy it and actually have enough money to be laid back.

I know Pake Forest, I rather take Amalden Valley. There are pockets of gangs here.