Which SD town made the "top 10 cities for families" list? (Chula Vista: homes, tech jobs)

[JakeDog]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

A lot of people forget that vintage housing, artisinal restaurants and yoga studios are not family friendly. Many nice places in SD (Kensington, Mission Hills, Del Mar) are not friendly to any but the most wealthy, yuppie, urbanite families. Most families gravitate towards middle class, predictable, good school areas like Chula Vista or San Marcos. They are simply priced out and people with kids can't trade education quality or safety for short commutes and boutique lifestyle. Also, people without kids can trade off a ****ty commute for ****ty schools, people with kids will NEVER make that choice.

While I agree Palo Alto is not family friendly unless you are already a millionaire, Chula Vista is probably the most family friendly area in all of SD.

I'd rate Carlsbad, Encinitas, Poway, Carmel Valley, San Elijo Hills of San Marcos, Solana Beach, Del Mar much, much higher. It's just strange to me that Chula Vista of all places would rate higher than these family friendly areas.
Personally I don't think Palo Alto is family friendly EVEN IF you are a millionaire. Marin County, Piedmont, Walnut Creek, Alamo, Lafayette, all rate much higher in my mind. Palo Alto's traffic is outrageous for a residential community.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by JakeDog

I'd rate Carlsbad, Encinitas, Poway, Carmel Valley, San Elijo Hills of San Marcos, Solana Beach, Del Mar much, much higher. It's just strange to me that Chula Vista of all places would rate higher than these family friendly areas.

You're forgetting about the tens of thousands of government workers who go to 32nd street, Coronado or downtown SD every day. Also, Carlsbad to anywhere is a horrendous commute, Carmel Valley homes are 1MM++ and unless you are working in Sorrento Valley, Poway and SEH is a long way from any job center too.

[oddstray]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

. . .and unless you are working in Sorrento Valley, Poway and SEH is a long way from any job center too.

Not really. They feed into the RB high tech jobs.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by oddstray

Not really. They feed into the RB high tech jobs.

You mean Sony, Broadcom and Teradata?

Chipmaker Broadcom to cut 1,900 jobs following Avago's $37B acquisition - FierceWireless

Sony Layoffs 2014: 5,000 laid off, PC business gone, TV spinoff | BGR

Teradata to restructure, sell marketing software unit, bet on cloud | ZDNet

I suppose if you've got one of those rare super-secure tech jobs, basing your housing around a job center in SD county could make sense.

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by JakeDog

I'd rate Carlsbad, Encinitas, Poway, Carmel Valley, San Elijo Hills of San Marcos, Solana Beach, Del Mar much, much higher. It's just strange to me that Chula Vista of all places would rate higher than these family friendly areas.
Personally I don't think Palo Alto is family friendly EVEN IF you are a millionaire. Marin County, Piedmont, Walnut Creek, Alamo, Lafayette, all rate much higher in my mind. Palo Alto's traffic is outrageous for a residential community.

From the entity that created the list...



"We crunched the data. We looked at the quality of the schools, the crime rate, and measures of the quality of healthcare and economy. We gave points to communities that are walkable, diverse, have lots of parks and active children’s sections in their libraries. We favored communities with shorter commute times (so working parents can be home more and on the road less) and larger populations of other kids to play with."

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

From the entity that performed the list...



"We crunched the data. We looked at the quality of the schools, the crime rate, and measures of the quality of healthcare and economy. We gave points to communities that are walkable, diverse, have lots of parks and active children’s sections in their libraries. We favored communities with shorter commute times (so working parents can be home more and on the road less) and larger populations of other kids to play with."

I see what you did there but I disagree. I think median household income and population of children are the big factors. Solana Beach and Del Mar, how many young families can afford to buy in there? Any detached home is going to be 800k++ for something basic or 1MM++ for a nice home. I think the San Marcos vs Eastlake analogy is pretty much spot on. You can still get a nice home in those areas for 500k and there are more upscale tracts with 800-1MM homes. Mostly people are college educted and work in service industry, I would say south bay has a higher % of govt workers who probably on average make more, have better benefits and more job security than their private sector counterparts. The traffic sucks for the most part on both ends. They are (mostly) socioeconomic equivelant IMO.

Even a nice home in Poway or Carlsbad is going to be $$$ at this point.

[hitman619]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

I see what you did there but I disagree. I think median household income and population of children are the big factors. Solana Beach and Del Mar, how many young families can afford to buy in there? Any detached home is going to be 800k++ for something basic or 1MM++ for a nice home. I think the San Marcos vs Eastlake analogy is pretty much spot on. You can still get a nice home in those areas for 500k and there are more upscale tracts with 800-1MM homes. Mostly people are college educted and work in service industry, I would say south bay has a higher % of govt workers who probably on average make more, have better benefits and more job security than their private sector counterparts. The traffic sucks for the most part on both ends. They are (mostly) socioeconomic equivelant IMO.

Even a nice home in Poway or Carlsbad is going to be $$$ at this point.

My sister has lived in Eastlake/Southbay for 20 years and this post is accurate
I think this thread is about to get ugly.
Why do people continue to comment on this forum on areas they know nothing about I will never know!
Chula Vista as whole is a pretty good place to raise a family.

[Ilovepahrump]

I've lived in Eastlake for a couple years (with my young family), and I think it's a total gem. It's a super short commute for those who work near the border, which my husband does. The schools are excellent. It's still relatively affordable. It's super walkable and has just about every major store you could want. Parks everywhere. It's clean, new, & safe. They have all sorts of events for families with children in the community. The shopping center near our house does crafts & concerts on summer weekends, "snow"fall in the winter, Santa train rides, Halloween trick or treating, & so on. There's gorgeous landscaping everywhere. The weather is pleasant (not too hot like some parts of East County, yet not too windy/cloudy/chilly). We can go just about all year without turning on the AC. The roads are in great condition around here, lots of bike lanes, and I love that all the left turns are controlled by arrows. We take the toll road a lot, so we get places very quickly (can be at the airport or Coronado for the beach in 15-20 mins). We pay around $80/mo. in tolls, but we never hit traffic so I honestly don't mind at all.

The cons would be: (1) inconvenient when we're travelling to other parts of CA, it takes almost an hour just to get out of SD county (2) not much authentic character or charm (3) the food options are a little lackluster.

As far as West Chula Vista goes.. I really don't go much. No reason to really. It feels congested, old, seedy in parts.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by hitman619

My sister has lived in Eastlake/Southbay for 20 years and this post is accurate

Why do people continue to comment on this forum on areas they know nothing about I will never know!
Chula Vista as whole is a pretty good place to raise a family.

I don't want to nudge an ugly-war, but I did have a reason for posting this article. What I have noticed here on the forums is that many of us have a tendency to express our "opinions" based on outdated or limited information. We lived somewhere 15 years ago, and didn't like it so we brand the entire area as "not good" for anyone even though a lot may have changed in that area or that it might be PERFECT for someone else. Or we seldom leave the bubble of our immediate area but love living there, so we insist that our neighborhood/town/area is the "best" place to live, as if it is the ONLY place in San Diego worth considering. Or maybe we sped by an area like Chula Vista on the freeway on our way to Mexico, noticed that there were billboards in Spanish, and decide that the only reason anyone might consider CV family friendly is because it is "diverse".

To a good extent, this is something we ALL do (myself included). I sometimes wonder, however, that by doing so we are shutting off the people who come here to ask questions from other options that might work well for them. I know Hkburin thinks I am some sort of La Mesa fanatic. It is true that I like La Mesa, but the reason I mention it so often is NOT because I am a LM fanatic -- it's just to offer another option besides North County to people looking for homes. North County is already well covered here, but other places in San Diego (like EastLake in CV) are also very nice places, and we should be open-minded about sharing them.

Actually, it's not just about people who are new to San Diego. There are so many interesting places in San Diego County. When we only base the conversation here on stereotypes and outdated information, we are cutting ourselves (current residents) off from learning about all of the wonderful nooks and crannies San Diego County offers. We may prefer where we live, but I, for one, love learning about and exploring new parts of our County! I've lived here for 30+ years and I am still finding new places that I love throughout San Diego.

Again, I don't want to get into a flaming war (I've already had my head handed to me more than once for mentioning places in East County). Rather, I am just pointing out that perhaps when we talk about different parts of the County, we need to be open minded to the idea that where we currently live is not the ONLY place where a family can be happy and comfortable. And, since things can change pretty quickly in an area, perhaps we should ask questions ourselves when we don't have CURRENT knowledge of an area. At the very least, we shouldn't dismiss other posters who have positive opinions about an area that we personally don't like ourselves.

I say this a lot, but I am going to say it again: The wonderful thing about San Diego County is that there are MANY great areas, and something for everyone.

Getting down from my soap box now.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by Ilovepahrump

I've lived in Eastlake for a couple years (with my young family), and I think it's a total gem. It's a super short commute for those who work near the border, which my husband does. The schools are excellent. It's still relatively affordable. It's super walkable and has just about every major store you could want. Parks everywhere. It's clean, new, & safe. They have all sorts of events for families with children in the community. The shopping center near our house does crafts & concerts on summer weekends, "snow"fall in the winter, Santa train rides, Halloween trick or treating, & so on. There's gorgeous landscaping everywhere. The weather is pleasant (not too hot like some parts of East County, yet not too windy/cloudy/chilly). We can go just about all year without turning on the AC. The roads are in great condition around here, lots of bike lanes, and I love that all the left turns are controlled by arrows. We take the toll road a lot, so we get places very quickly (can be at the airport or Coronado for the beach in 15-20 mins). We pay around $80/mo. in tolls, but we never hit traffic so I honestly don't mind at all.

The cons would be: (1) inconvenient when we're travelling to other parts of CA, it takes almost an hour just to get out of SD county (2) not much authentic character or charm (3) the food options are a little lackluster.

As far as West Chula Vista goes.. I really don't go much. No reason to really. It feels congested, old, seedy in parts.

Ilovepahrump, Great post. I really enjoyed reading it because you paint such a lovely picture of the area. My husband and I lived in Southwestern College Estates around the same time that the first EastLake homes were being built. We moved to Jamul shortly thereafter as we wanted some land to spread out, but every time we drive through that part of the County, we always comment on how nice the area has turned out to be. And, it looks like there are still newer SFH for around (or even under) $500,000 there. We do miss the weather in that area -- we aren't that far east as the crow flies from Eastlake, but once you get over "the mountains" into Jamul, it definitely gets warmer in the summer than east CV.

Are your kid(s) in school yet? I have worked with a couple of students from Olympian H.S. but I don't know much about the elementary schools in Eastlake/Otay Ranch so if you have any insights to share from your personal experience, that would be helpful to people who might be interested in the area.