Please school me on SD's DOWNTOWN neighborhoods? (Kensington: university, living)

[CNYC]

NY'er Here......

If you are coming out to SD to live, downtown would be a loser choice. There is nothing urban about downtown. At best it reminds me of a little downtown in some midwestern city somewhere. Coming from NYC you will laugh once you see it. Not that there isn't a few things to do, but in general it is a graveyard besides the Gaslamp and YES homeless are everywhere.

I don't hang out in Hillcrest nor am I gay but I know Chelsea extremely well. SD is all about the beach and the great outdoors. If you want a good urban setting you will need to travel for it.

Also worth mentioning is downtown has a serious issue with supermarkets. Even worse than NYC. Shopping at mega supermarkets in SD is one of the perks of moving to " the burbs ". I have seen one supermarket downtown. Maybe there are more but they aren't obvious to me.

Go for Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach or Hillcrest.

[moved]

There are two supermarkets downtown. Ralph's is at 1st & G, and Albertson's is at 13th & Market.

[CNYC]

Originally Posted by moved

There are two supermarkets downtown. Ralph's is at 1st & G, and Albertson's is at 13th & Market.

Prices must be extremely high ?

The Ralphs in my area (with tons of competition) is the most expensive in the area.

[sfosyd]

Amazon Fresh, with the acquisition of Whole Foods, is getting there. At this point, it is almost as good as FreshDirect in NYC which I love. They deliver to all of downtown San Diego.

That said, if brick and mortar grocery stores are important to you, Hillcrest has much better options than downtown: Sprouts, Trader Joes, Ralphs, Whole Foods, Lazy Acres, all within walking distance.

You will be shocked at how cheap Uber and Lyft are in San Diego, literally half the price of NYC or more. No Taxi and Limousine commission here.

I'd recommend Little Italy as well as the other options mentioned, lots of nice new buildings but some noise from planes and trains. No area is as walkable as Manhattan of course, but when you consider that walking is pleasant almost every day of the year in SD, it makes a huge difference.

You are doing San Diego right. Driving around this place SUCKS, just try doing a zipper merge here, complete idiocy. Give me NYC drivers any day.

[spoonman1]

Originally Posted by moved

There are two supermarkets downtown. Ralph's is at 1st & G, and Albertson's is at 13th & Market.

Actually 3...Jimbo's Natural, Albertson's, Ralph's. Also a handful of specialty markets like those found in Little Italy.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by hellomindy

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I'll be working from home, would prefer people to visit me..Will people be reluctant to visit me downtown due to parking issues?

It depends on the type of customers you're talking about and where they are located in the county of San Diego.

Lots of people in the San Diego area avoid going downtown at all costs, especially if they live and work far from downtown. Their reluctance doesn't just have to do with finding parking; other issues - distance from where they live/work, traffic, homelessness, perceptions of crime downtown, etc. - make going "downtown" a hassle to a lot of people here.

So, unless your future customers live/work in or close to downtown, expecting them to visit you in a home office downtown may actually be sort of a negative to many.

Depending on who your customers are and where they are located, there may be other locations, both within the city of San Diego and the county of San Diego, that make a better location for your home business.

Just a heads up, but if you do end up within the city limits of the City of San Diego (vs. elsewhere in the County), whether downtown or elsewhere, it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the City's laws/regulations on running a business from a home office in the city. While the City isn't exactly knocking on house doors about this, if you will be renting in an apartment complex, it might be good to be aware in case neighbors have issues. Some pertinent sites from the City of San Diego:

https://www.sandiego.gov/ced/zoning/home

https://www.sandiego.gov/treasurer/t...s/btax/btaxhow

If you decide to consider other parts of the County of San Diego outside of the City of San Diego limits, you can find links to their regs here:

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/conte...slicenses.html


Finally, others have already mentioned this but it deserves to be repeated: don't come to San Diego expecting to recreate life in Manhattan. You won't be able to do that here. Come to San Diego with an eye towards taking advantage of what makes the San Diego area unique: easy access to natural beauty, neighborhoods that feel more suburban, a laid back lifestyle, friendly people, and of course, our glorious weather.

I also agree with the others who have suggested you look at Little Italy. I think that will give you more of the vibe you seem to want AND it may not be as intimidating to customers as visiting you in the heart of "Downtown." Little Italy is also a nice, central location to land in for a year or so while you explore other parts of the San Diego area.

[moved]

Originally Posted by CNYC

Prices must be extremely high ?

The Ralphs in my area (with tons of competition) is the most expensive in the area.

Yes, the Ralph's downtown is high, because it caters to the tourist/convention crowd.

[snpdragr]

There's also Grocery Outlet and Smart & Final downtown. I think these are both about the size of a TJs.

I also shop at the local Costco (closest is 3 miles) so not a huge distance. I tend not to shop at the farmer's market in little italy but it is available. Finally I don't cook seafood myself, but the tuna dockside market has fresh catch every saturday.

There is supposed to be a Whole Foods going in at 7th & market but I'm not sure what happened to that I don't see any development yet.

[spoonman1]

OK, so the guy that was hating on DTSD was wrong by a factor of 6X. There isn't 1 grocery store but at least 5.

Albertson's
Jimbo's
Ralph's
Smart & Final
Grocery Outlet
Northgate Market

Plus, specialty stores (Mona Lisa, Krisp Market, Brazil by the Bay, Assenti's, Cash & Carry, etc), fish market, farmer's market, future Whole Foods, etc.

[moved]

The rumor about a Whole Foods downtown was in 2015, and nothing has happened since then, so at this point in time, I don't see one opening up.