Does San Diego have any drawbacks, negatives, or downsides in living there? (Oakland: employment, living in)

[ZeApelido]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

I am not trying to say SF is in any means balanced in terms of median income to median home price. What I am saying is, the same tech worker will have a much better likelihood of coming up with a downpayment through equity in SF (via stock) than in SD (via saving income from a job). If you're 30, a couple each making 120k in SF but have 100k+ in stock equity, as well as saved some cash for a downpayment, that is enough for you to get a toe into the housing market, or just leave SF, make 80% of the money, and buy a house somewhere else. It's just a huge wealth accellerator that isn't nearly as available for regular joe programmer in SD.

Half right. Average tech workers in SF are not in better position to buy a house in SF than average tech workers in SD buying in SD. You are overestimating how many get significant equity to buy in SF (and $100 k isn't enough).

But they are definitely in great position to buy anywhere else.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by newgensandiego

Oh i know the person is a lunatic. But I think it's worth mentioning for everyone's awareness. There are many misconceptions about San Diego that even life-long San Diegans on this forum continue to repeat. For instance:

• "SD is sprawling" > Not relative to US metros based on actual Census data on urbanized areas and population-weighted density.
• "Few people are from San Diego" > Maybe, but the % of homegrown people is barely any different than other major metros.
• "Traffic is bad" > Arguably the best traffic/commute conditions of any major metro in the US
• "SD is conservative"> Not really. Maybe relative to California, but that isn't saying much
• "SD is just military and tourism" > Hmm, is that why we are usually top 5 for VC investments and have the second-highest patents per capita in the US?

It's irritating that locals, in addition to vengeful former residents, speak these mistruths. Maybe it's because they have limited experience outside San Diego and have no based for comparison.

Thanks for listing the above. I guess the saying that old stereotypes holds true here.

1. If people think SD is sprawling, they've never been to Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, ATL, among others.
2. Why do some think SD is only place full of transplants? Do people actually believe places iike SF, LA, DC, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, etc. are full of natives?
3. It's arguable to say we have the best traffic conditions out there. I do know it's way worse in Seattle, DC and LA!
4. The conservative thing really annoying. There are now more registered Independents and Democrats than Republicans. I like that the county is now purple because it keeps everyone in check.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...920-story.html

5. Nothing wrong with the military and tourism. They're both great for the area. All of the top/favorite cities in the country attract tourists and SD is happens to be one of them. NYC, SF, DC, LA, etc. get way more tourists than us. And then there are the estimated 100,000 uniformed military in the county. What is that? 3% of the 3.3 million people who live here.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Simple. Home construction hasn't kept pace with demand for the last 30+ years. Even the New York Times is saying it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/u...ng-crisis.html

....the churning economy has run up against 30 years of resistance to the kind of development experts say is urgently needed....officials say the combination of a booming economy and the lack of construction of homes and apartments have combined to make this the worst housing crisis here in memory.

Agreed. People only want to talk about the neighbors who've left for other states and never about those who bought the house they sold. Maybe someone can tell me where all of the boarded up and abandoned neighborhoods are located.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Yes, very good point. Even in SF proper, only ten percent of people work in tech. In many outlying cities, it's far less. And not everyone in tech earns liquid stock options. That's only a small number of people accumulate the additional wealth needed to get into the market. The issue with housing construction, there and in SD, is land availability. We happen to live in a beautiful state and don't want to destroy our beauty just for mass housing, because it's an important part of our quality of life. So we need to build denser urban housing. But then, people complain about that destroying the character of their towns. So we end up with nothing.

Where I hope we can see future housing is in places that are already developed but underutilized and unattractive, like low density, older warehouse or commercial areas like you find in Miramar, Mira Mesa, or in the Bay Area in places like Concord, Hayward, San Leandro, Vallejo, etc. Redevelop housing there, close to the urban core. In SD, there will be a huge project like this in the future, between Sorrento Valley and Mira Mesa. Much better than ruining our bucolic countryside and driving people farther and farther from jobs.

I'm actually thinking that California's high speed rail, which I think is insanely expensive, is really not being designed for people to take a train between SF and LA, which is slower and more expensive than a flight, but to develop mass housing in the San Joaquin Valley so people can commute to either area from points in between. With both gubernatorial candidates promoting millions of new housing units, I foresee the train corridor as the catalyst for that growth.

Yes.

Originally Posted by tstieber

Along these lines, I notice when talking to longtime residents vs new residents that they view SD very differently. Longtime residents (or even former residents) still see our city with those old stereotypes, whereas newcomers see it as much more urban and liberal. I think that reflects just how much our perceptions of places are defined by our first experiences there and change much less later.

I find SD quite liberal these days but found it somewhat conservative twenty years ago. The same goes for my hometown of Walnut Creek up in the Bay Area. Demographics and tastes change.

I agree that SD is fairly compact. LA metro is infinitely more sprawling, and the Bay Area extends from northern Sonoma county to southern Santa Clara county, which are like 150 miles apart, and it extends about fifty miles inland. We're very compact here.

I do think traffic stinks, with rush hour starting earlier and earlier, but I also recognize it's much worse in two dozen metro areas ahead of us in that department. And I think that's because we're compact so that even slow commutes aren't necessarily long commutes.

I think it's a pretty great time to be in San Diego, after its boring small-town past but before it gets overimpacted like LA or the Bay Area. You can still get the good life that California used to have when I was a kid in the 80s, but with more progressive mindsets and tons of great restaurants, bars, and Entertainment.

And yes.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by newgensandiego

Personally I'm not buying it. I've been doing one of my old commutes the past week (Oceanside to downtown) and have been leaving around 7:30. There is maybe 10-15 minutes of extra travel time compared to a no-traffic trip. Of course there are segments/corridors of our roadways that are even worse than the 5, but that additional rush hour congestion is nothing. In DC a 10-mile commute from the suburbs can easily be 15-20mins off-peak, but an hour during rush hour.

San Diego commutes are shorter because jobs are spread out across the region. If everyone was going downtown, commutes would be absolutely atrocious.

I'm in North County often for work and if I leave Carlsbad after 2:30pm (Especially during summer), it will take more than a hour to get home. With no traffic, it's only 30 minutes.

[newgensandiego]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

I'm in North County often for work and if I leave Carlsbad after 2:30pm (Especially during summer), it will take more than a hour to get home. With no traffic, it's only 30 minutes.

But even then, 1 hour to go ~33 miles is nothing compared to LA, DC, etc. where it can take 1 hour to go 10 miles.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by newgensandiego

But even then, 1 hour to go ~33 miles is nothing compared to LA, DC, etc. where it can take 1 hour to go 10 miles.

True. I was just refuting that there is only a 10-15 minute difference between rush hour and a non-rush hour commute. But it's still an hour and fifteen minutes of wasted time!

[newgensandiego]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

True. I was just refuting that there is only a 10-15 minute difference between rush hour and a non-rush hour commute. But it's still an hour and fifteen minutes of wasted time!

Yeah it definitely depends on the specific route. Generally, San Diegans have just gotten really spoiled by historically quick commuting trips.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by the topper

Lots of drawbacks: no real downtown core to speak of, very sprawling, lacking urban neighborhoods, and high housing costs.

This sounds like a list of the advantages of San Diego!

No downtown core = no super bad traffic area with expensive parking.

Very sprawling = very nice homes on canyon view lots,not crowded and jammed like SF.

Lacking urban neighborhoods = no bad ghettos and gang problems like LA or Oakland.

The housing costs are high but not nearly as bad as the SF area.

[eastcoastbias]

Originally Posted by newgensandiego

But even then, 1 hour to go ~33 miles is nothing compared to LA, DC, etc. where it can take 1 hour to go 10 miles.

Why do folks compare our traffic with arguably one of the worst traffic centers (LA)? Can we say it isn’t great here without constantly throwing LA into the mix. It casually ignores the issues that San diegans have. It’s like sitting in a dentist chair and getting two root canals - well it ain’t that bad the guy in the other room is getting 5 today.

The 5 and 8 have gotten worse in the 15 years I’ve lived here. The 15 is slightly more tolerable with expansion. They opened up 15/78 slightly and it’s helped a little.The 805 is the 805.52 can be parking lot in one direction. The weekend at certain times have gotten worse all roadways.

Lack of grid here, poor public transportation planning and folks moving further out of employment centers to affordable housing have created dense traffic.