Chula Vista - good/bad/ugly? (Orange, Encinitas: apartment complexes, mobile home, landscaping)

[gmach]

looking to move and considering chula vista (eastlake hills area). can you provide info on the area (nice, not so nice)? i have 3 young kids, so schools are important.

also, would work in the northern end of downtown. will my commute be bad?

[mercedes viteri]

Hi,
I have been living in Eastlake in Chula Vista for over five years. It is a great place for families. It used to be a desert up to 10 years ago, and Chula Vista proper did not have the greatest of reputations...but Eastlake is great. Brand new homes every where, beautiful landscaping and designs, parks, very expensive some of them(the homes), shopping malls, strip malls, great new schools in brand new buildings. They poured tons of money out here. A lot of young professionals, military families, and its culturally diverse too. It is very 'up and coming' and people are amazed at the growth. Great place for families. On the down side it is a long drive to north county...at least 45 minutes to an hour...traffic is bad. Good luck.

[socketz]

Yes. We have friends in Chula Vista (Eastlake) and it take us 45 mins to get their from Rancho Bernardo.

As a comparison, I can get to South Orange County in an hour from Rancho Bernardo.

Eastlake is the far end of SD. There are some nice communities down in there though.

[Mugsy]

Eastlake is not right off a freeway right now. The 125 is coming soon but the building continues.
Just me, but I like living a mile away from the freeway myself. And 2 miles from a trolley station where I can park and ride if I am in the mood: rain, heavy traffic, relax etc...

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by socketz

Yes. We have friends in Chula Vista (Eastlake) and it take us 45 mins to get their from Rancho Bernardo.

That has to be without traffic, right?


I also have friends that live there and they all seem to like it. It really is pretty nice out there, but it takes so long to get to Eastlake from the 805 freeway. My friend works in Mission Valley and he says it's a 40 minutes commute each way.

[orthopak]

Once the tollroad is built, it will connect to the 125 and will relieve a lot of traffic. Commute to downtown depends on the time you leave to work and get off. Eastlake Chula Vista is a nice area, West Chula Vista is the ugly/bad side. towards Chula Vista mall. I lived in the Woodlawn apartments near the 5 Freeway, that's as ghetto as it's gonna get.

[SDF]

Originally Posted by orthopak

Once the tollroad is built, it will connect to the 125 and will relieve a lot of traffic. Commute to downtown depends on the time you leave to work and get off. Eastlake Chula Vista is a nice area, West Chula Vista is the ugly/bad side. towards Chula Vista mall. I lived in the Woodlawn apartments near the 5 Freeway, that's as ghetto as it's gonna get.

I agree, the problem with Eastlake is that until the toll road gets finished, morning traffic getting down Telegraph Canyon can be rough, then the 805 North is almost always backed up, sometimes pretty badly, even before you get to the 54. But even with the Tollroad, one needing to get down to the 805 will still have take the 54 west for a number of miles. Eastlake is very nice though, everything has a nice "new" feeling every time I go over there.

I live west of the 805 off Monserate Ave, and have for a few years. I really like CV as a whole, haven't had any problems with anybody so far, and I've walked around on foot on many occasions. There are a lot of single family homes throughout the community, that helps a lot. But as you stated, down near the 5 there are a lot of mobile home parks, apartment complexes, and more gang activity. Still a nice community overall though.

[whr2go]

Yes, eastlake is the epitomy of suburbia. We are way out (10-15 minutes to the 805) but seems like forever when you are not used to it. Everything is new and nice here. I have two kids myself and love the schools. They are some of the highest rated in the state. Also the new mall is great and all the new restaurants (California Pizza Kitchen, PF Changs, Cheescake Factory, etc.) make it nice so everything is less than 5 minutes away. They are building even more restaurants and stores as we speak (ie Pat and Oscars, Trader Joes, etc) The only real reason to hit the 805 and beyond is for work or to hit the beach occasionally. Safety is supurb here as there is always safety patrols and chula vista pd for speeding. The only funky thing that I never got used to was seeing border patrol all the time and their nice low flying helicopter. Just my 2 cents.

[SDF]

Originally Posted by whr2go

Yes, eastlake is the epitomy of suburbia. We are way out (10-15 minutes to the 805) but seems like forever when you are not used to it. Everything is new and nice here. I have two kids myself and love the schools. They are some of the highest rated in the state. Also the new mall is great and all the new restaurants (California Pizza Kitchen, PF Changs, Cheescake Factory, etc.) make it nice so everything is less than 5 minutes away. They are building even more restaurants and stores as we speak (ie Pat and Oscars, Trader Joes, etc) The only real reason to hit the 805 and beyond is for work or to hit the beach occasionally. Safety is supurb here as there is always safety patrols and chula vista pd for speeding. The only funky thing that I never got used to was seeing border patrol all the time and their nice low flying helicopter. Just my 2 cents.

Definitely. Eastlake is becoming so well developed that work and the beach certainly rank up there as two main reasons to venture over to the 805. CV and Eastlake are nice communities, so the INS (oops, I'm sorry, "Dept. of Homeland Security") patrols seem out of place, but being only 5-10 minutes from the border answers the question. In addition, almost all nice communities from Eastlake to Encinitas and beyond have a situation with groups of migrants (hornaleros') congregating and looking for work. Generally they're decent people looking for fair day's work, but many of them certainly aren't afraid to gawk over pretty women heading to the store for some shopping..

[jksouthbay88]

I can break this one down easy.
resident of 19 years
Good:Bonita,San Miguel Ranch,and the 2nd avenue coroder.
The Bad?ef. north west cv,and southside.
Other bads south central(5th-hilltop,j-naples),and otay.
also southwest(naples-Orange,hilltop-I-5)