Does San Diego care too much about itself? (Orange, El Cajon: neighborhoods, schools)

[sdlife619]

I ask this question because I really notice that the city, Cal Trans and it's people, overly care too much about San Diego's image. It's like we get so afraid when the grass turns brown, be it from the way our neighborhoods look, to our well manicured freeways. SD's freeways are very well taken care of, but go up to LA for the day, and you will notice a big difference in how F-ed up everything is. Why is that? Does San Diego get some sort of special treatment from the state? Because they want to make sure that when tourist come out here to visit, image and perfection of cleanliness matters more than god?

We always try to plant a tree to cover up a run down looking building, which is funny because I notice this a lot, been to El Cajon Blvd lately?There is always this need to beautify everything. I think San Diego is madly in love with itself which sounds strange, but it's so true. Personally it kinda annoys me, since I like a little grittyness, all those trees makes everything look so nice and perfect, it takes away that "street" vibe that I love. We don't even have the water to keep the vegetation looking so nice all the time. Imagine if we had our water use rationed upon us? Wow that will be the first! San Diego will turn brown and people will start to cry and throw a whiny fit Bunch of babys!

[sav858]

So you have a problem with people having pride in their city and wanting it to look nice? No city wants to look run downed, some just do. LA freeways look f-ed up b/c that county is more f-ed up than SD, notice instantly how the 5 changes for the worse once you cross the Orange County line into LA. Wanting the place you live to look nice is NOT a bad thing at all imo, better than having people and a govt that doesn't care and lets their city deteriorate.

[NYSD1995]

You should move to LA... it's plenty dumpy.

[loveautumn]

so if you like grittyness, there are plenty of run down cities in America....try Cleveland.

[jkoz]

[quote=sdlife619;7944432]We always try to plant a tree to cover up a run down looking building, which is funny because I notice this a lot, been to El Cajon Blvd lately?There is always this need to beautify everything. quote]

Coming originally from a very "gritty" city (won't say which one), this is actually what I appreciated most about San Diego when I moved here. Visitors like seeing that as well.

[MiTaylor]

Odd thing to complain about...

[Oerdin]

I'd say it doesn't care enough about itself. If people cared more we wouldn't have such a low ratio of police to citizens, we'd have actually have fire department coverage for the whole city (almost 200,000 people have moved to Mission Valley in the last 10 years but there isn't a single fire station), our schools wouldn't have 40-50 students per teacher, and a million other things. It's similarly hard to figure out why someone would get upset about a homeowner actually maintaining his property, isn't that a good thing?

[Snort]

San Diego- the flaming narcissist.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

I'd say it doesn't care enough about itself. If people cared more we wouldn't have such a low ratio of police to citizens, we'd have actually have fire department coverage for the whole city (almost 200,000 people have moved to Mission Valley in the last 10 years but there isn't a single fire station), our schools wouldn't have 40-50 students per teacher, and a million other things. It's similarly hard to figure out why someone would get upset about a homeowner actually maintaining his property, isn't that a good thing?

I agree.

And I think the OP is a younger guy... no homeowner would ever complain about their neighbors keeping up their property. That's the talk of someone with nothing invested and nothing to lose.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

I'd say it doesn't care enough about itself. If people cared more we wouldn't have such a low ratio of police to citizens, we'd have actually have fire department coverage for the whole city (almost 200,000 people have moved to Mission Valley in the last 10 years but there isn't a single fire station), our schools wouldn't have 40-50 students per teacher, and a million other things. It's similarly hard to figure out why someone would get upset about a homeowner actually maintaining his property, isn't that a good thing?

Good point, I do kind of feel this way too. I really cannot stand a lot of the roads here among some of the other problems. I think some areas of SD are kind of dumpy and could be so much better but we're cheap and we don't want to pay for it. Our waterfront downtown is pretty pathetic, the wall along the boardwalk in Mission Beach is crumbling by the day, etc...