The awful truth about El Cajon CA. (San Diego, Santee: homes, construction)

[fruitarianism]

Originally Posted by TheCaliforniaBear

Off and on, i've lived in El Cajon since 2001. And spent a total of about 4 solid years in the city. First of all I want to say that I am not "slamming" El Cajon here. I am simply sharing my honest opinion after living in El Cajon for a significant amount of time.

It is a very strange place. A very rough town.

It is not uncommon to see people going crazy on hard drugs, or losing their minds from mental illness on the streets. A drive across town and you will see dozens of such people. Some of them are regulars who I have seen since the beginning. Constantly wandering up and down Broadway and Main streets. I have nothing at all against homeless people, in fact I have love for them and I want to help them when I see them, but most of the ones you encounter in El Cajon are not the harmless, down on their luck types, they are more like the hardcore, mean, drug addict types.

As for the "regular" people in El Cajon. I would describe them as hedonistic, trailer trash. Now don't get me wrong, I am a working class guy myself, i've even lived in trailer parks, and I am about as far as you can get from having a silver spoon in my mouth. But the culture in El Cajon makes me feel like a high-class gentleman. Big lifted trucks, gangsta/thug mentality and extreme machoism are the name of the game in EC. Lots of MMA looking people wearing TAPOUT shirts, lots of women who look like tacky strippers, lots of gangsta types with sideways hats, lots of "bros" wearing black socks pulled way up and flat-bill hats. A general culture of anti-intellectualism and outlaw thuggishness.

Everyone in El Cajon seems t have a paranoia of each other. Avoiding eye contact. Getting nervous if eye contact is made. They seem to be afraid of each others violent tendencies.

The interesting thing is that if you travel east into La Mesa it instantly changes into a much more family-friendly sort of environment, with healthy looking people jogging and people carrying themselves in a more peaceful, relaxed manner.

Then you go into San Diego. And it suddenly turns into that stereotypical, laid back, California beach culture. It is amazing how fast it changes.

This is the fasicinating thing about El Cajon to me. That it is not isolated, it is a mere 15 miles from San Diego I believe. Yet the culture and entire way of life is so radically different. Somtimes it seems like there must be something in the water in El Cajon. I just cannot believe that the people act the way that they do, yet they seem to be oblivious and unaware of it. To them, this way of life is normal

It is too bad. El Cajon is a place with beautiful weather, surrounding by gorgeous hills, close to San Diego, close to the desert. It has a lot going for it. But the culture is just unsavory.

So, am I just crazy? Or is there some truth to what i'm saying here?

I agree with your assesment. I lived in el cajon for awhile. It's an awful place, especially for someone who enjoys fresher air and peace. There's so much hardcore drug use; I was frequently asked for "chronic", as well as crystal meth, by strangers. Someone tried to sell my drugs on a bus.

I get really bad vibes from the place; its kinda hard to describe. There's so much congestion, especially up on main street. Alot of the area is lower-income, so you have all the usual problems that poverty breeds. Everyone smokes it seems, which only adds to the already horrible air quality. The heat isn't so nice either. When I think of el cajon, I think of a boiling pot.

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm no longer there. For lack of better words, the energy in that city is absolutely horrible.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by thealohaman

My suspicion is central El Cajon votes overwhelmingly Democratic.

I don't know about "central El Cajon", but the city of El Cajon overall appears to be Republican territory. McCain won El Cajon 53-47 over Obama.

San Diego County Presidential Results by Community « Jim 2.0’s Blog

El Cajon also voted 63-37 to eliminate same-sex marriage - a much bigger margin of victory than in San Diego County as a whole. As mentioned earlier, they don't like gays in El Cajon.

San Diego County Proposition 8 Results by Community « Jim 2.0’s Blog

[LZKay1]

Sounds like Stockton, lol.

[bunky3301]

Originally Posted by TheCaliforniaBear

I don't know. Most people of low intelligence tend to go Republican it seems.

How else could GW Bush have gotton elected twice? And why else would they have put Sarah Palin in there as the VP candidate?

These Republican vs. Democrat debates are very 5 years ago though. Both sides are crooked and need to be put in their place.

Can there be anymore "stereo typing" done in this post ? If your right then 50% of San Diego is of low intelligence because they vote Republican ? Right?
Orange County must be nothing but people of low intelligence since its mainly conservative and vote Republican. Right ?

Your statement is the only thing that lacks thought and intelligence. IMO.

sdlife619-Yeah it's all true from what the OP said. El Cajon is vastly different from San Diego. It's strange how the people differ as well from "normal" San Diegan's. Living in El Cajon is like living in South, the people are backwards, lack intelligences, and work heavily in the construction industry, landscaping, roofing, and are socially messed up. Basic contractor work is apparent in East County, especially El Cajon and Santee. Lot's of truckers, proud to be a "MAN" mentality. Everybody seems to drive a Ford car/truck, patriotism is important, owning a gun is almost a given, religious fanatics marching down thestreets desperately trying to save people from Satan, and there evil ways is also alive and well in El Cajon/Santee. I have seen this happen on many occasions, a group of church goers were screaming out of a loud speaker on the corner of East Main st., that you need to be saved, or else your going straight to hell. They even were speaking to gays, saying stuff like "your filth is destroying you", "Forgive yourselves, the lake of fire is wide open for you". Seriously I heard this talk while at a stop light in El Cajon, it's really sad, and it just shows you that even supposedly Gods followers would say such a thing, regardless of there sexuality. There is no reason to lash out and speak that way towards the gay community, and I'm sure God wouldn't want anyone to condemn one another, or hate on them.

It does feel like there is a lot of anger and tension in El Cajon. Not sure why I feel that way, but there is a sense of hostility.

This poster lumped the WHOLE South Region of the country together and labeled them as trash , unintelligent and everyone does construction. WOW that statement shows a lot of intelligence doesn't it?

Is it true what a lot of the country thinks about "Californians" ? That they ALL worship the Sun , go to the Beach everyday and eat nothing but Bean sprouts !!!! Of course its not true its just another stereo type that burns on from ignorance.

Anyway you had a good post going till you brought politics into it. Maybe now we can hear more about the "awful truth about El Cajon".

[NYSD1995]

There is a lot of stereotyping in this thread. But I will say this - the thuggishness, anti-intellectual, machismo, bro/gangsta culture - be it white or black or brown or whatever - doesn't end at El Cajon. This is the youth culture of SoCal, it is everywhere from LA to San Diego.

The mix might change from city to city, but it's everywhere. San Diego region has a just higher percentage of white trash types because just a large part of who lives in this region.

When people say 'San Diego has no culture', this is largely what they are seeing.

[SD Observer]

East County - White trash gangs

South East SD & City Heights - Black trash gangs

National City & San Ysidro - Mexican trash gangs

Oceanside - Asian trash gangs

[thealohaman]

Bunky hit the nail right on the head with his commentary on the stereotyping. He points out correctly that the more affluent and educated area is, the more it tends to lean Republican. Let me emphasize again: "in general". That was the implication behind my remark about central El Cajon probably voting Democratic, and I'll bet if we could isolate those precincts it would hold true. In any event, as a conservative, I get tired of some of the implied, if not overt, liberal political commentaries that get entirely off topic. I do agree, however, with the comment by the presumably left of center poster that suggests both parties need cleaning up. Incidentally, I held my nose as I walked into the booth and voted for McCain, unlike so many Democrats who at least initially seemed to irrationally gush all over Obama. Incidentally, Sassberto, we've got "white trash" here in Michigan too. I'll let you know a year from now if I've think it's much worse in San Diego.

[TheCaliforniaBear]

American people are so brainwashed into this liberal/conservative, Republican/Democrat debating. It's a distraction from important issues. It's just a wedge that divides the American people and keeps us from uniting to save this country. The people running the show at the top of the ladder WANT us to argue amongst ourselves like this.

How did we even start taking about this? It doesn't matter. Mainstream media has got us brainwashed, and our isolation keeps us brainwashed.

As for stereotypes. Many people seem to go out of their way to fit into stereotypes.

In Ocean Beach, many people are just being stereotypical hippies/hipsters.

In City Heights, many people act like stereotypical gangstas yo.

In La Jolla, it's aristocratic rich people.

In Pacific Beach, it's gnarly surfers brahhh.

I think stereotypes are ridiculous and i'm glad to say that I personally do not fall into any specific stereotype. But let's face it, most people look for these things as guidelines for how to act and they play into them. Free thought is frightening to many people, so they choose to latch onto a meme instead.

This is the USA. Stereotypical people are just part of the culture unfortunately

[thealohaman]

I'll go along with most of what you're saying, Bear!

[TheCaliforniaBear]

Originally Posted by paulmaul78

Having grown up in the southeast and having relatives in the "deep south" this post annoyed me a bit. I'd like to post a very long response, but Lynyrd Skynyrd beat me to it when they wrote "Sweet Home Alabama." In short, the south has some messed-up, annoying types but on the whole its a much classier, friendlier kinder place than Hell Cajon. Grizzled Meth Heads are hard to come by in the Deep South, not so in El Cajon.
I almost took a job in El Cajon. I had a job I didnt like and was looking at this other job in El Cajon instead. After a few trips there, I was annoyed by the street layout almost as much as the heat and the skeezy vibe. I decided not to take the job and kept my original crappy job, opting for the devil I knew as opposed to the one I didn't know.
Im sure theres great parts ofEl Cajon, great people, etc etc but in the end, overall, I caught a bad vibe from the place.

I agree. Some people call El Cajon "redneck" and say it's like the south and all that. But really it's not. El Cajon is like some twisted carnival. I would say it's more like the scummy parts of Las Vegas if I had to compare it to anything.

Redneck? Not really. El Cajon is something a bit more bizarre than that.