Can't wait to move from NYC, but need some info (San Diego: appliances, home)

[kettlepot]

My suggestions for walkable, affordable neighborhoods:

It sounds like you are a perfect fit for the urban core neighborhoods of San Diego:

Park West
Hillcrest
University Heights
North Park
South Park
Normal Heights

Park West & Hillcrest are probably too expensive for you. Hillcrest rents are elevated because of proximity to two hospitals, with all the medical staff living close to work. Park West is mostly newer, luxury type high rise construction, or if it's cheap, it's underneath the airport flight path.

Normal Heights has a major chain grocery store that is walkable from most of the neighborhood, a Post Office, and a park on the east side. The neighborhood is better north of Adams, but coming from NYC the grittiness south of Adams Avenue shouldn't be a problem. And the rents are lower south of Adams.

University Heights is better west of Park Boulevard and north of Adams Avenue, than the area east of Park Boulevard and between Adams Avenue on the north and El Cajon Boulevard on the south. There is a major chain grocery story on Park Boulevard south of El Cajon Boulevard, but it's kind of a hike. You could also walk across the pedestrian bridge to a major chain grocery store in Hillcrest. University Heights has a small branch library, and a very nice park. It also has a miniature business district of 3 to 4 blocks.

North Park is a very large neighborhood. The southern (south of University Ave) and northern (north of Adams Ave) portions of it are the best, but they also have very few apartments. The southern part borders Balboa Park, the north part is near the same park University Heights has. The central area (between Adams Avenue and University Avenue) is the cheaper, apartment part of the neighborhood, and is also the part within walking distance of the grocery store on 30th Street between University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard. 30th & University has recently become a mini-hipster coffee shop, club & bar entertainment area. It's not a huge, bustling party area like the Gaslamp, but it would offer a walkable, entertainment venue.

South Park is funky and hip, with a main street of it's own on 30th Street. There is a grocery store in the neighborhood. It's not a major chain market though. Your nearest park would be Balboa Park, but it's the area near the golf course not the other more pedestrian oriented parts. It's definitely worth considering. It's homier and cozier than North Park.

If you live in one of these four neighborhoods, and one of you works downtown, taking the bus to work would be easy.

Yearly car registration for a 10 year old car would be cheap, but your one time start up fees, plates, smog check(??) would add to your costs.

Making an appointment for registering your car can help on the wait times, but if you are sent to the Normal Street DMV, which is the catchment area for the neighborhoods I have mentioned, an appointment can still lead to a multi-hour wait time.

Construction: legal and illegal immigrants have held down wages in the construction industry for 20 to 30 years.

Utility rates are fairly high, but you'll use such small amounts of power your bill will be VERY low: $25-50/month for Gas & Electric. If you have separately metered water, new apartments do, older apartments don't, your bill could run $50-70 every two months.

Older apartments, which is what you will find in the $1000/month price range will NOT have A/C, in unit W/D, or dishwasher. There may or may not be an on site laundry room... ASK!!!! You do not want to be hauling laundry to a laundromat. There may, or may not be an assigned parking space.... ASK!!! And if they do have one, there will only be 1 space, so if you can avoid getting a second car, all the better.

Regarding local customs, don't be 'in your face' with your opinions. Californians don't operate that way. NYCer's are considered rude by Californians, circumspect Californians are considered two-faced by NYCers. The standards of behavior are just different.

Don't worry about wearing the wrong Football jersey, San Diegans can't get roused from their paradaisical stupor to worry about your sports paraphernalia. We're about to lose our football team, and most San Diegans don't even care. I don't.

You CAN criticize San Diego. Acceptable areas of criticism are the traffic on the 15 and the 805. You can also criticize the weather. For example it is OK to complain about the lack of snow on Christmas day, provided you qualify it by saying you want it to be back to blue skies and 72 degrees on December 26th.

[Hazel09]

Thank you all. We will check out the areas sometime in January. Happy Thanksgiving!

[SDgyrl]

Please consider the neighborhoods that Kettlepot has suggested. $1,000 for a 1 bedrm is tough but can be done. A coworker of mine just snagged a small quaint 1 bedrm for $1,000 in Hillcrest. The urban core neighborhoods are rife with vacancies right now which has caused the rents to come down. If you can bump your budget to $1200 you will have many more options. I live in Banker's Hill (ie. Park West) and I absolutely love the neighborhood. It is a quaint uptown neighborhood that feels very urban. BH is close to downtown and because it sits on a hill, many of the apartments in the neighborhood boast stunning views of the downtown skyline and/or the bay. Despite feeling urban, the neighborhood is rather sleepy. It is quiet at night and I feel totally safe walking around at night. Parking is horrible...street parking only and I often have to park a few blocks away.

Banker's Hill is a walkable neighborhood but there isn't as much to walk too as there is in say, Hillcrest. There is, however, a small market, cleaners, a few restaurants, a Starbucks, banks...the only thing missing is a Supermarket. I pay $1450 for a 4th floor one bedroom apt that has a spectacular view of the downtown skyline. Another possible downside to Banker's Hill is that it sits directly on the flight path and planes coming in for a landing are a constant reality. Some people love this aspect of the neighborhood while others hate it. I happen to love the planes. They soar right by my window almost at eye level...I find them to be fascinating. Makes the neighborhood feel all the more urban to me. As a New Yorker, I think any of our urban core neighborhoods would be a good possibility for you. I hope you are able to visit as many as possible when you come. Oh and I almost forgot, with many of the older apartments in the urban core neighborhoods, utilities are often included in the rent amount. Good luck to you!

[sh0t]

Born and raised in NYC. Jamaica, Queens.

Been in san diego 8 years. Lived in PB for 5.

The whole "fast paced"/"slow paced" thing is a yawn to me. Business is business. If your company is in an industry with real competition, you better be fast paced. As far as leisure time, that's such an individual thing.


A one bedroom for 1000 in San Diego is going to be a hole in the wall in a bad neighborhood, most likely. If you are willing to live inland quite a ways, your options living expand, but then your job options contract(unless you like long commutes).

Walkable neighborhoods in San Diego? Really depends on how far you like to walk and what kind of stuff you want to walk to. It's really a function of where your house is within the neighborhood. For example, mira mesa would not be considered walkable in a general sense, but if you live right behind Mira Mesa BLVD, you could walk to many things.

it's a car town like most of CA, factor that in.

[DubHaze]

Well, it does seem like you know what you want, and what you can afford...

Rent- 1000 will get you a 1bedroom, some area's it will not be very nice, and have limited anemities (some apartments don't even have a fridge, you bring your own. weird.) at $1000 monthly I would look a little more inland from the beach. you will find a nicer place.

Here is our situation, hopefully it will give you some insight.

My husband and I moved to SD from MN 9 months ago. We LOVE it here, recently found out we are expecting our first child, next June so we will be looking for a larger place. We currently have a 1 bedroom which is 1095.00 for our anemities it is a STEAL! We have covered parking, WASHER/DRYER in our home (This is HUGE, most places have shared or no facilities) and Stainless steel appliances (YES, we have a fridge.) ALSO, we only pay Gas/Electric (about 60 per month) and we pay for internet (we have HD tv, and HDMI outputs from Laptop, so we stream cable through our internet for free. Also because we have a LCD tv, we get a lot of free HDTV channels, Fox CW, ABC, NBC etc just by plugging it in.

It is decent sized (probably 650sq ft. we had to downsize a lot to fit all our crap in here) We live in a small 8 unit gated building so I feel SAFE at night. We live in North Park, which is an up and coming neighborhood, although it can be a bit seedy at night. I do hear a lot of sirens, and I know there is a prostitution problem on El Cajon BLVD... Women, should go no where alone at night in San Diego, go with your hubby to the store. NOT even in the rich neighborhoods like La Jolla, where a women was assaulted during her early morning jog. Point is, you aren't safe alone anywhere, nice area or not. So there was the little bit of bad about my neighborhood... moving to the good, there are a TON of restaurants, shops, grocery stores etc within walking/biking distance. We get a nice breeze being on the hill, but Aug/Sept you will want a portable AC, as most places don't come with AC. My husband and I bought beach cruisers and we can bike EVERYWHERE from here! He biked to the beach (That was a long ride, North park is on a hill, so he walked back up the hill) We bike to Balboa Park (10 minute ride) and even Downtown and to the Bay. (take the bus back up the hill, save your energy!) We LOVE being close to the SD zoo. we got memberships for 80 bucks, and got free passes for family to go enjoy as well! Its nice being able to just go walk around the zoo/balboa park. Balboa has free mueseums on tuesdays to enjoy. Mission Valley is right down the hill, so you have both large malls, IKEA, COSTCO, etc like two miles away. 10 minutes by car to the beach. OOOH! I forgot to mention... FARMERS MARKETS... I LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM! There is one almost everyday, fun to people watch get fresh produce, seafood etc.... ooh the flowers are way cheap there too.

San Diego is very laid back, and a melting-pot of culture. Neighborhoods to check out with decent rent, and anemities would be NORTH PARK, Normal Heights, Hillcrest (gay neighborhood, we go there a lot because it feels safe and lots of awesome shops/restaurants) Mission Valley (tends to be hot in summer(NEED AC), and traffic gets congested with Charger games.) We looked for places in Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and Mission Beach but what we found in our range were slums, or college party kids. I am 24 my husband is 28, but we are over that lifestyle. I honestly think Ranch Bernardo, Poway etc are out of your price range, and are further away from enjoying what San Diego has to offer.

Job wise-- Tricky. There isn't as much carpenter work here, My husband actually found some self contracting work which has been going well, but when we moved here, we moved with about 10,000 and with the notion of taking whatever jobs we could get RIGHT AWAY. Now if that meant we would have to work at McDonalds till something better came up, thats what we would do. Luckily not. My husband had two P/T retail jobs, and I am a newborn baby photographer (my company is nationwide, and let me transfer, only 2.00 more per hour tho) and I found work as a Nanny for a couple families (My going rate is 13.00-16.50 per hour) There is work to be found, you just have to understand that 50-100 other applications are going out there with yours to compete with. You have to get out there and HUNT those jobs down. Network through new friends etc.

If you have any questions you would like to ask, feel free to DM (Direct Message) me if you would like to.

Heather

[DubHaze]

Oooh Also... We are doing just fine with ONE car. kinda sucks sometimes my husband will take the bus or ride his bike downtown to work (only takes a half hour from our house) but that is pretty rare for him to have to take the bus. Right now his boss picks him up for work (does christmas lights 12 hr days.) And I am on bedrest (I still nanny) due to complications of my pregnancy I am not able to be on my feet long doing the photography thing. Needless to say we only filled up our car once this month. LOL... before when we both had two p/t jobs it seemed like I was always dropping off/picking him up from work etc. But both of my jobs allow me to make my own hours (somewhat) so it wasn't an issue for us. With a baby on the way, we are looking at getting a second car, but in no hurry until the baby get's here.

Registration is expensive, you need to make sure your car can pass a smog check, or you won't be able to register here. We registered a newer car that was valued at 13,500 so we paid almost $600 in fee's/plates etc. and I know prices have gone up since we registered. but if your car is only worth 2-4,000 it shouldn't be terrible.
GOOD LUCK with your decision, hope I could help!

[moved]

There are lots of ethnic markets here which have much lower prices on produce, even less than the farmers markets.

Also, I'm a single female and live in North Park. I have a part-time job, and when I get home it's dark. It doesn't bother me. When I go out with friends, I come back at night by myself, sometimes late, and have never had a problem. The parking is lousy where I live, so sometimes I have to park a block away and walk to my house. I grew up in a big city (Washington, DC), and have always lived in big cities, (except for one time,(Chico) and hated it), so coming and going by myself doesn't bother me.

I haven't seen any hookers for a while, so I'm assuming that SDPD did a big sweep. I subscribe to the SDPD e-crime watch, and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary come on the reports. Just the usual stuff you get in the city.

[JakeDog]

Honestly, as a union worker, why move to an expensive area? It just isn't realistic.

[Jenkay]

Originally Posted by moved

There are lots of ethnic markets here which have much lower prices on produce, even less than the farmers markets.

Also, I'm a single female and live in North Park. I have a part-time job, and when I get home it's dark. It doesn't bother me. When I go out with friends, I come back at night by myself, sometimes late, and have never had a problem. The parking is lousy where I live, so sometimes I have to park a block away and walk to my house. I grew up in a big city (Washington, DC), and have always lived in big cities, (except for one time,(Chico) and hated it), so coming and going by myself doesn't bother me.

I haven't seen any hookers for a while, so I'm assuming that SDPD did a big sweep. I subscribe to the SDPD e-crime watch, and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary come on the reports. Just the usual stuff you get in the city.

Yeah, I have to agree with everything here. I'm also a single female in North Park and I generally don't even drive on the weekends if I'm staying local- walking or biking for groceries, meals, to a bar, even after dark (not much choice now that it's dark at 5).

The only really walkable neighborhoods in San Diego are in the central area, North Park, South Park, Normal Heights, Hillcrest... You should be able to find a one-bedroom for 1k pretty easily in most of those areas (I pay $800) Normal Heights can be a little sketchy in parts, though, so if you look there be sure to scope out the area well.

The hookers are still around on El Cajon, I see 'em every once in a while, but not in the concentrations they were maybe a year or so ago.

[moved]

I think some of the hookers have hiding places, so they don't get picked up. I don't have to use my car unless I really need to. I can walk to 3-4 grocery stores or even restaurants, and it's very convenient, but the parking in my area is terrible.