Moving to SD from NY... with a High Shooler (San Diego: crime rate, neighborhoods)

[BfromNY]

Hello San Diegans,

Me and my wife are moving to SD. We have decided to but we have some questions. So first I'll give you the details. We live in Washington Heights NY, we are a white couple. WH is mostly hispanic with quiet a few blacks and whites (well enough). We have many friends and family in both NY and LA (my home). WH has rampant crime and a bit of a gang problem to say the least but we made it through well. We love our friends here and lives but we want to move for work( already done). But the area we are going in to is Lincoln Park which I've looked at and seems to be a bit rough but being from WH it hasn't stopped us much. And our son who is going into high school next year will be going to Lincoln High. He has plenty of friends from all ethnic backgrounds but we'll be new and no one will know us. It's not me and my wife I'm concerned for but our son.

I've looked into Lincoln High and with the apparent recent upgrades its test grades have gone up and so has its enrollment. Is this true and will our kid be able to make friends there without really having much of a problem with the other kids?


Thnx,
Me

[NYSD1995]

California is very different from NY as you know. Washington Heights is more diverse in income and race than Lincoln Heights and surrounding areas are. You are still in Manhattan. San Diego is like a big suburb and many of it's residents live a fairly insular neighborhood-bound lifestyle. Not sure how familiar you are with LI but I would compare Lincoln Park to Roosevelt or Freeport in terms of crime, housing and school quality - in fact Freeport (south side) in particular is probably nicer than Lincoln Park.

In the area you are moving, the problem is gangs. Your teenage son will be going to school in what is one of the toughest high schools in San Diego in a very entrenched gang area on the border of both Latino and African-American gang territory. Gang and drug culture in California is much more pervasive and permitted than it is in NY.

However the school is brand new. In some ways it is a bit of a clean slate. Assuming your kid has his head on straight and is able to navigate the situation I don't see why he shouldn't be successful. But don't expect it to be anything but what it is.

[sdlife619]

Yeah Lincoln High School is brand spanking new, it's looks nice in all, but beware of the surrounding neighborhoods and the kids (student) themselves. Just because they got a new school, it doesn't mean everything is fine and dandy. The most dangerous area's is just East off Logan Ave, heading towards Market and Ocean View Blvd, it's absolutely dangerous at night, scary looking as well. Sure the crime rate has gone down, but you still have your little gangsters roaming streets, or hanging out in front of there yards waiting to rob somebody, I've seen this many times when I had to drive through the area to work over at the Foodland at night for a week.

I really don't know why your deciding on Lincoln Park to live in, they're other options for you guys that would be a much better choice for your son, because of the gang banging, ghetto lifestyle that Lincoln Park is well known for, it can have a negative impact on your son and his curriculum.