Pacific Beach in Sandiego or O.C's Hunington beach?

[NYSD1995]

Venice: older, edgier, upscale meets ghetto
Hermosa: late 20's bar scene, smaller party scene, beautiful people, somewhat upscale, some families and wealth
Huntington: early 20's bar scene, big party scene, a bigger, better, nicer version of PB

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

anyways, you're definitely better off in one the areas mentioned in the thread title. however, i still think you'll be dissapointed if you're not 21. the beach is fun during the day, but at night you need to be of drinking age to really enjoy the area.

So true. Like it or not, the beach and bars go together.

On another note, I drove down Garnet in PB the other night and it looks like the area has cleaned up a bit, ie, less tattoo places, fewer homeless, lots more neon, more bars/restaurants that open to the street. Am I wrong here? Maybe it's because it the dead of winter?

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

Am I wrong here? Maybe it's because it the dead of winter?

We went through about six months ago and thought it looked as bad, or worse than ever. Seems to me that the gentrification that hit areas like North Park has completely passed PB by completely.

[sdurbanite]

^^Ok, just checking. I did drive thru on a weeknight, and we all know areas can look better in the evening. Restaurants looked full from what I could see, so I guess that's a good thing. Alot more sushi places than I remember.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

^^Ok, just checking. I did drive thru on a weeknight, and we all know areas can look better in the evening. Restaurants looked full from what I could see, so I guess that's a good thing. Alot more sushi places than I remember.

Restaurants are always full down there. But there are still a lot of marginal businesses on Garnet and very little storefront rehab that I could see. Residential, some scraping of shacks for condo 6-plexes, but really very little of the owner-occupied luxury stuff you'd expect for such a popular beach area.

[sdurbanite]

Very true about the higher-end owner occupied residences. I guess few want to live full time among the a rowdy crowd. Although there are some nice homes on quiet streets once you move away from Garnet/Grand.

An area that has gotten better is La Jolla Blvd in Bird Rock. Those roundabouts are great, and alot of the storefronts have cleaned up nicely.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

An area that has gotten better is La Jolla Blvd in Bird Rock. Those roundabouts are great, and alot of the storefronts have cleaned up nicely.

Yeah, once the roundabouts went in the commercial really improved. They also built that large luxury condo complex (Seahaus) around the same time. Still, that area was always pretty nice, certainly a major step up from Pacific Beach.

My buddy just bought a condo in HB in the past year or so, it is a very nice newer building and in general, despite the rowdy beer-soaked vibe of the area, it feels like HB has the edge on PB if you are looking for that combo of party scene and comfortable living.

[sh0t]

I'm 29 and I've been in PB for 6 years now I think. Love it.

I go to HB often and I find it enjoyable for the night life occasionally, but I wouldn't want to live there.


Gentrification? PB doesn't need any. I don't understand those posts at all. I've been in San Diego since 2000, PB has always been nice, fairly clean, lots of bars and night life going on almost every day of the week, etc.

What gentrification does PB need?

[A touch of tropical sky]

Why wouldnt you want to live in HB?

[sav858]

PB has gotten better over the past 5 years, it's obvious to anyone that has lived there. There are quite a few new condo/apartment complexes that have gone up all over town. A fair amount of homes got remodeled during the real estate boom and a few of those went into foreclosure/short sale when the person couldn't flip it. A nice new condo complex replaced that awful empty lot and liquor store that used to be at the corner of PB Drive and Mission Blvd. There have been some improvements to the businesses along Garnett but not as much as the residential areas. Tower 23, Bar West, Johnny V's, etc.. all improvements in terms of making things nicer over what was there before. New housing also replaced an old parking lot across from Bar West.

Mission Beach has really seen a lot of places built new or renovated along the boardwalk over the past 5 years too.

Originally Posted by sh0t

Gentrification? PB doesn't need any. I don't understand those posts at all. I've been in San Diego since 2000, PB has always been nice, fairly clean, lots of bars and night life going on almost every day of the week, etc.

What gentrification does PB need?

It doesn't really at all, some people just will never like PB until it's like La Jolla, Del Mar, Coronado, etc..