Anyone ever been to San Diego? Going there today till mid next week.........

I almost moved to San Diego a few years ago. I've never been, but my friend's girlfriend is from there and she wrote me this email. Granted, it's more for living there but maybe it'll help you get a feel for it (and we know each other from Washington, DC so she's comparing places to neighborhoods there):

I'm so glad you're thinking about moving out to San Diego – it is such a fun place to live! When are you thinking about moving? Joe and I are actually going out there to visit the weekend of April 10 – but I'm assuming you won't be there by then. :)



In terms of industry, I'm not 100% sure about what the strongest ones are. Most of the people in my family are teachers or other professions like that so I've never really thought about it before. I think tourism/hospitality is a pretty big industry though and also event planning. There are a lot of resort hotels in the area and people are always getting married and having big events there so that's probably one of the strongest industries. Other than that, I'm not sure but I'm sure you could find a job doing almost anything.



In terms of where to live, there are a lot of fun neighborhoods and different kinds of places. Pacific Beach is one of my favorites (also referred to as PB or MB for Mission Beach.) The people who live there are usually 20 and 30-something singles or 70 year old ex hippies. The area is right on the beach and a long boardwalk and near Belmont Park (a mini theme park with bumper cars, a tilt a whirl and a big wooden creaky roller coaster.) There's a lot of good food in the area from hole-in-the-wall (yet delicious) taco shops to more up-scale places and tons of bars. It's kind of like a more beachy version of Dupont/Adams-Morgan but less ghetto and more stoner/surferish. It's a fun place and probably where I would want to live. In terms of finding an apartment, the best places to look are probably CraigsList and websites like rent.com. (The zipcode is 92109.) The main streets in PB are Garnet Avenue and Mission Boulevard – so any street that's off of those streets is usually a good place.



Another area I like is the UTC area (sometimes called Golden Triangle or University City – not to be confused with University Avenue or University Heights.) This area is kind of like Arlington in the sense that there's a lot of beautiful new apartment/condo buildings and lots of restaurants and stuff to do, but not necessarily a lot of bars. I think I'd most liken it to Rosslyn, Courthouse or Pentagon City – there's a big mall (called UTC), tons of restaurants in the area (both chain and non-chain) and the apartment buildings are nice and luxurious; there's not a ton of bars in that area (Rock Bottom is the only one I can think of off-hand but I'm sure there are more) but it's close to PB and other areas where there are lots of bars (much like how Rosslyn is close to Clarendon.) I like this neighborhood (it's where my mom lives) and it's probably where I would look if I were going to buy a condo. I know Archstone/Charles E. Smith has a lot of apartments in this area and if you want to search on other websites, the zip code is 92122.



The other area I'm most familiar with is La Jolla (my dad lives there.) I'd compare it to Georgetown in the sense that it's very touristy, tons of shopping, tons of restaurants, some bars, and beautiful beaches. It's expensive to live here so if you look on CraigsList you'll usually find a room in a house with other people our age rather than apartment listings.



There are a lot of other places to live that I'm not as familiar with but I can give you the generalizations I know: Mission Hills is supposed to be a nice area – similar to the UTC area but closer to downtown and right near Old Town (home of the 32 oz. margarita), oh, and there's also a really good gelato place; North Park is a very hipster area but I think it's kind of up and coming recently; Hillcrest is the Dupont/gay area; Gaslamp Quarter/Little Italy/Downtown is kind of like a cross between Farragut and Eastern Market – some parts of it are a little shady but overall it is really up and coming with real estate and apartments getting more expensive. It's a fun area – Gaslamp is a big district for going out – tons of bars, clubs, and restaurants – and Downtown/Little Italy is where a lot of people work.



Random things to know about San Diego: we have the best food ever (especially the hole-in-the-wall Mexican places); you need a car to live here but once you have a car you can pretty much get anywhere in the city in 15 minutes; San Diego is getting more and more expensive to live in but it's still cheaper than D.C. so I don't think the prices will shock you; it's the best place to live ever and I'm hoping your moving there makes Joe want to move there too. :)



I'm going to forward you another e-mail that I wrote for Joe's assistant and for Susan when they both went to San Diego recently. It's a pretty long email and might be overwhelming so feel free to not read it all in one sitting. :) I don't know how familiar you are with San Diego so it's just an e-mail about things to do if you're visiting and it gives a little more insight on the different areas.



Let me know if you have any questions at all!!!

[Edited by - supremecommander on 07-22-2009 10:11 AM]

I went a couple years ago - check out the gas lamp district (gas light?) its pretty cool - ate at Croce's (opened in honor of Jim Croce by his wife) had some good food there.

One thing I can't believe is that there is no HSBC bank over there.

Posted by mattshaw78:

One thing I can't believe is that there is no HSBC bank over there.

i know how u feel... ain't no Chase or Wamu banks down in the DC area either.

I live out here. Marv came down and we hooked up (no homo) and had a good time just a couple of weeks ago. Holla at me.

san diego is a great city...went there about 6 yrs ago and loved it. forget the name of the street where all the bars are, but man it was like 20-1 women to men ration...and i aint talkin about the chicks you see standing outside of fatburger in downtowm LA. the women in diego are WORLD CLASS....some f them wld beat these photoshopped chicks in the alba tourney....RESPECT TO DIEGO


ps: weather is DAMN NEAR PERFECT each and every day

Love San Diego. Try to get there once a year. family in La Jolla

Posted by jimimou:

Posted by sebstar:

Posted by jimimou:

san diego is a great city...went there about 6 yrs ago and loved it. forget the name of the street where all the bars are, but man it was like 20-1 women to men ration...and i aint talkin about the chicks you see standing outside of fatburger in downtowm LA. the women in diego are WORLD CLASS....some f them wld beat these photoshopped chicks in the alba tourney....RESPECT TO DIEGO


ps: weather is DAMN NEAR PERFECT each and every day

The street you are referring to is Grand/Garnett located in Pacific Beach or PB as its called. Dont know about 20-1, but the females are legit. Bring your A game and you are leaving home with something tasty.

yup, thats it! i was wasted so maybe seeing double lol! oh man, and the fact that you can basically walk in and out of tijuana in like 10 minutes is also a huge + .

lol. yeah, I can see that.

-TJ twenty minutes away (although TJ is sketch right now with all the kidnappings)
-L.A is an hour and a half away.
-Vegas is four hours away.
-In Diego, you got beaches, hoes, food, and plenty of night life with perfect weather year round.

Best place to live in the U.S, hands down.

Posted by jimimou:

yo marv - next time you go out to seb, im wit chu yo.

definitely need to make that happen.

I heard its an evil place full of liberals

Now even somebody as "challenged" as you seem to be, wouldn't even say something that dumb. Thats off the charts stupid. LOL at "evil place."

So either you are purposefully saying stuff to get people going, or...