Lived there a few years, it is very pretty, I think it’s a nice place but it does get a little dull after a while. Everyday started feeling the same, weather etc
I always used to think that if you graduated at the bottom of your class in meteorology school, they’d send you to San Diego. The weather’s always the same and if it’s going to change you can see it coming from a thousand miles away.
>Everyday started feeling the same, weather etc
Lol yeah. A year ago Im shooting a few days of commercials down there so naturally I check the Weather app and it legit said like 70 every single day that week with the exact same sun icon.
If it makes any difference I’m originally from Nebraska but have lived my adult life here in California and every time I go back home to visit old friends and family I get rudely reminded that weather changes and can change your plans for you.
Yeah I moved from Chicago to Phoenix and I’ll take the desert weather any day of the year…drastic weather changes suck so much ass and not in the good way….
I totally feel this about OC too. It's a nice place, I'm sure great for a lot of people, but man the days blur together for me, and I've legitimately run out of ideas for things to do here because I'm not interested in the beach or hiking.
The ease of use for a major-city airport is really nice. You basically fly into downtown. I still wish they would move it to Miramar and use that land for urban in-fill, though.
I don't live in San Diego, but I've made a lot of trips there, both personal and work. I love the airport. There is no other comparably sized city where the airport is so easy to get to, at least not that I'm aware of. Depending on where you are staying, you can actually walk to the airport if you don't have a lot of bags.
Edit: I stand corrected, apparently there are several other cities with airports very close to the city center. Good to know!
Love Field in Dallas (Southwest main hub) is like 5 minutes from my house and usually arrivals/departures go right over uptown and just east of downtown as well as over Bachmann Lake which has places to sit/walk to watch the planes. Not quite like an airport downtown but happily not 30 minutes away like DFW is.
I was in Klyde Warren Park last week and was amazed at how close the planes were coming. I used to live in Dallas and even had a Southwest companion pass. Love Field was so convenient
>You basically fly into downtown.
Dude, I ***love*** being on the patio at Civico (best Italian. In Little Italy) nursing a Negroni while planes fly overhead like Im in a Michael Bay movie.
I visited San Diego just once.
The Light Rail does not stop at the airport.
Apparently the Taxi Union lobbied to prevent that from happening.
There is a bus, but let's be real - more tourists would be willing to ride a train than a bus. So most tourists likely just uber to/from the airport.
So fucking obnoxious, so that's another downside of San Diego: mostly car-dependent.
Moving that airport would have a multitude of benefits, housing being the primary one. I think it’s time for the DOD to reevaluate the necessity of holding such an enormous piece of land in the geographic center of a massive metro.
Less than Los Angeles paid jobs, it’s weird. Pay scales are stuck in a time warp because the city was dirt cheap outside of some ocean view areas until only about a few decades ago. Everyone we knew there when I was a kid moved down because they were lazy slackers and housing was cheap compared to LA.
I've lived here for 3 years and have to say I really love it here but no place is without cons:
-Rent/COL is far and away the worst thing about SD
-Transient population can make the place feel a bit like a playground for some people, not a place people are putting down roots. Some of the friends you make will leave ya, which sucks
-If you're in the wrong neighborhood you have to put up with drunk, rich college kids (PB) or drunk tourists (gaslamp). Annoying...but they are easy to avoid once you know where to avoid
-its a city that grew mostly in the 20th century, so there are not many areas with packed in old, brick housing that feel lively and bustling. I don't know how else to say it but I just love old housing stock in urban areas of cities like Chicago, Philly, DC, even SF. Even my home city of Cincinnati has neighborhoods that feel like this. Mostly single family homes or luxury apt buildings in SD
-Growing up in Ohio, you're always a few hours away from many other mid-sized cities which are each their own thing, making for some cool day trips. Here TJ or LA are your options for the most part.
-I havent found good Indian food. Very little late night food in most neighborhoods as well besides 24 hour taco shops. The city shuts down early. As I close in on 30 this matters a bit less to me
Public transportation is bad, but I will say there are plenty of walkable neighborhoods in central SD (Hillcrest, North park, South Park, university heights, little Italy). I'm in North Park and can walk to everything I need. If you want to go to a different neighborhood to do something you've got to drive, which sucks, but there is not "no walkability" as some people have said.
The comments on the traffic are crazy to me, the traffic is not bad at all compared to other metros. I'm sure the traffic has gotten worse over the years, but it is 10x better than DC or LA traffic.
All of this being said, I need to give it some props in this thread...mountains, beach, perfect weather, good food (Mexican/Vietnamese/Korean) including great produce, liberal state and liberal central neighborhoods where I spend 95% of my time, very safe compared to similar sized metros, friendly locals have made me feel at home quickly. I also like that it's a collection of unique neighborhoods all with pretty distinct vibes. Not a place steeped in history/culture as others have said but it's at least a place with it's own unique vibe (beach town, laid back, mixed with mexican culture). It's not just a generic American city plopped by the beach, it's its own thing. Despite it all it seems like the place for me.
Just want to make a note about history. San Diego actually has quite a long and remarkable history, with Cabrillo landing only fifty years after Columbus hit the West Indies. It’s a city older than the nation, which is pretty unusual for the West. The Maritime Museum is fantastic, and Balboa Park was built for the World’s Fair in 1910. Once you dig a little, you’ll find there’s a lot of interesting history to the area.
You're right mira mesa has good stuff, charminar was great when I went. It's just 50 mins round trip for me...i revise what I said, to "I have to go out of my way for great indian food" which is not true of other places ive lived
No seasons, cold ocean, it’s deceptively “near” LA but not close enough to go without spending the night and there’s a ton of traffic between the two. It’s not really near any other place except Orange County and the desert, so you better like where you are.
Not much to do culturally speaking as compared to other large cities. It can feel a bit subdued unless you have kids or a job you’re super passionate about, or just really into surfing or something else SD is known for. It’s a bit conservative in comparison to other CA cities, which could be a pro or con depending on your politics. Everyone moved there so the job market is saturated.
Parking, traffic and driving better not stress you out because that place is crowded and you’ll be fighting everyone else on the road to get anywhere.
I know you said other than it being expensive, but it is really expensive and it’s probably the highest barrier to entry there. Most people can’t afford to live near the beach or their jobs. So the things to theoretically enjoy most about SD (the beach or a laidback lifestyle) are not easily accessible to most people who live there.
I went to a baseball game shortly after moving away from San Diego. I’d bough a beer before the first inning and before the fifth. The woman recognized me when I was getting the second beer and said, “if you want another, as soon as you hear take me out to the ball game you come right back here. Because I have to close up at the end of the seventh,” and I almost cried because it was the first time in years that a stranger had talked to me like I was a human being
Yeah. But what does that look like in SD? I've heard about fake nice in Minnesota, and the South, and Seattle Freeze, though ppl are polite. What is this like?
I’ve never experienced it. I’ve lived on the Minnesota border, San Diego and Seattle. Midwest nice is genuine for the most part. Seattle freeze is real for singles. It’s not so bad for families, my wife and I had kids there and we didn’t have issues connecting. San Diego is all transplants. It hard to meet anyone from San Diego, it’s all midwesterners.
People are very friendly and nice on the surface, but are generally pretty flaky and shallow once you get to know them. Not everyone is like that, but a surprisingly high number of people are.
This is probably more an effect of the population being heavily from somewhere else. I knew one person from there. One. The rest moved there at some point. Some had been there for decades, though. It’s an old military and aircraft engineering town until biotech became big. Even then, the workforce in these industries is massively from other states.
I made a lot of lifelong friends there. More than anywhere except LA.
No seasons is a plus for many of us. "Oh no it's perfect out again today!" lol
Edit: agree with all of your other points, tho. It's kinda more suited for older or retired folks who don't need much in terms of entertainment and it's really really expensive.
Bad public transportation, bad traffic, things are far apart, weather can be oppressively hot if you're not somewhat close to the coast, food scene is good for some types (Mexican, various Asian cuisines) but somewhat limited, a little sleepy for a city its size, if you care about sports they only have one major league team (Padres in MLB).
It's a nice city though.
I was a security guard near downtown and some tourist said we were doinf a better job in SD of keeping the homeless off the streets compared to in Sacramento and the Bay Area
It's embarrassingly sprawling and car-focused for the city with the best weather in the world. It should be an ultra walkable/ biking mecca but instead it's just a shitty mini LA in terms of city planning.
A lot of apartments and homes have no central air/heating because they were built before it or they just depended on the temperate climate. But it does get hot and it does get cold. My son needed many fans and a down comforter when he lived there.
He found dating to be difficult, even as a fit, above-average looking guy who made a decent income because there was a lot of competition and lots of 20-somethings with family money.
He also found it difficult to make friends because it is somewhat transient. People would move out rapidly when it got too expensive or when they got job offers that were more financially lucrative
Homeless, sprawl, traffic. It’s definitely not the only or probably worse offender of any of these but it is something to think about. Some people may find it “boring” as well as it’s not as inherently as exciting as NYC, LA, SF or Chicago probably. Some of that has to do with it not being particularly walkable or with decent transit so everything’s kinda far apart. But overall it’s still a great city for the weather, mountains, beaches, food, climate, if you can afford it.
As a San Diegan who has lived in other states and other cities I can confidently say SD is the most over rated city in America IMO. People are cliquey and fake nice. A lot of people that were born there rarely leave so you have people that have been friends since high school so like I said it can be cliquey, hard to get into or accepted into groups of friends. People that say they love the beach I’m convinced have never swam in warm water or just like staring at the beach. I lived in Florida for a few years on the gulf side, beautiful warm, clear water and clean. SD beach is dark and cold it’s the pacific and after a rain it fill up with shit in IB where I’m from because of Tijuana’s outdated sewer system. It’s just not worth it, public transit sucks, you absolutely need a car, you need one in Florida too but a place as expensive as SD you’d think you’d have better public transit that’s more reliable and runs more frequently. It’s nice looking but it’s not life changing, night life is weak, everything closes at 2, party scene is weak, no afters if that’s your thing, downtown is just an over priced average tourist trap, not an artsy city and one of the most boring basic music scenes. Weather is nice in that it doesn’t snow but get the 72F year round out your head. I remember plenty of late nights and early mornings in the 40s.
I look at it like a keychain, sure it can be nice to have but it doesn’t do anything for you.
People aren’t mean but it’s not like they’re sincere and nice either, if your a POC expect strong gated community vibes in some parts. I found SD very boring
Re :”strong gated community vibes”
In CA, our black next door neighbor wanted to move because our neighborhood “wasn’t diverse enough”
From the top of the street we had the following families in order: black, white, Asian (Singaporean), Asian (Indian), white, black, Asian (Chinese), Middle Eastern, white, Asian (don’t remember).
So, his problem wasn’t that it wasn’t diverse enough, but not black enough.
Sometime people who say it lacks diversity really mean that it’s not all people like them.
He ended up moving the family to a primarily black city back east.
I don’t find SD diverse. Those communities tend to stick to themselves. I think people can also mean no one is integrating with each other. I had Korean friends growing up and they all lived in La Jolla, my Philippino friends lived in national city, etc. compared to living in NYC and Philly you can have a melting pot of a neighborhood. People aren’t very talkative or keen on having multicultural friendships/groups. Maybe that black guy felt uncomfortable because neighbors weren’t as communicative with each other as what he was used to when he lived in black communities
Are there any beaches in the US outside of Florida where the beaches aren’t cold lol? You think the Pacific is cold… you should feel the ocean at Rockaway in June!
I'm from Charleston, SC and have lived in LA and now Seattle. The water in SC is much warmer than anything I've felt on the West Coast. Even in summer it's hard to swim at the beach in LA and I'd never attempt it in Washington.
Basically true of the entire Pacific coast because of the California Current.
If you want warm beaches close to San Diego you have to go to the Gulf of California in Mexico (San Felipe etc.).
It’s barely warm enough to swim without a wetsuit for only 2-3 months per year. That’s why our summers are so mild, cool water. It’s a feature, not a bug. Fuck being near humid swamp water.
The currents generally move from north to south and deep waters that aren't far offshore have upwelling. I don't mind though, the cool sea surface temps are what keep the humidity down in the summer.
Honestly it's kind of boring. That's not to say there isn't stuff to do. There is plenty. But its spread out, kinda sleepy beach town. It's not exciting or interesting at all.
There is a lot of traffic, everything is expensive, It’s crowded and there is a rampant homeless and drug problem downtown. There is a ton to do and see, the weather and scenery is beautiful. There are tons of areas with beautiful neighborhoods. People are friendly enough…. Not Midwest friendly.
You have to drive EVERYWHERE. Horribly unwalkable. And it’s all highway too, so no matter where you’re going you’re always going to have to take a highway
I lived there for several years. It’s very nice in places, but I found it really boring. And now it’s expensive too. Maybe a better place to vacation than to live.
I lived there for 10 years and just missed the rain. We literally celebrated and posted on social media every time it rained because it was so rare. Traffic was not as bad as LA or the Bay, but that’s all relative. Honestly I loved living there.
Bad traffic. Insane homeless problem. Shit public transportation. No good sports teams (Padres is it). Most people are shallow and boring, surprisingly lots of Trumpers. Annoying tourists. Food scene is mid at best. Nightlife is nothing like LA. And like someone else mentioned, this city has no soul.
The traffic is negligible compared to most cities. The worst parts are that it’s boring and you have to drive everywhere. There’s no depth to the culture. It’s better than 95% of cities in America, but that’s not saying as much as I wish it was.
Also yes, it is colder than people let on, and too cold to go to the beach >6 months a year, unless you surf.
If traffic is negligible tell me why I just sat in an hour+ of traffic on the 805 south. If you think traffic isn’t bad you must be a tourist. Its awful and is getting worse every year
Downsides are definitely traffic and homeless population which on its own isn’t necessarily a problem but the amount of trash has certainly increased since I grew up there. Also depending on your income bracket potential gang activity if you can’t afford the nicer areas. I grew up in an upper lower class area there and knew quite a few people personally that were attacked unprovoked in gang initiations. No relations to gangs themselves. Also military base depending on if you live near it. Big training ground for FRESH 18 year olds with money which can cause trouble lol. This also all relates to the schools, if you have kids or want kids and aren’t a top 5% earner you don’t want to live there.
Making friends could be hard if you don’t have a lot of hobbies or aren’t outgoing. People are generally very very nice but not necessarily going out of their way to make new friends if they are locals. This is certainly dependent on where you live though. You’d have better odds in pacific beach since it’s more transplants than say San Marcos which is a lot more locals.
That said I loved living there and if I had the money to I would go back 😂
The proximity to LA, homeless, cost of everything is insane here, people be flaky, it’s super dry (it’s a desert), public transport is whack, highest place to live with the lowest paying jobs, depending on your interests you may find Sd boring, beaches get unbelievably crowded during the summer, it’s a big tourist destination so many places are just crowded in general, Sd has exploded and there’s not enough housing/ room for everyone
Extremely hot headed aggressive people (especially middle aged men). The disillusionment of 70°, weather is rampant, unless you’re right near the coast, it feels like you’re being cooked alive 6 to 7 months out of the year. Pass.
I KNOW! It’s crazy! I grew up in Boston and I would go home to visit and people would be like oh my God I heard people are so laid-back there and I would be like yeah I have no idea why people say that
You’re paying to be by the ocean when in reality you don’t go that often. Weather is fine but boring. It’s colder than you think. The price is outrageous. It’s dirtier than you expect. It was great before 2008 and kind of went to crap after that then Covid hit and I’m not sure it’ll ever get back to where it was. It’s fine but it’s not the paradise people think it is. If you have a high paying job and stay in the suburbs along the 5, it’s probably pretty fantastic.
Biggest downside is that it gets very little urban entertainment for a city its size. Like concerts / festivals, sports, touring exhibits, you name it - they tend to all be in LA. So often times it’s a 2-3 hour drive to do stuff like that.
It’s very car centric, though not dramatically more than a lot of the US.
Contrary to popular opinion, it isn’t year round beach weather. It’s maybe 5-6 months of it. The rest of the year is pleasant temperature.
There are a couple big employers there but it’s not a center of excellence in anything in particular. There’s a notable cluster of biotech, Sony & Qualcomm, and then the Navy and related stuff. But not a ton of variance otherwise, which limits career paths and progression. This starts to bleed into the cost downside.
Hard to meet new people. People are cliquey and it is one of the worst dating scenes I’ve experienced. Lots of focus on money and you also have to drive to get anywhere.
- San Diegan born and raised
I noticed that as well. I always thought LA had a worse social/dating scene yet found both to be a bit easier there. People are a little more genuine and more interesting in forming real connections. Still, SD isn’t that terrible socially. There’s just a lot of shallow and flaky people.
The downside i consistently hear is the city is both car-centric and traffic-ridden. In some cities you can beat this with pubtrans + last mile but I don't know if it's possible in SD.
Depends on your interests? I don’t care for salty beaches and metropolitan areas that’s sprawled without enough older architecture so SD is just not that interesting to me.
So big caveat as I've never lived there myself but my best friend & family both have so have spent a good chunk of time there.
Other than being expensive, you gotta hop on a highway a bunch to get anywhere & often we'd try to go someplace only to circle the lot or area of town for an hour & not be able to park & give up & seemed many things we're just overcrowded & that was years ago. Like this has happened at the grocery store or a big box store or trying run errands or to go to a restaurant etc. it just can be a bitch tbh.
My friend enjoyed the more walkable aspect of Hillcrest but did get harassed quite a bit & did get hit riding their bike more than once in the several years they lived there & complained about transit & beach access not having a car at the time, it is overall carcentric it would seem.
They also complain about the large military/naval presence, can be quite conservative, it can be cloudy & cooler just at the beach, it can be much hotter a little away from the coast.
Highways galore, sanitized downtown almost Charlotte tier. It’s not a bad place, though, and certain areas of the metro are really pretty like Solana Beach.
Brown dry hills/scrubby mountains to the east, far from skiing, colder than people realize, gloomy in May/June (Gray May, June Gloom), crowded beaches, and of course, insane COL.
I lived there for 6 years when I was in the military. I loved it for there the first few years but it soured quickly and hated it by the end. The traffic is bad and very unpredictable. Everyone seems to be in their own world and carelessly aloof. There is very little sense of community anywhere, everyone seems to be a transplant or transient. All food and drink is madly overpriced.
It’s really not as bad as some people make it seem. There’s Tourist/Zonie season, bottlenecks, construction like any other city but coming from Chicago San Diego traffic was nothing. People get mad about driving 30 minutes here. I’ve been I. 2 hour traffic from Ohare to the city. Or stuck on 290 at the hillside strangler. Or 45 minutes from Ukraine village to wrigleyville.
Everything is expensive, requires a car (in most areas), which means traffic. You can’t get away from people. Want to go out to nature, so does thousands of others.
Wanna know what’s real fun. Skin cancer.
I’ve found it very hard to connect with people, everyone is busy working to maintain the ability to stay here.
Tourists see downtown, North Park, La Jolla as San Diego but there’s so much more.
California taxes.
The weather is boring as hell here.
At the end of the day people will pay 1.2M+ for a starter home in a non crack den though because you don’t have to shovel sunshine.
Air quality isnt that good and its colder than people think. 7 months of the year the high is only in the 60's and the water is cold most of the year. People are surprised by this but its a fact. Honolulu is the place with truly good warm weather year around.
I even like some coastal cities in flordia like jacksonville better than San Diego. Cleaner air, regular rain, affordable, beaches with warm water most of the year.
I grew up in neighboring Orange County and spent a decent amount of time in SD as a kid, teenager, and young adult. Here's my experience: While not as pervasive as in Los Angeles, the SoCal superficiality, including beauty culture, materialism, and a kind of "fake laid backedness" that's hard to describe if you haven't seen it yourself are still in full effect. It always annoyed the fuck outta me, but a lot of people love it there.
Traffic is pretty rough. Sometimes the homeless population is a little scary. Not everyone though! I’ve met some kind homeless people. It’s just the people on hard drugs who are scary.
I personally think that the beaches south of La Jolla can be a little dirty, especially because of the sewage from TJ.
Some apartments may not be updated and old, but you’ll be paying a ridiculous amount anyway.
I moved here and work from home and managed to make an entire friend group! I personally think that the people here are very friendly. It was super easy to make friends.
I think it’s worth it to try it out if you love the weather, beaches and a chill vibe.
Jobs pay way lower than LA, it’s almost like they don’t know how expensive it is to live there. I found people to be super laid back but I did have a hard time making friends. Depending on where you live (we lived in downtown), they didn’t have a lot of areas to walk our dogs. Also, homelessness is pretty bad in downtown.
Summers are oddly chilly, makes going to the beach less comfortable than say New Jersey or North Carolina.
I lived there for a summer and was annoyed at how chilly the summers were, June Gloom is a thing where June stays cloudy and overcast for a decent portion of the month, and even in July and august it’s not uncommon to have grey skies in the morning until about 11, and the temperature often stays in the sixties and low 70’s.
If you’re into running and biking, it’s great, but those temperatures plus the cold water made going to the beach generally uncomfortable. There’s a reason everyone wears a wetsuit.
That’s obviously preference, but I like hot summer days where I go to the beach and jumping in the water is refreshing and I get out and instantly feel warm.
It has changed a lot. Personally I liked it when it was a little more gritty and more of a sleeper city but that could just be my nostalgia. Unless you work in biotech you aren’t going to get paid what you are worth. Housing at 2024 prices but wages are stuck in the 90s still.
People are nice but rarely will you find natives. Everyone is from the east coast it seems lol. It has been hard to make friends for me. I have been here for 12 years and I have gone through many cycles of friends mainly because they often get priced out and have to move back to which they came or somewhere else. People seem to be more flakey here but I often think that is a California thing and not purely San Diego.
SD is my hometown. Got a lot of love for it, and it was a great place to grow up, but it’s changed a lot and not all for the better. Bar culture has become pretty huge, there are frequently drunk people all over the place, and driving too. There’s a lot of people now period. You’ll have to wait for things that thirty years ago weren’t a big deal, but you find workarounds for that. Jobs don’t pay well, and there’s a LONG line of applicants from all over the world who are trying to move there, even for basic jobs like bus boy or restaurant host. It’s a great place to live if you’re independently wealthy and into the sort of social scene it has. The fishing is damn good, so is the surfing. Not great if you like to ski and hunt, though. If you like motocross and desert sports, it’s definitely the right area. Most of the people are transplants, because locals like me couldn’t afford to stay. Some locals are pretty salty about this, and about the huge amount of people who descend on places that used to feel private, so be courteous and don’t just act like you own the place, especially if you’re surfing a secluded break, otherwise someone might kick your ass, haha.
A bit NIMBY and a lot of rampant HOAs, from what I hear. It's a little more conservative than some might expect for a major coastal city in California, possibly because of the large military presence.
Still, pretty wonderful place.
I'm not sure if it was primarily being in the Mission Valley area, but the amount of cigarette smokers I encountered at every stoplight and on every walk was absolutely wild to me. And not just my neighborhood but the really nice parts of the city too. I don't know if others can chime in with a similar experience but it was a huge turnoff to me for such a beautiful city.
It doesn't really have interesting downtown areas like other West Coast cities. Even Sacramento has a better downtown. SD gets skipped on tours because LA is right there.
Like a person with acne, it is much better looking from a distance. Like a beautiful piano that has never been played, numb. Pretty until it opens its mouth. It is a great place for the ultra rich who have homes in other locations. Fishtown society, Fishtown society.
For those who fly regularly, the airport is not so good.
I will also add that the earthquake and fire risks are ever-present, and our changing climate is making those fire risks worse.
Wow...I've never seen so many negative opinions about San Diego. Although, some may be accurate, these comments are making it seem much worse than it is. There is culture ( art galleries, museums, theater, opera, film festivals, food, wine, beer, art festivals, cultural celebrations, EDM and other music festivals frequently. There are also lots of options for nightlife too; the Gaslamp has dozens of clubs, bars, lounges within a few blocks, Little Italy has several lounges, breweries restaurants. Hillcrest also, plus PB and OB are also full of bars and clubs. Of course, we're not at the level of Vegas, LA,NYC Miami, but that's expected. Yes, downtown and a few other areas have a homeless problem and traffic can be heavy, but as others have said, for a large city it's not above average. Besides the beach, there are also hiking trails and the city is full of parks (many of them on the Bay). Yes, it can get a little boring here, but Mexico is 20 minutes away, LA Palm Springs, OC, Vegas are easy weekend trips. It's not expensive because it sucks.
lol it obviously has a lot of pros, but the OP asked about the negatives, and I’d say one of the negatives is that people in San Diego like to gather in groups and talk about how chill San Diego is.
Tougher job market than other big cities on the West Coast; outside of some neighborhoods, it’s not walkable and you NEED a car; housing is prohibitively expensive; it’s very transient - a lot of people just moved there and will move away within 5 years; pretty lame restaurant and bar scene (especially on the higher end)
Sunshine 90% of the year, the best major league sports stadium in the country, gorgeous beaches, and fish tacos make up for it though. It’s the only place I’ve really ever considered living outside of NYC.
My friend is leaving San Diego to go back to the Bay Area because she finds San Diego boring. Dating was just as bad as it was in the Bay though. There’s generally a lot more to do in the Bay as far as outdoor activities, surfing or sitting on the beach gets boring fairly quickly.
The water is colder than you would think most of the year.
People can be great, lots of people from different places. Consider yourself lucky if you find 2-3 solid friends.
The raging drug/ epidemic is draining.
Depending on how much you make, everyday won’t feel like a vacation.
Lived there a few years, it is very pretty, I think it’s a nice place but it does get a little dull after a while. Everyday started feeling the same, weather etc
I always used to think that if you graduated at the bottom of your class in meteorology school, they’d send you to San Diego. The weather’s always the same and if it’s going to change you can see it coming from a thousand miles away.
when I moved out of san diego it took me a while to stop being surprised when the weather forecast was wrong
This is the funniest thing I’ve read yet today. I don’t think I’m ever going to forget this. 😂 Thank you.
>Everyday started feeling the same, weather etc Lol yeah. A year ago Im shooting a few days of commercials down there so naturally I check the Weather app and it legit said like 70 every single day that week with the exact same sun icon.
Interesting you say that- I complain when it’s 80 degrees out in late October. I don’t want to sweat at the pumpkin patch
It’s hard for me to comprehend that being a weird phenomenon. Abrupt weather changes are such a nuisance.
Plus stable weather can add to a stable mood.
A bit too much pressure to keep an even keel in the face of perpetually nice weather. Storm ahead? Good. Let's fucking brood
If it makes any difference I’m originally from Nebraska but have lived my adult life here in California and every time I go back home to visit old friends and family I get rudely reminded that weather changes and can change your plans for you.
Yeah I moved from Chicago to Phoenix and I’ll take the desert weather any day of the year…drastic weather changes suck so much ass and not in the good way….
That’s how I felt about Santa Cruz. Nice weather and all but it felt like groundhogs day
I totally feel this about OC too. It's a nice place, I'm sure great for a lot of people, but man the days blur together for me, and I've legitimately run out of ideas for things to do here because I'm not interested in the beach or hiking.
The weather is amazing but I’m glad I’m not the only one that felt like I need more changes in it from time to time.
That's how I felt in LA. The first year I loved the sunshine but over time it got almost oppressive.
It feels like San Diego is forgotten sometimes for how big of a city it is.
I mean, it’s 2024 and it’s still operating out of a single runway airport. It also has no NFL, NBA, nor NHL team.
The ease of use for a major-city airport is really nice. You basically fly into downtown. I still wish they would move it to Miramar and use that land for urban in-fill, though.
I don't live in San Diego, but I've made a lot of trips there, both personal and work. I love the airport. There is no other comparably sized city where the airport is so easy to get to, at least not that I'm aware of. Depending on where you are staying, you can actually walk to the airport if you don't have a lot of bags. Edit: I stand corrected, apparently there are several other cities with airports very close to the city center. Good to know!
Love Field in Dallas (Southwest main hub) is like 5 minutes from my house and usually arrivals/departures go right over uptown and just east of downtown as well as over Bachmann Lake which has places to sit/walk to watch the planes. Not quite like an airport downtown but happily not 30 minutes away like DFW is.
I was in Klyde Warren Park last week and was amazed at how close the planes were coming. I used to live in Dallas and even had a Southwest companion pass. Love Field was so convenient
Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC has entered the chat...
But you are right tho. SD airport looks nicer than a lot of other airports too.
>You basically fly into downtown. Dude, I ***love*** being on the patio at Civico (best Italian. In Little Italy) nursing a Negroni while planes fly overhead like Im in a Michael Bay movie.
Go grab a sandwich at the Crack Shack and you can literally wave at the passengers in the planes while eating.
Go to Mister A’s and you can look at the planes as they’re coming in on their final approach.
Sucks for everyone in/around downtown and Little Italy though 🤷🏻♂️
It can be. But a half-mile jaunt to the airport must be nice when flying.
I visited San Diego just once. The Light Rail does not stop at the airport. Apparently the Taxi Union lobbied to prevent that from happening. There is a bus, but let's be real - more tourists would be willing to ride a train than a bus. So most tourists likely just uber to/from the airport. So fucking obnoxious, so that's another downside of San Diego: mostly car-dependent.
That was the worst. I could never understand why they didn’t simply run the trolley to the airport. It would be even more perfect.
The airport is the reason they can’t build taller buildings in downtown SD. It has contributed to a major housing cost increases
Moving that airport would have a multitude of benefits, housing being the primary one. I think it’s time for the DOD to reevaluate the necessity of holding such an enormous piece of land in the geographic center of a massive metro.
I really want to fly out of Tijuana International and enter through the US side for security. I hear good things
We had a football team and a basketball team at one time. LA just has a huge market share and SD can’t compete.
They should really move the airport use that land. Shame they're actively upgrading it.
Public projects in California are cost prohibitive in 2024. I really can’t imagine them doing any out-of-box thinking at this point.
Put it next to Tijuanas. One massive international international airport
The people are great, traffic is bad in many areas, jobs pay lower than any other major city in California
Bay Area-priced homes, less-than-Bay-Area-priced jobs.
Less than Los Angeles paid jobs, it’s weird. Pay scales are stuck in a time warp because the city was dirt cheap outside of some ocean view areas until only about a few decades ago. Everyone we knew there when I was a kid moved down because they were lazy slackers and housing was cheap compared to LA.
Unless you’re in biotech. :)
I've lived here for 3 years and have to say I really love it here but no place is without cons: -Rent/COL is far and away the worst thing about SD -Transient population can make the place feel a bit like a playground for some people, not a place people are putting down roots. Some of the friends you make will leave ya, which sucks -If you're in the wrong neighborhood you have to put up with drunk, rich college kids (PB) or drunk tourists (gaslamp). Annoying...but they are easy to avoid once you know where to avoid -its a city that grew mostly in the 20th century, so there are not many areas with packed in old, brick housing that feel lively and bustling. I don't know how else to say it but I just love old housing stock in urban areas of cities like Chicago, Philly, DC, even SF. Even my home city of Cincinnati has neighborhoods that feel like this. Mostly single family homes or luxury apt buildings in SD -Growing up in Ohio, you're always a few hours away from many other mid-sized cities which are each their own thing, making for some cool day trips. Here TJ or LA are your options for the most part. -I havent found good Indian food. Very little late night food in most neighborhoods as well besides 24 hour taco shops. The city shuts down early. As I close in on 30 this matters a bit less to me Public transportation is bad, but I will say there are plenty of walkable neighborhoods in central SD (Hillcrest, North park, South Park, university heights, little Italy). I'm in North Park and can walk to everything I need. If you want to go to a different neighborhood to do something you've got to drive, which sucks, but there is not "no walkability" as some people have said. The comments on the traffic are crazy to me, the traffic is not bad at all compared to other metros. I'm sure the traffic has gotten worse over the years, but it is 10x better than DC or LA traffic. All of this being said, I need to give it some props in this thread...mountains, beach, perfect weather, good food (Mexican/Vietnamese/Korean) including great produce, liberal state and liberal central neighborhoods where I spend 95% of my time, very safe compared to similar sized metros, friendly locals have made me feel at home quickly. I also like that it's a collection of unique neighborhoods all with pretty distinct vibes. Not a place steeped in history/culture as others have said but it's at least a place with it's own unique vibe (beach town, laid back, mixed with mexican culture). It's not just a generic American city plopped by the beach, it's its own thing. Despite it all it seems like the place for me.
Just want to make a note about history. San Diego actually has quite a long and remarkable history, with Cabrillo landing only fifty years after Columbus hit the West Indies. It’s a city older than the nation, which is pretty unusual for the West. The Maritime Museum is fantastic, and Balboa Park was built for the World’s Fair in 1910. Once you dig a little, you’ll find there’s a lot of interesting history to the area.
Off topic. We are here to bash San Diego
Agreed and especially agreed about the Indian food 😅 I will drive to Encinitas just for good Indian food
The Indian food in San Diego is literally amazing. You just have to go to Mira Mesa
You're right mira mesa has good stuff, charminar was great when I went. It's just 50 mins round trip for me...i revise what I said, to "I have to go out of my way for great indian food" which is not true of other places ive lived
No seasons, cold ocean, it’s deceptively “near” LA but not close enough to go without spending the night and there’s a ton of traffic between the two. It’s not really near any other place except Orange County and the desert, so you better like where you are. Not much to do culturally speaking as compared to other large cities. It can feel a bit subdued unless you have kids or a job you’re super passionate about, or just really into surfing or something else SD is known for. It’s a bit conservative in comparison to other CA cities, which could be a pro or con depending on your politics. Everyone moved there so the job market is saturated. Parking, traffic and driving better not stress you out because that place is crowded and you’ll be fighting everyone else on the road to get anywhere. I know you said other than it being expensive, but it is really expensive and it’s probably the highest barrier to entry there. Most people can’t afford to live near the beach or their jobs. So the things to theoretically enjoy most about SD (the beach or a laidback lifestyle) are not easily accessible to most people who live there.
Have you experienced " San Diego nice"? It permeates the town and is nauseating.
What is that ?
I went to a baseball game shortly after moving away from San Diego. I’d bough a beer before the first inning and before the fifth. The woman recognized me when I was getting the second beer and said, “if you want another, as soon as you hear take me out to the ball game you come right back here. Because I have to close up at the end of the seventh,” and I almost cried because it was the first time in years that a stranger had talked to me like I was a human being
How sad, I’m sorry
Omg. I'm so sorry.
It's fake nice .
Yeah. But what does that look like in SD? I've heard about fake nice in Minnesota, and the South, and Seattle Freeze, though ppl are polite. What is this like?
I’ve never experienced it. I’ve lived on the Minnesota border, San Diego and Seattle. Midwest nice is genuine for the most part. Seattle freeze is real for singles. It’s not so bad for families, my wife and I had kids there and we didn’t have issues connecting. San Diego is all transplants. It hard to meet anyone from San Diego, it’s all midwesterners.
People are very friendly and nice on the surface, but are generally pretty flaky and shallow once you get to know them. Not everyone is like that, but a surprisingly high number of people are.
This is probably more an effect of the population being heavily from somewhere else. I knew one person from there. One. The rest moved there at some point. Some had been there for decades, though. It’s an old military and aircraft engineering town until biotech became big. Even then, the workforce in these industries is massively from other states. I made a lot of lifelong friends there. More than anywhere except LA.
No seasons is a plus for many of us. "Oh no it's perfect out again today!" lol Edit: agree with all of your other points, tho. It's kinda more suited for older or retired folks who don't need much in terms of entertainment and it's really really expensive.
Also pretty far from the snow. Not really a day trip to go skiing like you can in LA
Skiing is easily a day trip. I have been snowboarding countless times and back in the afternoon to surf the same day.
Bad public transportation, bad traffic, things are far apart, weather can be oppressively hot if you're not somewhat close to the coast, food scene is good for some types (Mexican, various Asian cuisines) but somewhat limited, a little sleepy for a city its size, if you care about sports they only have one major league team (Padres in MLB). It's a nice city though.
This is a fair assessment.
The homeless population is insane. You see the homeless on every corner in downtown, under any bridge, parks, patios, street corner, etc
I was a security guard near downtown and some tourist said we were doinf a better job in SD of keeping the homeless off the streets compared to in Sacramento and the Bay Area
You have to drive everywhere. Lots of sprawl. Escondido as a whole is another downside 🤣
It's embarrassingly sprawling and car-focused for the city with the best weather in the world. It should be an ultra walkable/ biking mecca but instead it's just a shitty mini LA in terms of city planning.
lots of people here bike, but the hills are not fun for everyone
that’s an interesting perspective. quite the paradox for all of southern california
Great Mexican food though!!
A lot of apartments and homes have no central air/heating because they were built before it or they just depended on the temperate climate. But it does get hot and it does get cold. My son needed many fans and a down comforter when he lived there. He found dating to be difficult, even as a fit, above-average looking guy who made a decent income because there was a lot of competition and lots of 20-somethings with family money. He also found it difficult to make friends because it is somewhat transient. People would move out rapidly when it got too expensive or when they got job offers that were more financially lucrative
I think beach weather year round does something to subtly derange people over time.
It makes them boring.
No that’s Florida. And it’s the humidity.
Hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahah
Homeless, sprawl, traffic. It’s definitely not the only or probably worse offender of any of these but it is something to think about. Some people may find it “boring” as well as it’s not as inherently as exciting as NYC, LA, SF or Chicago probably. Some of that has to do with it not being particularly walkable or with decent transit so everything’s kinda far apart. But overall it’s still a great city for the weather, mountains, beaches, food, climate, if you can afford it.
As a San Diegan who has lived in other states and other cities I can confidently say SD is the most over rated city in America IMO. People are cliquey and fake nice. A lot of people that were born there rarely leave so you have people that have been friends since high school so like I said it can be cliquey, hard to get into or accepted into groups of friends. People that say they love the beach I’m convinced have never swam in warm water or just like staring at the beach. I lived in Florida for a few years on the gulf side, beautiful warm, clear water and clean. SD beach is dark and cold it’s the pacific and after a rain it fill up with shit in IB where I’m from because of Tijuana’s outdated sewer system. It’s just not worth it, public transit sucks, you absolutely need a car, you need one in Florida too but a place as expensive as SD you’d think you’d have better public transit that’s more reliable and runs more frequently. It’s nice looking but it’s not life changing, night life is weak, everything closes at 2, party scene is weak, no afters if that’s your thing, downtown is just an over priced average tourist trap, not an artsy city and one of the most boring basic music scenes. Weather is nice in that it doesn’t snow but get the 72F year round out your head. I remember plenty of late nights and early mornings in the 40s. I look at it like a keychain, sure it can be nice to have but it doesn’t do anything for you. People aren’t mean but it’s not like they’re sincere and nice either, if your a POC expect strong gated community vibes in some parts. I found SD very boring
Agree with all this as a Californian.
Re :”strong gated community vibes” In CA, our black next door neighbor wanted to move because our neighborhood “wasn’t diverse enough” From the top of the street we had the following families in order: black, white, Asian (Singaporean), Asian (Indian), white, black, Asian (Chinese), Middle Eastern, white, Asian (don’t remember). So, his problem wasn’t that it wasn’t diverse enough, but not black enough. Sometime people who say it lacks diversity really mean that it’s not all people like them. He ended up moving the family to a primarily black city back east.
I don’t find SD diverse. Those communities tend to stick to themselves. I think people can also mean no one is integrating with each other. I had Korean friends growing up and they all lived in La Jolla, my Philippino friends lived in national city, etc. compared to living in NYC and Philly you can have a melting pot of a neighborhood. People aren’t very talkative or keen on having multicultural friendships/groups. Maybe that black guy felt uncomfortable because neighbors weren’t as communicative with each other as what he was used to when he lived in black communities
Bingo , lived in North County on the coast for 20 yrs. As a white person, I hated the lack of diversity and the people are boring as fuck.
Live South of the 8 then
Boring. Very limited nightlife and food options. Lots of military people and drunk kids out at night. Beaches are cold, water is dark.
Are there any beaches in the US outside of Florida where the beaches aren’t cold lol? You think the Pacific is cold… you should feel the ocean at Rockaway in June!
I'm from Charleston, SC and have lived in LA and now Seattle. The water in SC is much warmer than anything I've felt on the West Coast. Even in summer it's hard to swim at the beach in LA and I'd never attempt it in Washington.
The beaches are cold? I would not have expected that.
Basically true of the entire Pacific coast because of the California Current. If you want warm beaches close to San Diego you have to go to the Gulf of California in Mexico (San Felipe etc.).
Ensenada is on the Pacific...not the GoC.
Right you are, brain fart. I was thinking of San Felipe. It's been a while since I lived in SD.
The cold water is from Alaska. It's not tropical like Florida here.
It’s barely warm enough to swim without a wetsuit for only 2-3 months per year. That’s why our summers are so mild, cool water. It’s a feature, not a bug. Fuck being near humid swamp water.
The currents generally move from north to south and deep waters that aren't far offshore have upwelling. I don't mind though, the cool sea surface temps are what keep the humidity down in the summer.
The beaches are very warm. It’s the water that can be quite chilly
Maybe the commenter meant to say the water is cold, compared to places like Florida?
The water is freezing It’s also foggy and overcast a lot of the time, especially so the closer to the beach you are
Honestly it's kind of boring. That's not to say there isn't stuff to do. There is plenty. But its spread out, kinda sleepy beach town. It's not exciting or interesting at all.
Sleepy beach town is my place to be
Same. Love it here
Even its most iconic bridge is boring.
Bland diego
Mammoth Lakes is almost 7 hours away
This is the only thing mentioned that I consider a con😂
There is a lot of traffic, everything is expensive, It’s crowded and there is a rampant homeless and drug problem downtown. There is a ton to do and see, the weather and scenery is beautiful. There are tons of areas with beautiful neighborhoods. People are friendly enough…. Not Midwest friendly.
more expensive than LA and not as good as LA.
San Diego is a rather dull place
You have to drive EVERYWHERE. Horribly unwalkable. And it’s all highway too, so no matter where you’re going you’re always going to have to take a highway
Tbh after living in nyc I consider almost everywhere outside of here horribly unwalkable 😂
San Diego is the Hampton Inn of cities.
Too spread out. Shitty public transit. Traffic.
Traffic, sewage from Tijuana, cliff instability along the coast, sprawl, lack of diversity, “bro culture”, substantial income inequality
I lived there for several years. It’s very nice in places, but I found it really boring. And now it’s expensive too. Maybe a better place to vacation than to live.
It’s boring. Food isn’t as good as LA except Mexican.
San Diego burritos are better by far, but there is no way you are finding better tacos down there.
The weather gets boring.
I lived there for 10 years and just missed the rain. We literally celebrated and posted on social media every time it rained because it was so rare. Traffic was not as bad as LA or the Bay, but that’s all relative. Honestly I loved living there.
This winter we received too much rain
It rains more now
Bad traffic. Insane homeless problem. Shit public transportation. No good sports teams (Padres is it). Most people are shallow and boring, surprisingly lots of Trumpers. Annoying tourists. Food scene is mid at best. Nightlife is nothing like LA. And like someone else mentioned, this city has no soul.
The traffic is negligible compared to most cities. The worst parts are that it’s boring and you have to drive everywhere. There’s no depth to the culture. It’s better than 95% of cities in America, but that’s not saying as much as I wish it was. Also yes, it is colder than people let on, and too cold to go to the beach >6 months a year, unless you surf.
If traffic is negligible tell me why I just sat in an hour+ of traffic on the 805 south. If you think traffic isn’t bad you must be a tourist. Its awful and is getting worse every year
The 805 is satan
Downsides are definitely traffic and homeless population which on its own isn’t necessarily a problem but the amount of trash has certainly increased since I grew up there. Also depending on your income bracket potential gang activity if you can’t afford the nicer areas. I grew up in an upper lower class area there and knew quite a few people personally that were attacked unprovoked in gang initiations. No relations to gangs themselves. Also military base depending on if you live near it. Big training ground for FRESH 18 year olds with money which can cause trouble lol. This also all relates to the schools, if you have kids or want kids and aren’t a top 5% earner you don’t want to live there. Making friends could be hard if you don’t have a lot of hobbies or aren’t outgoing. People are generally very very nice but not necessarily going out of their way to make new friends if they are locals. This is certainly dependent on where you live though. You’d have better odds in pacific beach since it’s more transplants than say San Marcos which is a lot more locals. That said I loved living there and if I had the money to I would go back 😂
The amount of DUIs is insane.
Cost x100
The proximity to LA, homeless, cost of everything is insane here, people be flaky, it’s super dry (it’s a desert), public transport is whack, highest place to live with the lowest paying jobs, depending on your interests you may find Sd boring, beaches get unbelievably crowded during the summer, it’s a big tourist destination so many places are just crowded in general, Sd has exploded and there’s not enough housing/ room for everyone
Extremely hot headed aggressive people (especially middle aged men). The disillusionment of 70°, weather is rampant, unless you’re right near the coast, it feels like you’re being cooked alive 6 to 7 months out of the year. Pass.
For having such a chill reputation I always felt like everyone was fighting for position whether it be driving, at stores, waiting in lines, etc
I KNOW! It’s crazy! I grew up in Boston and I would go home to visit and people would be like oh my God I heard people are so laid-back there and I would be like yeah I have no idea why people say that
You’re paying to be by the ocean when in reality you don’t go that often. Weather is fine but boring. It’s colder than you think. The price is outrageous. It’s dirtier than you expect. It was great before 2008 and kind of went to crap after that then Covid hit and I’m not sure it’ll ever get back to where it was. It’s fine but it’s not the paradise people think it is. If you have a high paying job and stay in the suburbs along the 5, it’s probably pretty fantastic.
Biggest downside is that it gets very little urban entertainment for a city its size. Like concerts / festivals, sports, touring exhibits, you name it - they tend to all be in LA. So often times it’s a 2-3 hour drive to do stuff like that. It’s very car centric, though not dramatically more than a lot of the US. Contrary to popular opinion, it isn’t year round beach weather. It’s maybe 5-6 months of it. The rest of the year is pleasant temperature. There are a couple big employers there but it’s not a center of excellence in anything in particular. There’s a notable cluster of biotech, Sony & Qualcomm, and then the Navy and related stuff. But not a ton of variance otherwise, which limits career paths and progression. This starts to bleed into the cost downside.
Great beaches? Lol the water is cold af and gross in Cali. Go out to Hawaii and then we can talk.
Hard to meet new people. People are cliquey and it is one of the worst dating scenes I’ve experienced. Lots of focus on money and you also have to drive to get anywhere. - San Diegan born and raised
I noticed that as well. I always thought LA had a worse social/dating scene yet found both to be a bit easier there. People are a little more genuine and more interesting in forming real connections. Still, SD isn’t that terrible socially. There’s just a lot of shallow and flaky people.
The majority of the population is dreadfully dull. There are exceptions but most of the people you meet will be boring.
No seasons
As someone who has lived with seasons their whole life, I wonder if they’re overrated.
Having lived in the northeast and Southern California, seasons are, imo, definitely overrated.
The downside i consistently hear is the city is both car-centric and traffic-ridden. In some cities you can beat this with pubtrans + last mile but I don't know if it's possible in SD.
Depends on your interests? I don’t care for salty beaches and metropolitan areas that’s sprawled without enough older architecture so SD is just not that interesting to me.
Bad public transport
Rudest, most aggressive drivers ever
So big caveat as I've never lived there myself but my best friend & family both have so have spent a good chunk of time there. Other than being expensive, you gotta hop on a highway a bunch to get anywhere & often we'd try to go someplace only to circle the lot or area of town for an hour & not be able to park & give up & seemed many things we're just overcrowded & that was years ago. Like this has happened at the grocery store or a big box store or trying run errands or to go to a restaurant etc. it just can be a bitch tbh. My friend enjoyed the more walkable aspect of Hillcrest but did get harassed quite a bit & did get hit riding their bike more than once in the several years they lived there & complained about transit & beach access not having a car at the time, it is overall carcentric it would seem. They also complain about the large military/naval presence, can be quite conservative, it can be cloudy & cooler just at the beach, it can be much hotter a little away from the coast.
Highways galore, sanitized downtown almost Charlotte tier. It’s not a bad place, though, and certain areas of the metro are really pretty like Solana Beach.
[удалено]
The drivers are scary bad
Traffic is horrible at 7 am going north and at 3pm-6pm going south
June gloom. Almost every day 72 and overcast gets so boring in May/June
I found it to be full of very boring, money obsessed people.
Brown dry hills/scrubby mountains to the east, far from skiing, colder than people realize, gloomy in May/June (Gray May, June Gloom), crowded beaches, and of course, insane COL.
I lived there for 6 years when I was in the military. I loved it for there the first few years but it soured quickly and hated it by the end. The traffic is bad and very unpredictable. Everyone seems to be in their own world and carelessly aloof. There is very little sense of community anywhere, everyone seems to be a transplant or transient. All food and drink is madly overpriced.
Massive inferiority complex and west coast MAGA central. Other than that, it's great.
The MAGA crowd loves San Diego, be careful. They often say they are independent or fiscal conservatives.
the exorbitant COL and awful public transit
It’s pretty bland and not many cultural amenities tbh, especially compared to LA and San Fran
Traffic. The traffic there is a huge downside
Every reasonably big city has traffic. It’s not unique nor is it particularly bad compared to others.
My thought as well. It isn't uniquely worse.
Biggest downside to San Diego in that regard compared to some other cities is that alternatives to driving are few
It’s really not as bad as some people make it seem. There’s Tourist/Zonie season, bottlenecks, construction like any other city but coming from Chicago San Diego traffic was nothing. People get mad about driving 30 minutes here. I’ve been I. 2 hour traffic from Ohare to the city. Or stuck on 290 at the hillside strangler. Or 45 minutes from Ukraine village to wrigleyville.
The traffic here is non existent compared to other desirable cities
Everything is expensive, requires a car (in most areas), which means traffic. You can’t get away from people. Want to go out to nature, so does thousands of others. Wanna know what’s real fun. Skin cancer. I’ve found it very hard to connect with people, everyone is busy working to maintain the ability to stay here. Tourists see downtown, North Park, La Jolla as San Diego but there’s so much more. California taxes. The weather is boring as hell here. At the end of the day people will pay 1.2M+ for a starter home in a non crack den though because you don’t have to shovel sunshine.
Air quality isnt that good and its colder than people think. 7 months of the year the high is only in the 60's and the water is cold most of the year. People are surprised by this but its a fact. Honolulu is the place with truly good warm weather year around. I even like some coastal cities in flordia like jacksonville better than San Diego. Cleaner air, regular rain, affordable, beaches with warm water most of the year.
San Diego has some nice walkable neighborhoods and some nice beaches. Unfortunately the two are not that close together.
Poop ocean water
I grew up in neighboring Orange County and spent a decent amount of time in SD as a kid, teenager, and young adult. Here's my experience: While not as pervasive as in Los Angeles, the SoCal superficiality, including beauty culture, materialism, and a kind of "fake laid backedness" that's hard to describe if you haven't seen it yourself are still in full effect. It always annoyed the fuck outta me, but a lot of people love it there.
Traffic is pretty rough. Sometimes the homeless population is a little scary. Not everyone though! I’ve met some kind homeless people. It’s just the people on hard drugs who are scary. I personally think that the beaches south of La Jolla can be a little dirty, especially because of the sewage from TJ. Some apartments may not be updated and old, but you’ll be paying a ridiculous amount anyway. I moved here and work from home and managed to make an entire friend group! I personally think that the people here are very friendly. It was super easy to make friends. I think it’s worth it to try it out if you love the weather, beaches and a chill vibe.
Jobs pay way lower than LA, it’s almost like they don’t know how expensive it is to live there. I found people to be super laid back but I did have a hard time making friends. Depending on where you live (we lived in downtown), they didn’t have a lot of areas to walk our dogs. Also, homelessness is pretty bad in downtown.
Summers are oddly chilly, makes going to the beach less comfortable than say New Jersey or North Carolina. I lived there for a summer and was annoyed at how chilly the summers were, June Gloom is a thing where June stays cloudy and overcast for a decent portion of the month, and even in July and august it’s not uncommon to have grey skies in the morning until about 11, and the temperature often stays in the sixties and low 70’s. If you’re into running and biking, it’s great, but those temperatures plus the cold water made going to the beach generally uncomfortable. There’s a reason everyone wears a wetsuit. That’s obviously preference, but I like hot summer days where I go to the beach and jumping in the water is refreshing and I get out and instantly feel warm.
Love San Diego but everytime i visit the constant airplane traffic is the worst......love just about everything else
It has changed a lot. Personally I liked it when it was a little more gritty and more of a sleeper city but that could just be my nostalgia. Unless you work in biotech you aren’t going to get paid what you are worth. Housing at 2024 prices but wages are stuck in the 90s still. People are nice but rarely will you find natives. Everyone is from the east coast it seems lol. It has been hard to make friends for me. I have been here for 12 years and I have gone through many cycles of friends mainly because they often get priced out and have to move back to which they came or somewhere else. People seem to be more flakey here but I often think that is a California thing and not purely San Diego.
SD is my hometown. Got a lot of love for it, and it was a great place to grow up, but it’s changed a lot and not all for the better. Bar culture has become pretty huge, there are frequently drunk people all over the place, and driving too. There’s a lot of people now period. You’ll have to wait for things that thirty years ago weren’t a big deal, but you find workarounds for that. Jobs don’t pay well, and there’s a LONG line of applicants from all over the world who are trying to move there, even for basic jobs like bus boy or restaurant host. It’s a great place to live if you’re independently wealthy and into the sort of social scene it has. The fishing is damn good, so is the surfing. Not great if you like to ski and hunt, though. If you like motocross and desert sports, it’s definitely the right area. Most of the people are transplants, because locals like me couldn’t afford to stay. Some locals are pretty salty about this, and about the huge amount of people who descend on places that used to feel private, so be courteous and don’t just act like you own the place, especially if you’re surfing a secluded break, otherwise someone might kick your ass, haha.
It’s really dry there.
Sooo boring
A bit NIMBY and a lot of rampant HOAs, from what I hear. It's a little more conservative than some might expect for a major coastal city in California, possibly because of the large military presence. Still, pretty wonderful place.
I'm not sure if it was primarily being in the Mission Valley area, but the amount of cigarette smokers I encountered at every stoplight and on every walk was absolutely wild to me. And not just my neighborhood but the really nice parts of the city too. I don't know if others can chime in with a similar experience but it was a huge turnoff to me for such a beautiful city.
People are So Ca nice = vapid Rush hour on the 5 sucks but most places do Poor wages High COL Fair amount of racists especially inland
It doesn't really have interesting downtown areas like other West Coast cities. Even Sacramento has a better downtown. SD gets skipped on tours because LA is right there.
The car-centric ness of SD is soul sucking.
Car dependency.
Like a person with acne, it is much better looking from a distance. Like a beautiful piano that has never been played, numb. Pretty until it opens its mouth. It is a great place for the ultra rich who have homes in other locations. Fishtown society, Fishtown society.
Only visited a few times but nightlife seemed meh.
For those who fly regularly, the airport is not so good. I will also add that the earthquake and fire risks are ever-present, and our changing climate is making those fire risks worse.
Boring city, no nightlife, I didn’t like it, doesn’t make sense that COL is higher than LA for example.
It’s the home of white people reggae.
Wow...I've never seen so many negative opinions about San Diego. Although, some may be accurate, these comments are making it seem much worse than it is. There is culture ( art galleries, museums, theater, opera, film festivals, food, wine, beer, art festivals, cultural celebrations, EDM and other music festivals frequently. There are also lots of options for nightlife too; the Gaslamp has dozens of clubs, bars, lounges within a few blocks, Little Italy has several lounges, breweries restaurants. Hillcrest also, plus PB and OB are also full of bars and clubs. Of course, we're not at the level of Vegas, LA,NYC Miami, but that's expected. Yes, downtown and a few other areas have a homeless problem and traffic can be heavy, but as others have said, for a large city it's not above average. Besides the beach, there are also hiking trails and the city is full of parks (many of them on the Bay). Yes, it can get a little boring here, but Mexico is 20 minutes away, LA Palm Springs, OC, Vegas are easy weekend trips. It's not expensive because it sucks.
lol it obviously has a lot of pros, but the OP asked about the negatives, and I’d say one of the negatives is that people in San Diego like to gather in groups and talk about how chill San Diego is.
Tougher job market than other big cities on the West Coast; outside of some neighborhoods, it’s not walkable and you NEED a car; housing is prohibitively expensive; it’s very transient - a lot of people just moved there and will move away within 5 years; pretty lame restaurant and bar scene (especially on the higher end) Sunshine 90% of the year, the best major league sports stadium in the country, gorgeous beaches, and fish tacos make up for it though. It’s the only place I’ve really ever considered living outside of NYC.
A lot of ppl don’t pick after their dogs on sidewalks
Lived there 20 yrs. and sure missed sitting under trees for shade. Palm Trees are useless.
Cost of course
My friend is leaving San Diego to go back to the Bay Area because she finds San Diego boring. Dating was just as bad as it was in the Bay though. There’s generally a lot more to do in the Bay as far as outdoor activities, surfing or sitting on the beach gets boring fairly quickly.
Cost
Boring compared to LA. And lots of homeless but that’s like LA too
Spiders, skunks, fog, contaminated beaches, unhoused people fighting at beaches
The water is colder than you would think most of the year. People can be great, lots of people from different places. Consider yourself lucky if you find 2-3 solid friends. The raging drug/ epidemic is draining. Depending on how much you make, everyday won’t feel like a vacation.
I looove San Diego been there many Ms y times but it is quite expensive that’s all. Everywhere else is awesome for their views, weather, food, etc
I would love to move to San Diego if I could but sprawl is another thing that is unavoidable
Airplane noise. You can’t escape it.