San Diego

No, it's pretty much soulless. I lived there for 9 years.

Nope. Not much. Zzzzzzzzzz....

I moved there from Phoenix and thought I had arrived in heaven.

It's sleepy. Great place to retire, IMHO.

Yeah sleepy is the right description. Not much happening. But pretty areas. Odd that it’s so boring given the decent amount of young people. But they just smoke pot and scooter all over the place.

But I find it makes for a nice weekend escape. Sunset and a night out in Hillside makes for a relaxing getaway.

It’s a city full of lost souls. It’s the West Coast version of Florida. Young people from all over the place come to live here for about two years and then leave. No one has any real ambition here. You don’t hear people talking about what they do for a living probably because they work at Walgreens. This city is ghetto as all hell outside of certain areas. The traffic is getting worse. If you go to the tourist spots or near the beach anytime during the summer youre a fool. It is a very odd city and as I mentioned very Lost. It has no identity

And yes who wants to pay $2000 a month to live in North Park in an apartment that looks like a motel

Mexico can take San Diego back. We'll fortify our own Orange Curtain.

[QUOTE]You don’t hear people talking about what they do for a living probably because they work at Walgreens

How can they afford to live there? I thought San Diego was expensive as fuck

I have two good friends who lived there and got forced to Tijuana when their rent went up.

San Diego is gorgeous with the most perfect weather I ever experienced

LaJolla is where people live.

The city is for The Poors.

I felt the same. Most generic big city I’ve been to.

Why is everyone so pretentious? San Diego is beautiful.

It’s people like you that make cities like NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles what they become.

It’s beautiful but has no energy or soul R14. That’s what we’re saying. NY has an energy unlike any other city on earth. It pulses with life.

Good summary R6. Though I have the same question as R9 - how do they afford the rent? Drifter city with major city rents.

NYC hasn’t pulsed with life in years. It is nothing but suburban whites being superficial, racist and classist now.

San Diego is a laid back city. Why that’s a bad thing idk. I can’t fathom it. Not every city needs to feel like NYC or Chicago or London or Rio etc. it’s ok for some cities to have a laid back vibe. That’s why I love visiting San Diego.

Well, I’m glad you like but there’s a difference between laid back and boring and lifeless.

[quote]It’s a city full of lost souls. It’s the West Coast version of Florida.

But with MUCH better weather, better politics, and fewer nutjobs.

[quote]Sunset and a night out in Hillside makes for a relaxing getaway.

Hillside?

Great beaches.

I'm pretty sure he meant Hillcrets, R20. That's where most of the gay bars are/were. That's where Andrew Cunanan hung out when he lived in San Diego (at Flicks, specifically).

My friend lived there for a few years. Said it’s the most beautiful weather and very non problematic. I can’t see how it’s boring either.

I always have fun. Boring people need to be told how to have fun.

Hillside is a famous Jewish cemetery in LA.

My mistake - Hillcrest not Hillside. Even the name is bland.

I lived in San Diego for a year or so. It is perhaps, the dullest city I have ever experienced. The neighborhoods are crazy expensive and trashy, the gay life dull and the traffic terrible. I did get some decent Mexican food though. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out.

"Dull" for most of the queens in this thread probably means "I didn't get laid enough and the drinks were too expensive for my meager budget."

Lol no nutjobs!? Omg make lmfao. The homeless have taken over the city. Walk down University or El Cajon Blvd.. Sleeping bags everywhere. Its dullsville for sure. Id rather be in white trash Florida. At least theres an identity. Oh yes.. La Jolla is nice but cmon its filled with douche bags. Lets not forget about traffic suburban nightmare UTC. I cant wait to move.

Most apts in Hillcrest and North Park are dormitories filled w multiple people. They hang around the motel aka an apt building and drink in the courtyard and duscuss how laid back sd is.

North County is beautiful-- Encinitas, Carlsbad--that area--but the city itself seems less like a city and more like "okay, if we go any further south, we're in Mexico, so let's stop here."

And Carlsbad/Encinitas is great for a nice summer beach break to do nothing buy lie on the beach and eat fish tacos and try and pick up closeted surfer boys on Grindr-- not sure I'd want to live there unless I was married with kids.

I think some of the most beautiful gays I’ve met were San Diego natives.

Y’all are just old boring people.

La Jolla natives aren’t friendly to outsiders and don’t want us there. I know for a fact.

They’re wealthy white assholes and they have no problem starting shit with you.

It does seem there is a lot of motel architecture there. I have always found is a strangely lonely and isolating place.

R27 exactly. I always have fun while there. Sounds like older gays bitching about nothing.

I’m tired of the NYC hype. The city has lost its edge and gone down the drain.

I've heard it's fairly conservative. IOW. some Trump country areas in San Diego.

NY doesn’t have Trump areas?

I’ve got family in La Jolla and they are all wealthy former east coast retirees. Friendly with their own upper class kind, but politically very liberal.

La Jolla is a wealthy place.

Real World San Diego 2 filmed in La Jolla and the natives hated them and tried chasing them out. Security had to stay with them at all times and the cast was on a strict curfew and had security outside the house at all times cause the locals would try to harm the cast, even trying to fight them and throw things at them so they wanna leave. That’s how bad they didn’t want the show filming there.

Fine for a visit. Wouldn’t want to live there. The worst architecture on the West Coast. Strangely weird vibe - not friendly. Always wonder what people do for jobs there.

Someone I know named Rob moved there after college from NJ and he stayed about 2 years then left. The weather was perfect and he had fun, loved the Mexican restaurants but he said a lot of the locals were mean. He’s actually incredibly handsome but someone not fully aware of his looks (he’s short though) and he wears his heart on his sleeve. He said sometimes guys would just scream mean shit to him from their cars etc. and it was so hurtful to him how mean some of the Natives are.

[quote]Lol no nutjobs!?

Please look up the word "fewer" in the dictionary and then re-think your response.

[quote]He said sometimes guys would just scream mean shit to him from their cars etc. and it was so hurtful to him how mean some of the Natives are.

I'm willing to bet most of them weren't "Natives." Or natives, for that matter.

They were locals r42

Too many Filipinos. End of thread.

r44 I resemble(d) that remark.

I took the bus everywhere. Surprisingly easy. But a real insight into SD. Some real down on their luck types.

But like R40, I met a kid (23-24) on the bus and he was really anxious to talk to me. He was from Boston and had moved out there after college. He said he had been there for months and hadn’t made friends. Normal, nice, decent looking guy - but you could tell he was just desperate to meet people and SD made it very difficult.

Yeah a lot of the people from there aren’t nice to people moving in.

Maybe they don’t want their city to end up like Los Angeles or NYC, with the majority being out of towners while the locals are pushed out.

Atlanta is another soulless city lacking culture.

Atlanta used to have a lot of soul and culture. It was erased. Same shits happening to NYC

I lived there while in grad school... was over 30btw. Soulless is the word that nails it for me. It is beautiful, excellent weather, lots of transplants. I felt isolated and lonely there too. Once away from coastline it was full on desert weather. From East cast, sought a new experience, which was good, but eventually learned I am def an East Coast person. people nice enough...I missed humor and laughing. Sarcasm, or cynicism does not translate. I can see how would be nice to visit.

Nobody I met were originally from there. It’s type place that when you move out there, either love or hate. Stay forevermore, or return from they came. It’s really beautiful.

I lived/worked there for a few months around 2003. It was very beautiful, very easy, with good scenery and restaurants. But after about a month or so, it also revealed itself to be pretty dull, soulless and conservative. (Maybe that last from the large population of retired navy folk there?) I'd be happy to go back for a few weeks, but no more than that.

[quote] Why is everyone so pretentious?

It's the DL M/O. Say outlandishly ridiculous things about any city other than the one they live in. It builds up their poor morale.

SD cannot possibly be soulless because it's the city where Sean Cody was founded.

For that alone it deserves our respect and admiration.

Atlanta sucks relative to SD. At least SD has the beach and great weather. And a hot lib governor. Atlanta is soulless, too hot in the summer and you live in a Deplorable state.

The beaches are nice and the airport is right downtown, which is both nice and not so nice. It's convenient but when you can count the rivets on the underside of the plane fifty feet over your head as you sit in traffic, well, you hope the pilot lined up his approach properly.

A friend (this was 2000) who grew up there had an Al Gore for President bumper sticker on her car. People gave her the finger in traffic, cut her off, got in front of her and hit the brakes and the car was keyed a couple of times before she figured out why. She said it hasn't gotten any better. Another friend from the East moved out there and married a guy on the faculty at UCSD. She lasted three years before they divorced and she moved back here. The boredom and lack of any intellectual stimulation sucked the life out of her, she said. And she was a faculty wife.

Lots of uber-right-wing nutjobs retired there from the Navy. Lots of Okies who stopped there instead of going on to LA. Lots of homeless people who arrived there from everywhere else and aren't leaving. And it's sad to see retirees who can't afford their meds in the US having to go over the border to Tijuana to get their prescriptions filled.

Saddest of all were the signs on the I-5 around Oceanside erected to warn drivers not to hit the illegal migrants in the road. I don't think people were aiming for them but I guess they killed enough of 'em to warrant the signs.

What illegal immigrant woman would cross the border wearing a dress?

R44 tons of Iranians as well. If you thought there were a lot in West LA, think again.

Lost souls drifting in the wind. Fellow Boston folk .. you will gravitate toward anyone from NE .. to survive. There are entire buildings in North Park with Ex NY and Boston people.

Worst pizza EVER! Tastes like cardboard. Bronx Pizza is NOT real pizza jesus. Dont try and pass off your west coast BS pizza on a NY’er or Chicago.

Lots of closeted mexicans .. who say sorry I cant host mang

Born and raised in Boston, I have lived in San Diego for 35 years. It's a nice place, nice quality of life. But it is soulless.

Interesting how many Bostonians I’ve met in SD. I guess it’s the polar opposite. But also both a little small town and boring.

A friend of mine has lived there almost all his life. He's the first to say it's fine for surfing, etc., but devoid of culture. The weather is nice as long as you forget the June gloom and their version of winter--lost of fog. Been ther numerous times. Last time, I really noticed how sad the people seemed in Hillcrest & vicinity--not just the homeless, but the retired gays shuffling around. Like much of southern Califiornia, people go there and expect nice weather to fix their lives---it doesn't. A sort of high gloss,more truly laid back counterpart to Florida. The coastal towns further North do seem livelier.

64 replies and no discussion of Black's Beach. The lushest place on earth in the'80's with acres of nude Marines is now a waste land of clothed surfers and 60+ eldergays who go nude. The gay northern section has very few nudes; they all think they have something worth hiding.

Is it still the treacherous decent from the bluff to the beach? Hazardous climb down, equally hazardous climb up if I remember.

Exactly R66. I’m very happy just watching the sun set from the (safe) bluffs above - and not having to rock climb back up in the dark.

Yeah, those steps are intense, but super fun/rewarding to tackle. It's not that treacherous.

[quote] The beaches are nice and the airport is right downtown, which is both nice and not so nice. It's convenient but when you can count the rivets on the underside of the plane fifty feet over your head as you sit in traffic, well, you hope the pilot lined up his approach properly.

I've loved visiting and have considered living in the area, but yeah, the airport being RIGHT downtown kinda sucks. It means there's a good chunk of the city that I wouldn't want to live in (Little Italy and that area).

I love Little Italy

It's lovely, R70, but the first time I watched a plane fly RIGHT overhead I almost shit my pants.

Scott, what the heck is your problem? Did someone stick something up your ass or something? Nobody likes you at all in here, yet you babble on and on and on. At least I still have some people who like me in here, not like you who is trying to get the trolls from the other group to come in here, which I really don't appreciate. Why don't you go back to your mental institution where you belong? Isn't that where you're coming from? Didn't we read an article about you going nuts?

Having planes fly right over you is something you would have to get used to lmao.

Who is this Scott R72 refers to, and what is this "other board" he claims this Scott person is bringing trolls from?

Yeah WTF is that? Drunk DL on Saturday.

I find it amazing that the airport for a city the size of SD only has one runway.

Creepy republican-land vibe of a city with snotty white bread inhabitants that are like unemotional zombies. Really is Phoenix/Scottsdale with a beach. Sad backwater city where people drive to LA for fun. The beaches in LA are far superior.

I lived in San Diego 36 years, from 1982 to 2018. During that time I saw enormous changes in the city. There was a group in the 1980s called PLAN, for Prevent Los Angelezation Now. Unfortunately their efforts to put planned, slow-growth policies in place failed. The forces of greed and the power of developers prevailed again and again, influencing the city council, planning commission and county board of supervisors to make a long series of bad decisions regarding land use. Private business interests have nearly always prevailed over the public interest.

Even during water crisis periods, when statewide droughts caused public agencies to implore the public to cut back on water use any possible way, the city and county governments continued to approve vast new housing projects. It's one of the most corrupt places in the country as far as land use decisions. The result is 3 million people in a county that is only really capable of holding 1 million. The results of this are heavy traffic, long lines, scarce parking and a high cost of living. A decent house now is at least $600,000 and a good house in a goid neighborhood is usually $1 million these days.

For me it's a paradise lost. It was a sort-of paradise but overcrowding, traffic, noise and high prices have degraded it. The mild, balmy climate, free of extreme temperatures, is still there, though to me summers seem noticeably hotter than 35 years ago. San Diego is generally free from hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, but is not immune to earthquakes and is certainly prone to wildfires. See the Cedar Fire of 2003 for one of the worst examples.

San Diego was a sleepy "Navy town" and a tourism town when I moved there, but grew into a big city (8th largest city in the U.S. in population). The advantage of the massive influx of people are that there are many more choices of events, activities food, entertainment and culture than there were before. Much more to do than there was in the "old days." And of course many more people to meet. But those are the only advantages. It's taken on all the big city problems too. And there is a huge homeless population, because the mild, gentle climate makes it easy to survive outdoors.

Historically San Diego was a deep red, reliably Republican area, though that seems to be true now only for the eastern suburbs like Lakeside, El Cajon, Ramona, Vista and so forth. But I believe the central core of the city is now blue, even if the outlying fringe areas are still deep red. Certainly the neighborhood I lived in (Kensington) is quite liberal and gay-friendly, as are University Heights, North Park, South Park and Normal Heights. But the actual "gayborhood" is Hillcrest as mentioned earlier in this thread. I would say that gay is pretty much a non-issue throughout almost the entire county.

Socioeconomically the county has divisions; the further north you go the more white and affluent; the further south the more working class and multicultural. Interstate 8 through Mission Valley seems to the the unofficial dividing line. Beach and coastal areas are of course more expensive and thus can be more affluent. La Jolla is a neighborhood of the city San Diego and one of the most expensive and affluent, with a significant international population. The far eastern inland reaches of the county tend to be rural though not everyone are "deplorable" hicks.

Black's Beach isn't the freewheeling gay hotspot it once was (as far as I know) but it's still a beautiful, natural place and still a nude beach.

I think if you're bored in San Diego these days it's largely your own fault as there are plenty of opportunities for things to see and do and plenty of people. I'm sure it seems soulless to those seeking soulful. Much of San Diego is suburbs, which can seem soulless and boring to those accustomed to big city energy and excitement. But it doesn't have to be boring if you seek what interests you and makes you happy.

R78, where did you move to?

If you live in the northern part of the area, John Wayne/OC Airport isn't that far.

San Diego is beautiful but I can’t imagine living there.

R79, a town of 300 in central Nevada.

San Diego is expensive to those who live in flyover land, but not compared to the Bay Area or New York, for example.

R74 we don't know. She has issues.