Amanda

has written 1 SperlingViews. Currently, Amanda is living in San Diego, CA and has a little something to say:

Native San Diegan Looking Elsewhere!! Posted On: 6/3/2011 8:53:32 PM

After reading these posts I can agree with both the "Pro's" and the "Cons" but as a native SD born & raised here for 39 years I am now looking to leave, no doubt about it. Yes it's sunny ALL the time, I can't tell if it's summer or winter, it all blends together, and I'm not so sure i like looking out the dining room window at Xmas dinner and seeing palm trees swaying in the sun. it's weird, yet all i know. it was fine growing up i guess, but now that i have a child i am scared to death to raise him here - no way. there are drugs everywhere - in the good neighborhoods & bad - it's the NORM. gangs, crime, homeless people multiplying 10 fold since i was a girl, and growing rapidly, expanding right into the suburban neighborhoods. i don't feel safe, the people really are so shallow & rude, it's crazy. Traffic, road rage, pathetic schools unless you get really lucky or live in an elite neighborhood. even then the proximity to the border means a majority of hispanics in many schools and while i truly have nothing against any particular race it DOES create problems when 1/2 the students primary language - or only language - is spanish. i don't want my child to be the minority or held back to keep pace with the others, and this IS happening. as for housing, even now in 2011 after the huge "correction" in the RE market I would have to pay 1/2 mill.+ for a very modest house, small lot, 5 minutes from the border. I still can't afford it and wouldn't anyway. My plan is to work my butt off for the next 5 yrs save all i can and by the time my son is ready for middle school - we need to get outta here. I can handle the traffic, shallow people and rat race, but i WON'T have my child exposed to a sub-standard education, drugs, gangs, etc. there's little hope for the next generation here, that's sadly how I feel. I've been researching the northeast/new england towns. cold weather, real people, from what i hear & hope!! i'm sad to think about it as my heart IS here in SD but it isn't what it used to be, and i just see it getting worse & worse.