The Secret Life of the Central Coast...
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6/15/2006
... happens in September-November and March-June. That's when the sun shines (I never understood the line in "Lady Is a Tramp" -- "Hate California, it's cold and it's damp" -- until I experienced June gloom on this coast). The tourists have mostly gone home, except the savvy ones, and the locals come out with theater, concerts, dining discounts on Fisherman's Wharf and laid-back cultural events like Christmas in the Adobes and the First Night Monterey.
If you want to come join in the year-round fun (including fog on your 4th of July bbq), consider living in Seaside, Marina or certain parts of Salinas. East Salinas is pretty rough, very gang-oriented, but Oldtown is being spruced up daily. Seaside ditto. Marina was once part and parcel of Fort Ord, and does have lots of decent apartments, passable if pricey housing, and some new development. Expect to drop $400K+ for a decent house in any of those towns, and over $500K in Monterey or Pacific Grove.
Still, the coastal recreation and scenery is brilliant, the dining excellent and not wildly overpriced, and there's plenty of cultural goings on. The Naval PostGraduate School and Defense Languages Institute keep lots of young/intellectual life in the place. Mostly I liked it; if my spouse hadn't lost his job and our mortgage killed us, we'd still be there.
LJ | Monterey, CA