Hope we’re sounding good to you, flyboy, we’d love to have you. There have been some great suggestions for housing in the area you’re looking for (I love Hillcrest, my office is there, and I lived in South Park as well), but I wanted to mention the neighborhood I’m currently in because it would be well-suited to your needs. It’s a bit East of South Park off the 94. Side-by-side duplexes with an HOA, but it’s not a condo. There’s a park and a pool and it’s a safe neighborhood with lots of trees. I drive to Coronado to walk on the beach 3 times a week and it takes me 12 - 15 minutes from my front door to the sand. I don’t have kids, but if I did, I’d be comfortable with raising them here and it’s SO close to downtown and the beach. Anyway, if you come out to scout, post back here and I’ll email you - we’d be happy to show you around. There are a number of homes for sale now and the prices are creeping down…
[hijack] I can’t believe I didn’t know about the Dopefest! Unfortunately, my gall bladder and I are having a parting of the ways on Monday and I’m not sure I’ll be on my feet by Friday, but if I am, we’ll come! Can somebody link to the thread? [/hijack]
spoike, I am so pleased to be in your favor! Spread is on my “to be tried” list, and I am definitely a fan of Ki’s and World Curry. I swear I was a vegetarian in a previous life.
Are you kidding? I’ve already got pre-move jitters because I can’t wait to get there. But like I said in the OP, I have to wait until 2009. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I can now go to my detailer (the guy who will assign me to my next job) and tell him to get me to San Diego. It also gives both me and my wife something to look forward to–my wife especially–because we both can’t wait to get out of the DC area. I think this thread has helped ease her big concern about the area, which was how expensive housing was. And knowing there are some good restaurants is a big plus.
And I’ll be happy to check out your neighborhood when we get there for househunting. I certainly haven’t ruled anyplace out, but I do now have a few good places to start looking.
I hope this isn’t too mundane to bring this back from the dead…
The last time I went to Hillcrest, I noticed that:
Not only is Golden Dragon the name of a completely different Chinese restaurant a block away from the one I was trying to recommend, but
The one I was trying to recommend has closed down and is now an Italian restaurant. Damn!
Also, we discovered Dae Jang Kum, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Kearny Mesa, at the Dopefest this weekend. (Well, Astroboy14 and his wife already knew about it.) Awesome place.
But there’s Cilantro in Lemon Grove. I place Raw food right on up there in the scale of vegan,veggie, omnivore etc…
I do agree though about East County. We live in La Mesa, and at first we were shocked by the white suburban mall culture of it all…then we started seeing the rest of it. There’s plenty of progressive liberalness around, really. But there’s a reason Santee is known as Klantee. Don’t move to Santee or Lakeside unless you’re game to be an instrument of change, I suppose. La Mesa and San Carlos are a bit like a social estuary…