San Diego Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
North Park?
Hi guys, my H may be transferring to San Diego by choice (we currently live in Orange County). We are heading down in a week or two to check out some neighborhoods, and North Park sounded fun. We have no kids, and this move will likely only be for a year or two. We want a place where we can get a rental home in a residential area, but not be too far from downtown SD. Do you think North Park would do?
We have been to Escondido before and loved the historical homes and the cute downtown, but it may be too far of a commute.
ETA: In return for your help I promise to host a fun GTG if all goes according to plan 
Unfortunately that won't be until March!
Re: North Park?
There is a lot going on in North Park. It is an up and coming neighborhood that has experienced some resurgence in recent years. The crowd is very hipster/ rockabilly with a lot of great restaurants and dive bars.
You may also want to check out Mission Hills (my hood) we LOVE it. A lot of craftsman homes, great neighborhood feel, close to downtown and centrally located, urban area with a community feel. We can walk to everything.
Hillcrest, South Park and Kensignton are all areas you may want to check out as well.
I agree with pp. I have lived in North Park, South Park, DH used to live in Kensington and we live in Golden Hill now. I really like these areas. There are a lot of great places with character and like pp said these areas are really centrally located. I can be at the beach in less than 10 minutes, I can walk to the Gaslamp and Balboa Park. There are a tone of great restaurants, wine bars, etc.
Cole Alexander 6.9.10
Move to Escondido
Now that they have the carpool lane open up to the mall, the commute is nothing! If you dont have the extra person needed for carpooling you can use the Fastrack and just pay whatever the charge is at the time you need to commute.
We live in Old Escondido and love it. We have a good mix of neighbors and are within walking distance to downtown.
A friend of mine, who is a real estate agent in that area, rated the neighborhoods near North Park in the following order:
1. Mission Hills - quiet, safe, walkable, gorgeous, most expensive.
2. University Heights - slightly less charming but smilar to mission hills and slightly less expensive.
3. Hillcrest - depends on exactly where you live but there are some very quiet sections and most of the area is very walkable and overall a very safe area.
4. North Park - walkable, safe for the most part, quiet, some parts can be pretty sketchy, not great for walking around after dark. It's a block by block basis. Check out the exact area you're considering before making a move.
5. Mission Valley - noisy, congested, stripmalls. Safe enough to walk but not much character.
We just went through all these neighborhoods, looking for a perfect rental home, and while the ads on Craigslist sounded great, just about every single neighborhood in Golden Hills and North Park were not ones I would feel safe in, especially since my husband travels all the time. We ended up finding an awesome place in Hillcrest, in a quiet neighborhood, yet still walking distance to everything and are moving in tomorrow. Good luck with your search!
NJ has good neighborhood advice. H and I live in Hillcrest and we like it, but it's busy and noisy where we are and a few years ago there were definitely some drug deals going on outside this apartment. The San Diego PD has an interactive crime map that I always use to check out prospective places. http://mapping.arjis.org/
Also, the advice I was given for North Park is to look for places south of University Ave or north of Adams Ave, but nothing in between. I don't know how true that is now, but friends who live in the North Park/Normal Heights area are the ones who told me, so I trust they know their neighborhood.
I think finding a house to rent in a centrally-located neighborhood may be a challenge, but since you have time hopefully you can find something good!
We love living downtown. We have lived in little italy & we bought a place last year in Cortez Hill. You can walk to Balboa, gaslamp, the water, hillcrest...its great. Plus you are right near the entrance to the 5 and 163 which is perfect for commuting.
I agree with pp that North park has sketchy areas. We looked at a house there that was awesome, but not a place I would feel safe in. It's all a matter of preference.
I feel really safe in cortez hill - we have safety patrol every night, and there is a little park & lots of young people & families. Parking isn't bad either.
Good luck!!
Thank you guys SO SO much for all this help. I'm even more excited now:)
I've felt so clueless looking through craigslist not knowing what was a good deal and what areas were good. I think we're gonna visit next weekend and check out all the neighborhoods you guys mentioned.
Thanks again, hopefully I'll be meeting all of you soon!