San Diego Pelicanites?

[rennch]

Hi all,

I'm just about to move from Denver to San Diego at the end of January. My goal is to live in North Park, which is (oddly enough) on the north side of Balboa park. I am looking for a couple things: 1, to connect with other Pelicanites...I want to hear all about the local Porsche scene. 2, the possibility of being able to store my car for a short while while I look for a place to live. The goal is to obviously find a place with a garage, so the sooner the better.

Looking forward to sunshine and year round driving of my little grey beast.

Thanks!

mto

[crustychief]

I live in Mira Mesa, there are a lot of Pelicans out here. PM sent.

[rennch]

Awesome, thanks. I'm looking for a place as well, so if you know of anything, please send it my way!

[John Rogers]

North Park is a very neat area. Some things to check for when looking at or for a place are

- Does it have off street parking and/or a garage. Very important as unusual/old cars are a nice target, especially with CO plates.

- Check the San Diego police crime stats website and see how the area you are looking at fares. Also check with the Megan's Law website for possible sex offenders. This is important even if you are single with no kids as there was a guy killed last year while here for a convention.

- Make sure to check a lease paperwork very carefully as many places, even homes do not allow you to work on a car in the garage or driveway. We all know how 914s tend to need some love now and then.

One of the best folks, who has been around for a long time is the guy that goes by sean_v8_914 and he has a shop on El Cajon Blvd so you can PM him for possible help. He and Herb Meeder run a hot rodded 914 at the stadium all the time. Back around 2000 or so at one of the PCA auto-x events there were over 120 cars and nearly 24 914s and over 12 356 cars running but that has died off as everyone bought Boxsters now! I live in Chula Vista which is south of San Diego and adds to a terrible drive if you have to go North to the Sorrento Valley area or Mira Mesa area.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by emptyo

Hi all,

I'm just about to move from Denver to San Diego at the end of January. My goal is to live in North Park, which is (oddly enough) on the north side of Balboa park. I am looking for a couple things: 1, to connect with other Pelicanites...I want to hear all about the local Porsche scene. 2, the possibility of being able to store my car for a short while while I look for a place to live. The goal is to obviously find a place with a garage, so the sooner the better.

Looking forward to sunshine and year round driving of my little grey beast.

Thanks!

mto

Public Storage (Public Storage - Official Public Storage Facilities & Self Storage Units ) on Pacific Hwy has a $1 first month rent deal going right now. So, $1.00 + special lock and admin was like $40 for an enclosed garage. It's close to the airport. My MBZ is there right now. Bought a Silverado that was in Clairemont and drove it home- gonna fly back on SW for $59 to get car.

$40 for locked storage? Can't be beat.

You'll love the people, the car scene in general and lovely weather. I may move there soon myself.

rjp

[nostatic]

Why North Park? Plenty of great areas in SD, just depends on where you work and your budget.

[RANDY P]

SD is huge (takes hours to drive across), and traffic can and will beat the crap out of you, esp North county.

Californians are used to it so it seems perfectly normal. Kinda like big taxes

[nostatic]

SD is like LA in that regard - it is a very large area with a variety of communities, micro climates, traffic patterns, etc. Had dinner last night with a friend who was in town. He used to live in LA, now is in College Station, TX. We were comparing notes about commutes, land, etc. The bottom line about life in SoCal is that location is everything, but that means both home and work. While I know guys who do long work commutes, personally I'd sooner eat a Glock. I'd rather rent in a decent/nice area that gives me a short commute than have the nicest house ever and suffer on the freeways.

North Country seems to have the worst traffic of SD but I don't live there so I don't have to deal with it every day. If I didn't have to work and had my choice of places to live though, Encinitas/Cardiff/Solana Beach would probably be my first pick. I just would make sure I didn't have to drive anywhere most any time of the day

[JavaBrewer]

Michael, why did you choose North Park? Not that I have anything against it...opposite actually...but why there? If you are working where would it be? Friends you want hang out with - if so where do they live? What social scene are you looking for? All important questions.

[rennch]

Guys...excellent info, thanks. North Park for a couple of reasons. The main reason is I want to have a park very close by so I can take my dog there every day. I also ride my bike *everywhere*, and North Park is a little more than 4 miles from the heart of downtown, which I'll be venturing out to pretty often. I thought of Hillcrest originally, but there weren't a lot of single family homes with garages there...I saw mostly condos and apartments. So, having driven around SD in November, NP seemed like a good fit.

[Joeaksa]

Go out there and spend a few days in various areas. Like Todd mentioned, its really a large mix of loads of people. Some you might really enjoy, some not so much.

I lived there for two years a while ago. Moved out there and started looking in several areas only to find that one had a pretty high crime rate and another was right in the middle of the gay/lesbian community.

Finally found a place that suited my needs, low crime, easy to get to and that I could afford. Was smack dab in the middle of the SD Russian community but hey they were friendly.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by emptyo

The main reason is I want to have a park very close by so I can take my dog there every day.

Ocean Beach would be the ticket for this. Great off-leash dog beach.

[rennch]

Can I ride my bike to downtown San Diego from there?

Originally Posted by Dottore

Ocean Beach would be the ticket for this. Great off-leash dog beach.

[nostatic]

Going downtown by bike isn't easy iirc from most any direction. OB isn't that far from downtown and Point Loma, though further, is even nicer (except the flight path of SAN goes right over some of it).

I'm not sure how dog friendly Balboa Park is (and it is pretty big and developed as well). One cool thing about San Diego is there are a lot of canyons in many neighborhoods, so there are bits of open space amidst the development. There is mass transit into downtown so you could look at places along those lines and be further away from downtown proper. I grew up in the Mission Gorge area (east end of Mission Valley) and the trolley runs down Mission Valley out to El Cajon.

It also depends on how much you want to spend...

[rennch]

I've been to SD 3 times in the last 6 months...I'm pretty set on North Park. If I end up hating it after a few months, I can always move.

[rennch]

See you guys in a week or so. I won't have my car with me right away, because I don't have a place to put it yet. But, excited to plug into your community.

[JavaBrewer]

Good luck. Wish I could have helped more but you never really provided the critical info. NP is a great community...not my cup of tea for many reasons...but perhaps yours.

[rennch]

I'm not sure what critical info I missed...what are you referring to?

[rennch]

Why don't you like North Park?

[John Rogers]

Why not have a "get together" at your place once you move in and get settled and invite the San Diego area 914 folks as from what I remember there are/were quite a few. Maybe a Saturday afternoon or some time when the weather is a tad better. Many of the "old time" members such as James (red beard), the doctor and others have moved away or bought Boxsters!!!!! We used to have one or two a year when Dave D would come down or others would show up and gather at one of Herb's wonderfully managed restaurants.