Sunday, November 18, 2007

neighborhood impressions

Now that we've got a place to store and share our observations, I thought I'd post some stuff that's been sitting in an email folder way too long. A couple years ago, right after I made my first 3-day exploratory trip to San Diego, I asked about a dozen people I know who have lived in San Diego to give me their impressions of the following downtown neighborhoods. I didn't want long descriptions; just some words that immediately came to mind....kinda like Rorschach test on a city. Here's what they said (without editing!):

Hillcrest: trendy, gay, artsy, upscale, gentrified, alternative

Northpark: diversified, hip, up-and coming, the scene, crowded, growing gay community, widespread, mix of college town and urban ghetto, traditional home for many middle to lower income senior citizens, young, gentrified

Mission Hills: wealthy, static, wannabe Hillcrest, beautiful, safe, yuppie, executive salaries, retirees

Normal Heights: a lot like North Park, rooted, eclectic, nostalgic, wannabe North Park, cool, cheaper version of Mission Hills, middle class, ethnically mixed, charming

City Heights: Diverse, real, other side of the tracks, still kinda hip, Urban War Zone/Police State

University Heights: suburban, wannabe Mission Hills, yuppies, more mature

Kensington: premiere, fancy, unspoiled, liberal

Golden Hill: nice small town in a big city, trendy mixed with poor, old with new, bohemian, desirable, laid back, transitional, spotty

Sherman Heights: Older, renewed, mixed (rich/poor), WRONG side of tracks, Black War Zone

Logan Heights: gangs, tough schools, Hispanic, also WRONG side of tracks, Mexican War Zone

Two years and a half-dozen trips latter, I'm not sure I'd buy all those descriptions, nor have I tried to harmonize the discrepancies in them. But in general they're probably pretty close to what I've observed, and at a minimum, they give you a feel for how others in the city think of the downtown neighborhoods.

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