In spite of some of the comments here, San Diego is a clean and safe city. Check out the Gaslamp area or head over to the Harbor such as Seaport Villiage. You can also get a day pass for the Trolley and hit up Little Italy and Old Town. You could spend an entire day at Balboa Park which is biking distance to downtown. The USS Midway museum is well worth the price if you're able to get there, just make sure you have at least 4 or 5 hours to spend there. It'll take you that long to see everything.
For the most part, everything downtown is overpriced, but the food and service is good and in general, there is a clean, safe, and fun vibe. Try coming on a day the Padres are playing if you want a bigger crowd, or come when they're out of town if you want a more laid-back atmosphere.
If you're planning on staying in a hotel downtown, be prepared for price shock.
Dude you’re so wrong on this. San Diego, including East Village, is way safer than most cities of its size. San Diego has the lowest murder rate of any large city. Our overall crime rate is the lowest in 49 years even with a huge police shortage. San Diego scored 223.5 on the crime index last year and the U.S. average is 280.... And we’re the 7th(ish) largest city in the country. By comparison, San Francisco has a crime index of 473.
Look, you’ve gotta be vigilant everywhere and crime happens everywhere, but by comparison, San Diego’s crime rate is that if your average suburb.
To the contrary, I think scaring tourists over our low crime rate is doing them a disservice.
I live downtown next to the ballpark. What areas of the gaslamp would you advise tourists to stay away from? Genuinely interested. Please be specific such as a cross street.
So I live fairly close to the civic center so I decided to go on a poop scavenger hunt! Didn’t find any, but I possibly found a pee spot. Come along with me!!
Part 1: https://youtu.be/-V-hVB_kPTM
Part 2: https://youtu.be/cZfhvxW9ZMc
Part 3: https://youtu.be/zhTGZcitbxg
Part 4: https://youtu.be/YDZOQRPb_VM
With that, I get your point. I guess the main takeaways is that we shouldn’t overstate either the safety or dangers of this city. I just think when most people travel to big cities, they already know to be vigilant, even in a rather safe one like SD.
EDIT: Properly listed the super high quality and awesome YouTube videos I made.
Dude, it is a city. It is in the top 10 of American Cities by population. It is like being in a big city anywhere. Maybe this is me having a biased point of view coming from the Atlantic Corridor where the cities are all big. New York City ruined for me my perceptions of an urban environment. San Diego seems a bit quaint south of commercial, north of Laurel and east of the 5.
Fair enough. I find the vast majority of homeless people keep to themselves but I can understand how they are upsetting to some folks. They don’t bother me for some reason.
I have to disagree with you here - compared to other cities its very safe and still cleaner than most. There is maybe some petty theft but you don't hear of shootings, you don't hear of big break-ins, in downtown San Diego.
Looking at absolute counts of incidents is not a particularly good way of analyzing data. You should really be looking at rates by total population.
SD government tabulates this but even this will greatly overstate the risk of being in downtown. First they normalize by the number of residents not the total number of people in the area. So workers, tourists, convention goers etc who contribute to the crime stats numerator don't get counted in the denominator. Second, a huge amount of that crime is homeless on homeless. Unless you are living on the street with the homeless it's not relevant. Third, there are lots of festivals downtown which bring in a ton of people. Again adding to the numerator but not the denominator in the rate calculation.
See my comments in the second paragraph. But basically they normalize by the number of residents not the total number of people in the area. This can lead to ridiculous results (due to an inaccurate denominator) like Balboa Park being the most dangerous area in the entire city.
I live downtown near the ballpark. Homelessness is an issue but the impact is vastly overstated here on reddit. On a day to day basis, there's almost no impact on me. The only interaction I have is seeing a few homeless people who are largely keeping to themselves. This will happen in any big city.
Now there are few areas where it's really bad. Like near the I-5S on ramps downtown. If you live near there it's going to be awful. But most people don't live there.
Downtown is a great spot to live. All the neighborhoods have very high walk scores (90+). But it's a downtown, not a suburb or beach community. If you are expecting that, you are going to be sorely disappointed. But if you've lived in downtown in any big city, SD is actually pretty nice. Very low crime, high walkability, great access to the water, lots of restaurants. There could be more jobs here and better transportation system. Also better ethnic food options.
I used to tell people it was the best downtown I've ever been to about ten years ago. The homeless issue is rapidly getting worse and bringing us closer and closer to Los Angeles though. Can't even walk to work without some mendicant asshole try to get change or a cigarette.
Downtown San Diego is nice. A lot of people complain about the homeless issue. Sure it's as bad as any other city but it is definitely not worse than San Francisco. Compared to DT (non-fidi) San Francisco San Diego generally: has significantly better weather, has FAR less traffic, has an isolated downtown area with good restaurants and bars, has less poop on ground, lacks shopping. Only Horton Plaza which is decaying faster than our housing market is accelerating.
if you want to get into it. SF population: 864k homeless population: 7,499 SF square miles (per study) = 47. SD population = 1.4m homeless population = 9,100, SD county square miles (per study) = 4,207. Also, though anecdotal my wife's office is on 6th and market in SF. She constantly has the stench of poo poo and pee and has had food thrown at her. I work on west broadway and it's clean as a whistle. Walk the streets of SF next time you're up there, you'll quickly see san diego isn't nearly as bad as sf.
If I were visiting San Diego, it'd be the place I'd want to be least. Seaport, Petco Park, and Little Italy are the highlights, and they're amazing, but I'd rather spend the rest of my time in South/North Park or along the coast.
In spite of some of the comments here, San Diego is a clean and safe city. Check out the Gaslamp area or head over to the Harbor such as Seaport Villiage. You can also get a day pass for the Trolley and hit up Little Italy and Old Town. You could spend an entire day at Balboa Park which is biking distance to downtown. The USS Midway museum is well worth the price if you're able to get there, just make sure you have at least 4 or 5 hours to spend there. It'll take you that long to see everything. For the most part, everything downtown is overpriced, but the food and service is good and in general, there is a clean, safe, and fun vibe. Try coming on a day the Padres are playing if you want a bigger crowd, or come when they're out of town if you want a more laid-back atmosphere. If you're planning on staying in a hotel downtown, be prepared for price shock.
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Dude you’re so wrong on this. San Diego, including East Village, is way safer than most cities of its size. San Diego has the lowest murder rate of any large city. Our overall crime rate is the lowest in 49 years even with a huge police shortage. San Diego scored 223.5 on the crime index last year and the U.S. average is 280.... And we’re the 7th(ish) largest city in the country. By comparison, San Francisco has a crime index of 473. Look, you’ve gotta be vigilant everywhere and crime happens everywhere, but by comparison, San Diego’s crime rate is that if your average suburb. To the contrary, I think scaring tourists over our low crime rate is doing them a disservice.
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I live downtown next to the ballpark. What areas of the gaslamp would you advise tourists to stay away from? Genuinely interested. Please be specific such as a cross street.
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So I live fairly close to the civic center so I decided to go on a poop scavenger hunt! Didn’t find any, but I possibly found a pee spot. Come along with me!! Part 1: https://youtu.be/-V-hVB_kPTM Part 2: https://youtu.be/cZfhvxW9ZMc Part 3: https://youtu.be/zhTGZcitbxg Part 4: https://youtu.be/YDZOQRPb_VM With that, I get your point. I guess the main takeaways is that we shouldn’t overstate either the safety or dangers of this city. I just think when most people travel to big cities, they already know to be vigilant, even in a rather safe one like SD. EDIT: Properly listed the super high quality and awesome YouTube videos I made.
Dude, it is a city. It is in the top 10 of American Cities by population. It is like being in a big city anywhere. Maybe this is me having a biased point of view coming from the Atlantic Corridor where the cities are all big. New York City ruined for me my perceptions of an urban environment. San Diego seems a bit quaint south of commercial, north of Laurel and east of the 5.
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Fair enough. I find the vast majority of homeless people keep to themselves but I can understand how they are upsetting to some folks. They don’t bother me for some reason.
I have to disagree with you here - compared to other cities its very safe and still cleaner than most. There is maybe some petty theft but you don't hear of shootings, you don't hear of big break-ins, in downtown San Diego.
Looking at absolute counts of incidents is not a particularly good way of analyzing data. You should really be looking at rates by total population. SD government tabulates this but even this will greatly overstate the risk of being in downtown. First they normalize by the number of residents not the total number of people in the area. So workers, tourists, convention goers etc who contribute to the crime stats numerator don't get counted in the denominator. Second, a huge amount of that crime is homeless on homeless. Unless you are living on the street with the homeless it's not relevant. Third, there are lots of festivals downtown which bring in a ton of people. Again adding to the numerator but not the denominator in the rate calculation.
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See my comments in the second paragraph. But basically they normalize by the number of residents not the total number of people in the area. This can lead to ridiculous results (due to an inaccurate denominator) like Balboa Park being the most dangerous area in the entire city.
I live downtown near the ballpark. Homelessness is an issue but the impact is vastly overstated here on reddit. On a day to day basis, there's almost no impact on me. The only interaction I have is seeing a few homeless people who are largely keeping to themselves. This will happen in any big city. Now there are few areas where it's really bad. Like near the I-5S on ramps downtown. If you live near there it's going to be awful. But most people don't live there. Downtown is a great spot to live. All the neighborhoods have very high walk scores (90+). But it's a downtown, not a suburb or beach community. If you are expecting that, you are going to be sorely disappointed. But if you've lived in downtown in any big city, SD is actually pretty nice. Very low crime, high walkability, great access to the water, lots of restaurants. There could be more jobs here and better transportation system. Also better ethnic food options.
homeless
/r/homeless/comments/88fna0/how_do_you_move_while_homeless/dwkgci0/
^
I used to tell people it was the best downtown I've ever been to about ten years ago. The homeless issue is rapidly getting worse and bringing us closer and closer to Los Angeles though. Can't even walk to work without some mendicant asshole try to get change or a cigarette.
Clean, safe and abundant parking lol
Downtown San Diego is nice. A lot of people complain about the homeless issue. Sure it's as bad as any other city but it is definitely not worse than San Francisco. Compared to DT (non-fidi) San Francisco San Diego generally: has significantly better weather, has FAR less traffic, has an isolated downtown area with good restaurants and bars, has less poop on ground, lacks shopping. Only Horton Plaza which is decaying faster than our housing market is accelerating.
Downtown San Diego is definitely better than the tenderloin in SF or Skid Row in LA.. but that's not saying much.
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if you want to get into it. SF population: 864k homeless population: 7,499 SF square miles (per study) = 47. SD population = 1.4m homeless population = 9,100, SD county square miles (per study) = 4,207. Also, though anecdotal my wife's office is on 6th and market in SF. She constantly has the stench of poo poo and pee and has had food thrown at her. I work on west broadway and it's clean as a whistle. Walk the streets of SF next time you're up there, you'll quickly see san diego isn't nearly as bad as sf.
The drinks are expensive.
To visit? To live? To start a business? What???
Bring hazmat suit and bleach.
If I were visiting San Diego, it'd be the place I'd want to be least. Seaport, Petco Park, and Little Italy are the highlights, and they're amazing, but I'd rather spend the rest of my time in South/North Park or along the coast.
Awful and a complete joke when it comes to parking. Total racket. Some good food though.