SoCal Riders! Should I move to San Diego?

Norbert · Dec 14, 2012

I may get a job in San Diego.
There's a good chance I'll get it, if the funding goes through.
I don't have a job offer yet, but one of the project leads in Cali wanted to know if I wanted to talk about moving over to San Diego.

I have no idea what it's like, I've never been to LA or San Diego. To be honest, I'm not a city person. I hate them. I do like the northern part of California, north of San Francisco. I think that's one of my favorite places I've been.

California always seemed like a nice place to visit, but a difficult place to live. All the things you're probably sick of hearing: high unemployment, high taxes, high cost of living, etc., all scare me. I have 2 cousins who grew up in Cali and they moved to Texas.

I'm pretty happy with where I'm at in Maryland. I've been here all my life. The pay is really good and there are plenty of jobs, even in this economy. Lots of nice suburbs and I have friends and family all over the DC area. I'm even looking for a home to settle down a bit....now this job opportunity came along...so I don't know. Do I want to spend to rest of my life where I'm at? I dunno....

As far as riding in MD, well there's variety if you're willing to spend some time to get there....but MD can't compete with SoCal when it comes to weather. I won't even try there. But still, it takes more than weather to be comfortable someplace. One thing I don't want is to live in some crappy apartment like I'm still in college. I'm older now and I'm ready to buy a new townhome, with a sweet garage, of course.

So this is a big decision in my life. Here's your chance to totally screw my life up! What do you think I should do? I don't want to get into a situation that will suck 5 years down the road, but then again moving to San Diego would be something different, which is sometimes good enough....

Lefty · Dec 14, 2012

The good new is that if you move to the San Diego area you'll have a ton of awesome roads to ride and you'll have Motogiro as a tour guide. :thumbup:
The bad news is that you'll have Motogiro in your hood. :BLAA:

Just kidding, Cliff is a great guy to show you around and ride with. :rockon:

Motogiro · Dec 14, 2012

Well you know the old saying...."Wherever you go there you are!"

I never get tired of riding here. There's no way I can tell you what's good for your life except maybe one thing in the all knowing oracle of love in the universe!

LOL!

I don't even know if you can get decent blue claw from the beds in that region anymore. I grew up on the east coast and I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything. Well maybe a few.

There's a lot to ride here. I mean a lot. I haven't gotten near it all yet. I've still got to make my way northward and every time I turn around there someone showing me another great ride or there's another really interesting spot to learn about here in SD area.

I really enjoy people visiting SD and getting to show them some of the culture and maybe getting to hook them up with a ride.

When I rode back east the seasons were too short and in those days there was not a lot of gear to support cold weather riding. Today I would get a lot more out of riding there and the riding community is larger and so much more active.

For riding here in SD, it's what the doctor always orders! :rockon:

Lefty · Dec 14, 2012

Hey Cliff,
I thought the saying was...
"I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way!"...

Hellgate · Dec 14, 2012

My advise, go. You can always move back, but you may not ever get a chance to move there.

The roads are killer, you've not idea until you've ridden them.

Norbert · Dec 14, 2012

I'll see what happens. It won't hurt to just talk about the position. It could be nothing...or EVERYTHING!

You can still go crabbing in Maryland. I'd rather just buy it from one of those stands by the side of the road.

Motogiro said:
Well you know the old saying...."Wherever you go there you are!"

I never get tired of riding here. There's no way I can tell you what's good for your life except maybe one thing in the all knowing oracle of love in the universe! LOL!

I don't even know if you can get decent blue claw from the beds in that region anymore. I grew up on the east coast and I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything. Well maybe a few.

There's a lot to ride here. I mean a lot. I haven't gotten near it all yet. I've still got to make my way northward and every time I turn around there someone showing me another great ride or there's another really interesting spot to learn about here in SD area.

I really enjoy people visiting SD and getting to show them some of the culture and maybe getting to hook them up with a ride.

When I rode back east the seasons were too short and in those days there was not a lot of gear to support cold weather riding. Today I would get a lot more out of riding there and the riding community is larger and so much more active.

For riding here in SD, it's what the doctor always orders! :rockon:

Hellgate said:
My advise, go. You can always move back, but you may not ever get a chance to move there.

The roads are killer, you've not idea until you've ridden them.

Well put!

Ssky0078 · Dec 14, 2012

I've lived in Seattle, upstate NY (Ithaca), AZ (Tempe, Phoenix, Scottsdale), and Los Angeles (marina del rey). I would say go for Cali, if you can afford it and be comfortable. One of the reasons I've not moved is the cost of living compared to income opportunity.

My best friend just moved out to Newport Beach for the second time. He is paying 1700 for his share of a 3100 a month 2 bedroom apartment with only 1 parking space to share. As always you can go inland in any of the SoCal towns and get better prices but man, the vibe at beach towns is just plain awesome.

Crunch your numbers and check out your budgets. If anything you can always move back like what was said before, especially like what you said work is readily abundant in MD.

Goop · Dec 15, 2012

Yeah you should!

Sco · Dec 15, 2012

I would go for it. The weather in So. Cal is awesome, ride all year long!
good luck. I'll leave with this quote from Mark Twain

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

2006_FZ6 · Dec 15, 2012

See what the new position offer brings to you. Ask your employer about an mometary offset for the huge cost of living in SoCal. Like Ssky0078 said, crunch the numbers and see if is worthwhile.

The heck with that, just GO! The weather is awesome, plenty of sick roads to ride, year round riding, legal lane splitting, the beaches, the mountains, I could go on.

You'll get a whole different perspective on life. I was just thinking today in dreary, rain drenched Chicago, WHY di I leave SoCal?

Ssky0078 · Dec 15, 2012

2006_FZ6 said:
You'll get a whole different perspective on life. I was just thinking today in dreary, rain drenched Chicago, WHY di I leave SoCal?

LOL, it's raining in AZ, we are getting a few days out of the I think only 30 days of precipitation we get here in a year.

I would leave AZ in a second if I could afford SoCal.

VEGASRIDER · Dec 15, 2012

SD, best weather in the USA in my opinion. I'm sure the cost of living will be higher than you are use to, or maybe not.

Motogiro · Dec 15, 2012

Here's are a few examples of the activity around here and this is just related to rides that are related to this forum.

Norbert · Dec 15, 2012

Yeah...I need to get some more info about the position and figure out what to do from there.

I'm worried about the cost of living. I don't want to work for the man until I'm 90 y.o.

Well, anyways....thanks for putting up with me.

tupac · Dec 15, 2012

i live in san diego,

been carless for 3 years now and almost everyday is riding weather. ( except for the 3 weeks a year of total real rainfall)

to be honest you bring up the cost of living -yes u pay a lil more but U GET MORE,
-we have hot women,
-a bazillion food joints, (yes a bazillion)
-traffic is totally bearable since its not a HUUUGE city like los angeles.
-if you come here you may never leave!
-theres always something going on here in sd.
-riding my fz6 I can get to the other side of the city in NO TIME.
-you get the beach and the twisties.
-people here are pretty chill and laid back.

what i like most about san diego is we have everything big cities have without the huge population or feeling of congestion. Sure you have downtown and the concrete jungle but you are never far from awesome scenery and stuff. Its like we are kinda off the radar since los angeles is the bigger city just 120miles north.

:welcome:

Ssky0078 · Dec 16, 2012

Norbert said:
Yeah...I need to get some more info about the position and figure out what to do from there.

I'm worried about the cost of living. I don't want to work for the man until I'm 90 y.o.

Well, anyways....thanks for putting up with me.

LOL, If you are hoping to be in the 1% then good luck. On top of that if you are in the top 20% you're still working your ass off. I still want to be ridiculously wealthy but it's going to be a long road.

A couple years ago I decided that even if I didn't have a lot of money or stuff, but I had comfort and enjoyed the stuff I did it would be good enough. I guess you can say it was a priority adjustment.

Do what satisfies and fulfills you. It seems like you are pretty young and just starting out. Go adventure, explore, make a few mistakes, and a few great memories. Honestly if you have that good of network back home it sounds like you have a place to land (crash land even). Like I said my best friend has moved out to So-Cal 2 times now and before that he tried Vermont. He's wound up back in AZ twice now. I give him credit for having the balls to go for it and being able to bounce back when it doesn't go as planned.

Neal · Dec 16, 2012

A lot of good riding out here and year round too.

Azrael · Dec 17, 2012

CNN Money Calculator

I know nothing about SD or Cali but I've used this tool before and its fairly accurate. Might help you in the financial aspect of the decision.

Ssky0078 · Dec 17, 2012

Azrael said:
CNN Money Calculator

I know nothing about SD or Cali but I've used this tool before and its fairly accurate. Might help you in the financial aspect of the decision.

Love that thing, it was fun to imagine where I could live. It's crazy the housing is double in CA compared to AZ.

DefyInertia · Dec 17, 2012

I can't believe you are even considering not jumping on this.

You are skilled, right? Tons of opportunities for well educated/skilled people like yourself. Cali has one of the largest econcomies in wht world, you just have to know how to take advantage of it, and many do...it's not that hard. A 690 Enduro R has the same MSRP whether you live in Cali or Mississippi...guess where you can make more money? Amazon has the same prices regardless of where you live.

Housing...yeah, housing is expensive here like it is in DC and NYC and Chicago....but the upside potential is relative. Does it take some committment to do what it takes to buy a place here? Yeah it does...but if you are smart and play your cards right, 5% on a big number is bigger than 5% on a small number. Come out here, make some money, enjoy it, and if for some reason you are forced to leave (b/c you won't want to), take your Cali money back to where you came from where it will go a long way.

I can make more money living in San Francisco than I can anywhere else in the states, other than maybe NYC or possibly LA. It all depends on your deal. For anyone that is hurting, it's hard here...for anyone that got a leg up (hard work, luck, or otherwise), opportunities here are huge.

But yeah, NorCal > than SoCal hahaha

PS - if you make the move, I promise to show you around the northern national forests. You know....where the rivers are crystal clear, it stops raining in early May and does not start again until November, where the mountains are 8K+, the micro brews never let you down, the ocean is never too far away, and the open spaces are measured in intervals of 100,000 acres....

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