I would like your opinion of living in the emerald hills portion of southeast san diego?

Question

Hello, Im not a san diego native but Im moving there. i saw an ad on craigslist for 1 bedroom apartment in gated community in Emerald hills off of imperial. SE san diego is rumored with high crime. I hear Emerald Hills isnt that bad. please give me your opinion and areas to stay away from. thanks

Answer 1

well i don't know where you should stay away from but my uncle lived in carlsbad before he died and it was beautiful but expensive it is 20 minutes away from laguna beach it was very nice there

Answer 2

Emerald Hills San Diego

Answer 3

If you are worried about crime probably North county is better. Any of the areas I know about in SE San Diego are not where I would want to live.

Downtown, Golden Hill, Hillcrest are decent areas for renting.
One good thing about the area is the transportation like the trolley's and buses.

Vista, Oceanside, Fallbrook are all resonable places to rent and crime is pretty low.

And by the way, Laguna Beach is not 20 mins from Carlsbad unless you can drive about 200 MPH. Lol

Besides craigslist you may want to look in The Reader if you can get ahold of a copy.

Welcome to the area. If you can afford to live here you will enjoy it. It really is the best large city in SoCal.

Answer 4

If you are concerned about crime or gangs you do not want to live in Emerald Hills. Not the worst area in the county but certainly not one I'd feel safe living in.

To avoid high crime areas, stay away from the area around highway 94, especially south of 94. National City is pretty bad; some parts of Chula Vista are ok and some are not. I'd also stay away from City Heights and Normal Park and some areas of El Cajon. Some parts of Golden Hill are fine but others have crime/gangs.

Best bet to check on crime rates in any particular area you are considering is to look at the crime statistics on the local website that tracks crime rates by community maps. It takes a little bit of time to figure out how to use it, but once you master it you'll be able to look up any address and get the lay of the land.

Here's the site: www.arjis.org

Go to the crime map section, then select a neighborhood. You'll be asked to pick some crimes to track, such as arson, robbery, assault and homocide, and then pick a time period. After you make each choice, you'll click "next" to get to the next screen. Eventually you'll get to a map that will have different symbols for reported crimes of each type on the map of the area. Then for comparison purposes you might want to select a different area, select the same crimes to track and the same time period, and it will generate another map. That way you can determine real quickly what the relative safety is of one neighborhood versus another, not by what people say, but by actual crimes reported.

I live in coastal north county and although the housing is expensive and commute traffic horrendous, I feel I am in as safe a neighborhood as I could afford to live in. Note however that the Vista/Oceanside areas have crime and are to be avoided for that reason.