My thoughts exactly - In just my littler corner of downtown I see 4 prime surface lots between Columbia and the waterfront and between Ash an B street.

New Job in Sorrento Valley Area
 

Any tips on where I should be looking to live for accepting a new fairly high paying job in the Sorrento Valley area?

I like walkable, urban, fun areas with lots of high rises so I was thinking maybe the north end of downtown like Hillcrest? That still seems like a pretty long commute though. Especially since my preferred method of commute is bicycle (right now I do about 10miles each way).

Pacific beach also seems like a cool area, but is it too far and separated from the bigger downtown areas like gaslamp / little italy? How realistic is it to live near pacific beach if I'd want to be going out in gaslamp etc?

Are there any up and coming areas in the middle with lots of development happening?

Big news about Manchester Pacific Gateway that somehow slipped by: the southern 2/3rds of the leasehold was sold to IQHQ of Solana Beach in the first week of July. Apparently they plan on redesigning the area into a life sciences complex, aka medical offices and labs. "Tens of millions of dollars" have already changed hands, and the author theories a major pharma company may have already scoped out the area for a new SoCal HQ.

edit: @sanatty beat me to it. Still, surprised this wasn't discussed more. Also, there's an interesting quote about continued construction in what would seem like difficult times:

Okay, first off downtown ends at the 5. Not a big issue, but locals will look at you weird if you include Hillcrest in downtown.

I would keep in mind you need to cross four major valleys between Hillcrest and Sorrento Valley with very few connections across them, so expect to go further out of you way and spend a lot more time going up and down than you'd think looking at it on the map. I don't know anyone who's ever done it, most people would look at you like you're crazy for even trying. PB is only slightly better, although after the Mid-Coast trolley extension opens up next year it should be much more doable.

PB has no high rises FYI, Hillcrest only has a few. Both are urban and walkable though. PB can also get noisy at night, it's the 20-somethings' party district (gaslamp tends to skew slightly older). Either one is an easy 15 minute drive or less to gaslamp, but would make for a long and unpleasant walk. Again, the Mid-Coast Trolley extension will change a bit of that for PB.

Based on your likes, I think you might prefer Banker's Hill if you want a walkable connection to downtown that isn't physically in downtown (make sure you're okay with airport noise though!). You can also look at UTC, tons of high rise development there and it's only ~2 miles from Sorrento Valley, and it will have a direct connection to downtown after the Mid-Coast Trolley extension opens (walkability leaves something to be desired though in my experience). Finally North Park is urban and walkable, has a lot of mid-rise development, and you can take the BRT on the 15 straight to Sorrento Valley.

Walkable and urban point to Hillcrest and North Park. Driving would be like a 45 min drive to Sorrento Valley each way. Though you say you bike, not sure if it's possible to maybe bike to Old town, get the coaster to Sorrento Valley, then bike the rest?

Can you give an example of the UTC area with highrises? Looking on google maps all I see is a shopping mall and residential area... maybe I’m not looking at the right place?

UTC area is a joke of an urban area.. it’s mainly a popular shopping mall with low rise to single family homes and surrounded with suburban office parks. It’s NOT your traditional urban area like downtown, bankers hill, North park, or Hillcrest Which to me are more walkable and urban than the UTC area will ever be... even though they will have the trolley line soon. A trolley line doesn’t mean they’re urban and pedestrian friendly hahaha look at Chula Vista or national city

Pretty much the end of it, if I read it right.

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/...litical-skids/

Imperial and 15th is very close to 14th and Commercial so you may be referring to Father Joe's Village - Affordable Housing. It will be a 407 unit 15 story building...

I don't see how what that article says signals the end of anything for 7th and Market.

Jerello, single family homes in UTC area, hmm maybe a few here and there. I'm not saying its a great urban area but there are a decent amount of high rises and it is clearly San Diego's second skyline.

Will O Wisp: BRT up 15 to Sorrento Valley umm Sorrento Valley is way west of the I-15 what are you talking about.

H Hugo: 45 minutes to Sorrento Valley from Downtown LOOOL. You seriously think traffic is coming back. Look at unemployment rate and how many people will just continue to work from home going forward. I'm making a prediction now traffic is never coming back in SD. Economy still has much further to fall not to mention the looming dollar crisis/devaluation of purchasing power so I think the days of 45 min commute from DT to SV/UTC is over. :tup:

True that it’s San Diego’s second skyline, but it doesn’t have that urban street grid and walkability that downtown has. And majority of it’s high rises are just office parks.. or maybe I just don’t explore enough up there. I did see some towers rising near UCSD and that blacks beach hike entrance

I sure hope you're right! :yes:

Guy said he was already riding his bike 10 miles each way for his commute, figured riding ~6 miles each way across Mira Mesa wouldn't be much of an issue...

But @sanatty here's the TLDR: You want urban walkability you can go to North Park, PB, or Hillcrest. You want to see tall buildings, you can go to UTC. But if you want both, the only place to have it is downtown.

So he would have to ride his bike to the 15 and El Cajon Blvd or University from where ever he lives in North Park or University Heights both of those streets aren't too bike friendly IMO so you can take back streets.

Then Mira Mesa Blvd is super sketchy to bike down. I'm there all the time for work and I never really see people biking on it. Super busy road with tons of distracted drivers. I guess he could do this, I personally wouldn't recommend it. I say just live in Cortez Hill, Bankers Hill (North Side outside of flight path), or Little Italy. If you can afford these places.

Not gonna disagree with any of that, the commune just seemed friendlier than biking alongside the 5 from PB or crossing Mission Valley twice a day from Hillcrest. I wanna give the guy options but honestly, there aren't really any walkable neighborhoods within reasonable biking distance of Sorrento Valley.

Speaking from experience, living in the southern part of Banker's Hill isn't actually that bad. The airliners have their engines pulled back for landing, so the noise is quieter than the freeway. With the doors and windows closed it's barely noticeable, and even with them open isn't that much noisier on the whole than it would be living in any other major metro's downtown. The only exception is when the weather is bad enough that airport switches directions to take off over Banker's Hill, which only happens a few times a year and still isn't enough to wake me from sleep personally.

So someone on fb posted a pic of that restaurant on the waterfront being completed and there were people eating there.. has anyone been passed it?

I’m not sure what this article means. Most of it is political stuff.

The one relevant part I can find:

“According to a July 8 disclosure filing, Sheppard Mullin has been retained by Cisterra to lobby for approval of “land use entitlements, environmental analysis, including Site Development Permit, Development and Disposition Agreement and related approvals for development of a mixed-use project including residential, hotel, commercial and cultural uses at 7th & Market in the Centre City area of downtown San Diego.””

That tells me the project is not dead if in July 2020 they are still active in litigating the land use.

I am, however, confused because I thought this project already had full entitlements and lawsuits settled, so not sure why they are still litigating for land use permits at this point?

Also, back when the Ritz project was approved wasn’t it unanimously approved bi-partisan by the city council ?

Imagine if we had built this subway system in 1975...

https://i.redd.it/9anggmsbile51.png

I remember reading about this when I was researching San Diego’s transit history. The city wanted to build a subway system similar to BART in the Bay Area, but due to costs they chose the trolley system instead unfortunately. I feel like the subway system would have changed our civic and transportation culture had it been implemented instead. Now we’re playing catch-up like LA, even they are ahead of the game.

Schwing!