Hey guys, just thought I would pop in here.

My wife just got an ATC job with Serco in Romona, Cali! So I'm off to your neck of the woods. Any input on housing, neighborhoods, hot spots, et cetera would be awesome!

I have a few concerns, though. My 7 is NOT going to meet emissions. I live in Illinois currently, so it's no biggee. I'm in the military and have had no problems but, from what I hear from everybody (especially on these forums), Cali is a bitch about this. Of course, I'll be seperating so I'll just be in the Reserves. I just planned on keeping my Illinois tags and license for quite sometime. Will that fly? If not, I'm probably screwed.

Any how, any info about the area is much appreciated and look forward to meeting all you "West" guys sometime. Thanks!

 

Oooo, Ramona sucks. It's like 10-15 degrees hotter there than it is closer to the coast. I know some people out there and they're just kinda used to it. The only nice parts are that you can get a lot more house for less money, and it's "Basic" smog test zone. This means there's still a visual inspection, but you only have to pass the sniffer at idle. (So I've heard, someone correct me if wrong.)

San Diego is gonna be an "enhanced zone" which means smog checks every 2 years, and you might be flagged for "test only" which means you gotta go one place for smog, and another if you need to get it fixed.

Other than that and gun laws, California and San Diego are pretty damn nice. But don't tell anyone cause we don't need any more people coming in.

 

Ramona is my home town. lived there for about 10 years....

nothing is cool in town, although its very mountainous.

here is the basic layout... there are 3 parts to Ramona: Estates, Town, everywhere else.(east and west side)

i live on the west side, its more for the people who like seclusion.

town: more of the "lower-class" reside here. but there are nice homes.

Estates: rich and nice, and 10 minutes atleast from anything(town:food, gas, shopping)

if you are an outdoors person this is for you. if not, move to poway.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I was thinking about Carmel Summit/Shadow Glenn. The lady I talked to said Shadown Glenn was the nicest in town. Carmel Summit looks sick, but it's double Shadow Glenn. I guess I'm trying to decide if I should be cheap or not. What's your opinion on some of the gated communities there?

 

If you plan on keeping your IL tags, there are a few things you should know. First, it is illegal to stay in the state more than 2 weeks without changing over your license and license plates. If you do plan on keeping the plates, your first accident you will likely have to change over, but if you get a ticket, make a good story up and how you are not there permanently and don't plan on being there for more than 2 weeks. I recommend you keep your car stock exhaust to avoid obvious attention.

 

thats not in ramona.... you sure you dont mean POMONA?

 

Oh, I mean surrounding area too! I think she will actually be working in El Cajon (sp?).

As for the tags, I'll just say I'm TDY there or something. I have MI tags on my 8 too. Thanks for all the info guys.

 

oh ok gotcha. dont live in El Cajon. **** town with lifted trucks.

Try Poway, Carmel Mountain, Skripps, Ramona. those are all nice area's where you wont have to worry about getting your **** jacked.

but its expensive.

 

tehn what is your excuse if youre from Ramona.

 

Stay away from La Mesa, Lemon Grove.......wait a minute.....just stay away from San diego all together.

 

i dont get it.

 

For being a phagg.

 

I'm looking at spending $900-$1800 on rent. I just want a place where I don't have to hear gunshots and I don't have to worry about my cars being f-d up. Again guys, thanks a bunch. This info is great. We'll probably live in Carmel Mountain.

Any good tuners in the area? Sorry for the ignorance, I'm just ignorant when it comes to the Left Coast.

 

Well, I live in Ramona right now (San Diego Country Estates to be exact). Since you're looking to rent for $900-$1800 per month, I have to ask WHAT are you looking to rent...townhouse, apt, house? How old a place are you willing to accept? How many beds and baths? 1 story, 2 story, or 3 story? Do you want a sizeable garage (2 cars with no room to work or 2 cars with enough room to work and store junk)? All of these matter.

I lived in Carmel Mountain Ranch for about 1 year when I first moved here. It's a nice area. We paid $1500/mo for a nice 1300 sq ft 2 bed / 2 bath town house with a 2 car garage that was just big enough to squeeze an 04 Altima and an FD into. In Ramona you can find much more home for the money (even renting).....but it's country out here. When we were looking to buy a place, for about 50K more than the 1300 sq ft early 90's townhouse we were in, we were able to get a 3 year old 2200 sq ft house with a huge 3.5 car garage. The general rule of thumb is that the further east you go from the coast...
1.) the cheaper it becomes to rent/own
2.) the more the temperature varies (last year temperatures ranged from 27 F to 107 F in Ramona while in Carmel Mountain Ranch they probably ranged from 32 to 98).

Hope that helps.

 

I'm game for a lot. It would only be for 6-12 months as we look for a home and get to know the area more.

Thanks for the information. Who needs Rent.com when there's this place!

 

Words of advice are to live close to work or be able to take surfce streets to get there. I-15, I-8, and I-5 are parking lots during rush hours (7-8:30 into downtown and 4-6:30 out of downtown). Also, don't just assume that because tow areas look close together you can get there via surface streets. San Diego is bult all around canyons and sizeable hills so two really close areas may not even be connected without going a long distance around. You need to use mapquest or Google Earth to verify surface streets can get you where you want.

Other places to look for places to rent are craigslist.org and signonsandiego.com

Are you guys flying out here before hand to look for a place or are you having to set something up before you get here for the first time? Also, what about your job? What do you do for a living?

 

Is this the Ramona where the nearest freeway is a shitload of miles away, and the only way there is a 2 lane highway that always has slow-drivers on it?

 

Yes....4 roads into the town....all 4 are 2 lane. They only have slow drivers on them at the same time that all the rest of California has slow drivers....rush hour.

Nearest freeway is a shitload of 15 miles away!

 

Before the fire, there was a nice campground near Ramona.

 

My wife is an Air Traffic Controller. We'll clear plenty at the end of the month. I'm seperating from the military, so I'll be unemployment/GI Bill for a bit going to Pre-Med and then probably a federal job of some sort, suckling from Uncle Sam's teet. We'll clear 6-7g's easily without me working. She also has her real estate license, so I might get mine and she might convert her license.

This is sort of short notice, so she'll be flying out there to start the 29th. We're kinda blind going into this. We wanted to go out sooner and just stay in a hotel, but I'm okay with signing a lease in a nice community, get our stuff moved, and then looking for the house we want. I seperate on the 18th, so we might be able to swing going out and looking around. It's just a lot of sudden things, really quick. It really depends on when/how the military moves our stuff. I assume that they'll just ship it out to Miramar and store it. I'll find out tomorrow.

Good info fellas, keep it coming! I'll have to buy beer/liquor/water when I'm in town for all the help! My wife is definately appreciative as well!