Living in San Diego - a perspective of a Brit

Ok, let's get a few things straight. San Diego is in southern California, USA. The weather is incredible virtually year-round, the ocean is never far away, the people are beautiful and friendly, business is currently booming (almost every cellular phone manufacturer has set up an R&D site here).

Electricity

But it is expensive to live here. I am thankful that we can afford it and I worry that inevitably some can't. The housing prices are ridiculous and we've just had a little run-in with the deregulation of the local end-user electricity market.

Cable TV and Telephone

In a similar vein, although there are multiple cable television providers in San Diego, each has a geographical monopoly. For example we can only get Time Warner Cable whereas some of my colleague can only get Cox Cable. This in turn means that if you want cable modem access, you probably don't have a choice of providers either. Sucks huh? Of course there is DSL but again there's something of a monopoly there because every DSL ISP has to pay Pacific Bell to get access to the phone lines.

Well, at least we do get to choose our long distance phone call carriers. I use AT&T Online - that means that one of those hundreds of strange little charges at the bottom of my Pacific Bell bill disappears - AT&T charge less because they bill online and don't have to send me paper. Pacific Bell also charge me less because AT&T bill me direct and that means that they don't have to print the long distance charges on my PacBell bill.

This leaves my PacBell bill looking something like:

 Actual calls         $2
 Monthly charge      $11
 Taxes and surcharges $4
                     ===
 Total               $17

Sept 2000. Time Warner now have BBC America but they want you to fork out for digital cable to get it. The arguments for satellite are getting stronger - it's cheaper per month to get DirectTV with BBC America than TWC with BBC America.

Sept 2000 again. Winfire FreeDSL is finally rolling out in San Diego. Whoopee! The free service is 144kbps which is lower than our usual cable modem speeds (300-800kbps) but they have different levels of service ranging up to $35/mo for 1.5Mbps so that's still cheaper than TWC ($45/mo, £50/mo if you don't pay them for TV) and it's faster.

Culture

Well, what more could you ask - two 24/7 Country music radio stations and at least three more on the digital cable music channels. My wife's idea of hell of course but then there's no accounting for taste.

And if that's not enough, you've got a selection of 24/7 continuously repeating TV news channels just in case you have a short attention span or just happen to like your news in bitesize chunks.

San Diego also has it's complement of the Arts and various entertainment venues. It's not famous for it but then who gives a monkey's when your rollerblading down the boardwalk dodging kids on bikes and wondering whether you really are breaking the speed limit. (Yes, there are speed limits on the footpaths).

Weather

Sept 2000. We had a few days with clouds and even some rain last night. Our four-year-old was sitting at the breakfast bar eating this-morning when a cloud went overhead. "Hey, who turned down the lights" he said. I guess we only remember what happens when a cloud goes over because we remember England!

The perfect San Diego day is a pure blue sky, warm sun and a gentle breeze from the ocean... mmmmmm. We get some rain in January or February and some cloud cover in June. The rest of the year sun is basically guaranteed - which is in stark contrast to England where one finds oneself always preparing for the chance of rain. Welcome to care-free rain-free planning!

Beer - including buying British Beer in San Diego

Meat

Mostly well priced and of course as we well know, American beef doesn't suffer from "mad cow disease", or at least they managed to cover it up a lot better than Britains farmers. But that would figure since beef must be a major part of the economy here (no, I don't have figures).

Good lamb is impossible to find. Even the New Zealand stuff seems naff (no I haven't seen British lamb for sale).

Travel

Plenty of expensive cars, terrible driving, poor roads and over-litigation push the price of car insurance up but thank goodness petrol is cheap (well, everybody complains about it approaching $2/US gall but I'm sure they wouldn't get any sympathy from somebody living in the UK).

San Diego has it's own airport although it's overloaded. There are two basic routes to get to/from the UK - 1) British Airways via Phoenix to Gatwick or 2) Other carriers (including Virgin :-) ) between LA and Heathrow. Puddle jumper (small plane ferry) provides a fun little journey between SD and LA.

The freeway system in the US is extensive although the surface quality varies tremendously. Potholes, ridges, no lane markings, lack of cats-eyes etc etc. Brits would be up-in arms if the major roads in the UK were treated the same way. It's not all like that - some are good to excellent. You just figure on having a little softer suspension.

A little bit of advice, forget the "defensive driving" crap. Buy as big a car/truch/machine_with_4+_wheels as you can afford and surround it with bull-bars (oh sorry that's Texas). Well anyway, buy something big or bigger and you'll have a better chance of surviving an accident when a swathe of SUVs runs in to the back of you.

The desert is close (actually San Diego is technically a desert region but it's green everywhere because the sprinklers come on every night. Anyhoo, driving into the desert is a definite. If you are there at night time, look up. It was the first time I'd seen the Milky Way in 10 years. There are various desert parks which are quite special, for example Anza Borrego. Take some good boots, plenty of water, etc etc. Read the notices if you aren't familiar with desert walking and driving. Survival/advice leaflets can be picked up at the park ranger stations during the day.

What did I find different when we moved here?

I often get asked this - usually by Brits that are considering jumping the pond. I've started to collect a list here.

A few local links for your enjoyment