RENT 4/5
COMMUTE 2/5
FOOD 4/5
ENTERTAINMENT 4/5
There are three things you need to know about living in Pacific Beach: location, location, location. Although right-off-Garnet complexes are a plenty in this three-college town, the extra effort it takes to find a sick residential rental will come back tenfold when you aren’t confronted with constant beach-and-bar buzz or awakened at 3 a.m. to liquor-fueled lawn arguments each night. Plus, landlords are likely to be much more chill when the whole block isn’t flooded with irresponsible college types.
You can walk just about anywhere in P.B., so proximity to beach versus freeway is really just a matter of preference. If you’re willing to throw down a few extra Benjamins a year to live beachside, be ready for a longer trek to campus. By car it only takes about 15 minutes to get to school, but double that during rush hour ‘mdash; when P.B.’s lone on-ramp backs up as a mass of students and residents head out ‘mdash; and triple it when you opt for cheaper, but wait-intensive public transportation.
P.B. has everything a college student could ask for: thrifting at Goodwill-style segundos and indie-fabulous boutiques a la Buffalo Exchange; trendy, hipster or just plain expensive clothes stores; and nighttime hot spots ranging from gloriously shady dives to ‘The Real World: San Diego”s bar of choice. Add to that a festival of sushi, pizza, burgers, Slurpees and ‘berto’s 24-hour Mexican food. And it’s the county’s epicenter for tattoo parlors and record, sex and smoke shops ‘mdash; perfect to satiate any college-rebellion dreams you’ve been harboring.