Norfolk vs. San Diego

[NastyPrior]

Damn, its been a long time since I've posted. So long I had to create a new account. Seems like last week I was asking questions about primary, and now I'm asking questions regarding my disassociated sea tour. I'm looking for honest opinions regarding Norfolk vs. San Diego. I've never been to Norfolk, and I have been to San Diego several times. In the last 14 years (including prior time) I feel like I've been everywhere but Norfolk. I know theres two sides. There's the Norfolk is a military town that is mostly ghetto side, and there's San Diego which has beautiful weather but is super expensive. I've run into people that despise Norfolk, but I have also run into people that liked Corpus better than P-Cola. Is Norfolk really that bad? I've heard good things about Ghent and Chesapeake. I know it depends on if you have kids and are looking for schools. I don't have kids, not married (badass girlfriend though), we party a bit but not like when we were in our 20's. The detailer has jobs available on each coast and let me be honest, I'm picking location over job based on the last few 0-4 selection cycles. Please be blunt as hell. Obviously I'm a VP dude.

 

[illinijoe05]

I just PCSed from San Diego, to Norfolk. San Diego is 1000X better. It's not even a fair comparison.

 

[PhrogLoop]

I own a house in Ghent and I live in San Diego now. I am struggling to come up with a single aspect of life in Norfolk (not bad at all) that I prefer over San Diego aside from home prices.

 

[vxc961]

I lived in both, but I'm from CA originally. Norfolk is not bad, compared to 90% of the Army/Air Force/USMC bases, but it's still a Navy town, with 90% humidity 90% of the time, has winters, and somehow for me had this cloud of despair over it (but again, in the grand scheme...not bad!).

San Diego has great weather, is defense heavy, but not a "Navy town" anymore, is NOT Los Angeles but close enough to visit LA, has great beaches, and I actually found the traffic wasn't too bad (I lived in Clairemont, Mira Mesa, and my then-girlfriend was in Poway).

In San Diego, I did have the the "I'm an O-3, so I want a 2-bedroom house and a big garage" feeling, and then I got there and realized I couldn't afford it. You'll have to balance distance and space, but SD is awesome.

 

[Brett327]

This is a trick question, right?

I've been through Norfolk a lot over the years (never lived there), but I have lived in SD. San Diego is an AMAZING town to live in. I was just there TAD a few months ago and I realized just how much I missed it. Your BAH will, for the most part, offset the higher cost of living. Everyone in our business should do a tour there. SD is very Navy friendly (unlike Norfolk), it's a fairly affluent, safe and politically right of center city. Gas Lamp, PB, OB, Balboa Park, Broken Yolk on Saturday morning, Sunday brunch in La Jolla, Lahaina, Open Bar, Turquoise, Wine Bank, Asian Grocery stores on El Cajon Blvd, Point Loma Seafood, UNBELIEVABLE MEXICAN FOOD EVERYWHERE. Beach, mountains, desert, hiking/biking/running trails galore, amazing food and beverage scene, close to LA, Vegas, Joshua Tree and Baja. Wine country in the central coast within 4-5 hour drive (Temecula 1 hour north if you're slumming it). Big Sur and the Bay Area and lake Tahoe a few hours beyond that.

VA Beach has that cool King Neptune thing by Catch 31... and Geno's Pizza.

San Diego Chamber of Commerce - Call me!

 

[NastyPrior]

In response to better housing prices, been there done that. Bought a real nice house in Jax in the Mandarin area. The house was great, neighbors were awesome, only problem........bored as F**K. Sold that thing once I knew I could make a small profit. I love the trick question comment!!!! Keep em' coming. I cant wait for the first pro-Norfolk bubba to chime in. If there is one.

 

[Randy Daytona]

I am from the South and I hate Norfolk. That said, I prefer East Coast due to the deployments: I would take Palma, Corfu, Rhodes, Toulon, Haifa, Odessa, Sigonella, Trieste, Genoa, Naples, Crete, Malta, - and the associated MWR trips to Paris, Rome, Salzburg, Florence, Bucharest, Monte Carlo, Venice, Tel Aviv, etc over the Pacific deployments. I've got the rest of my life to live in the US - I am more interested in where I deploy.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Norfolk vs San Diego...this is a serious question?

...That said, I prefer East Coast due to the deployments: I would take Palma, Corfu, Rhodes, Toulon, Haifa, Odessa, Sigonella, Trieste, Genoa, Naples, Crete, Malta, - and the associated MWR trips to Paris, Rome, Salzburg, Florence, Bucharest, Monte Carlo, Venice, Tel Aviv, etc over the Pacific deployments...

You obviously had better East Coast port calls than I ever did on three deployments. Barcelona and Malta were nice. Other than that - Bahrain, Jebal, Souda were about it, and grew tiresome quickly.

 

[Brett327]

I would counter with Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand or Australia. These days East coast boats will be lucky to get one Med port call (if any). Having done both, WESTPAC is the way to go, IMO.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Norfolk might be the worst place in the world. Unless you are a fan of ENS saluting LTJG, in which case it could be your jam. Or if your diet consists of Monsters, Doritos, fast food, cigarettes, and your wardrobe is entirely blueberries.

 

[zippy]

In a vacuum San Diego over Norfolk 1000% of the time.

I chose Norfolk due to timing issues regarding taking San Diego orders, and my parents are getting older (declining health issues etc.).

I have family and friends within 3 hours so I'm usually doing something fun in my free time instead of HATING life here. Trips to Northern Va, Eastern Shore, Lake Anna and beaches in North Carolina round out the list in addition or doing things I find fun here locally (beach concerts/festivals, adventure park, soaring etc. there's something here for everyone.)

There are only 3 places you should live here if your boat is based out of NOB. Ghent, Freemasion area downtown, Chicks (chix beach, Chesapeake Beach... Whatever you want to call it).

Ghent/Freemason have year round scenes, where the beach gets a little quieter in the winter. I live in Chix beach and have a 5 minute drive to the dog park, 5 to the water, 20 to NOB gate (regardless of hour of the day... Once you hit gate traffic it gets to be a bit of a dice roll). And top eating and drinking establishments within walking distance.

You'll get similar with Ghent/Freemason, just that they're not the beach... Think gentrified urban.

If your boat is going to be spending 24 months in the yards, and you want to be close but not live in a shitty area, old town and the swimming point areas of Portsmouth are nice, but the rest of the town is a shithole for the most part. Some people live in Williamsburg and Love it as well, but it's a long drive every day, even without traffic.

If you pick Norfolk your level of enjoyment with this place will depend largely on where you live, because you're going to spend every day going to work hoping your ship sinks, and hating your life when you get to it. If you fuck away where you live here (and don't avoid having to take any road that that ends in 64, drawbridges or tunnels to and from work) you're going to HATE it.

Traffic here isn't all that great (but still tons better than DC) and peoples commutes to NOB from the family neighborhoods, that are popular and cheaper often, switch from 30 minutes to 1.5hrs+ because some air department dude high on bath salts crashes his car in the tunnel outside the gate, or some other nonsense.

Pay the premium to live in neighborhoods where you don't have to take the highway to work and your quality of life with increase 10 fold.

 

[zippy]

I would counter with Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand or Australia. These days East coast boats will be lucky to get one Med port call (if any). Having done both, WESTPAC is the way to go, IMO.

It's 2- one on the way there and one on the way back... Unless you get Greece or Turkey, then you'll get 3 because you'll go immediately to the other one to avoid diplomatic mis-steps on a strategic levels.

As an aside, the boat doesn't get to pick where it gets to go... It's told where it will go by the Respective Fleet Commander/ Staff, so if the boat before you fucks a cool place away, don't count on going there. Also, if your presence in the region isn't what the power players need to keep their lives simple, buh bye any ports at all as you transit to/from 5th fleet, and hello beer days. This has been a trend with ARGs/ESGs in recent history- deemed either too important, or to much trouble to be allowed to pull into port much.

WESTPAC locations are way cooler IMO, but I grew up in Asia so I might be a little biased.

 

[SynixMan]

If you have a choice, don't live in Norfolk unless there's something significant pulling you here (local family or something). Rental prices are still high (O-3 BAH is 1900ish) and cost of living is also high, for no reason. Cost of buying a house isn't much of a factor if you're here on Disassociated orders.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Norfolk might be the worst place in the world. Unless you are a fan of ENS saluting LTJG, in which case it could be your jam. Or if your diet consists of Monsters, Doritos, fast food, cigarettes, and your wardrobe is entirely blueberries.

You, sir, have obviously never been to Patuxent River Maryland.

I hated Nawfuck when I was stationed there. When it came time for shore duty, I told now-ex-Mrs-Fester "If you tell me we'll be here for another three years, I'm going to start looking for the bus I'll throw myself in font of". But having been in Pax, and a few other places, in the interim - and in fairness, Hampton Roads has improved materially - there are worse places to be.

That said...yes, fucking San Diego every time, are you fucking insane?

 

[Randy Daytona]

I would counter with Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand or Australia. These days East coast boats will be lucky to get one Med port call (if any). Having done both, WESTPAC is the way to go, IMO.

I got lucky, the '90's rocked. 3 Med floats with port after port. My last civilian job was vertrep which meant either ports in the Med or ports in the Pacific. Singapore is cool, never made it to Thailand (ship's pier spot was a mixup, got anchored out and water too rough for boats). Hong Kong is on the bucket list and Sydney is my favorite port (flew Space-A to Sydney 3 times). Most of the other Pacific ports I quickly grew tired of.

That said, I prefer the food, the history and the girls in Europe - I even began to like the music: whether classical such as Wagner:

or European techno like Alex Gaudino: (not sure if you should play this on a govt computer nowadays)