The Great Linda Vista Real Estate Boom
Plus: Lunar New Year Celebration Announcement, J & T Thai Street Food Review, Valentine's Day Community Event, Pay for Parking Comes to LV, and LV Ballot Box Location
These are interesting times for San Diego’s real estate market. With interest rates so high and housing inventory so restricted, San Diego has recently seen a low in housing sales. A recent article in the SD Union Tribune reported that “According to records dating to 1988, last year marked the slowest sales year ever recorded — making even the worst of the Great Recession look like boom time.”
That makes the real estate situation in Linda Vista even more remarkable. Though housing sales may appear to be in a major slow down, there is no shortage of demand for property located in certain Linda Vista neighborhoods. In fact, many a homeowner in these neighborhoods have been inundated with offers to sell their houses for healthy prices. Unfortunately, according to homeowners who actually reside in these older neighborhoods, these offers are not coming from individuals or families who want to take up residence, but from developers/investors and other large real estate companies interested in buying up the houses as potential rental properties. These entities are also interested in the large backyards that can be used to build 2 to 4 accessory dwelling units (ADU). Though the American Way involves the ability to make a legal buck, many homeowners/residents feel this invasion of big time real estate investors is resulting in big changes in these neighborhoods—changes that negatively impact the quality of life these residents have long enjoyed. Needless to say, this is a very complex issue.
At the January 30 Town Hall meeting hosted by the office of District 7 Councilmember Raul Campillo, a number of local Linda Vista residents voiced their concerns with these investors constantly bombarding resident homeowners with mailings, door-to-door solicitations, and phone calls asking them to sell their houses. They also expressed displeasure with the impact caused by former homeowners selling their houses, and the resultant ADU’s that have been built in accompanying backyards. Most of these residents came from the streets/blocks surrounding Carson Elementary STEAM Magnet School. They mentioned street names like Kramer, Coolidge, David, Tait, Glidden, Burton and all the other smaller streets/courts in this area.
A walk or drive through this neighborhood will quickly reveal a number of backyard ADU’s and many second story add-ons to the original small one-story houses that were built in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. The most prominent of these ADU’s are the ones built within the past year that can be seen behind Taco Bomb (see photo below).
Though these homeowners claimed they have been offered great prices to sell their houses (anywhere from $800,000 to over $900,000, and that they don’t necessarily begrudge homeowners making money off the sale of a house, they also insisted the issue is not money. The issue is the current value and future integrity of the neighborhood, one that has been home for many years to these families, and which shares neighborly events like the popular 4th of July pancake breakfast that residents look forward to each year.
As other residents in similar Linda Vista single family home neighborhoods have frequently expressed, their complaints centered on such concerns as the current lack of street parking caused by ADU units, and the cramped spaces and “ugly block style” of architecture associated with these buildings.
Earlier this week, the Linda Vista Update sat down with one of these homeowner residents. She enthusiastically told a story of how her family long ago inherited her Linda Vista home from an aunt, who originally purchased the house (originally 775 square feet) in 1955 as the result of a lottery that enabled people to buy these residences from the government, which built and used them during World War II. She was proud that several generations of her family had lived in the house since that time. She made a point of saying there were many neighboring homeowners with similar stories to tell, and explained how the stability and pride that these families cultivated in this LV neighborhood made it so special. In detailing what is currently happening in the neighborhood, she described a common scenario, one in which an elderly, long time LV homeowner passes away, and the descendants end up selling the house, in all likelihood to a big time real estate investor, though there are also smaller, individual investors involved in buying up properties. Another scenario involves duplexes being bought up, and then 2 to 4 unit ADU’s being built in the backyard, resulting in 6 residents/families in a space that formerly housed 2. Homeowners also get “lot split” offers that enable investors to buy up the backyard so ADU’s can be built. Although she remarked that she is not against people earning rental income, parking has become a problem as a result of ADU’s and that no one is happy about the “funky, square buildings” that look like “little prisons.” She added the proximity and height of the new buildings results in residents being able to “stare right into the windows of their neighbors.”
Who would have ever thought Linda Vista would become a real estate haven? A place where a homeowner can have a long line of rich suitors waiting to make an offer? (By the way, there is a house in the neighborhood that was recently renovated and was originally on the market for over $1,000,000). But as we can see, with those high prices comes significant changes. Some of these changes are unavoidable. However, some long time homeowners continue to hope the things that made their Linda Vista neighborhoods special can still be preserved in the face of the power exerted by the all-mighty dollar and a pressing need for more housing in San Diego.
Lunar New Year Celebration Next Week
Revisiting a Tasty LV Favorite
We’ve been publishing the LV Update coming up on 4 years. We have eaten in many restaurants over these years. Such good food, such variety, such fun. However, we are finding it difficult to find new places to eat, and we miss some of our favorite places. That means we sometimes find ourselves going back to revisit some of the venues we previously visited, while still striving to keep the review content fresh and relevant. That’s not hard to do when going back to places like J & T Thai Street Food.
As you probably know, Steve and I do not eat meat, so our reviews are usually centered upon non-meat meals, and since I am especially fond of shrimp, we review a lot of shrimp dishes. When we are joined by our carnivore sidekick, we try to get his opinion on dishes we would not eat.
One of our favorite places in Linda Vista is J & T Thai Street Food on Linda Vista Road, near the Napa intersection. In the past, we have eaten there quite frequently, often ordering the same thing—Shrimp Pad Thai—one order of this menu item, which we bring home and share since it is a large serving. We wanted to eat there again recently, but knew we could not once again review Pad Thai Shrimp, so we said we would go there and order a couple of things we had not previously tried. Off we went on a rainy evening in pursuit of a food adventure.
Although there was a downpour occuring, J & T was doing a nice business. In addition to people eating inside, there was a steady stream of people picking up online or phone orders. We walked in so we could ask some questions as we were ordering things which we were not familiar with; this required a little clarification.
Steve immediately saw something that looked intriguing – Pad See Eu. What was it? The person behind the counter was very helpful and told him you can pick a protein such as chicken, tofu, calamari, salmon, shrimp, or tofu. The dish contains fried egg, Chinese broccoli, wide noodles, and soy type sour sauce. Steve chose shrimp.
I’ve always been fascinated by two items on Thai menus, Tom Yum and Tom Kha, not knowing what they are. It was finally explained to me that Tom Yum was a tomato-based soup, while Tom Kha was coconut milk based. Because my good friend is named Janet Kaye and her husband was Tom Kaye, I decided to get the Tom Kha in his honor. Besides, I’m not fond of tomato-based soup. Again, I was told I had a choice of protein, and the soup contained lemon grass, broccoli, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and a little spice. Although I thought I was being adventurous, my protein of choice was also shrimp.
We both enjoyed our meals very much. Steve’s was chock full of noodles, and he said it was different from his usual dish in that Pad Thai is on the sweet side, and this item definitely was on the sour side. He tasted the distinctive oyster sauce and we learned the noodles are caramelized in the sauces which stains them brown. It was a large serving, but the only thing he offered me was a piece of egg because he thought it was maybe a mushroom.
I thought my Tom Kha soup was excellent. I really like coconut, and the aroma of lemon grass reminded me of a vacation trip to Saigon. The veggies were fresh, the soup very hot (temperature) the way I like it, and it had a little kick, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
All in all, we didn’t miss the Shrimp Pad Thai at all. We were happy that our adventurous spirit resulted in us ordering such delicious menu items. Next time we will try their curry. If you haven’t been to J & T for a while, go back and visit them. Try something different. No doubt, you will be glad you did.
Valentine’s Day Community Event This Saturday
Pay for Parking Comes to LV
Have you noticed the new Pay for Public Parking sign at the corner of Linda Vista Road and Mildred Street, across the street from the west entrance to the University of San Diego? The sign refers to a parking lot located a half block further east on Mildred Street, a lot that was once used by customers to visit the now vacant San Diego County Credit Union office.
As far as we know, this is the only Pay for Parking lot in Linda Vista.
This new parking lot raises many questions. Does this lot signify the start of a new trend in Linda Vista? There is definitely a parking problem in several Linda Vista neighborhoods. Is this an effective solution? If so, will parking meters become a ubiquitous sight in our community? And what do paid parking lots and parking meters say about possible gentrification?
In the November 2 issue of the Linda Vista Update, we featured an article about clues that could possibly be construed as pointing to the onset of a community’s gentrification. One of the clues we mentioned was the introduction of paid parking meters. We noted that although there were at that time no parking meters in Linda Vista (outside of the USD campus), parking meters along streets were being discussed in communities like Pacific Beach and Kearny Mesa. This is due to the shortage of parking spaces caused by new high rise and mid-rise buildings. These types of buildings are usually a common feature of gentrification. An article in the SD Union Tribune explained that “Adding meters frees up scarce parking spaces by preventing car owners from monopolizing a spot for several hours.”
Wouldn’t you know it? As soon as we published our article, a new Pay for Parking lot suddenly opened up in Linda Vista.
If you have ever searched for a parking space during daylight hours in the blocks around Mildred Street and the adjoining areas extending down to the San Diego Humane Society, you know how difficult it can be to find an open parking spot. This neighborhood has recently seen a number of multi-story apartment buildings opening up that specifically cater to USD students. As a result, the densification of the neighborhood, which previously consisted primarily of single family homes, has significantly intensified. And, of course, these buildings never come with enough parking spaces for all of the buildings’ occupants. Consequently, the introduction of a new paid parking lot in this area seems to make perfect sense, though the price of $5.00 is an unfortunate consequence for those having to pay.
We will continue to monitor the streets of Linda Vista to see if paid parking (and perhaps actual parking meters) in Linda Vista become as common as rush hour traffic, or ADU’s, or bike lanes, or taco trucks, or Pho shops.
Ballot Drop Box Open in LV
San Diego County has announced that registered voters can return their mail ballots for the March Presidential Primary Election to any of the 146 official ballot drop boxes located around the county. The Linda Vista ballot drop box is conveniently located outside the Linda Vista Library at 2160 Ulric Street. It will be open 24 hours daily through March 5 at 8:00 pm.
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