Originally Posted by schnee
El Cajon an absolute cultural wasteland compared to a city like Philly (sorry El Cajon). .
Agreed. El Cajon sucks.
San Diego is also a cultural wasteland, but more along the lines of 'sleepy beach town that really thinks it's a city', and the amazing weather makes up for the serious lack of cosmopolitan feel. It's sort-of big-city feel, but feels less 'dense' and less 'lively' than Philly..
It doesn't have the San Francisco feel, to be sure.
The fixed gear scene is rapidly improving. Lots of cool folks. The Critical Mass group is pretty ******** and unfocused, and does more damage than good, but there's a lot of other rides to go on and people to meet..
CM is on an upswing. Much better February ride than any others I had done about two years ago.
College bar scene... lots of hot bimbos, frat boys, bleached hair, shallow twits, military meatheads, and brainles surfers..
So everyone is that way?
You cannot commute on a bike many places. It's fine certain neighborhoods, but they're often joined by large stretches of highway that are either impassable or incredibly dangerous.
Aside from perhaps Carlsbad or Santee, everything is connected pretty well if you just work at it. I come from Spring Valley/Rancho San Diego with out problems. I can hit El Cajon in 1 hour from down town SD, and I'm slow on a fixed. I've made it to Kearny Mesa, El Cajon (east El Cajon) and out to Chula Vista in a 4 hour stretch, all from down town. It looks bad on a map, but if you play with it, you can get anywhere with out a freeway, you'd just have to climb some hills.