Living By the Tracks

Remember in Pretty in Pink when Molly Ringwald’s character didn’t want her rich date to take her home because she didn’t want him to see where she lived? Tellingly, she lived “on the wrong side of the tracks.” Which has become a metaphor for the “bad” part of town, but is also a true characteristic of poor neighborhoods: they are often next to railroad tracks.

San Diego isn’t quite like that, but, judging by the number of places where my friends or I have lived that I can actually see from the train, it is true that you can find cheaper rent in this area if you can hear the train horn or intersection warning bells.

I noticed this truism one morning while on the train when I realized that I could see the apartment complex where a good friend of mine lived when we were all in our early 20s. A cute little four-unit complex that is probably 100 yards from the train tracks. A few days later, I realized that I could also see the former apartment of two other friends who lived just as close to the tracks, plus on an intersection with warning bells. This got me thinking and watching, and I realized that I could see the former apartments of two additional friends, plus my former residence, from the train.

I thought this quite odd at first, since San Diego County doesn’t have an abundance of railroad tracks. It took me a few days to put it all together. Not only are these places close to the tracks, they are close enough that I can actually see them from the train. I also remembered that when I lived in my rented condo in Leucadia, I could hear the train and warning bells and had to turn up the TV or pause telephone conversations until the train went by – it was that close and that loud.

While all places near the tracks are by no means cheap (the train goes through some pricey real estate in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Del Mar), by my unscientific observations, cheaper rent can be found if you are in eyeshot of the train tracks. And for those of us who were just starting out and wanting to live by the beach, track-side apartments were our only option.