[quote author="stepping_up" date=1217150383]The east side has some very charming homes, the vast majority of which are very well maintained. I'm not sure about the north end of CM, but the SW and EW offer a lovely ocean breeze and you can be at the coast in two miles, so it's much more like a coastal town than an inland one. We rode our bikes down to the beach today and my husband does this often in the evenings for his exercise. It's also a great location for commuting. My husband works over by the spectrum and his morning drive is 15 mins. Lastly, even though east side CM prices are WTF, they are lower than Newport, particularly when you factor in the size of the lot you get.
My preference was for the east side, but I just didn't see things coming down to our price range.</blockquote>
I used to live in East Side CM, and I really liked it. In the area bordered by 17th, Irvine, 19th, and Newport, you rarely needed to drive anywhere. Restaurants, groceries, movies, bars, dry cleaners, Hi-Time, everything was all within walking distance. (Of course, this was also at a time when Triangle Square was thriving.). The developers/flippers came in and started doing a lot of teardown / rebuilds on the larger lots. I had wanted one of those cute older homes along Broadway, Magnolia, or Flower.