[tjbarbour]

I'm in the "interesting" situation of living in Tijuana* and commuting M-F to my job as a software engineer in "Sorrento Valley" in central San Diego. The article is pretty interesting, and I think that the huge difference in cost of living along with some of the lifestyle / cultural benefits of Tijuana could be attractive to engineers and create an interesting community. I can attest that the border traffic is pretty horrific, though it can be lessened greatly if you get Global Entry/SENTRI. It would be cool to see more tech activity in San Diego.

*To add to the coincidences here, my name is T.J. ;)

[orware]

*Haha, that's actually a pretty funny coincidence and made me imagine a little conversation like this: --- You: "Hi my name is TJ." Person: "Nice to meet you, do you live here in Sorrento Valley?" You: "I live in TJ." Person: "What?" ---

On a less silly note, the cost of living thing is actually quite interesting because we have the same situation over here between Mexicali and living in Imperial County.

A few of my coworkers in IT actually commute over daily (and use SENTRI) and I've always wondered how much they're able to save by living over there.

One of my staff members also commutes daily from Mexicali and she sometimes gets stuck at the line to cross over if there happens to be an incident (such as a person hiding inside a car the other week). I know for her she's mentioned quite a few advantages to living across the border, one primarily being childcare costs for her daughter (I'm trying to remember the exact figure but I want to say it was $300 for the entire month) compared to this side where it would cost about $500-$600 (and in San Diego it would probably be even higher).

Plus the rent / food costs are much lower in general in Mexicali too and the currency conversion is favorable for USD => Pesos.

[tjbarbour]

Haha, though it's easy for people to remember "TJ in TJ" ;)

Savings wise, if you have SENTRI and work near the border, the economics may work out (things like childcare and healthcare may help as well). But I think that the time wasted is just far to great otherwise. Between waking up super early and spending anywhere from 3-6 hours commuting a day, it seems to be a hard sell. That picture looking down the freeway[1], I drive that every day, but usually its still night out =)

Rent is the biggest difference, food and other items less so. I pay less than 1/4th of my San Diego home's mortgage for renting a slightly larger place in Tijuana (which is also close to the beach)

[1]http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2014/8/1/...