“Living In The City” is The San Diego Sun’s feature Q&A with downtown San Diego residents. It’s a way to get to know the city by meeting the people who live here. This is number 55 in an ongoing series.
Name: Eric Nemoseck
Neighborhood: Cortez Hill (Solara Lofts)
Personal deets: From a small, rural town in Pennsylvania called Eighty-Four. My wife, Tricia, and I have been married for 23 years–lived in San Diego since 2003 and downtown since 2017.
Work deets: Professor of Financial Management, consultant and executive coach. Four years ago I started a network of downtown San Diego HOA boards of directors called the San Diego Community Association Network of Directors and Officers (SD CAN DO).
SD CAN DO: It’s a way to share best practices among condos and preferred vendors and to generally help each other out. We’ve grown to include 41 HOA boards of directors.
Working from home: Yes, and it is the best thing ever! In true loft-living fashion, I have two tiny, bright blue mobile desks that I set up in the living room and use as my office .
Pets: Two all-white shelter rescue cats named Archie, 15, who is completely deaf, and Brucie, 16. We were their fourth home after previous owners kept returning them to the Humane Society. Their shenanigans constantly make us laugh.
Best aspects of living downtown: Ability to walk to everything.
Worst aspects of living downtown: Undoubtedly, the chronic homeless situation and the myriad issues for homeless and housed residents.
Describe Downtown SD in 3 words: America’s Finest Sewer.
Most surprising part of living downtown: How filthy it is. Still shocked by the amount of human waste, the overpowering urine smell and general filth. When I return from my daily run, I’m covered in black gunk from mid-shin down. We constantly overhear visitors’ shock at how we allow our city to be maintained like this.
Transportation breakdown: Walking, 99%. Driving, 1%.
Fave coffee shops: I get The Americana at Adore Coffee House in Cortez Hill. Adore is a hidden gem, owned and run by Ukrainian immigrants. Also: the 100% Kona coffee at Lani’s in the Gaslamp Quarter.
Best breakfast(s): The Belly-Up breakfast burrito at Smokin J’s BBQ on Fourth Avenue in the Gaslamp (look for American Paralympic hero Josh George when you go). The pumpkin waffles at Café 222 in the Gaslamp. Chicken apple sausage and eggs with a hammerhead coffee at The Mission in East Village.
Let’s do lunch: The deluxe subs at Mona Lisa’s deli in Little Italy are ridiculously good (call ahead to avoid the always insane lines). Also, try the chicken shish kabob wrap at Darband’s in Little Italy.
Top dinner spot(s): Italian, Italian, Italian. Check out the cheese wheel pasta at Osteria Cotto e Mangiato in Cortez Hill, a fantastic new restaurant at the base of El Cortez (ask for Andrea). Go for any dinner special at Vinarius Wine Bar in Little Italy. The tortelloni al brasato at Ristorante Illando (the small hidden restaurant above Landini’s Pizzeria in Little Italy) is incredible.
My take-out places: Landini’s Pizzeria has the city’s best pizza and Thotsakan Thai’s drunken noodles are epic.
Best bar: Quigley Fine Wines (Wine Bar & Tasting Room) in Cortez Hill (in Solara Lofts) is a total hidden gem with a ridiculously great wine selection, food trucks, live music and comedy.
I’m watching: We have been streaming for years but are embarrassingly new to Netflix. Currently binging You and In The Dark. However, our viewing priority is and always will be Pittsburgh sports, starting with the greatest team in the world, the Steelers (sorry Baltimore-born Sun editor Ron Donoho!), and the Penguins and Pirates.
Podcast: The Terrible Podcast, which covers all things Steelers.
Best downtown place to take visitors: C Level on Harbor Island. The views. The food.
Funniest downtown memory: From our loft window, we got a Full Monty view of a man doing a striptease in front of the church across the street. God help us.
Scariest downtown memory: The worst was when I was running on the Embarcadero early one morning before dawn, and a homeless person was hiding inside a dumpster. He threw several 2x4s at me. One grazed my head. He thought it was a funny downtown memory. I felt otherwise.
Love or hate Comic-Con Love it! Comic Con is the Super Bowl of San Diego. The city should do even more to embrace it. Make it THE civic pride event of the year. The entire city should be full-up decorated in building wraps, just like in the Gaslamp.
Padres: We go to a couple games a year, and always when the Pirates are in town.
Homelessness: As someone who runs/walks the streets of downtown for 60-90 minutes every single day, I see the reality of the condition. It’s awful, and despite what we are told, getting worse. Homeless individuals are simply being shuffled around the city, largely landing in the neighborhoods on the perimeter of downtown. Homelessness in Cortez Hill has nearly tripled since the encampment ban took effect last August. It has directly cost our building hundreds of thousands of dollars. We had to install a new security system, and are constantly dealing with break ins and pointless vandalism.
Mayor Todd Gloria: He’s simply not up to the task of running a major city. It’s not possible to live downtown and remotely think the city is well-managed. The mayor should reallocate time spent on photo ops to actually managing the city. And stop being a no-show at election debates.
The city needs more: Sidewalk cleaning and enough shelters for all the homeless.
The city needs less: Crime.
Parting advice: Download the Clean & Safe app and use it. It’s the best civic organization and will respond in real time to any safety, security or cleanliness concern downtown. They’ll even show up and escort you to wherever you need to go. SDSun
