“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 47 in an ongoing series.
Name: Deanna Ratnikova
Residence: Park Boulevard East in East Village
Personal deets: Grew up in rural Harriman, Tennessee (near Oak Ridge, nicknamed the “Secret City” for its role in the Manhattan Project). Told myself, “I have to get out of my small town.” Went to college in Nashville, Pittsburgh for grad school and Washington, D.C. to start my career. Been in San Diego since 2012 and I’ve lived downtown for a year and a half.
Family: I live with my daughter, Lea, and my boyfriend, Kristian, who’s deployed on the USS Carl Vinson.
Why downtown: When my boyfriend got another San Diego assignment with the Navy, we got more serious and decided to move in together. East Village is convenient to both Naval Base San Diego (near Barrio Logan) and North Island (on Coronado). I can easily take the trolley and Coaster from downtown to my job at a biotech in UTC/Sorrento Valley.
Work deets: I was employee #4 (we now have 40) at a startup that’s harnessing the therapeutic potential of microproteins. My title is office manager, and I wear many hats: helping with human resources, lab supply procurement, management, talent acquisition, and more.
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Side hustles: I have a small business that develops products to inspire people to get outdoors in urban environments. My first product is GO Deck San Diego. It’s 52 cards (one for every week of the year) with ideas for outdoor locations within the city.
My second product will be geared toward families. It’s a card deck with 40 games you can play on the go. I came up with the idea while hiking with my daughter. With a mile to go before getting back to our car she started to have a meltdown. While we continued hiking, I played a game with her as a distraction. She enjoyed it so much I figured why not put this together as a product for other families to enjoy.
Work routine: I’m at the office for the biotech job. For my small business, I spend a lot of time out-and-about researching locations to feature in the decks. I spend even more time in the Central Library reading room, under the dome, crafting the content for each card. I’m also pounding the pavement looking for places to carry my deck. My daughter enjoys accompanying me, saying: “We’re salespeople!”
Podcasts: On every trolley commute, I listen to “How I Built This” with Guy Raz. I love hearing guests talk about how they turned a business idea into a reality, plus ups and downs along the way. It took me three years to create The GO Deck San Diego. Listening to journeys of other entrepreneurs motivates me to never give up.
Streaming: My 7-year-old daughter loves solving mysteries with Scooby-Doo and his crew.
Worst part of living downtown: My daughter complains about poop on the sidewalk every time we take a walk. I have to agree with her. You can barely walk a block in East Village without encountering a pile of poo.
Best reason to live downtown: The walkability and access to public transit options. Downtown also has such great dining selections. From the coffee shops and bakeries to the casual and fine dining spots, I feel like I could eat a new thing every day for a year.
My coffee shop(s): Before heading to the library’s reading room I often grab a coffee or tea at Hob Coffee. Holy Matcha is also quite close, and their matcha can’t be matched…except for the Lavender Zen Matcha from Modbom, which, sadly, closed.
Go-to bar: Before my boyfriend deployed, he gave me a list of places to visit, and one of our most memorable was Room 56 inside the Moxy hotel. It was quieter than most bars, which allowed us to talk more easily. I loved that the bartender gave us conversation cards while we waited for drinks.
Totally take-out: I look forward to the day when my daughter enjoys a broader range of food, but until then, the Domino’s app is my savior.
Favorite memory: Meeting another downtown family at the Fault Line Park playground. Our daughters are the same age and have become good friends. There are very few families with young children living downtown, and that’s been difficult for us.
Homelessness: When we moved to East Village, I had to look online for resources and tips on how to talk about homelessness with a young child. My daughter was confused as to why some people were passed out and sleeping on the sidewalks. There was also a period when I saw needles quite often littered on the sidewalks. That was alarming, and we adopted a family policy of not wearing sandals out of fear we could get poked.
Mayor Todd Gloria: While I applaud someone who chooses to devote their professional life to serving the public, I believe there comes a point when someone in politics focuses more on staying in position/power than achieving long-lasting positive impact. Someone I would love to see run for mayor: San Diego City Councilmember Joe LaCava. He brings years of experience as a civil engineer and community volunteer to his role with the city.
Insider tip: There’s a used bookstore on the ground floor of the Central Library. It has an excellent selection with reasonable prices. It’s run by an all-volunteer group called the Friends of the Central Library. Money raised supports programming and other efforts at the library. And there’s an excellent gift shop run by The Library Foundation–another organization that supports our library system.
Final thought: Meeting new people and making friends can be tough, but what’s made it easier for me is to find ways to volunteer in the community. I’ve met a lot of folks through the Friends of the Central Library and the East Village Doers. Visiting a place of faith is also helpful. I attend Common(s) Church at the corner of Thirteenth and G streets. They have special children’s programming every month on the first and third Sunday of every month. If you have a young child please stop by and say hello. I’d love to meet more parents living downtown. SDSun
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