Cardiff Cove

jonathan Warshauer _{on Google}

May 4th, 2020

Lived here from 2018-2019 for 2 years. The cove is a mello place with many active residents(runners, cyclists, surfers) For the most part the community has its act together. Originally a retirement community built in the 70s now there seems to be a pretty good mix of retirees and midlifers w/ and w/out kids.
Pros
-location is pretty good. Easy to get on and off the freeway and easy to drive to Cardiff beach. Walking distance to the lagoon and I imagine once all the construction is finished the walkability to the lagoon and maybe even to seaside market will improve. Still manchester is a heavily used road and there is a lot of traffic. Easy to drive to grocery stores.
-neighbors are great. I managed to make a couple of good friendships while I lived here and plan to remain friends moving forward.
Cons
-freeway. The freeway is right next to the community. I am sensitive to the freeway noise which if I remember is about 50+decibels. The noise is really only during the morning from about 6am to 9am and noticable again around 6 pm till about midnight. But I found it impossible to sleep with a window open or enjoy the morning cool air becuase of it. Some of the buildings are positioned better and experience less noise. Also the unit I was in did not have double pane windows. Which would also help, but during the day especially if there was any little breeze the road noise was imperceptible.
-construction. There is a lot of contruction around here. During the time I lived here and continuing forward they are widening the freeway, a bridge, there are new communities being built. Fiber optic cable going in to nearby locations, gentrification of many of the original homes, plans to build a park and ride, lagoon rehabilitation... and on and on. For the most part not to intrusive but there were nights when there was lights from the freeway pointed right at our building. Bright white 50,000watt lightbulbs you could see from outer space.
-maintainence, to continue on with this theme they are replacing the pavement with concrete in the driveways, and also happen to be re-doing the roofs. And on and on
-electrical the electrical needs to be updated in the units in order to put in central ac. Or a central fan. This cant be done becuase it requires updating the wiring inside the units and the breakers I think. One really only needs ac a couple weeks out of the year and most of us just buy the potable ac from home depot to sleep comfortably at night.
-internet only ATT works reliably. The coaxial cable in the buildings needs to be replaced so cox works but was unreliable in my unit.The Hoa wont allow new cables on the outside of the building. You can do it yourself, but run a risk of a fine or you can try to jump through all the hoops by coordinating the cable company and the HoA and the management company the Hoa hires to handle these types of things and the contractor who will run the new line becuase cox technician wont do it. Good Luck.
So to sum up Cardiff Cove next to the lagoon with ocean views has been a cool place to live. Some fun surf spots close by. Some good people. Some good times.