Having a pet isn't such a big deal but when 5 people all bring their cats/dogs the place turns into a zoo. 

Highlights were the USS Midway Museum, The San Diego Zoo Safari Park and of course the beach (Encinitas).

There are a few highly rated HipCamp hosts in our area that have 'U-Pick' farms of produce and/or petting zoo type animals, and they've added a handful of RV sites to go along with it.  

There are a few up and coming neighborhoods near the Copley road/downtown area where a developer is building new inner city homes just north of the zoo.

I can say that I was not present for almost an entire year with my kiddos... but I can now take them to school, take off a wednesday and make it a zoo day as well as many other cool perks.

There is a lot to do, lake fishing, trout fishing in the river, kayaking, tubing the river in the summer, hiking, wineries, breweries, petting zoo, go carts; I could keep going...

Stringtown (near the zoo) is also revitalizing quickly in my opinion.

It has a safari/zoo theme and no other Airbnb in the area really has this.

Building an amazon hub and a zoo to the east of the city along with a new planned transit rail line?

I've not been down there in a while, but have the funny feeling that with "flip shows" on TV 24/7 again, it might be back to the zoo it became around 2006 or so!