Going to visit San Diego in May for a few days....Questions:?

You really don't need a car to get around downtown SD, the San Diego Trolley has several stops downtown and down by the waterfront and convention center areas! You're not going to find a cheap hotel in downtown so I would recommend the Days Inn in Chula Vista which is about 8 miles from downtown but a 4 minute walk to the Trolley (Far away enough so you don't hear it) and it can get you to downtown in about 15 minutes. There are tour companies like Old Town Trolley Tours for instance that do tours of the waterfront and the Gaslamp Quarter but to be honest downtown SD is pretty small and easy to navigate on foot!!

And it is true the job situation is pretty tough because not only do you have the locals but you have the people that come up from TJ every morning who work in San Diego and believe me there are a lot of them

you would need a car if you wanted to go more than a few miles yes....public transport sucks for long distance, there are small tour buses that stay around the central part of san diego, and for future reference yes....it is a tough job market here (though I doubt it has much to do with Mexicans) and it's expensive to live here according to most transplants from back east so frankly I wouldn't even think about moving here without a job