Originally Posted by
Pentecali
Locale Mostly rural. Was ALL rural when I first moved her in 1989... population less than 6,000, now 25,000+ and rising. Still less than 30 seconds away from dairy farms though
Crime rate / safety Not a lot of danger of drive by shootings (besides, chances are that I'm a better shot than the potential shooter anyway), but there are a couple of idiots who keep burglarizing the neighborhood every now and then. But they don't seem very skilled. You keep things locked up, you keep things.
Politics Like Pentacali and Femme, far FAR left. Hard to believe I work for the state government, much less that I've worked for it for almost 22 years now. The only way I can do it without being sick to my stomach is to be focused on the goal of providing the taxpayer with the services they've paid for (as much as I can in my meager position anyway)
Cost of living A bit cheaper here in the Valley than in the Bay Area or LA area, but still not cheap. Food and utilities I think are universal here in CA but real estate fluctuates depending on where you are.
Cost of housing I'm in a 5 bed 2 bath house that I bought in 2000 for 158k, which was a good price even for this area (family feud... brother and sister sold the house to me in a hurry to split the profits)... house assessed last year for $250k. Too big a home for me, but I "inherited" it from my last divorce and it's only 3 years from being paid off in full, so I'm here.
Population Started out at 5,800, now over 25,000
Rural- suburban- Neighborhood is now urban, but only technically. It's actually rural
Climate Pretty dry, usually hot, but now it's cold and we finally had a good rain (yay!!)
Terrain I live on the flood plains.... flat farmland, not a lot of hills, but the mountains and beach are less than 2 hours away
Traffic Horrible. Just horrible. Did I mention that the traffic is horrible?
What you like/ dislike I love the ethnic diversity. Literal melting pot. I also love that I can get practically any nationality of food under the sun here...
Would you leave or are you a lifer I WAS a lifer, but I think I've had enough. I want to leave. The drought is the least of my worries. It's bad, but the government is worse. Between the politics and the overregulation of everything, I'm pretty much done. The only reason I'm still here is because my house is a serious investment, and I'm within 3 years of paying it off. Once it's paid off, however, I'm giving serious thought on moving to Reno. Out of California, cheaper cost of living, less government, and still within a couple of hours of my kids.