2 Teachers moving Los Angeles to Northern CA (Sacramento, Pomona: homes, employment)

[Menehunie]

Hi Everyone,

My boyfriend and I are newer teachers, contemplating a move from Los Angeles, CA to somewhere in Northern, CA...but we don't know where. I teach Special Ed and he teaches Art.

We are tired of the pollution and traffic in Los Angeles, and the high cost of everything (esp. rent). We don't know any Northern CA areas though, except for the Bay Area. Any suggestions for us would be appreciated. We are planning road trips this summer to help us get some ideas about different places to live.

Some things we are looking for are: nature, intellectual life (a university and/or state university nearby), art and culture would be nice. We prefer diversified communities. We don't care much about night life, we're both artists, so that keeps up both pretty busy in our spare time. We live pretty modestly, and would probably prefer to buy a piece of land and build a home on it, rather than buying the home (which tends to cost more anyways). Thanks everyone, and hope you are having a great day!

[jaijai]

What do you mean by "northern' California?
Have you considered the central coast?
Cambria for example?
The San Luis Obispo area? which i don't know well but a UC is there.
The Monterey Bay .... all the way up to Santa Cruz county (UCSC, a pretty good art scene, powerful and beautiful nature [redwoods and ocean] not the most intellectual community but it's all relative and it's very open and tolerant and relatively diverse and yet S.C. county is extremely expensive [here are some land prices in the county ... most in the S.C. mountains Land in S.C. county] but i don't know how it compares to the L.A. area).
And S.F. is close enough for when you want some city.
Carmel and Monterey and Pacific Grove are options and yet again, it's expensive but, as an artist, it's a good option if you can afford it and close proximity to Big Sur is a very good thing.
I don't know about employment however.

[Menehunie]

Hi Jaijai,

Thanks for the information. By "northern" ca , we mean pretty much anything north of Santa Barbara. We are open to Central CA : Sacramento (for example)..but it does get to be over 90 in the summers, and we are trying to stay away from temperatures in that range....which is a drawback for anything too far away from the coast.

[jaijai]

Originally Posted by Menehunie

Hi Jaijai,

Thanks for the information. By "northern" ca , we mean pretty much anything north of Santa Barbara. We are open to Central CA : Sacramento (for example)..but it does get to be over 90 in the summers, and we are trying to stay away from temperatures in that range....which is a drawback for anything too far away from the coast.

And it's not just the heat .... the air quality in Sacramento is horrendous.
I was just assuming that you wanted to be near the coast.
I'm referring to the Central coast (which, to me, extends all the way up to the Monterey Bay but i guess that's debatable) as opposed to the central valley, ie; Sacramento for example.

[MtnSurfer]

I'm form the LA area originally and couldn't recommend the Monterey/Santa Cruz areas more highly, especially if you want to get out of the concrete jungle. It's like an entirely different state up here along the Central Coast in all the right ways - less crowds, smog, traffic, billboards, impacted cities. Replace all that with wide open spaces, more trees, cleaner air, coastal mountains, redwoods, waterfalls, natural beauty with incredible outdoor opportunities if you love nature.

As new teachers the biggest challenge will be to find positions and gain valuable experience in a very difficult CA economy. A friend of mine is a (now) tenured teacher living in Santa Cruz. However he didn't always have it so easy. He had to find work, some work any work teaching. He started out in Watsonville where english is a second language to for a larger % of the kids. But he was ok with that. Now he is teaching closer to home.

What I'm saying is you may have to make your way to more ideal locations in stages. Simply finding work and being flexible initially will be key to growing in your careers.

Derek

[BeauCharles]

If being near a university is important your best bet is to narrow the communities down to those and then contact the school districts in each to see which are actually hiring. Many are not. For instance, I live near Chico and they are laying teachers off (as are many towns in this area) due to budget shortfalls.

[honestopinion]

I was going to suggest Chico as well, but the weather does tend to get above the 90's in the summer.

Somebody mentioned Cambria, which is an absolutely beautiful place, but I think you might have trouble finding a job in that area. If you want the central coast, I'd go for one of the bigger towns in that area (San Luis Obispo, perhaps).

[rosemarie87]

Redding area and Chico/Paradise area are awesome areas to teach! Great school ratings too! Alot of resources, esp for special ed, nmy daughter is spec ed(autism). It's beautiful weather up there, summers there are just as hot as anywhere else in Cali and they actually get a little more rain, making it greener and prettier by far. No pollution and no earthquakes. Wonderful family targeted area. Much more relaxed, non stressful environment. Sacramento can be good too. And the best part is all these areas are very affordable! Eureka is great too for the coller ocean style living.

[Cali-girl]

Originally Posted by jaijai

What do you mean by "northern' California?
Have you considered the central coast?
Cambria for example?
The San Luis Obispo area? which i don't know well but a UC is there.
The Monterey Bay .... all the way up to Santa Cruz county (UCSC, a pretty good art scene, powerful and beautiful nature [redwoods and ocean] not the most intellectual community but it's all relative and it's very open and tolerant and relatively diverse and yet S.C. county is extremely expensive [here are some land prices in the county ... most in the S.C. mountains Land in S.C. county] but i don't know how it compares to the L.A. area).
And S.F. is close enough for when you want some city.
Carmel and Monterey and Pacific Grove are options and yet again, it's expensive but, as an artist, it's a good option if you can afford it and close proximity to Big Sur is a very good thing.
I don't know about employment however.

Not to quibble, however, I received my Certificate from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Cal Poly SLO is not a University of California campus, it is a State Polytechnic University like Cal Poly Pomona. Not the same.

The closest UC is in Santa Barbara (my alma mater) - UC Santa Barbara.

~Cali-girl

[jaijai]

that's o.k. ... quibble away ... a good point of distinction.