California Forum Reorganization (Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco: subdivisions, live in, prices)

[kettlepot]

I know this topic has been broached before, but it's been about 6 months so how about another review.

To my eye, the slow pace of the San Jose Forum indicates that it should be folded into the San Francisco Forum which would should then be renamed the San Francisco Bay Area Forum so it's clear that all threads about the Bay Area belong within it.

With a space freed up, perhaps another forum could be created to fill its place. I'm unsure if that new forum should be the Inland Empire. Should we divide posts about the Greater Los Angeles Metro area even further than the existing split between LA and the OC? However, I suspect a lot of posters about the IE are unsure whether they should post in the LA subforum, or the general CA forum as it's unclear of LA is referring to the city, the county, or the metro area.

Any ideas what other subforum should be created?

1) San Joaquin for the entire southern half of the Central Valley for Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield and all places in between?

2) A Central Coast subforum for Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Monterrey and Salinas Counties?

3) An Inland Empire forum for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties?

4) Or perhaps merely fold San Jose into the new SF Bay Area forum? And leave things less complicated.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[skatealoneskatetogether]

I agree there should be a bay area forum instead of san jose splitting with sf, and it would be more inclusive for the east bay.


inland empire forum is needed as much as the sacramento forum.

[kettlepot]

Thanks for the reply Skate.

To further along your idea of being inclusive of the East Bay, instead of saying "City Forum" under the name, even though that's the name of this website and the powers that be probably have an interest in promoting the term's usage, perhaps it should say "Metro Area Forum" underneath it. That would give people a better sense that we are including areas outside of the city proper. The same may hold true for the other subforums.

[greatbasinguide]

The subdivisions drive me crazy, instead of scrolling one list for interesting stuff, I have to scroll a bunch. I vote for no delineated forums, or, at least, don't change it, no mas.

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by skatealoneskatetogether

inland empire forum is needed as much as the sacramento forum.

I agree. As much as people like to criticize the area, 82,000 more people are moving out to the Inland Empire every year, according to the Census Bureau.

Now that housing prices are getting so cheap in some areas (down to $200K in some cases) even more people will be moving out here. I'm sure they'll have lots of questions about the area.

[NYSD1995]

I've raised the idea with the admins (I can't add or remove forums) and basically they feel that too-many subforums is a bad thing. I'll keep working on it, I agree that there should be an IE forum

[kettlepot]

Yes, Sass I remember your previous efforts, that's why I've waited so long to bring this up again. It's also why I'm suggesting the SJ-SF combination.

That way, if the San Jose forum was combined into the San Francisco forum a space would be opened up for the Inland Empire or some other area.

Another option is that we could make it clear that the Inland Empire was part of the LA forum, and then add the San Joaquin Valley as a separate forum to replace San Jose.

Anyone else have thoughts on what would be a good addition if a subforum slot becomes available?

[Desertho]

*Fold San Jose into one Bay Area forum (not San Francisco Bay Area though)
**or a big NorCal page that includes Sacramento metro.
*Add an LA Metro forum for counties surrounding LA except the OC since many of the questions involve places an hour away from LA.
**or Inland Empire gets its own.

[Roma]

I think there should be at least 3 added sub forums to what we already have. California is a huge state.
North Carolina has 5 and look how small it is compared to Calif.

1) Ventura County
2) The Palm Springs area (I don't know the county name).
3) The central coast

[sheri257]

Well ... since I live in the Inland Empire ... I'm obviously going to argue for its own forum but ... I don't think it's a good idea to lump it in with LA.

Look at what's happened with the migration patterns from 2000-2004.

LA, Long Beach and Santa Ana lost 118,000 people a year ... -470,000 total

While Riverside, San Bernadino and Ontario gained 80,000 a year ... +280,000 total.

According to the New York Times, more people are moving to San Bernadino county than any other area of the country.