Help Pease Moving to !! Stockton CA (San Francisco, Sacramento: low income, section 8, apartment complex)

[CADRMNDANES]

I have family in Stockton. They have lived there since the 60's. It's not pretty. Every year it gets worse. It is not a good place to raise kids today. I would consider the smaller towns 30 minutes away.
I'm checking out Brentwood & Discovery Bay for a family member.
Good Luck!

[leeannambodily]

I grew up in manteca, and lathrop, the only thing I can think of that would be worse than living in stockton, is working at dameron hospital. Sadly because of the large volume of Bay Area folk who found cheap homes with a commute to bigger wages, I fear it will never recover. I wouldn't raise animals there let alone children. It is now the "little bay". That whole valley is suffering, but stockton was 3rd most miserable in america!

[prairie guy]

Kudos to Tennis368fan--a fantastically reasoned and well-written post. I second his comments, especially regarding schools--not sure how it works in England, but public schools in California nowadays are a minefield. Do check out the schools carefully, even in the better-regarded districts. I also commend the Original Poster for keeping your positive attitude despite this comment and everything you may read--your family's move is a great adventure and with your continued research, I'm sure it will work out wonderfully. All the best.

[xino]

Stockton has crime and illegal aliens all over the place. No one in their right mind would move out there. Life is too short.

[layla59]

HELLO ALL, i will be moving to stockton with in 3 months. can some one tell me about the rentals rates, the nicer areas ( single know no one there ) what are the utilities like on avg? i currently live in the midwest. any info would be helpful
thank you

[FutureFormerCalifornian]

Originally Posted by layla59

HELLO ALL, i will be moving to stockton with in 3 months. can some one tell me about the rentals rates, the nicer areas ( single know no one there ) what are the utilities like on avg? i currently live in the midwest. any info would be helpful
thank you

I suggest you keep driving north as you bypass Stockton, LOL. Stay away from ANY apartments owned by Patmon Properties. I had the unpleasant experience as a former tenant of one of these hovels of having them falsify damages to the apartment when I moved out. Despite 22 pages of documentation to the contrary, (and a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act by continuing collection activity while in dispute), they sued me (as well as some other former tenants I later discovered) for $200 in Superior Court. Why in Superior Court (why wasn't this a frivolous suit and a waste of the court's time???). In superior court you can get a lawyer involved and that's how the lawyer makes his money.

Make sure to check the sex offender registry as well. There were 3 of them in the aforementioned hovel.

Why on earth would you want to move from the midwest to a city with the highest foreclosure rates in the country and a job market in the bottom 10???? Our rent for a sort of OK apartment was $920 when we left 12/06.

[layla59]

i was offered a job with a very large corp. looking to make a new start, i am not looking to purchase a home at least not yet. the sex offender ratio makes me a little nervous, i am single. isnt there some where in stockton safe or surrounding towns?? we have 'bad" parts where i live now also. this is starting to look depressing . i have high hopes with the beautiful weather the coast ......... can some one add air to my bubble before it burst ?? thanks for this info. i will have to make sure when i come out for the face to face i get to see all .... good and bad thanks
layla

Originally Posted by FutureFormerCalifornian

I suggest you keep driving north as you bypass Stockton, LOL. Stay away from ANY apartments owned by Patmon Properties. I had the unpleasant experience as a former tenant of one of these hovels of having them falsify damages to the apartment when I moved out. Despite 22 pages of documentation to the contrary, (and a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act by continuing collection activity while in dispute), they sued me (as well as some other former tenants I later discovered) for $200 in Superior Court. Why in Superior Court (why wasn't this a frivolous suit and a waste of the court's time???). In superior court you can get a lawyer involved and that's how the lawyer makes his money.

Make sure to check the sex offender registry as well. There were 3 of them in the aforementioned hovel.

Why on earth would you want to move from the midwest to a city with the highest foreclosure rates in the country and a job market in the bottom 10???? Our rent for a sort of OK apartment was $920 when we left 12/06.

[Roaddog]

Originally Posted by Sir Barton

The San Joaquin valley is a toilet. No one in there right mind would choose to live in Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, or Stockton if they had the chioce to move somewhere else. There is thugs everywhere and mexicans all over the place.

And where might you live? where do you get this expert opinion from? If you wouldn't live there how do you know? fill us in.

[LuckyJ26]

I live in Stockton and it really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I moved here 5 years ago from San Jose. I'd take it over Fresno or Bakersfield any day, but It's still a bit dull and ghetto place. Any way if you want to see some pictures of its downtown, here it is:
Stockton, Modesto, CA - SkyscraperPage Forum
And here is Stockton with other Central Valley cities:
California Central Valley Cities (Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Stockton) x136 - SkyscraperPage Forum

[FutureFormerCalifornian]

Originally Posted by layla59

i was offered a job with a very large corp. looking to make a new start, i am not looking to purchase a home at least not yet. the sex offender ratio makes me a little nervous, i am single. isnt there some where in stockton safe or surrounding towns?? we have 'bad" parts where i live now also. this is starting to look depressing . i have high hopes with the beautiful weather the coast ......... can some one add air to my bubble before it burst ?? thanks for this info. i will have to make sure when i come out for the face to face i get to see all .... good and bad thanks
layla

First question is how stable is the company that made the job offer? What will happen if God forbid, if the job doesn't last/work out? You will be forced to look for work in one of the worst economies in the country and $700+ rent (for a 1 bd dump) to be paid.

I think you have just that - high hopes. The coast is several hours away and there is ALWAYS traffic going away from the SJ Valley. Once you get into the daily grind of work, how often will you be able to go to the coast to make it worth living in a pit? I lived in Los Angeles for a while and didn't get to the beach more than a couple times a year when I lived 30 minutes from the beach. I can't argue with your high hopes about the weather after enduring yet another "severe weather warning" last night though.

I don't know about living in the East Bay (higher rent) such as Antioch or Disco Bay. I do know that the one highway through the Delta is a 2 lane narrow, pot hole laden road and you're SOL if you get behind an 18 wheeler if you're in a hurry and with the legendary tulie fog it's just dangerous to drive.

If you come out for a visit make sure to drive the length of all the major streets so you can see the ratio of "nice" to crappy ass ghetto.

Check out all the areas of foreclosures since Stockton has one of the highest rates in the country. Those houses are then available to be purchased by the drug cartels who then use them for drug manufacturing. They may have lights on timers on the bottom floor, but then the upstairs is used for manufacturing or growing some serious weed (I remember a couple houses being busted in EG in Fall, 2006 before we moved).