Salinas? Monterey? Help pls (Los Angeles, San Diego: violent crime, mortgage, lawyers)

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by Wisteria

Yeah, Carmel -- that will never go down in price!!

I thought so too but ... Carmel is actually down 18 percent. Monterey is down 46 percent from last year ... whoah.

DQNews - California Home Sale Price Medians by County and City

Overall ... Monterey County is down 24 percent since last year.

[Coffee Mate]

I'll give you the same advice that I give to everyone attempting to move to my former "state"....
Go and LOOK...LOOK REAL HARD....at the EXACT location that you will be moving to..
Check out all the local schools....parks....malls....Drive the local streets....Get the local papers and read the police blotter.....check out the demographic data about the city. Salinas is not NOT like it used to be....Watsonville is also a very VERY different place. Monterey, Carmel....are expensive but preferable to the aforementioned....Prunedale...is often called Prune-tucky...as in 'kentucky'....
Look at where you will be living....check it out at different times of the day and night...weekdays and weekends.....
If you get a bad vibe...your right.....not the place....If you see lots of 'tagging' ie graffiti....lots of young men hanging around at all times of day and night...not at work...not in school....then that is NOT the place you want to live....
Think of it this way.....Where would you be comfortable leaving your child for the better part of the day....day in and day out? If the thought of leaving them "THERE" is scary....then it IS....Be good to your kids....Spend the money to get into a good community....let the ultra-wise 'state of california' figure out how it's going to unilaterally save the world.......and just suffer the commute so your kids don't have to......
This is one reason, aside from high housing costs...that people in California have such insane commutes...They live in a nice town...or nicer town...and drive to work....They can't afford the nice area close to work....so they have to look further away....far beyond the bad towns....

[thomasw98]

Originally Posted by jmhunter

Reading this whole thing is pissign me off.. Most of the people commenting here are passing judgement based on what some friend said.. or the shooting they saw on the news.

I have lived in Salinas for several years, 5 to be exact. I have never once seen a shooting in person. I haven't been a victim of a crime besides hit and run on my parked car.. which could happen anywhere, and it was minor damage. You don't see very many gangs just walking on the street, unless you hang out in east salinas, and unless you speak spanish, you'll probably never find your way over there... there is nothign to do...

The problem in north and central salinas is prostitution in my opinion...

South Salinas, is awesome, and beautiful. I spend 80% of my time down there... I venture to wal-mart and costco in west salinas when Ihave to... and I shop at the mall in Monterey.

Truth be told I do live in Prunedale.. but I'd take a home in South Salinas in a second.... And the school s are some of the highest rated in the region...

There is no place for middle class people in Monterey... It just doesn't exist. Monterey is great to travel to on the weekend.. and have fun at... but is not meant for families.

According to city-data, crime rate in Salinas is quite high.

According to California test scores, the schools in south Salinas are also not very good. The best is Mission Park Elementary with a "7" (out of 10), but the others are only rated "3" or "4". On the northeast side of the 101, the schools are abysmal. Most rated the lowest score of "1".

[thomasw98]

Schools in Prunedale also only rated "3" or "4" based on test scores. One exception is Lagunita Elementary (southeast of Prunedale) which is rated an "8".

[mmouwse]

Originally Posted by Merical

I lived two blocks from Memorial Hospital for years..I only moved out of that area recently. Its NOT a bad area. South Salinas is really a town within a larger city. It butts up to Spreckels and Highway 68 on one side and its a ten minute drive just to get to the North side. I guarantee you will have no problems there, most people who don't live in the area have no idea what it really is like there. Honestly, we were country members, as were our neighbors, many of the residents have strong professional ties the community and as my husband actually works at SVMH I can tell you that the above comment was just plain wrong, MANY of the SVMH employees live in the community. Salinas has a bad reputation, which may be justified, but South Salinas should be a separate town and many of the neighborhoods are just beautiful and family friendly. The neighborhoods in South Salinas are actually named, I think they just take on the names of the respective elementary schools in each of them. Maple Park, Mission Park and Monterey Park are all great neighborhoods. Maple Park tends to get a bit pricey, the housing is just lovely, Mission Park actually has the better elementary school of the three (in case you have kids). If you drive further out you run into Toro Park and Las Palmas Ranch, very expensive neighborhoods, but great schools. Star Market is a fantastic little independant grocery store with a great meat department in South Salinas, One Java drive is a neat little drive through coffee shop, there is a great deli right next door to that, Ginos serves fantastic italian food, honestly you won't be disappointed unless you are looking for a faster pace. It is close enough to Monterey so you can get a little night life, but unless you do the Penny Farthing or the Lala Lounge, night life can be a little boring in Salinas. Good luck.

This is so very true! South Salinas IS a separate place from the city of Salinas...like a different world. I was just there last month in the area of the Hospital and I WOULD live THERE. VERY nice neighborhoods, very safe.

[Petrala]

Originally Posted by GypsyHeart

I would appreciate any info about Monterey County/ Salinas, Ca in particular. I've done a search and found a few posts....most of them were not very encouraging.
I am looking at a great re-location package, but don't want to move somewhere I will hate!
The job is located in the town of Salinas....but I could consider surrounding areas of Monterey, etc.
Any info would be great....even if it just on living and working in Salinas/Monterey cty......

There is, unfortunately, a lot of gang activitiy in a number of areas in Monterey county....Salinas is definitely one of them. Like people said, you could commute from the coastal area but your housing prices will be significantly higher...except for if you rent in not-so-good areas on the coast, of which there are a few.

[the city]

I have two uncles that live in west Salinas in the direction of Monterey. They like it in the area. Salinas is the biggest city in the central coast region.

[Vdego]

Seaside and Salinas are crawling with sex offenders. Click on the link.

Locate, Rate, and Share Good and Bad Neighbors Before and After You Move

[thomasw98]

Originally Posted by Vdego

Seaside and Salinas are crawling with sex offenders. Click on the link.

Locate, Rate, and Share Good and Bad Neighbors Before and After You Move

Re Seaside, here is what City Data page shows...not quite "crawling with sex offenders":

"According to our research there were 39 registered sex offenders living in Seaside, California in early 2007.
The ratio of number of residents in Seaside to the number of sex offenders is 878 to 1.
The number of registered sex offenders compared to the number of residents in this city is near the state average."

[smeghead09]

I was born and raised in Salinas. I moved up to Prunedale to get away from it. I absolutely love Prunedale (AKA Prunetucky) but in all honesty, it was too close to that garbage pile called Salinas. Now I live in the desert. Yeah, it's really hot.

I have several family members who are police officers in Salinas and trust me -SERIOUSLY- this city is much worse than the biast newspaper, The Salinas Californian, makes it sound. The paper and city are interested in attracting new taxpayers, not discouraging them from moving into the city. The paper picks on the police department and rarely takes their side on anything then complains about there not being enough of them to protect people. The city is (or was when I finally escaped) building a huge number of houses yet the only new businesses coming in were low paying ones like Best Buy or Circuit City.

This is serious - learn to not wear the color red or the color blue. There are so many more gangsters there than you could imagine. They are the reason for the murders and believe me, they can't shoot straight. Innocent people get sprayed with bullets.

If this means anything to you: The 'Races in Salinas' breakdown on City-data I'm pretty sure is talking about legal citizens. There are a huge number of illegal immigrants who are there for the agriculture. They almost all live on the east side where for some reason the highest amount of crime BY FAR is in Salinas.

If for some reason you still decide to ignore everyone here and take a job in Salinas, I urge you to visit the whole city and stay there for a week. I also urge you not to even consider the east side or anything on the border with the east side (like Creekbridge for instance). The north side is going downhill quickly too. If you must live in Salinas, live on the south side. Better yet, live down by Toro Park or off of River road near Spreckles. Those are nicer areas with a simple and fast commute.

I'll leave you with these words which are from the Monterey Herald:
"After only three months, the number of slayings in Salinas this year now equals annual homicide counts reached in 2005 and 2006, and most of the killings are taking place in areas not known for high crime"

RIP: Junior - Another case of Salinas gangsters taking the wrong man.