What are the San Joaquin valley and other inland cities like? (Fresno: high crime, employment)

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by janellen

Visalia is a really nice town, gateway to the abysmal scenery of Sequoia National Park and Lake Kaweah, lol.
Abysmal scenery:

Yep. Indeed the entirety of the Sierras is just a total eyesore and we should all hang our heads in shame.

[JGC97]

Originally Posted by janellen

Visalia is a really nice town, gateway to the abysmal scenery of Sequoia National Park and Lake Kaweah, lol.
Abysmal scenery:

Originally Posted by joosoon

Yep. Indeed the entirety of the Sierras is just a total eyesore and we should all hang our heads in shame.

You two are SO right. And Bass Lake in Madera County is just about the ugliest place I've ever seen.

[eccotecc]

A city not on your list, but one you should consider on the top of your list, is Turlock.

[nep321]

Originally Posted by eccotecc

A city not on your list, but one you should consider on the top of your list, is Turlock.

Why? What's so great about Turlock?

[Bert_from_back_East]

While not technically considered the "Central Valley," El Dorado and Placer counties are home to numerous clean, safe, upscale bedroom communities of Sacramento, which is a Central Valley city. Closer to Lake Tahoe (which is the crown jewel of California, in my opinion), both El Dorado and Placer counties contain clean, well-kept resort towns. This region of California is rich with history, since it was the first region of the state to be settled and developed by Americans after the Mexican-American War. If I had to live in far-inland California, El Dorado Hills or Granite Bay would probably be my top choices.

Sacramento appears to be less arid and barren than other Central Valley cities located further south, such as Bakersfield, Fresno and Visalia, for example. The city of Sacramento is home to a very high number of trees, although most of them were planted and, therefore, are not naturally occurring. However, the outlying areas of Sacramento, especially those located west of the city, are much more wooded than the outlying areas of Bakersfield, Fresno and Merced. Broad-leaved forests are not common in California, so I would consider El Dorado and Placer counties unique in that regard.

[Moddedintegra56]

Originally Posted by Bert_from_back_East

While not technically considered the "Central Valley," El Dorado and Placer counties are home to numerous clean, safe, upscale bedroom communities of Sacramento, which is a Central Valley city. Closer to Lake Tahoe (which is the crown jewel of California, in my opinion), both El Dorado and Placer counties contain clean, well-kept resort towns. This region of California is rich with history, since it was the first region of the state to be settled and developed by Americans after the Mexican-American War. If I had to live in far-inland California, El Dorado Hills or Granite Bay would probably be my top choices.

Sacramento appears to be less arid and barren than other Central Valley cities located further south, such as Bakersfield, Fresno and Visalia, for example. The city of Sacramento is home to a very high number of trees, although most of them were planted and, therefore, are not naturally occurring. However, the outlying areas of Sacramento, especially those located west of the city, are much more wooded than the outlying areas of Bakersfield, Fresno and Merced. Broad-leaved forests are not common in California, so I would consider El Dorado and Placer counties unique in that regard.

You know how EXPENSIVE El Dorado and Placer county is?

You are talking easily $200,000K more for similar type of neighborhood and house when you go from Fresno county to placer or el dorado county.

It's an unfair comparison really because the places he mentions are places already overlooked and not usually choice of destination, while El dorado and placer has always been known to be ideal spot for the rich and affluent of the sac metro or those moving into it. Sacramento also has been the go to choice for many bay area folks and it's not a secret anymore and a fair comparison population size is the city of sacramento and city of fresno. Where fresno is the 5th biggest city in the state, and sacramento being the 6th. city for city, fresno has less crime but less to offer, but also $100-150K median price cheaper than Sac. obviously when we consider the entire metro comparison Sac wins in all categories and there is no denying that but we're talking value and an alternative for those who want to save $100-200K then Fresno/Clovis is the next best on that list to still live in a big city/area.

[sacreole]

As I’ve already shared over several other threads about life in the San Joaquin Valley (see links below), it really all comes down to one’s interests and priorities. I lived in Visalia for nearly 12 years (1992-2004) and what attracted me to the place was its distinctiveness from other Valley cities and towns. Visalia is the oldest city between Los Angeles and Stockton. In addition, the City is not directly along Hwy 99, rather much of the city core lies several miles east of the 99 corridor.

The downtown is very quaint and walkable with speciality shops and a number of restaurants. Adjacent to downtown are a lot of Victorian-style and Craftman homes. There are lots of trees in the central areas of town and the Kaweah Oak Preserve located 8-9 miles to the east makes for a great nature walk. Visalia doesn’t have too many seedy areas although the homeless/vagrancy issue has grown in scope as in many communities around the state.

Other desirable Valley communities that come to mind IMHO include Exeter, Kingsburg, Clovis, Oakdale, and Ripon.

To Fresno/Visalia area from the Midwest

Moving out of Central Valley?

Considering moving to Visalia, could use some input

[JGC97]

Originally Posted by sacreole

Other desirable Valley communities that come to mind IMHO include Exeter, Kingsburg, Clovis, Oakdale, and Ripon.

Along with those, I'll throw in Escalon. Nice little community, too.

[JB316]

I noticed that nobody really spoke too much about Bakersfield for you.There are a lot of threads on Bako already, youll find a lot in a search on here.


We only lived in Bako for a little over a year, but we actually enjoyed ourselves. It is definitely California on a budget, but you don't have to live out in the boonies, it's a decently sized city with the amenities and services that you would expect from a city of that size. We had good experiences with healthcare there, of all types. The affordability is really the biggest draw. If you have a good job you can really afford a great house and lifestyle. Lower cost of living really was great for our quality of life and mental health, not struggling financially at all felt great. I feel like the job market in Bako isn't bad at all. It's definitely stood up by the twin pillars of agriculture and oil, but there's more to it than that. There are lots of healthcare jobs, and Amazon just put a distribution center there.


https://www.kget.com/news/local-news...er-next-month/



Overall a quick pro/con list of Bako that I would throw out there:


Pros:
Low cost of living. Some very, very nice neighborhoods that are actually affordable.
College town with CSU - Bakersfield in the area.
Good healthcare, dining, entertainment, shopping and recreation opportunities near by.
Only 1.5 hours from the 2nd largest city in the country and all that that entails.

Cons:
Air quality is not good and a well known issue throughout the state.
Unbelievably hot summers and it stays hot into the night since it's a valley.
Dusty. Not a very windy area, but when it does get windy, expect a dust storm, very annoying. You'll need to spray down your deck/patio furniture
Homeless problem exists there as well. Not like the bay area or LA, but it's there. Obviously it's not as bad in the nicer areas of Bako.

Good luck. Personally, I would move back, but I don't think I could get my wife to go for it.

[kettlepot]

While all of these cities are HOT in the summer, really, really hot, Redding differs from the rest in a few ways.

First, it directly abuts the foothills of the Coast Range and the Klamath Mountains. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and many people comment on the beauty of Mount Lassen to the east and more impressively, Mount Shasta to the north.

Redding has a large, unpolluted river flowing through it.

Unlike the other Central Valley cities, Redding is not an agricultural center. Much of the land consists of hard, red soil. Yes, there is limited agriculture, but beyond the railroad, Redding first got its start as a mining, and then a logging center, and that is the problem. California makes mining and logging very difficult now, so the primary industrial base has been driven out and replaced with tourism and healthcare for the retirees who move in from out of the area. Good paying jobs are scarce, and population growth since 1990 has been low by California standards.