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I hope this doesn't come off as a "general where should I live in California" thread.... but...
I'd like to know where to live in California. (This is my first post over here so go easy on me!)
Here are the details.
My fiance and I live in New York, Brooklyn to be exact. We are getting married next July (2010) and are looking to make a move shortly thereafter.
I am an ESL (English as a second language) teacher in a public elementary school in Brooklyn. Because of this, our first requirements are that the city we live in is:
1. Culturally Diverse -- I mean this in the most sincere way. I am NOT looking for a city that is "diverse", meaning, mostly black, or mostly latino, rather, a city that has a bit of many cultures, all encompassing if you will. I LOVE my current school in that I work with children from more than 20 different countries, with 10+ languages represented.
2. Culturally Accpeting -- I do not want to live in a place that is resentful towards their changing population. I LOVE culture and language, and am really sick and tired of having to defend that.
3. Liberal -- I need to be around liberal and progressive minded people.
4. Decent schools with a high demand for (ESL) teachers. I understand that bilingual education is outlawed in California (which, IMO, is really too bad) but I also understand that ESL (or, as I believe it is referred to, ELD) is acceptable, and the preferred method of teaching English. I work in Brooklyn, but at a pretty nice school. I am used to inner-city teaching, but don't want to end up in the scariest of places. Oh, and good teacher salary would be nice.
My fiance is currently not working, as he has a severe back injury, which leads me to the next requirement.
5. Good weather, not too rainy, not too cold. The number one reason for our move is to relocate to a place that won't aggravate his condition. Rain and cold weather aren't a good match for him, though, we are willing to compromise (SF Bay Area vs. San Diego) for the above requirements. Also, I'm a gardener, and am longing for year round flowers and freshly grown veggies.
We own 2 American Pit Bull Terriers. We love our dogs, and we love the breed. Bad Rap Pit Bull rescue makes me want to live in SF, but....
Our other requirements are: 6. Dog Friendly and no Breed Specific Legislation (ie. Mandatory muzzling of PBs in public). We would like either: dog beaches, dog trails, towns/cities that are dog friendly in general. Oh, and a back yard.
7. City-ish.We'd like to live somewhere urban-ish, but fairly safe. (My fiance doesn't want to live in a big city, and I don't want to live anywhere very rural....
8. Lastly, we'd like to be able to buy either a. land, or b. a good starter house, but are open to renting when we arrive to make sure we buy somewhere we'd definitely like to live.
My fiance is pushing for southern california, but is willing to compromise. The area's we've toyed with are: Berkeley/Oakland (if there are good neighborhoods in Oakland), SLO, Orange County, and Santa Barbara (but I know I'm dreaming).
Thanks, Dan... that is, if your good wishes are sincere!!
I know that we may have a problem, it comes with the territory of owning this wonderful, yet misrepresented/understood breed.
We haven't really had a problem here in New York, aside from the daily negative reactions (those are to be expected), etc. But in terms of BSL and discrimination when it comes to housing, it hasn't been so bad.
I am not looking for a miracle, ie. a city wherein the entire population LOVES pit bulls, rather, a place that finds them, at best, benign.
good luck period. I am not sure there are many places that will meet your needs, maybe San Francisco would come the closest but the weather might be a problem plus the cost of living on only 1 income, not to mention teachers are not in huge demand right now..this may or may not change in the next year or so.
Parts of San Diego might work as well, but overall San Diego is not liberal..
You want to garden but even in Ca veggies and many flowers do not do well 12 months out of the year, you can find some that do. Of course finding land with everything else you are asking may be another obsticle.
You say, you are tired of defending the changing culture of some areas, again unless you can settle in someplace like SF you will be defending changes. Los Angeles has many diverse areas but also is rather segregated in most parts. Hispanics live in one area, blacks another, Asians still another.
I am not sure, but another possibility might be Pasadena which is nowest of L.A.
Again, I am not expecting a miracle. I cannot expect to live in a perfect place with all of my requirements. I'm a realist, only with a couple of dreams.
We won't necessarily be living on 1 income, as my fiance lives on a workman's compensation wage, as his accident happened at work.
If anyone can suggest areas that partially meet some of my needs, that would be great.
Well I live in far Northern CA in Redding, CA but it has no University BUT!!! I have just the place for you 2! A nice medium sized area (Butte County) in the beautiful town/city of CHICO, CA.! You guys would love it there and 1 of our State Universities of higher learning is there; Chico State University which is not nearly as expensive as a University of Calif. school! ie Berkeley, USC, UCLA, S. Diego and the like. Yet Chico is a great school! Ask anyone! I don't know that theres much work there but is there anywhere right now? But it is a Univ. town so it's very cultural and reminds me a lot of my hometown, Berkeley. Tons of music and fun! Playboy mag once called Chico State the #1 Partyin School in the whole US!! lol Doesn't mean you have to participate right. It's approx. 150 miles north of the SF Bay Area but 1/2 the cost to live there! I think the total population for Chico is about 125,000 and the County doesn't add a whole lot to the pop. For a bigger city feel but 1/2 the cost of living in the SF Bay area, S. Barbara area, S. Diego area and of course most of the LA area (and if it's really inexpensive in any of these areas it's usually because it's not a desireable area!)and forget about Stockton, Fresno or anywhere in the middle of the valley in the state, but the area is Our State capitol, Sacramento! Not bad at all as I've lived there a few times (actually I've lived all over the state so.) But Sacto (we call it), isn't all that expensive to live in! Not like all the other places with the expensive Univ.'s I mentioned! You can still rent/lease a 1500 to 2000 sq. ft. home thats w/in 10 years old for under $2,000 a month. More like $1600 to $1800 for a really decent place! In the desireable places in CA (like SF or S. Diego) your talkin $3000 to way upwards of $5000 a mo. Executive homes $10k a mo! Sacramento is organized, clean, really nice folks, lots of middle class or upper whichever you are and reasonable in most all areas! Redding and Chico even more reasonable! (My God, you'd think I was a realtor or something! LOL No it's just that as I said, I've moved around this country a lot (being a Pro Musician)and people that don't know me from Adam really took the time to help me! Thats it. I also lived in the world famous Palm Springs, CA and I truly loved it a whole lot....in the wintertime, fall and most of the spring, but the summers? Forget it! Everybody leaves town and the south of the border maintenance folks stay there and thats about it! Unless you can handle 126-130 deg. at 3PM and 110 deg. at 2am, very similar to Vegas! Same desert so. The only other places I can think of that I lived at and are more than reasonable and nice with a Univ. system are.
The Santa Rosa area (Sonoma Co. approx 50 miles north of SF) and south 25 miles to
Petaluma, a real nice area as well! Another 15 mi. south is Novato/ San Raphael and are par w/ The SF Bay Area prices (its where Journey and Santana, and other SF rock stars live!) Now there is Concord and that area in the East Bay (the other side of the mountain from Oakland and Berkeley so you may look into that if you want to spend the $$$ to go to Berkeley or Stanford or ?? SF State and the like.
Well folks I sure hope this helps ya out and welcome to CALI once you get here ok! EMail me for questions if you like: [EMAIL="johnnyguit04@yahoo.com"]johnnyguit04@yahoo.com[/EMAIL] Peace!
perhaps Long Beach(in particular east Long Beach for suburban, Belmont Shore, Naples, Downtown, East Arts District, Bluff Park, etc for a little more urban living)?
SF Bay Area, LA, or San Diego could all work for you. I would stay away from Orange County entirely if living around liberal, progressive people is important. There aren't too many liberal areas in OC imo. SLO is probably too small and not diverse enough for you and fairly isolated and small townish. And there is little diversity in Santa Barbara and its relatively small.
I think the Bay Area would be most like NY in certain aspects and is the most liberal part of Ca. The weather is not as good as Southern CA but not that bad either, just rains more in winter but not too much and is about 10 degrees cooler. Unless you think 50's during the day and 30's/40's at night is too cold then weather in NorCal will be fine. Berekeley/Oakland are very good areas to live for what you are looking for and I definitely keep that on your short list.
Areas in San Diego can work, I'd recommend staying south of the 8 freeway for what you are looking for. Northern San Diego County suburbs are conservative and not very diverse. But plenty of diversity, liberal minded people in the "urban" areas of San Diego and it's a safe city overall so even the bad parts aren't that bad. The "urban" areas of SD are not that dense and city like compared to NYC or SF, you can get a nice little house with a yard and still be near everything. Sd will be cheaper than the Bay Area too.
Sav858,
Could you suggest some specific neighborhoods/areas in SF Bay Area, San Diego, and LA that I should look in?
Its tough for me, because when I look up houses on craigslist in an area like SF Bay Area, I come up with places like Vallejo, Albany, El Cerrito, Benicia, Temescal, Oakland East, Oakland Hills, Berekeley North, Pittsburgh, Antioch, Montclair, Dublin, etc....... I've read that Vallejo is not a good area, but I feel like a detective trying to figure all of this out from across the country!
If you could recommend desireable areas that may fit the criteria you talked about in your post, that would be great. If you don't know much about all the areas thats ok, too, but whatever other info you can suggest would be great!
Well I live in far Northern CA in Redding, CA but it has no University BUT!!! I have just the place for you 2! A nice medium sized area (Butte County) in the beautiful town/city of CHICO, CA.! You guys would love it there and 1 of our State Universities of higher learning is there; Chico State University which is not nearly as expensive as a University of Calif. school! ie Berkeley, USC, UCLA, S. Diego and the like. Yet Chico is a great school! Ask anyone! I don't know that theres much work there but is there anywhere right now? But it is a Univ. town so it's very cultural and reminds me a lot of my hometown, Berkeley. Tons of music and fun! Playboy mag once called Chico State the #1 Partyin School in the whole US!! lol Doesn't mean you have to participate right. It's approx. 150 miles north of the SF Bay Area but 1/2 the cost to live there! I think the total population for Chico is about 125,000 and the County doesn't add a whole lot to the pop. For a bigger city feel but 1/2 the cost of living in the SF Bay area, S. Barbara area, S. Diego area and of course most of the LA area (and if it's really inexpensive in any of these areas it's usually because it's not a desireable area!)and forget about Stockton, Fresno or anywhere in the middle of the valley in the state, but the area is Our State capitol, Sacramento! Not bad at all as I've lived there a few times (actually I've lived all over the state so.) But Sacto (we call it), isn't all that expensive to live in! Not like all the other places with the expensive Univ.'s I mentioned! You can still rent/lease a 1500 to 2000 sq. ft. home thats w/in 10 years old for under $2,000 a month. More like $1600 to $1800 for a really decent place! In the desireable places in CA (like SF or S. Diego) your talkin $3000 to way upwards of $5000 a mo. Executive homes $10k a mo! Sacramento is organized, clean, really nice folks, lots of middle class or upper whichever you are and reasonable in most all areas! Redding and Chico even more reasonable! (My God, you'd think I was a realtor or something! LOL No it's just that as I said, I've moved around this country a lot (being a Pro Musician)and people that don't know me from Adam really took the time to help me! Thats it. I also lived in the world famous Palm Springs, CA and I truly loved it a whole lot....in the wintertime, fall and most of the spring, but the summers? Forget it! Everybody leaves town and the south of the border maintenance folks stay there and thats about it! Unless you can handle 126-130 deg. at 3PM and 110 deg. at 2am, very similar to Vegas! Same desert so. The only other places I can think of that I lived at and are more than reasonable and nice with a Univ. system are.
The Santa Rosa area (Sonoma Co. approx 50 miles north of SF) and south 25 miles to
Petaluma, a real nice area as well! Another 15 mi. south is Novato/ San Raphael and are par w/ The SF Bay Area prices (its where Journey and Santana, and other SF rock stars live!) Now there is Concord and that area in the East Bay (the other side of the mountain from Oakland and Berkeley so you may look into that if you want to spend the $$$ to go to Berkeley or Stanford or ?? SF State and the like.
Well folks I sure hope this helps ya out and welcome to CALI once you get here ok! EMail me for questions if you like: johnnyguit04@yahoo.com Peace!
My mom lives in Chico, we will be visiting her next week in fact. I probably would never have thought of suggesting Chico as I do not know how much need there would be for a teacher with the OPs qualifications, same with Sonoma county. I also don't think I would call Chico cultural diverse, but maybe I am not seeing things the way you do. It is a nice town, and less expensive than the cities...
Nita
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