Moving to Frazier Park, California (Bakersfield, Santa Clarita: apartment, renting, violent crime)

[LRobbins]

I'm moving to Frazier Park and want to know all about it. How is the weather and how far is Santa Clarita? What about Pine Mountain? Good place to raise kids?
Please give me info, moving July 7th.

[Charles]

Whatever you do, don't use an internet mapping tool to calculate these distances.

Don't search the existing threads either.

[nixsys]

Originally Posted by Charles

Whatever you do, don't use an internet mapping tool to calculate these distances.

Don't search the existing threads either.

Geeze Charles, who peed in your corn flakes? Yes, one could mapquest distances, but they rarely take into account traffic patterns, road conditions, alternate routes, etc. And as far as searching other threads go: 14 whole threads, 2 concerning Frazier Park specifically including the 1 you abruptly cut short. The worst thing about these types of forums are senior members who believe they can pontificate to the junior members.

Give it a rest Charlie. . .

[osuzana]

My sister-in-law has a cabin in Pine Mountain. It is primarily a second residence for most people so as far as bringing up children full time I wouldn't know except it has a lousy school system with little money. Not much to do there except one small club area that has tennis and golf. One tiny 7-11 type store to buy your groceries in and less than a handful of eateries. It really is remote. Just curious how someone can move to an area they seem to know nothing about? Santa Clarita is probably about 45 minutes away as is Bakersfield. Santa Clarita is about 20 minutes from the Valley. Since there is very little industry in Frazier Park, do you mind my asking what it is you would be doing there? Also, there really isn't any cell phone service there which means internet service may not happen either.

[SoCalAngel2009]

It snows in Frazier Park, so be prepared. Mt. Pinos is right there and it's really beautiful. It's a cute little town and I knew someone who lived there at one time and they liked it, but worked in Burbank and the commute was at least an hour.

[HawgKlr]

When I first considered moving to the LA basin, I looked long and hard at Frazier and several other areas. My sis lives in Santa Clarita, which is very nice and the arid climate I was looking for. We drove to Frazier and it took over an hour...should've stayed home. There is NOTHING in Frazier. I looked at an apartment there for $850 a month, which is 1/2 what it is in LA. I was born and raised in rural Ohio...and know what isolation is...Frazier is even worse. Please look further West or South.

[IceQueen00]

Actually Pine Mountain Club has one of the best elementary schools in Kern County. Pine Mountain Learning Center has an API score over 900 out of 1000 and is a highly rated charter school. We have a home in Pine Mountain that we purchased in 1998 and have been renting it out for about 4 years. All of our tenants seem to be very happy with the area and glad to have the peace and quiet of rural living yet an easy commute to Santa Clarita.

[intereducator]

Frazier Park is nice when you homeschools your own kids. Pine Mountain is about 20 to 30 minutes from Frazier Park, and it has good but quite expensive internet services. No cell phone services in Pine Mountain. but the air quality and snow in winter make it very good vacation spot. The pine tree in front of most houses could be the Christmas tree when you put some lights hanging there. You have to haul your own trash to the trash collection area. I will say, artists, telecommuters, writers are some of the good candidates to live there. Me too.

[Jebby]

Is there any more input regarding Frazier Park/ Pine mountain Club area? I was thinking of moving there from Santa Clarita. I like Santa Clarita, but it's too expensive.

I've taken a day trip up to the area and liked it, but violent crime seems pretty high in Frazier park based on arrest records. Especially the area north of Frazier Mountain Park Rd. Are there any residents that can shed some light on the local rif-raf?

Pine mountian club seems nicer and safe but freeway access is worse and I can forsee Mil Potrero Hwy being a difficult drive in the winter. Does PMC get snowed-in frequently? Is it only a problem the day of and after a storm, or do the roads pretty much suck for weeks/months strait.

There are also a few small neighborhoods between the two that seem like they could be a good middle ground.

Looking for a safe, affordable place to raise kids. My wife and I are both nature people and I might have the option to work from home 4 days per week, so the commute isn't a big issue. Any input from the is appreciated.

[Hightide]

I'm too late on this since this thread is quite old now but, I've lived here since 1983, that is PMC (Pine Mountain Club).
All three of my kids grew up here.
The schools are not the best but, far from terrible. As a matter of fact, crime here is very low and our kids get into less trouble here then in the cities, Bakersfield or LA.
We have:
Frazier Park Elementary
El Tejon Middle School
Frazier Park High School.
My second daughter just graduated college at Cal Poly so our schools aren't so backwater.

PMC was originally created as a retirement village but it has grown. Families seem to make up most of it now.

The snow in the winter can make it hard to navigate but if you have a good 4 wheel drive, not a problem.
Unfortunately, the more people that move up here the less snow we seem to have. This might be due to more fireplaces in use. It might be coincidence. The snow lasts a day or so on the roads but the county throws small clay pieces down anyway so commuting isn't a problem unless some idiot tries to get out with out chains or 4 wheel. Then we are all stuck behind them.
We have mostly people from the LA area here who wanted to live in a beautiful place, own a beautiful home and for less then what you would pay to live in LA or Bakersfield.
It's not so much that way now though.
Housing prices have gone up drastically, even now.
About 500,000 will get you a very nice place to live and of course there are the small cabins around too.

We have one general store here in PMC, but most that live here who need groceries, make that trip to Bakersfield or LA to stock up. There is also a regular market in Frazier Park that carries everything you need but their prices are higher...not terrible but they are higher.

There is a club house and property owners pay a yearly association fee for maintenance of our local streets, golf course, tennis courts, pool and what not.
Yes, we have a pool for the kids.

There is more to do here for our kids then in the Frazier Park area closer to the freeway.

Internet.
Yep, it stinks.
Calneva Broadband owns it and half the time it's down.
But, we are luckier then most in a rural area, we, at least have broadband.
The highest tier of service isn't the greatest and quite costly. 20GBs a month upload and download in bandwidth for $50.00/mo.. That's the best that is offered here. They do have a lower tier but you can't do much online with it.
In Frazier Park itself, where it's closer to the freeway, you'll have a choice of three services. One of them ATT.

There is a board for Frazier Park and PMC,
You can find both through Google.
Just type in Frazier Park Forums or Pine Mountain Club forums.
Both run separately.
You can also type in The Mountain Enterprise which is our local paper up here to read more about us.

Hey, we just hosted the Renaissance Fair up here.