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I live in California City (which I CANNOT stand!!!), but am in Inyokern about 2-3 times aweek for work. I moved into this desert directly from Germany (I am German) and was a little shocked, but DO like that specific area a lot. It is a little remote, I admit, but people seem to be very nice and I like the mountains!
Summers are VERY hot, LOTS of wind (sometimes a little annoying), but as I said better than the places closer to LA. If I could chose, I would move there instead of living where I do.
Pretty much everyone in Ridgecrest still speaks english. That in itself says it all. If for no other reason, move there for that fact alone. But if you do move there, please consider the feelings of the locals and don't bring any preconceived Angeleno notions. We all saw what happened to Landcaster. Ruined by the few in just a few short years.
There is much to love about Ridgecrest. I'm lucky my children have grown up in this community---and it is a community. The City of Ridgecrest promotes youth activities---soccer, basketball, football and baseball. Scouting is strong here and religious youth groups, if you are so inclined. As kids, they could always go out and play, and I needn't worry about their safety to the degree I would in other areas. It's always been safe here. They are older now, heavily involved in sports. Sports, music, and drama programs will keep teens very busy here.
Although people complain about the lack of chain restaurants and malls here, I don't see that as a drawback. It makes going out of town special, and how many times do you really need to go to Applebee's or Red Lobster? The lack of temptation keeps my budget in check. I'm in my forties and I own my house outright. I also have no debt whatsoever. Then, to add injury to insult, it takes me less than ten minutes to get to work each morning. It's much easier living here since the advent of online shopping. Whatever I need is pretty much delivered to my front doorstep.
My husband and I do things all the time because of our location: we ride to Death Valley at least four times a year---we love the ride (he has a Harley). We go see the Charcoal Kilns up Wildrose Canyon in Death Valley, Artist's Palette, Scotty's Castle; Rhyolite is something else; we stay in Beatty and get the Ridgecrest Special. We ride up through the old mining towns and come out through to Big Pine. Big Pine has the southern most glacier in the United States (melting fast, though, and the oldest living trees, the bristlecone pines, are adjacent in the White Mountains) A few weekends ago we went to Yosemite (Gorgeous in the fall!!!) We like to stay up in June Lake and visit Mono Lake as well. Fossil Falls is an interesting stop up 395 (yep, that's a volcano right off the highway). The night sky is amazing here. We also head over to Kernville; we take the boys white water rafting in the spring. Weldon is an important bioregion and has amazing diversity. If you like birding, it's a great place to go. Ridgecrest has its own interesting birds stopping by during migrations.
If you need "stuff" to make you happy, Ridgecrest probably isn't the place for you. If you like to "do", then Ridgecrest is a great home base.
Ridgecrest is a desolate, isolated, dull, boring, lame place. Unless you are going to work on the base, (which is the only reason to live in ridgecrest unless you're a scandalous politician) don't move here. The City is lacking in many areas. Nothing for kids to do.. corrupt city council, corrupt district supervisors.. Read the jury email updates and the audits yourself. the district supervisors all have "discretionary funds" which are bank accounts full of tax payers' money in the hundred thousands, which were supposed to be distributed in the form of grants that they just keep and roll over year after year. Read the audit yourself on the kern county website. They blatantly admit that they allow theft and embezzlement. The acting D.A. of 31 years (Ed Jaegels) who just stepped down last year was (and many of his colleagues are) pedophiles; hence the scandalous cover-up of the 26 falsely imprisoned parents whose children were tortured and coerced into testifying and falsely accusing their parents of molestation.. 25 cases overturned as the children grew into adulthood and spoke up about being lied to and tortured. Watch the movie witchhunt. Documentary on the story. Read about Kern County's "Monstrous D.A.". The whole system here is corrupt... Unless, of course, you support that kind of thing.
Success is only assured if you are mormon or mason.. Beware....
The slogan of Kern County:
Come on vacation.... leave on probation.
Read about Lance Harris and his Dad who is in prison..
Jaegels was never held accountable for 26 people spending 20 years in prison having been falsely accused.
look up "the lords of bakersfield."
then decide if you want to live in this god-forsaken place....
Watch the documentary "Witchhunt" about Kern County... Read the book "Mean Justice" by Edward Humes, read the article "Kern County's Monstruous DA," in the Los Angeles Times before considering moving to this God-forsaken place. If you enjoy being abused by low-life neighbors, or should I say "squatters" who the police claim have "rights," and if you enjoy losing your prized possessions only to be asked "Do you have the serial number?" never to be seen again, if you can afford paying $1700 to fix your car every time some psycho feels like throwing a wrench at you car and the police refuse to file a report, then this place might be for you.
If you are a decent, good hearted, honest person that expects others around you to behave like a responsible adult with a conscience, morals, and some sort of character, stay far far away from this negative, ugly, corrupt place that resembles hell.
Well it is in a desert so it gets extreme weather. The average high in July is 109ºF so it is hot(thus a desert ), it can also get cold and occasionally get snow if a storm passes over the sierras.
I find the place ugly but the desert isn't my type of place so others probably like it. Ridgecrest is isolated from major cities but if you drive 1.5 hours you can reach lancaster/Palmdale.
The people are really nice though, and generous so I think you will like it there.
It sucks... Don't move there. What are the schools like? Well, right before I finally moved the hell out of there, a friend asked me to help his son. His son was a special ed student and claimed that the school administrators were targeting him with discipline. I began looking over his case and boy was I in for it. I had to study the education code and the laws regarding special education because it is complicated and the vocabulary was foreign to me prior to this experience. I couldn't believe what I witnessed. This kid was right. The vice-principal, principal, superintendant, all violated the education code, and federal laws that protect special ed students, but rely on the fact that these vulnerable groups don't know their rights, and won't question the unfortunate treatment they experience. I was appalled to discover that this kid, at age 16 was reading at a level of that between first and second grade, and none of the proper procedures regarding their responsibility to provide him with FAPE ( free and public education) were being followed. It was disgusting. They weren't even attempting to try and teach him how to read. They were ignoring the law, and were targeting him with discipline and were planning on expelling him out to another district. I accompanied this family to their meetings with the school, superintendant, etc., and began to write letters and call them on their b.s. I made reference to the fact that the vice-principal had suspended him for 5 days without having provided him with the prior conference in which he is informed of the actions to be taken against him, and afforded an opportunity to tell his side of the story and provide evidence. He was denied this right. Then, the superintendant violated the education code by extending the suspension to 10 days, without having provided him the required conference in which the student and parent are invited and this extension is only to happen if, at this meeting, it is determined that if allowed to return to school, that the student is a threat to himself or others. Another rights violation. Then she further violated the code by going forth and recommending expulsion to the school board. They were sending him off to slaughter, and of course, the local school board is in on the scam and would have not provided him justice. Fortunately, I read up on the laws. We went to his "manifestation determination" meeting at the school, at which the principal, special ed teacher, school psychologist, etc, all sat there pale faced and guilty looking, and tried to quickly pass the "determination" over to them for signature. I said: "oh no..... we're not signing that." HIs behavior was 100% a manifestation of his disabilities and the fact that proper procedure was not applied at all to his case. HIs IEP (Indenpendent Education Plan), had not been updated except for the fact that they "changed the date" on the top right hand corner. There was no "behavior modification plan," which is how special ed students who have disciplinary actions, are to be dealt with. These people made me sick. I filed a complaint with the Department of Education, and filed a due process complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings. Both agencies agreed that there were both state and federal violations. The school had 2 days within receiving notification from the Department of Education of the scheduled series of hearings that they would be facing and the serious trouble they would have been in had we gone forth. INstead, they came up with a "proposal agreement," which stipulated that they would drop the actions against him, would allow him to attend the school that he desired to attend, (he was previously denied this due to the fact that he could not pass the entry test which required a reading level of 3rd grade), they would provide him with his own personal teacher 5 days a week 4 hours a day, for 6 months. That's the best I could do in the time I had as I was preparing to move and begin University and was neglecting my own important stuff.. I just had to see this through to that point. I don't know how things turned out for him, but I was appalled at what I witnessed.
Not to say that this is something you would experience. ON a lighter note, I found that all the teachers that my children had were very awesome teachers. IN fact I was very impressed especially with the teachers at Gateway elementary. Mrs. Lusher was awesome, as was Mrs. Yushisu. I also liked the fact that the principal was a woman. Things seem to run better when women run the show. I liked Cerro Coso College as it is small, the professors were good, and I got the "small school" attention that I needed as I have learning disabilities. Unfortunately, the budget cuts that occurred just as I made my way out of there severely affected the community college and I fear that the experience may not be quite as positive as the experience I was afforded. I made it into University in the nick of time and feel that many will be denied their opportunity to a higher education due to the current deterioration of the education system from Kindergarten right up the graduate school. Our education is currently under serious attack. I hate Ridgecrest and i wouldnt' wish that hell upon anyone. that's my personal experience and opinion. Watch the documentary "Witchhunt," and read the book "Mean Justice." That will give you a little insight into some of the goings on in Kern county. Look up "Kern County's Monstruous DA." You'll think twice before you go to that creepy place.
Location: San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties
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Do you really think anyone is going to wade through that mass of verbiage? Paragraphs are handy things.
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), it can also get cold and occasionally get snow if a storm passes over the sierras.
