Lancaster, CA area (Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Burbank: low income, best neighborhood, for sale)

[junkman18]

Originally Posted by Outta LA

Lived in Lancaster for 15 years as back when we first moved there housing was affordable. Things were okay. We lived in a good, middle-class neighborhood with friendly, law-abiding people.

Of course everyone, as a lot of people are saying, had to contend with the dust and dirt blowing at 70 mph on almost a daily basis, long commutes, (I drove 85 miles one way), and the heat in the summer running into triple digits.

We could have lived with that believe it or not, but what we couldn't stand were all the gangs and gang member's families that were moving into subsidized housing so they could be next to their homies in the wonderful State Prison that the city officials said wouldn't change a thing.

The last year and a half we were there the wheels fell off. Gang graffiti everywhere. The sounds of constant AK-47 and handgun fire, the "Ghetto Bird" a.k.a. Police helicopter, orbiting our neighborhood nightly, and the sound of Police on their PA's telling everyone to stay in their houses while they conducted a search on the street at 3:00 in the morning.

I picked up my kids from school one day and as I was driving home some gang member out of the blue picked up a fist-sized rock and thew it at the driver's side of my car for no reason. If it had been another 18 inches higher it would have hit my son in the side of the head and killed him.

A week and a half later my wife was knocked to the ground by 3 thugs attempting to steal her purse in the parking lot of a grocery store. That was it. We both quit our jobs, sold our house within 3 weeks, and moved the entire family out of state. The only thing we regret now that its been 3 years, is that we didn't move out of state much sooner.

To sum it up, lets just say if God was going to give the world an enema, he'd stick the needle in Lancaster; or to simplify, it's a total sh_t hole.

We lived in Acton not near as bad as Palmdale/Lancaster YET, Bit still had to go there all the time for shopping. We were in Acton for 25 years, seen the palmdale area go from a nice area to a S hole. We moved out of california last year and so glad to be out of that place.

[shars55]

I have lived in Palmdale for 11 years, and it has gone downhill. Our neighborhood in Ranch Vista is still ok, but we have had some crap neighbors. We are looking to move out, but since my husband works at Edwards, there are not many options. I can't wait for the day he retires and we can get out of here. The only problem I have is that my kids both live down below in the Long Beach area, so I don't want to be too far away from them. There has got to be somewhere better than here, though. I am tired of nasty, rude, people. Although, I think it's like that most places nowadays, sadly. There are too many section 8 houses here. I think that I would love to live in Malibu, but since I can not afford it, I think I will look for a section 8 house there and have the government pay for me to live somewhere that I can't afford. I think they should because their stupid section 8 program has made my area unsafe, so I need to move elsewhere to be safe!!!!

Originally Posted by Outta LA

Lived in Lancaster for 15 years as back when we first moved there housing was affordable. Things were okay. We lived in a good, middle-class neighborhood with friendly, law-abiding people.

Of course everyone, as a lot of people are saying, had to contend with the dust and dirt blowing at 70 mph on almost a daily basis, long commutes, (I drove 85 miles one way), and the heat in the summer running into triple digits.

We could have lived with that believe it or not, but what we couldn't stand were all the gangs and gang member's families that were moving into subsidized housing so they could be next to their homies in the wonderful State Prison that the city officials said wouldn't change a thing.

The last year and a half we were there the wheels fell off. Gang graffiti everywhere. The sounds of constant AK-47 and handgun fire, the "Ghetto Bird" a.k.a. Police helicopter, orbiting our neighborhood nightly, and the sound of Police on their PA's telling everyone to stay in their houses while they conducted a search on the street at 3:00 in the morning.

I picked up my kids from school one day and as I was driving home some gang member out of the blue picked up a fist-sized rock and thew it at the driver's side of my car for no reason. If it had been another 18 inches higher it would have hit my son in the side of the head and killed him.

A week and a half later my wife was knocked to the ground by 3 thugs attempting to steal her purse in the parking lot of a grocery store. That was it. We both quit our jobs, sold our house within 3 weeks, and moved the entire family out of state. The only thing we regret now that its been 3 years, is that we didn't move out of state much sooner.

To sum it up, lets just say if God was going to give the world an enema, he'd stick the needle in Lancaster; or to simplify, it's a total sh_t hole.

[pattiandron]

To: Outta LA

You are so correct on your assessment of the Lancaster area. Unfortunately, my sister and brother-in-law moved to the God-forsaken place 8 years thinking that it was their dream home. He died prematurely 2 years after they moved in, we think because of the bad air and heat. We live in Garden Grove, which is going down-hill like a rocket ship headed south.

We are interested in where you moved to (out of state) and are you happy there.

We have been researching areas, namely Arizona and Utah, for the last 5 years. Give us some direction if you can. We're stuck in a rutt. May God help us get out of this place!

[ibarrio]

I agree. The AV is a complete sh*thole. Do not move to Palmdale or Lancaster.

When I first moved to Palmdale it was nice (despite the horrible weather).

This year the AV has 16 murders...with 7 coming in a little over a month.

Thank God we are moving. 1 more week of this place. Everyone we know tells that we are lucky to be moving away. They wish they could move as well.

And do not let anyone fool you. Not 1 particular race is responsible for the problems in the AV. They all are responsible. The Hispanics (illegals or not), the blacks, and the whites (redneck or not).

[jeffncandace]

I'm sorry to have to chime into the negativity, but the fact is that the Lancaster/Palmdale area is simply undesirable in general. It has horrible weather, has lots of problems, including gangs and drugs, and is simply not aesthetically pleasing. I say this as someone born (A.V. Hospital!) and raised in the AV.

The post above by Av Lancas Crazy gang said, in part..."**** everyone who disrespect us homie". I mean, what more can be said? You've just met your future neighbor.

[EarthUp]

Originally Posted by SoCalMom

Lancaster is a sh*thole. There are tons of meth labs, parolees galore, no work, and it get very hot in the summer.

I hate to do this, but I have to agree 100%. A horrible place to raise a family.

[VickyVicky]

Speaking as someone who was born in Lancaster and I am now in my 30s. It was a nice place to live as a kid. My parents put me into the private school system once I hit highschool because the one I was zoned for was horrid.

I have remained in the area, had my kids here, and was fine with it.

I would say as of this past year I have had a change of heart and would really like to leave.

I was one of the lucky ones to buy a home when the market was at a low in the 90s so I have loads of equity and cheap mortgage. But with the recent boom, two of my neighboring houses have since turned into Section 8 Govt Housing.

I have gone through 3 sets of neighbors, First set helicopter over head, domestic violence, woman at my door calling 911. All of the tenants let the yards go to crap. The recent set has been the worst. Vulgar, Bullying, Stealing, neglect of children. I have called the police, CPS, Pound, you name it. My children and I dont even want to go in our front yard. I am getting a first hand experience with the Section 8 problem so many people here speak about. I dont want to fix up my home to nice cause its not worth it for this area and well I dont plan to stay here all my life.

I too use another address with relatives to get my kids in the better school district.

My advice first of all is DONT MOVE HERE.

Speaking as a native and its my hometown.. my advice if you do move here is..

Yes Westside of town is best. Rancho Vista Palmdale area also. But even search those neighborhoods out, I know people in brand new housing tracks with Section 8 homes already on their blocks. Its disgusting and you can spot the houses by the crap yards, numerous cars, dirty windows with sheets hanging over them, loitering in the street and people not moving when you are driving down the road. So do your research, patrol the neighborhood, days and eves, eves especially! Thats when the trouble comes out!

If you are set with being here. Many have listed Rancho Vista and Quartz Hill as top schools. I also would recommend Amargosa for Jr High.

But ideally Id recommend Private School. Desert Christian is a good one and is K-12.

So yeah if you can live on the westside, put your kids in private school, that might be the way to go. But the other problem is letting your kids outside to play and not liking the choices of playmates.

I can deal with the heat, yes it does get hot, but Im used to that aspect, you can always get a pool!

But once again, Im another lancaster native looking to relocate ASAP... Ive had enough!

[DeserTBoB]

Lancaster's nice...if you're from Jordan Downs or one of the other negroid-oriented condemned housing projects being shut down in LA county. If you have an IQ higher than room temperature and have an education, this is NOT a place to live. The town is infested with Section 8 trash/scammers (who usually have a welfare/foster kid/SSI/disability scam going along with it) neighborhoods that were nice a year ago are now ghettos/barrios. The LA Times had a front page article about the Section 8 disaster in Lancaster/Palmdale...it was the tip of the iceberg.

Do NOT invest anywhere in the Antelope Valley. Prices have tanked more than $80K on houses from last year, and due to the influx of trash/slime from the housing projects, will fall further, forcing the Compton-based Section 8 slumlords to go into foreclosure. When that happens, the HUD disaster of the '90s will seem like child's play. The LA County Sheriff's Office has added 40 deputies in a crime sweep lately, but it's simply a drop in the bucket to what it would take to clean the trash up out of that dump.

The Antelope Valley has to be one of the worst real estate investments in California now and for the foreseeable future. The utter trashing of what used to be Compton from the '40s until the illegals started taking over is happening to the whole AV now, and for good reason...LA wants to gentrify all the areas formerly squated on by these pieces of human trash, and tearing down the projects and developing toney townhomes in their stead is high on the County Supes' agenda...with their developer pals making a nice, fat profit in the bargain. Smart, really. Unfortunately, just like with nuclear waste, the garbage has to go somewhere, and LA county is depositing its trash (the human kind) in the Antelope Valley.

[Out_of_Palmdale]

Sorry to appear to be so negative, but after 13 years of being trapped in this sh*thole because of a job, I can honestly say, DON'T DO IT!! I truly hate this Antelope Valley region and cannot wait to leave it - I am counting the days down literally day-by-day. I only have 8 years left on the contract but I don't know that I can make it that long. 8 more years of what? The rudest and worst drivers in LA County. The worst attitudes bar none of any place I have ever lived or visited. Nothing to do whatsoever - every where worth going to is a one way drive of AT LEAST 50 miles minimum. I'm sure there are people here who like this place but I have yet to meet any of them and I have been here, yes, 13 years.

When I first moved here for the job, I bought a house not realizing that the housing market was down, down, down and I was picking up a large house for a fraction of what it sold for several years prior. I moved into the neighborhood with my big a$$ moving truck, parked it in front of the home I had bought and proceeded to move my stuff inside. Not one neighbor came out to welcome me or my family in any way - not on the day we moved in, not the day after, nor the day after that. In fact, while in the process of moving in, some pest came by and stuck a "move your truck" notice on the windshield of the moving truck!!! Can you believe it. I stood out in the street and tore that notice into little shreds and yelled 'weeee'!!! Unreal. That first day was just a taste of what was to come. I had never before been in a place that was so darned hostile, unfriendly, and warped. Yet, I am still here. Because of a job. A good paying job, but a job nonetheless. If I had thought the process through more, I would've rented for MINIMUM a year ... just to check out the lay of the land. That would've been plenty of time for me to realize that the job transfer was a mistake and I should've stayed at the coast.

To this day, I hate the Antelope Valley. My perception has changed entirely in the 13 years I have had to live here. I am now "one of them". If you don't watch yourself on the streets, I will mow you down and flip you off for good measure. And there are many more like me. This desert outpost is one that should never have been developed and sold off to commuters. If you have to commute, that alone may kill you. The traffic is awful and the 14 freeway is jampacked both ways morning and evening. There is nothing more to say about this sh*thole, except PLEASE explore your other options. Once you are here, you may be here for a long time because you will not be able to sell your house if you buy one here. There are foreclosures and dead lawns in every neighborhood on every street. People who bought into the American Dream and then realized they were living with a bunch of a$$holes. If you don't do your homework, then you will end up like me - depressed, desperate and dying to get out before the crappy air quality kills me. If you like eating dirt, you will get to eat plenty when the dirt blows - the air turns brown and you'll think you're in the middle of a sh*t storm. The freeway was shut down last week because the visibility was so low. Granted, that doesn't happen that extreme that often, but the winds blow constantly and, if you have any kind of respiratory sensitivity at all, the air will cause you problems. It may even kill you.

As for local jobs, forget it. If you don't have a college degree, you will find yourself competing for jobs at McDonalds, Home Depot, Starbucks, et al with the hundreds of others who live here trying to eke out a living. The shopping isn't that bad now on the West side but that's all Palmdale and Lancaster is: Shops. And there's not as many shops as there should be for the volume of people who have moved up here. In fact, try getting a table at a restaurant at swill hour - good luck. They are all PACKED. If you like shopping, great. If you require more mental stimulation than that, you can always take your "toys" out on the sand and have fun breathing in that crap.

Please think through your options - all of them. You will regret moving to the Antelope Valley I guarantee it. Don't buy any of the realtor crap either - if you love long commutes, long drives to get anywhere interesting, terrible drivers, poor air quality, and crime, then the AV is for you.

I am sitting here, depressed and wondering what the hell am I going to do? The schools ARE terrible - they are absolutely the WORST I have ever seen. When I first moved up here, I could not believe the disparity between the Distinguished schools my then elementary school aged children went to compared with the mobile-trailers-parked-on-barren-desert I brought them to. Within 2 weeks I knew I had made a terrible mistake. I feel as though I sacrificed my childrens' lives for cheap real estate in the desert and a job. Was it worth it? Do you have to ask? I hope you take to heart everything I have written here. If I can prevent one family from making the horrendous mistake that I made in moving here, then the time it took to sit here and type it all out was worth it. Don't even get me started about the drugs, whores and Section 8 types - not to mention the State pen. Sheesh.

[LivingLikeAGradStudent]

Not every area matures nicely, and the Antelope Valley is an obvious example. There are lots of hard-working families, but the overall feel is an overpriced attempt to bring suburbia to a desolate place that isn't grown up enough to accept it.