Southside Park area (Sacramento, Arcadia, Guadalupe: safe area, places to live, restaurants)

[nanimo]

What is the Southside Park area like? Is a good community, things to walk to, close to the light rail, commuting downtown on a bike? Looking for a relatively safe area that is walkable, but close to a lot of activities. Not a suburb, please.

[CityGirl72]

DO you have an exact address or at least zipcode?

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Okay I found it

I can not say that it's a great area. I wouldn't call it "Downtown" nor would I call it Midtown. It's kind of a wore down area right in a notch around the freeway.

If you are a male, I'd say it's okay. If you are a female and you are going to live alone I would advise against it. There ARE MUCH better places to live just a few blocks away.

It's "kind of walkable" - you are a bit far away from the center of Midtown, but you are close to Target, and the Farmer Market under the freeway, and there are a few tasty places to eat.

It's not my cup of tea there, I'd try closer to J st and in the high teens & 20s for numbers

[wburg]

CityGirl: Southside Park is a far better neighborhood than it was when you lived in midtown. Especially on the east side of the park, the neighborhood is pretty nice. It's a lot like midtown was 5-10 years ago. It's safer than the Alkali Flat/Mansion Flat area. No offense intended, but midtown really has changed a lot for the safer in the past few years. It has seen dramatic changes since the 1980s when the neighborhood around 4th and T Street was still known as "Hooker Hollow."

I like to think I know a bit about the neighborhood: in fact, I wrote a book about it.
Arcadia Publishing: Sacramento's Southside Park=

Light rail is close: the nearest stops are at 13th and Whitney, Archives Plaza at 11th and O, and 8th and O. Bus 51 is a pretty major bus route, it runs on 8th and 9th Street.

The park used to have a fairly bad rep but it has cleaned up considerably. There are often major festivals in the park, and there is an active neighborhood association that puts on events and makes an effort to keep things clean. The park has a large pond, a public pool, and tennis courts.

Every Sunday there is a major farmer's market, covering two city blocks, under the freeway between 6th and 8th Street.

There are many, many churches in the neighborhood: Baptist, Methodist, Buddhist, Moslem, Catholic, Tenrikyo...just to name a few.

There is a large Asian population, a holdover from the era when Sacramento demolished its old Japanese and Chinese neighborhoods. Many of the old neighborhood residents moved into Southside--there is a business district along Tenth and W that features a lot of old family businesses and some great little restaurants: New Wakano Ura, Ricksha, June's Cafe, Osaka-ya Bakery. There are still vestiges of the old Portuguese and Italian neighborhoods, and a strong Latino community based around the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

There are also some great bar/nightclubs in the neighborhood: Old Ironsides at Tenth and S (been there for 75 years!) and the Fox & Goose at Tenth and R.

[CityGirl72]

And right by Old Ironsides is Peach Garden - MMMMMMMM Yummy!

I didn't mean it was a bad area - I just was trying to say if you're a single female there are better areas...but that does not mean bad.

[nanimo]

I can't believe I found people that could provide so much information. I was looking right around the park within a 2 block radius. It will be me a my hubby and two dogs, moving from Ohio in September. Hubby is Japanese so this may be a good place to consider, we want to be close to downtown, and midtown is on our list but we wanted other options too. I will order your book today, I love history about cities and neighborhoods, let me know if you know of any other good books to read about Sacramento. Our public library is limited in the area.
Thanks, again for the great information.

[KidBlue]

Don't forget the Fox and Goose.......

[sav74sac]

Southside Park is a great neighborhood.Here's a community website with more info: SouthSidePark.org