Japanese presense at all in Sacramento? Or good Asian presense? (Los Angeles: sales, apartment)
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They actually already made a movie about someone escaping from Sacramento, which kinda made a local splash for its inclusion of a lot of very well-known Sacramento landmarks and institutions as the background for many scenes:
And yeah, while your perspective on it is distorted by the very opinionated posters here (including myself) that basically sums up Sacramento; a place everyone thinks is a sleepy second-tier city (including a lot of people living here) with a lot of weird stuff happening below the surface that most people don't really notice because, heck, why would you?
And we haven't even started talking about the really weird stuff, like why there's a Jerry Falwell memorial closet in the Sacramento LGBT Center office.
Oh very cool! Thanks wburg! I'll watch it with the wife to get a sneak peek. "Midwest of California" is a funny summary that she gives. The ice cream parlor is a few blocks away from one of the properties near Land Park that was on the list so I'll pay careful attention to that scene. Not sure if you've ever driven through some of the not so nice neighborhoods in LA but hopefully my standards have fallen so low that everyplace in Sac works to have more options haha.
Appreciate the link!
PS - Regarding Jerry Falwel? Now that could be a whole other discussion thread!
Slavic community in Sacramento are definitely not Amish in any way you want to slice it, but they behave and sometimes even look (in case of middle age and older women) quite different from your typical Ukrainian/Russian/Polish/Slovak immigrant in the US. Again, most Slavic people who came to Sacramento in 1990s were not that well educated afaik. I heard funny stories that student governments in local community colleges were "hijacked" by young outspoken Slavic representatives with a very conservative agenda. A very rarity when it comes to hijacking student governments in the US - I guess usually it goes in the very opposite direction...
Anyway, I digressed. Going back to Rancho Cordova. I think that Rancho Cordova and Folsom are in the same school district. If this is the case, I wonder if it is possible to arrange for kids in Rancho Cordova to attend Folsom public schools? If so this might be a big plus. I think Folsom might have a more sizable Asian population (OK, I cannot say this with certainty) so kids might feel more comfortable at school and get a better education as a bonus
Yeah, Land Park/Curtis Park have two very iconic and much beloved ice cream places, Vic's in Land Park and Gunther's on Franklin Boulevard; Gunther's has the "Jugglin' Joe" neon sign. In Midtown the equivalent is probably Rick's Dessert Diner, which is primarily a cake/pie bakery that serves Gunther's ice cream; East Sacramento recently lost its almost as iconic ice cream place and sandwich shop Burr's Fountain, but apparently there's a spot "Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab" that has taken its place as a popup in the Burr's parking lot!
"Midwest of California" is an awful analogy made by someone who had never visited the Midwest, but it's not too far off the mark in that Sacramento has some similarities to the great cities of the Midwest like Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis etcetera, except with a California twist, such as our substantially larger Asian and Latino populations and much closer proximity to tall mountains and wide oceans, almost to the point where that's a stereotype of its own. But one thing you'll discover if you move here: Sacramento is much closer to the Bay Area than the Bay Area is to Sacramento. For most Bay Area residents, Sacramento is barely on their cultural radar at all, while a lot of Sacramentans visit San Francisco so frequently they can give directions to tourists, and it's a very easy day trip via the Capitol Corridor.
Actually statistically, it appears that Sacramento is around 16-17% Asian...which I LIKE. How much of a presense do they really have?
Additionally, and perhaps a bit more interesting to me. I'm white American who has lived in Asia for years, and currently living in Japan with a wife and son. My son is currently an infant, but I plan to be in Japan for another 5 years or so, where he'll know a lot of Japanese. Is there a sizeable enough Japanese influence in Sacramento where he could use or practice Japanese in some kind of Japanese community or business community or something? Or not really?
If not, how is the general Asian population IN FEEL beyond the statistics? Do they seem prevalent? Or are they mostly just in the suburbs with seemingly little presense/influence on Sacramento?
Hello Tiger Beer,
I feel like there is a strong Asian presence in Sacramento and I'm mixed race which includes Asian. I grew-up in San Diego, and lived many years in Los Angeles and San Francisco (college was in LA).
The only time I felt "out of place" in Sacramento and San Diego, LA, and SF was decades and decades ago, lol, in my early teens. I remember getting that "what are you?", what race/nationality are you?", "your sisters are so exotic looking, lol" one sister has very strong Asian features, the other sister has super dark complexsion, I'm the "whitest" looking. We used to laugh and roll our eyes, at the "exotic" comments, that was a different time, lol, but that quickly changed when those relatives moved across the River to Rancho Cordova where there used to be an Air Force Base and there were plenty of other kids like me, mixed race and Asian.
Funny thing nobody used to think I was "white", I used to have to specifically say I'm part "white", now its the opposite, nobody thinks I'm a "person of color".
Since then, and for decades, Sacramento has felt like an inclusive place for mixed race people like me. Since then I have plenty of nieces and nephews who are "mixed race", second generation and third generation, too!
It feels weird to even use that phrase anymore as there are so many mixed race couples and families all over Sacramento these days.
As far as speaking/using Japanese in Sacramento I'll let others answer that question if they haven't already.
If you go on there, it looks like they're spread throughout all the areas we've been discussing the last few days (even the nicer areas) I also just checked my own place and there's a couple a blocks away so not necessarily a deal killer but was sad to see how some elementary schools have a few clusters around them. But it does help narrow the search to very specific areas
In an extremely unlikely scenario that say Amish community feels that their religious liberties are infringed upon in the good old USA and decides to immigrate (well, I do not know where) would you still say that their first generation abroad distinctively American in acting and dressing. I doubt it. Same here.
I was told that these folks came from a deep province and they lived a somewhat isolated life in their old country. I have no way to confirm it as I had very few casual encounters with these folks in Sacramento. But this is what I was told.
In any case, the community looks somewhat strange and quite different from a typical Eastern/Central European immigrant crowd
Because the Amish have such large families, they are having problems finding enough farms to buy in Pennsylvania and Ohio and are spreading out.
When the Russian women first moved here they were very distinctive, because these women would mostly wear long dresses below the knee and had long hair. These also would have huge families I remember stopping off in a doughnut shop in Citrus Heights and and talking with the clerk behind the counter. She was 5th in a family of 11 and she was getting ready to get married to some guy at age 20 and that too was pretty distinctive.
Now that distinctive identity is somewhat dying out. The younger women are much more Americanized and they don't dress as distinctive.
There was an older Persian community off Fulton Avenue and the Arcade Library had one of the larger Persian book collections to cater to this community which has mostly Americanized. But now that area is getting all kinds of Iraqis and Afghani refugees, which has given the area some great options for shawarma, but I would say that this community is the most distinctive in dress.
Quote:
Originally Posted by norcalsocal
Anyway, I digressed. Going back to Rancho Cordova. I think that Rancho Cordova and Folsom are in the same school district. If this is the case, I wonder if it is possible to arrange for kids in Rancho Cordova to attend Folsom public schools? If so this might be a big plus. I think Folsom might have a more sizable Asian population (OK, I cannot say this with certainty) so kids might feel more comfortable at school and get a better education as a bonus
They do have some sort of procedure for intra-district transfers. But I would check with the district for the specifics on the details.
Hello and Happy Friday helpful Sacramento people, good news is I just got preapproved so will be making the trek up next week or week after. Upon further research the areas south of the 80 but right before North Highlands have appeared on my list ala Strawberry Manor/Hagginwood. Any opinions on these areas or general vicinity? Or should I stick to the Rancho Cordova area and heading East that way? Here are a few sample listings;
@wburg - had a chance to watch Ladybird and got a good/not so good feeling from it. The good part is it in no way gave any feeling of Boyz In the Hood, NorCal version but the not so good feeling was my sleepy suburb vibe was confirmed albeit with some cool events here and there. Good movie though
Hello and Happy Friday helpful Sacramento people, good news is I just got preapproved so will be making the trek up next week or week after. Upon further research the areas south of the 80 but right before North Highlands have appeared on my list ala Strawberry Manor/Hagginwood. Any opinions on these areas or general vicinity? Or should I stick to the Rancho Cordova area and heading East that way? Here are a few sample listings;
@wburg - had a chance to watch Ladybird and got a good/not so good feeling from it. The good part is it in no way gave any feeling of Boyz In the Hood, NorCal version but the not so good feeling was my sleepy suburb vibe was confirmed albeit with some cool events here and there. Good movie though
I would take Rancho Cordova over both of these homes. The neighborhood gets better west of Steelhead Creek and it gets better as the neighborhood turns into North Natomas.
The biggest problem is that the school district is truly awfully managed. They merged the school district with another school district and at that time it came out that the people running the district were stealing from it and ran up big debts, that the new combined district was going to be liable for. There were problems with the school district campus police and they got in trouble for responding to calls off campus that had nothing to do with the school district and there were questions raised about police misconduct. Lastly the one area where the local high school was doing really well is that they had this amazing football coach who had been a legend at the school and had repeatedly made it to the State Championships, competing against much more affluent schools and winning and that coach was forced out for no apparent reason that anyone can decipher. The neighborhood is mostly African American, with some Latinos and some Samoans.
On another thread, wburg corrected me and pointed out that you were Filipino and your wife is Chinese and that you and your wife aren't Korean like I was thinking was the case. That being the case, i would be looking closer to Consumnes River College. I would want to be South of Consumnes River Blvd and/or East of Power Inn Road.
There is a Jollibee on Mack Road and there are some other Filipino stores and restaurants in that area. The largest concentration of Asian stores and restaurants is going to be on Stockton Blvd between Fruitridge Rd and Elsie/Mack Road.
After the end of the Vietnam War, there was this large movement of immigrants from Vietnam. In Vietnam, the merchant class was often ethnically Chinese, so after the communists took over this group was persecuted by the communists and when they came here they opened up a bunch of businesses. This was a population that often could speak Vietnamese and some Chinese and often opened up a businesses to one or the other ethnic group. Inside the Philippines, the merchant class over there also tends to be Chinese. So a lot of the people in Sacramento opening up Filipino stores in the area are also from this ethnic Chinese minority that formerly lived in the Philippines, so the restaurants will often have both Filipino and Chinese cuisine on them.
The movie actually misses quite a lot; I lived in Sacramento at the same time as the movie was set (and roughly when the director was in high school in Sacramento), and at the time Sacramento was undergoing a cultural upheaval of local art and music, the monthly Second Saturday art gallery event drew crowds of 10-20,000 people, Sacramento was in the process of introducing the phenomenon of the "Zombie Walk" to the world via the "Trash Film Orgy" film festival, and, in my own case, that year I was DJing nightclubs, playing in a band, and putting on a local music festival, and attending maybe one local art show, band, or cultural event in three that I wanted to see because I didn't physically have the time or energy to attend all the interesting things going on. But I too grew up in Sacramento like the title character, and when I was 17-18 I thought Sacramento was boring and suburban too. Turns out I was wrong; not unlike the main character, I left Sacramento to go to school, but quickly realized how much I was missing.
However, that spurs a question--from the sound of pretty much all of your questions so far, it seems like you wanted a place that was quiet, sleepy, and suburban, and therefore safe for your kid? While I can understand why you might not have looked too hard there because of the price, you didn't seem that interested in the central city (Downtown & Midtown) which is the least sleepy-suburban part of the region, although it's certainly not downtown San Francisco or Los Angeles down here.
And regarding not seeing scenes that reminded you of Compton, it should be noted that the director grew up in a relatively middle class to wealthy part of Sacramento, so while there are rougher parts of the city, she probably didn't have a whole lot of direct interaction with those parts of town (although the thrift store scene was shot at Thrift Town, located in North Sacramento off Del Paso Boulevard, which is considered one of the rougher parts of town.) Incidentally, both of the houses you included Redfin links for are in roughly that part of the city. As shelato mentions above, they may not meet your comfort-level requirements and the school district has a poor reputation.
My best recommendation is visit in person and drive around a lot; you're going to be the best gauge for your personal level of safety and security. My advice gets worse and worse the farther one gets from Midtown, because I don't leave the grid much, so if you're not looking in the central city, other users may provide more current and useful information.
Thanks again shelato and wburg. Just when I thought I had all the info I needed, you both continue to provide additional great insights!
@shelato - Haha, yes that is correct, I'm def not Korean but LOOOVE Korean food. Plus, my ex-gf (who I almost married) was a native Korean girl so have visited Seoul and Daejon several times and also did a short consulting stint in Tokyo so love the city life of Asia. I only emphasized the Korean shops as from the older posts in this thread, didn't seem there were any other Asian enclaves outside of Land Park, Elk Grove and that section of downtown that wburg had mentioned. As a reminder, it could be ANY Asian ethnicity as that was one filter due to my concern of a potential military confrontation with China in the future and the possibility of that small 1% of population of ANY non-Asian neighborhood who may want to start trouble and take out their frustrations on the closest nearby person who fits that look. Similar to how Indian people were attacked right after 9/11 despite being completely different from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabian or Iraqi (or whoever you want to believe was the cause of 9/11 or WMD) While I admit that just typing that made me feel overly paranoid but the attacks in SF on elderly Asian ladies made me speculate that if it can happen to a once, very welcoming, inclusive, multi-cultural open minded city, then it can happen anywhere. In fact there was another recent stabbing just this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZP2OzBKk0 . What's sad is she's a widow who has lived in that neighborhood for 40 years and her husband being a veteran. I'm sure he'd be happy to see how the country he risked his life for could allow this situation to happen to his wife, RIP.
Now with all this being said, I don't want to be in a predominantly Asian neighborhood if all of them are gang members or idolize that lifestyle. And while I am Filipino, sadly I've found many locations with large Filipino populations undesireable (not the people but the surrounding areas such as Van Nuys in the Valley or Carson in the South Bay of LA County) So I seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place so do appreciate any new ideas so will check out the new streets you recommended. (although I laughed when I saw Jollibee as their food is pure crap IMO but I agree it is a data point and additional filter for where I can find my fellow brown brothers.) Also, please give it to me raw. Part of Stockton goes up into Florin which might be rough right? And based on this Sacramento gang maps, parts of it are in two different gang territories so definitely concerned about that. Screw my Filipino brothers if me and my boy have to be initiated into any gang just to live our normal lives. I'll pass.
@wburg - Wow, you used to DJ and play in a band? Very cool! Although just curious what genres because if this was back in the day, DJs who also played in bands were pretty rare right? The only DJs I knew were either techno/house/drum n bass (or what the kids call EDM these days) or hip-hop and if you played in a band, it was metal, rock or alternative (or what the kids call indie these days haha) The first time I ever drove to Sacramento was probably 1999 or 2000 as I had considered moving up there right when the dot com boom was happening and pushing all the prices up and my main memory was "wow! this downtown looks cool but where is everybody? It's dead" and my too cool for school hipster ex-gf at the time said "no way am I coming here to visit you" lol. Not saying this as a diss because again, architecturally, it was beautiful but there was nobody around on a Saturday. We drove around for about an hour and called it a day before going back to our hotel. Anyways, if I had known of shows like the one featured in LadyBird or the Second Saturday, it would've definitely given some bonus points for making a move back then. For the record, outside of SF, it was a similar vibe in Silicon Valley ala San Jose as you had to be in the "scene" to know the best shows, best parties and which night to go to at the local club. So the movie was a bit nostalgic for me as well. Ahhh being young again.
Regarding me wanting a quiet, sleepy, and suburban area, and therefore safe for my kid. Yes and no. If you read my reply to shelato up above, I previously lived in Tokyo and S. Korea for short periods of time and frankly it spoiled me. Meaning not only did you have an exciting nightlife full of art, music, people out and about walking around but it was SUPER SAFE at all hours of the night! It's a whole different world and made me realize just how ghetto many parts of the US are yet it's twice the price in many cases. So if I could have BOTH a cool night life scene that was ALSO safe to walk around, I'd love that but those places are either too expensive or no longer safe (ex. Manhattan) Based on your comments, parts of downtown Sac sound super cool but they're about $100k to $200k more than my budget and if I have to pay that much, I might as well be living abroad in a city that is 20X more fun (no disrespect to Sac but this applies to all metro cities)
Ok thanks again for the great info and I'm planning my route now.
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