Riverside, Yes Or No? Help (San Diego, Huntington Beach: 2009, apartments, crime)

[Danita7803]

Should I take a job offer in Riverside? yes or No? I'm hearing its safe and then I'm hearing its dirty and violent. Will someone please tell me the real deal. I'm single and in my 20's. Thanks!!

[David Aguilar]

I say why not? I grew up in Riverside and it's just fine. It's safe enough, I would recommend locking your doors and such, but the only way you'll find trouble is if you're looking for it or asking for it. At first impression Riverside (and all of LA metro) will look dirty at first, depending on where you are coming from, but it has really cleaned up over the last few years.

[LALady]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

At first impression Riverside (and all of LA metro) will look dirty at first, depending on where you are coming from, but it has really cleaned up over the last few years.

Ain't that the truth! Visitors I have driven around LA will remark about how dirty certain areas are. I'm so used the graffiti, dirty, grime, worn out buildings that I don't notice. But it will be a shock if Danita is from Happy Town, Kansas.

[JPHdesigns]

Went to school in Riverside at UC Riverside from September 05 to March 07. Lived near the campus...bunch of apartments and small homes. Wasn't a super bad or super nice area. It was a decent area. Easy access to grocery stores and eateries. Wouldn't live there the rest of my life, but if you're starting out with a career job...you could do it for a few years. I would rather live in Riverside rather than where I am now (Westlake Village). In Riverside I could afford a 1 bedroom apartment for $900...now I'm paying $800 just for a room in a house in Westlake :-/ and theres even less to do out here. Oh well. Good luck with your decision! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Jeff

[hgclyde]

Riverside is a nice town for its size(300,000+) Riverside like most city has some issues like crime but Riverside good town foe it's size. Older apartments are located on the city west and near east side (around University of California, Riverside). Newer apartments are typically located in master planned communities such as: Sycamore Highlands, Canyon Crest Country Club,Orangecrest Country, Orangecrest Hills, Mission Ranch on the far east side and on Victoria Grove, Hawarden Hills, Lake Hills and Lake Hills Reserve on the south side. There no real night life thats found in Orange and LA counties of course there are bars locals will chime in. You can watch movies at the Moreno Valley Mall at Town Gate in Moreno Valley( which serves eastern Riverside) Riverside Plaza which has a Regal Cinema 16 screen theater , the Galleria at Tyler will open a a 16 screen AMC theater either in 2008 or 2009.These malls are on the far west side of Riverside.

I have a friend in Riverside She and her kids bought a home in 2000 and she likes it; at first she wasn't crazy about it but Riverside won her over.

So try it you'll might like it. If not theres Corona, and of course there's Orange County: Anahiem is 45 minutes away(when there very little traffic.) Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Huntington Beach is about is an hour away. (see above.)

Hope that helps.

Hgclyde

[SoCal Person]

We moved here in 1990 after living in Fontana. I grew up in Orange County, but as I was a stay at home mom we couldn't afford Orange County until now. We've chosen to stay here in Riverside.

It's a nice place to live, and I wouldn't call it dirty or violent at all. There's a real difference between zip codes as far as income and education levels go. The 92506 zip code is the desired one. We live in a more middle class area with a mixture of blue collar and white collar types. (92503) We have thought of moving to the more "desired"part of Riverside, but quite frankly I don't care to spend 1/3 to 1/2 our income on housing. Right now a wonderful 14% of our take-home pay goes toward our almost paid off house mortgage. Our home is older, but large and well-built. These older parts of Riverside are full of trees, and the homes start in the high $300,000s.

If you're not tolerant of a mixture of races and cultures, don't live in Riverside and especially in any zip code besides 92506. (My brother lives in Irvine and when I visit him I feel as if I'm back in rural Minnesota as far as ethnicity is concerned. It's a sea of blond people. Our whole family is blond but it's refreshing to see and interact with all kinds of people, to me.) Our neighborhood is perhaps 60% Hispanic, and the rest white with a few black families. The neighborhood is quiet, neat, and the people who live here take pride in their homes and families. Graffiti happens around the city, but the city has a great graffiti abatement program and it's removed as soon as one calls the hotline to report it.

There are places to go at night, and the downtown area is interesting. Mario's Place which is in downtown Riverside is like a New York restaurant, with jazz on the weekends. The Mission Inn has great restaurants and nothing beats the sandwiches at Simple Simon's which is a daytime restaurant on the Main Street Mall.

Please ask any other questions here and we'll try and answer them.

Good Luck!

[JWERTIS]

We have lived in Riverside for the past 5 years (we came from Northern California and prior to that from San Diego). We moved here because of the cheaper housing. During the time we have been here, the City has changed a lot. It was still somewhat rural in areas and you could buy a new house for under $200,000, but now developers have bought up much of the land and it's becoming a "little Orange County" and housing prices have tripled.

On the positive side, all of the growth has brought new restaurants, entertainment, better and more varied shopping, etc. The biggest problem is that if you want to go to Orange or LA County from here, the traffic is a nightmare!

Yes, there are areas where crime is a problem, but most of Riverside is as safe as any other city in southern CA. The City has done a lot and continues to do a lot toward cleaning up the city.

[Mommaduck]

Riverside is an old town that has recently gone under much renovation and was in progress when we moved away from Rialto four years ago to Missouri. Riverside is great areas and some not so great and it is also very BIG. It is a vey old city which right has brough richness to the look of it. You can work in Riverside but live in surrounding cities if you like. Redlands is very community with alot of community functions and much culture. Depends on what you want. But California is dream land, whatever you dream, you can have if you're not afraid to work hard for it. Celeste

[Mel2882]

Riverside isn't really terrible as far as crime, but I wouldn't move to Casa Blanca and some other parts. You can tell by looking around. Be aware of your surroundings at all times, especially at night. I am also in my 20's and I lived there for 2 years due to a job...however there were not many people my age out there, and not much to do for fun.

[Sorcerer68]

I guess you either love it or hate it. Remember that if you live in Riverside, you don't live in L.A. You'd have to hog tie me and drag me to get me to live there.