What's Riverside like?

[vincentwu817]

Originally Posted by Adriel24

I've got a "tempting" job offer from a company in Riverside. I've never been there before, and I don't know much about the area. It's a great opportunity to start my career, I'm really interested, but I need to know more about Riverside before taking the final decision. What's living there like? Is it a good place to get a job and start a career? Is it a safe place to live at all?

Thanks Guys!

Find a stable job in Riverside BEFORE you move there. There are very little job opportunities in Riverside, especially ones that can help out your career in the long run. If you are able to find a decent paying job in close proximity, then I would say some areas Riverside isn't that bad of a place to live. Living situations in Riverside can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. I've never felt "unsafe" driving through neighborhoods, even at night in Riverside, but living in them, especially in apartment complexes is a different story. If you can afford renting in the nicer sections of Riverside (~1200-1300 for a 1 BR), then it may be a decent place to live if you enjoy some city-light/mountain scenery in the nicer areas.

The same can pretty much be said for any area of Socal. You have to pay to live decent. Find the decent job first, then figure out where to live.

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by vincentwu817

Find a stable job in Riverside BEFORE you move there. There are very little job opportunities in Riverside, especially ones that can help out your career in the long run. If you are able to find a decent paying job in close proximity, then I would say some areas Riverside isn't that bad of a place to live. Living situations in Riverside can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. I've never felt "unsafe" driving through neighborhoods, even at night in Riverside, but living in them, especially in apartment complexes is a different story. If you can afford renting in the nicer sections of Riverside (~1200-1300 for a 1 BR), then it may be a decent place to live if you enjoy some city-light/mountain scenery in the nicer areas.

The same can pretty much be said for any area of Socal. You have to pay to live decent. Find the decent job first, then figure out where to live.

Seriously, you quote the OP who says he has a tempting job offer and then you're telling him to get a job?

[antredd]

Originally Posted by phantompilot

Riverside has some good points and some bad points.

Bad Points:

a lot of it is really ghetto...poor, low-class people ruin large parts of the city
smoggy except in the winter or when the Santa Anas are blowing
basically unbearably hot and stifling from June to October.
not a lot of economic growth

Unless a person can afford a home over 2 million dollars, that's pretty much 90% of southern CA cities. Riverside is not ghetto, but like every city, it has good and bad neighborhoods. You have to check them out for yourself.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by 909er

Oh my! Someone drink their tall glass of Hater-aid this morning?

On the contrary, most of Riverside is NOT ghetto.

On the south side of the 91, the first few blocks are shady, as is the University Ave downtown residential area, but south of Lincoln Ave and MLK (ish) all the way to Perris is quite high end real estate. There are a lot of multi million dollar homes in Hawarden Hills, and Canyon Crest, Woodcrest, Lake Matthews areas are nice.

North of the 60/91/215 interchange is spotty. The closer you are to the freeway the worse it is.

North of the 91 you have the Downtown and Wood Streets areas, full of early century craftsmans and mid century brady bunch ranches. Recent price increases have driven most of the riff raff out.

Continuing down Magnolia, again, the further north you get away from the freeway the nicer it gets. Arlington Ave and Central Ave areas are Normalville USA.

The La Sierra Ave area has sketchy parts.

Thank you for posting this. I was thinking the same thing about the person hating on Riverside. I love Riverside, and lived there for about 10 years before deciding to move south to Menifee where I was hoping it wouldn't have gotten as crowded as Riverside. Oh well, Menifee is growing as fast as Temecula did 20 years ago.