Riverside (Moreno Valley, Orange, Vista: smog, apartment, condos)

[radon2600]

Any info on Riverside? What kind of city is it like?.....Places to stay away from? etc... Thanks

[sunflwr]

Cost of living has gone up....rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is about 1000.00 to 1300.00. The 4 bedroom 2 bath house I have been renting is $1,540.00 per month. And the owner just sold it for $425,000.00 The summers are hot and smoggy here. Areas to stay away from are, Downtown....Casa Blanca....Arlanza.....I guess you could say the best area to living in would be Orangecrest. New houses....but expensive. I grew up here and always hated it. I am moving to the midwest in search of affordable housing, less gangs and less graffitti.

[radon2600]

thanks for the information

[Mel2882]

It's pretty boring.

[Steve M]

If your talking about Riverside the City I may have to side sith sunflwr, but Riverside County has many features to offer. Being one of the largest counties in the state there are many cities to choose from. Also only parts of the City are worse than others - some areas to the east and south are fairly nice and very popular.

[nwraider]

Originally Posted by radon2600

Any info on Riverside? What kind of city is it like?.....Places to stay away from? etc... Thanks

Lived in the Riverside area for most of my life (25 years in Moreno Valley, 8 in Riverside itself), so here's my two cents...

The city itself is really spread out, but still lots of traffic unless you know of some alternate routes/ backroads to take- it can take a minimum of a half hour just to get across town, and that's pushing it. Downtown does have some charm, as long as you stay away from some of the crappy neighborhoods near the historic district, although some of the houses there do have their own charm. Downtown night life is pretty decent too, lots of little bars & restaurants, the Riverside Brewing Company is pretty cool, and the downtown market in summertime is ok, as long as it isn't too hot. Mission Inn is great to check out at Xmas time with all the lights. Newer houses/condos going up in downtown too and they're really trying to clean up around Fairmount Park (at least that's the last I heard before we bailed for Seattle three years ago). DEFINITELY stay away from Casa Blanca, unless you're hitting up In N Out or something, Arlanza's getting worse and worse each year it seems, and some of the rural parts between La Sierra and Arlanza are teaming with meth heads and such.

And yes, unless you live in the aforementioned slums/crappy areas, you'll be paying out the caboose for a place to live, whether it's renting (easily $1200 minimum for something decent) or buying (good luck finding anything under $400K). The Wood streets are a beautiful area, some historic homes, but again, VERY expensive. Canyon Crest is very nice, along with Orangecrest and Woodcrest (don't know what it is about all these "crests" haha).. La Sierra has some nice areas near the high school, especially the newer Riverwalk area, nice homes, condos, etc.

And it does get very HOT in the summer, with temps easily reaching over 100 for several days at a time. Smog is pretty bad still too, although it seems to have improved since the 70's and 80's... Sorry about some of the negativity, but overall, there are alot of things I do miss about Riverside, especially the familiarity with everything, all my friends and family left there, but the heat and the price of housing were the main determining factors in us leaving. So, if neither one of those things are a problem for you, it's really not THAT bad of a place... Again, depending on what part of town you end up in..

[PinkString]

One of my sister's lives on Spruce street, right next to the 60 freeway interchange. She said she is just a few blocks away from a really bad area. But she likes her home. It's very old, tiny, but has alot of acreage. She is also close to the Mission Inn.
I also remember Canyon Crest. I used to live near there and did all my shopping there, went to the movies,etc. It's nice to know it hasn't changed alot since I left.
I do not remember OrangeCrest or Arlanza. Maybe new names added to older area's sometime after I left.

[nwraider]

Originally Posted by PinkString

I do not remember OrangeCrest or Arlanza. Maybe new names added to older area's sometime after I left.

Orangecrest is a somewhat newer area just east of Woodcrest, and just west of Arlington Nat'l Cemetery off of I-215. LOTS of building going on there... Haven't been back in a few years, but who knows how much room is left to build on anymore haha...

And Arlanza is up near Norte Vista High school, where alot of the older housing is around the old ROHR plant. Alot of those houses go back to WWII, but some newer ones are just north... We lived in one of the somewhat newer areas for a few years... Sold about 6 years ago, BEFORE the housing boom took off.. Made a little cash, but if we'd have stuck it out a couple more years, we coulda doubled or tripled our money... Oh well, woulda, coulda, shoulda..