cali fever--ventura (Oxnard, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara: apartments, rental, condo)

[grimstuff]

Originally Posted by CBaillo

What are you talking about? I currently reside in Simi. It's a nice quiet place to live, and nothing is more than a 5 min. drive away. Simi has a new major mall, and every major store in its city limits...so that statement kind of confuses me. And housing in Simi is actually quite reasonable given the current market.

I was specifically talking about Ventura, where I lived. I lumped it together with all the others seeing as how more and more it seems like one big sprawling city. Anyway, Ventura wasn't a horrible place to live, the downtown was very nice, but the rest of it was very typical of suburbia.

[grobin7569]

CBaillo...I recently lived in Simi for a few months and loved it.
What's the actual going price for housing at the lower end of the price range there?
I'd love to live there permanently.

G

[CBaillo]

I believe you can find a smaller house here in the low 500's, maybe even lower for a fixer upper. Just check out realtor.com, it'll show you houses for all price ranges.

[Roundtruck]

Grimstuff, Are you sure you were in Ventura? Since it only takes 15 minutes to drive from city limit to city limit, that doesn't seem to make sense. It certainly is a bedroom community, but that is what many seem to be seeking. Low crime, great weather, friendly people, good schools, but very expensive housing! Someone mentioned condos for under $400K... maybe parts of Oxnard, but I don't know where anything else is that cheap. You can get in a decent house for under $600, but that is out of reach for many.

But SLO ain't bad either. Too bad they are both in CA!

[grimstuff]

Originally Posted by Roundtruck

Grimstuff, Are you sure you were in Ventura? Since it only takes 15 minutes to drive from city limit to city limit, that doesn't seem to make sense. It certainly is a bedroom community, but that is what many seem to be seeking. Low crime, great weather, friendly people, good schools, but very expensive housing!

Yes, I lived in Ventura. Do you think I'm an idiot and don't know where I lived? Besides, I was exaggerating in that first post. I was just chiming in with a negate retort about how sprawling most of Ventura is now, in contrast to how it was 20 or 30 years ago, from what old-timers told me. Don't get me wrong its not a horrible place, but about 10% of it is a nice little downtown area with some nice unpretentious (albiet expensive) housing on the hill overlooking the ocean, but the other 90% is character-less sprawl. Unfortunately, one of the older areas of town (extending back towards Ojai) is a pretty rundown area, with a notorious Hell's Angels joint to spruce up the neighborhood.

The planning for the major part of the city is attrocious. They used the huge superblocks, popular in the 60's and 70's, and perfect for ensuring no community ever exists. Also, there are very wide roads, great for allowing people to drive 50+ mph through residential neighborhoods. The mall area and adjacent commercial districts are very typical of suburban American cities. If that's what you want, fine, there are plenty of options for that way of life, but I just got tired of it very quickly. If it wern't for the Seaward district with that great sushi place, the beach, and the downtown, I would have been much more depressed. I remember one time I ran out of gas somewhere on Telegraph road about 1AM, and I definitely did not feel comfortable walking the 2 or 3 miles to the gas station, even though it's all residential. On one portion of the street, there were 6 cars in a row that all had people sleeping in them. I tought it odd at the time, but not so much once I realized how many people are homeless that we never see (i.e. they are not the ones panhandling on the street). It really puts things in perspective, and especially once you are in that situation yourself (as I was at one point).

So I am just giving my impressions of living in Ventura... I am sure they are different than others'. I guess in summation I would say Ventura looks good at first glance, but shows its ugly side real quick (gangs, drugs, robberies) to those without a comfortable buffer of wealth. You could say you have crime anywhere, which is true, but Ventura has little community, with all the worst parts about suburbanization (residential neighborhoods virtually empty in the day; commercial/industrial areas virtually empty at night; highways severing historical neighborhoods; lack of pedestrian access, etc), and only a little bit to make up for it (downtown area; Seaward).

So there it is. Take it for what it's worth.

[enlightenme]

Yum! I love Sushi Marina on California Street. They have changed that area in the last 5 years by adding more boutiques and little restaurants that remind me of trying to be like Santa Barbara, but I always stayed true to the old places like Sushi Marina, Ferraro's Italian restaurant, and Corrales for burritos! Back in the day, Ventura was full of orchards, especially lemon and Ventura Avenue going towards Ojai was full of oil fields. It was always more of a working class community. And there are condos for under $400K, they are called Saratoga and they are near Victoria behind the shopping center where the old Ralph's was located and K-mart near the corner of Ralston and Victoria. They are kind of small and I wouldn't want to own one, but it isn't a bad area like Ventura Avenue. You can see for yourself on realtor dot com.

[grimstuff]

Originally Posted by enlightenme

Yum! I love Sushi Marina on California Street. They have changed that area in the last 5 years by adding more boutiques and little restaurants that remind me of trying to be like Santa Barbara, but I always stayed true to the old places like Sushi Marina, Ferraro's Italian restaurant, and Corrales for burritos! Back in the day, Ventura was full of orchards, especially lemon and Ventura Avenue going towards Ojai was full of oil fields. It was always more of a working class community. And there are condos for under $400K, they are called Saratoga and they are near Victoria behind the shopping center where the old Ralph's was located and K-mart near the corner of Ralston and Victoria. They are kind of small and I wouldn't want to own one, but it isn't a bad area like Ventura Avenue. You can see for yourself on realtor dot com.

There still are a lot of orchards around there. We had the best avocado trees in our back yard.

[BeenAroundTheBlock]

I lived in Ventura for 10 years from 1980 - 1990. All three of my kids were born there. We actually left in 1990 because real estate prices were rediculous for a young family even then. Ventura is a beautiful place but there are many drawbacks if you spend any time there. The newspaper was filled with violent crime mostly from the gangs that lived off the Avenue on the west side. The east side of town was great to live, pretty quiet but still you wonder if you end up in the wrong place at the wrong time with regard to the crime. There isn't much to do in Ventura it's a pretty sleepy. I have been back to visit and it's nice to see downtown revitalized a bit. Another drawback to living Ventura, especially if you're at the beach is that it is oftentimes foggy and cool. I personally like it a little warmer so Harbor Blvd. and even Johnson Drive areas were too cool and breezy. The kids could hardly wear summer clothes without a jacket half the time. I think places like Ojai and T.O. had the perfect weather. But that's just me!

All in all, I think people can be happy anywhere if it makes them personally happy. There are good and bad in every place we choose to live. You can't get away from crime anywhere these days.

[thinboy]

Originally Posted by grimstuff

Yes, I lived in Ventura. Do you think I'm an idiot and don't know where I lived? Besides, I was exaggerating in that first post. I was just chiming in with a negate retort about how sprawling most of Ventura is now, in contrast to how it was 20 or 30 years ago, from what old-timers told me. Don't get me wrong its not a horrible place, but about 10% of it is a nice little downtown area with some nice unpretentious (albiet expensive) housing on the hill overlooking the ocean, but the other 90% is character-less sprawl. Unfortunately, one of the older areas of town (extending back towards Ojai) is a pretty rundown area, with a notorious Hell's Angels joint to spruce up the neighborhood.

The planning for the major part of the city is attrocious. They used the huge superblocks, popular in the 60's and 70's, and perfect for ensuring no community ever exists. Also, there are very wide roads, great for allowing people to drive 50+ mph through residential neighborhoods. The mall area and adjacent commercial districts are very typical of suburban American cities. If that's what you want, fine, there are plenty of options for that way of life, but I just got tired of it very quickly. If it wern't for the Seaward district with that great sushi place, the beach, and the downtown, I would have been much more depressed. I remember one time I ran out of gas somewhere on Telegraph road about 1AM, and I definitely did not feel comfortable walking the 2 or 3 miles to the gas station, even though it's all residential. On one portion of the street, there were 6 cars in a row that all had people sleeping in them. I tought it odd at the time, but not so much once I realized how many people are homeless that we never see (i.e. they are not the ones panhandling on the street). It really puts things in perspective, and especially once you are in that situation yourself (as I was at one point).

So I am just giving my impressions of living in Ventura... I am sure they are different than others'. I guess in summation I would say Ventura looks good at first glance, but shows its ugly side real quick (gangs, drugs, robberies) to those without a comfortable buffer of wealth. You could say you have crime anywhere, which is true, but Ventura has little community, with all the worst parts about suburbanization (residential neighborhoods virtually empty in the day; commercial/industrial areas virtually empty at night; highways severing historical neighborhoods; lack of pedestrian access, etc), and only a little bit to make up for it (downtown area; Seaward).

So there it is. Take it for what it's worth.

it always brings joy to my ears that i hear someone say they want to move back to cailfornia, im form oxnard and lived there from 1981-1989, from my childhood memories i loved it, expect some stuff about school, which i went to school in la colina. then i moved to fresno (no comment), then milwaukee,wi and dying to get back to the west.

hope you do and me as well, -10 degrees in the winter isnt fun.

[CBaillo]

It's all about the individual, because my family and I LOVE that weather in the winter. Californians always think we're strange that we hate the heat. But I rather have -10 winter than a 95 degree christmas.