Most Peaceful & Sunny Place in Nor Cal? Fortuna? Redding? (San Francisco: violent crime, movie theater)

[KateCody]

Hey City Data People,

This is my first post but I've been using this site for a long time and I really appreciate your feedback.

Parameters for a city we're looking for in CA:

*Smart: Good public schools for kids

*Safe: Low levels of violent crime, feel comfortable hanging out outside and walking around town. I understand sometimes there are areas you can't go in certain towns, I'm fine with that as long as it doesn't spill over to the safer parts of town.

*Gorgeous: Rivers, lakes, forest, mountains, ocean (my favorite!), or redwoods are plentiful and are easily accessed by the public. I would much rather us be able to walk out the front door and have natural beauty than have to drive somewhere.

*Good weather: Not too cold (50s is pretty cold to me but I understand the evenings are like that many places) and not too hot (anything over 100), lots of sunshine (very important, more important than temperature).

*Healthy: Organic fruit, vegetables, meat, and seeds easily available, and we'd love to grow our own so a fertile place would be great. A good hospital in the area is a must, especially because I work in healthcare.

*Conscious: This is a very important one. We want to live somewhere where people care about others and the world around them. I know this one is very subjective though and hard to measure. I don't really care if people are rich or well educated, I just want to live around nice people who aren't close minded and can carry a conversation.

Cultural: It would be great if there was some art in the community: visual art, dance, theater, a good movie theater, a university with good lecturers etc.

Affordable: It would be wonderful if the place was relatively affordable by California standards. I am still curious about places that aren't affordable though to have a reach goal for a place I could live eventually.

Our interests: brewing, cooking, any physical activity (biking, hiking, swimming, surfing, yoga, pilates, etc), obv. art, philosophy, I could go on but I think that gives a pretty clear picture.

I've considered "Sunny" Fortuna and Redding so far. The big obstacles to the SF bay area are price, safety, and not enough sunshine. Sunshine is really the main problem with SF; we need much more sun than that!

So please tell me, what cities are the gems of Cali?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[mstnghu2]

"The big obstacles to the SF bay area are price, safety, and not enough sunshine. Sunshine is really the main problem with SF; we need much more sun than that!"

Actually, most parts of the Bay Area don't have weather that's anything like San Francisco. San Francisco (along with places like Pacifica, Daly City, San Bruno, etc.) has a distinct micro-climate that's completely different than places that are even 20-30 minutes away. It can easily be 60 degrees in SF and 70 degrees across the bay in Oakland. The temperature spread throughout the Bay Area in the summer often varies by as much as 30 degrees depending on your location. Most parts of the Bay Area get lots of sun throughout the year...probably substantially more than many places up north.

You are right about it being expensive though.

[oldtrader]

You don't want to get too cold, or too hot.

Fact: Redding is one of about 5 cities, that alternate in the summer as to which is the hot spot in the nation, and that list includes Death Valley. One of the hottest cities in the nation in the summer. Back before air conditioning we were traveling through the area and had a caged canary with us. It was so hot the canary died of heat stroke and nothing we could do to keep it alive though we protected it as much as possible.

Fact: Winters get very cold in Redding.

Fortuna (where I was born and raised 81 years ago) is moderate, as few days even get down to freezing at night, and summers are lots cooler than Redding.

[KateCody]

As a side note, I only mentioned NorCal because I've spent my summers in Laguna Beach every summer since I was born. I adore Laguna (minus the traffic and tourists), but SoCal doesn't strike me as the friendliest place to raise a family. I'm all ears for other opinions on raising a family in SoCal, though. I hear Santa Barbara is paradise, but my impression is that it's remarkably expensive as well.

[KateCody]

Thanks, I actually just saw that summers in Redding are often above 100 for months. I thought maybe it hit 100 every once in a while, which I could deal with. Sorry about your canary!

[KateCody]

mstnghu2, thanks for the feedback. That really surprises me, looks like I'm in for more research! Any tips on specific areas?

[Social Democrat]

Maybe check out Santa Rosa/Petaluma or thereabouts?

[Fargobound]

Check out Chico.

[KateCody]

social democrat & fargo, thanks for the tips. hadn't considered those yet!

[pch1013]

Fortuna is *not* sunny, at least compared to areas farther inland.

I might suggest Boonville or Ukiah. I don't know too much about either, though I do know that the Anderson Valley Advertiser is a highly "conscious" (in your terms) publication. Alexander Cockburn used to write for them.

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