Merced vs. Flagstaff?

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by gohawks3

I too have a job opportunity at UC-Merced. I have never been to the Central Valley. Really, the furthest north in CA I've been is LA (other than airports) and used to live in San Diego. I currently live in the Salt Lake City area which is overall very safe. Due to the large mountain ranges we get pretty bad air quality here during the winter months, so poor air quality isn't really new to me. I have done some fairly extensive research on the Merced area and it seems like there are nice, newer homes the closer you get to the university. I would also check out La Grange, Turlock, or Catheys Valley. All of these areas I have found nice and safe places to live.

Thanks for your research gohawks.

I recall a number of nice nooks and crannies in the Central Valley, and the Sierra, of course, are superb. It is definitely a distinctive place geographically and culturally, and not for everyone. But Merced is a relatively new university, so room for growth, I think.

[gohawks3]

I agree with you. Merced seems to offer all the necessary amenities, it isn't a large city, but it is big enough to have entertainment options. I recently spoke with someone who lived about 30mins from Merced for a number of years and they said Merced is pretty nice for the Central Valley, just a lot of farming and open spaces. They also had been on UC-Merced's campus a number of times and spoke very highly of it, saying that everything they saw was state of the art and brand new. Can't go wrong there.