Possible relocation to California--Santa Cruz? Monteray? Watsonville?

[miss cali]

Originally Posted by coyoteskye

where do you find that statistic?
that sounds strange to me ... that capitola and watsonville have the same crime rate.

I was not thinking of a rate or percentage per say. I was thinking along the lines of the same types of crime. If you look at areas of Capitola like, by the boardwalk, you will find similar gang type of activity as you would in some parts of Watsonville. I guess I was wrong, there are differences in the types of crime.

While Watsonville has a higher rate of murder, robbery and auto theft. Capitola has a higher rate in rape, assault, burglary and theft.

Personally, I dont know the difference between burglary, theft and robbery but here is the link;Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Either way, it is much peaceful than Salinas or San Jose.

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by miss cali

I was not thinking of a rate or percentage per say. I was thinking along the lines of the same types of crime. If you look at areas of Capitola like, by the boardwalk, you will find similar gang type of activity as you would in some parts of Watsonville. I guess I was wrong, there are differences in the types of crime.

While Watsonville has a higher rate of murder, robbery and auto theft. Capitola has a higher rate in rape, assault, burglary and theft.

Personally, I dont know the difference between burglary, theft and robbery but here is the link;
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Either way, it is much peaceful than Salinas or San Jose.

wow.
those statistics really surprise me.
i know that capitola has crime (i've lived there and here the sirens) but i had no idea that it was so high.
downtown capitola is heavily patrolled because it's such a touristy area.
i'm not sure which boardwalk you're referring to.
anyway, thanks for that chart .... very interesting.

[Petrala]

Originally Posted by dragonflyer

I am looking to relocate in the area of Watsonville, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Jose. My husband and I have no children, in our early forties, may start a business. I will be visiting in a few weeks.

Can anyone who actually lives in the area tell me the best and worst things about living and working there?

What is your preference of these cities and why? I don't want to tell you where I am from, because I don't want any comparisons. I really want to know what you love or hate about where you live.
Thanks so much.
Jenn

I love the beauty of the monterey area but it's costly. costlier if you get towards pebble beach, carmel, etc.

Santa Cruz county is nice but it's VERY overpriced for what it is. The most affordable area is Watsonville but Watsonville has a bad gang problem. Santa cruz close to the UC gets crazy expensive for moldy, junky housing. There are some nice neighborhoods in SC but the problem with the area is its a tourist town and there are only a few central roads to get from one end of town to the other, so traffic sucks. I mean SUCKS. No mass transit either.

Depending on my business, I'd seriously consider locating on the SJ side of the hill and opening my biz there. Lots more opportunity for commerce and there are equally nice places to live there, albeit, no ocean.

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by Petrala

I love the beauty of the monterey area but it's costly. costlier if you get towards pebble beach, carmel, etc.

Santa Cruz county is nice but it's VERY overpriced for what it is. The most affordable area is Watsonville but Watsonville has a bad gang problem. Santa cruz close to the UC gets crazy expensive for moldy, junky housing. There are some nice neighborhoods in SC but the problem with the area is its a tourist town and there are only a few central roads to get from one end of town to the other, so traffic sucks. I mean SUCKS. No mass transit either.

Depending on my business, I'd seriously consider locating on the SJ side of the hill and opening my biz there. Lots more opportunity for commerce and there are equally nice places to live there, albeit, no ocean.

When considering santa cruz, consider the entire county.
there are many wonderful places to live but it is expensive here (as is the entire coast of CA till you get way up) and it is a challenge to find a good place for a good price and yes, there is a lot of junk too.
no mass transit?
santa cruz county has one of the best bus systems in the country.
other communities study it in order to improve their own.
it's an excellent system.
the rush hour traffic on HW1 is a real drag but other than that it's a very easy place to get around.
i guess it's all relative and depends on what you mean by bad traffic and where you've been before.

[Petrala]

Originally Posted by coyoteskye

When considering santa cruz, consider the entire county.
there are many wonderful places to live but it is expensive here (as is the entire coast of CA till you get way up) and it is a challenge to find a good place for a good price and yes, there is a lot of junk too.
no mass transit?
santa cruz county has one of the best bus systems in the country.
other communities study it in order to improve their own.
it's an excellent system.
the rush hour traffic on HW1 is a real drag but other than that it's a very easy place to get around.
i guess it's all relative and depends on what you mean by bad traffic and where you've been before.

what I mean by mass transit is that unlike areas in the greater bay area that connect with BART, SC isn't linked to anyplace else. Yes, there is the Hwy 15 express which rocks, but it's not bart and once you get over the hill you have to transfer to yet another transit link. the other problem with SC metro is the hub system. all points direct to the metro downtown which can be problematic if you are between buses and there late at night.

traffic in SC is bad and not just rush hour on hwy 1. I used to live on the westside off mission and it's bad during the year, especially during commute times to UCSC, and during the summer HWY1/mission is a parking lot. The intersection of Mission St and Younglove ranks an F or maybe it's improved to D. This isn't an arbitrary standard, it's what traffic engineers use to rank how good or bad traffic is. This might not matter but SC FD #3 is located at this intersection, so it has a serious affect if there is gridlock during summer tourist season and the fire engines can't get from point a to point b (which is why they often have to take a circuitous route in residential streets behind and off of Mission).

Look I love SC as much as the next person, but I think we have to be frank with ourselves and others as to what the cost benefits are.

The benefits, is that there's an ocean, it's still pretty chill people and area.

The negatives, very expensive housing as well as commercial rents (something to consider since the OP indicated they wanted to start a biz), a relatively competitive commercial marketplace competing for a much smaller population/consumer base vs the Silicon Valley.

One other significant thing to consider is emergency service coverage. In certain parts of the county, response times for sheriff's is troubling, worse because of budget cuts. SC county doesn't have a trauma center in any of the 2 hospitals, which means if you are in a significant accident or assault, you are in deep **** and need to be LifeFlighted to Santa Clara or Stanford.

These are things to consider when paying a premium for access to the ocean.

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by Petrala

what I mean by mass transit is that unlike areas in the greater bay area that connect with BART, SC isn't linked to anyplace else. Yes, there is the Hwy 15 express which rocks, but it's not bart and once you get over the hill you have to transfer to yet another transit link. the other problem with SC metro is the hub system. all points direct to the metro downtown which can be problematic if you are between buses and there late at night.

traffic in SC is bad and not just rush hour on hwy 1. I used to live on the westside off mission and it's bad during the year, especially during commute times to UCSC, and during the summer HWY1/mission is a parking lot. The intersection of Mission St and Younglove ranks an F or maybe it's improved to D. This isn't an arbitrary standard, it's what traffic engineers use to rank how good or bad traffic is. This might not matter but SC FD #3 is located at this intersection, so it has a serious affect if there is gridlock during summer tourist season and the fire engines can't get from point a to point b (which is why they often have to take a circuitous route in residential streets behind and off of Mission).

Look I love SC as much as the next person, but I think we have to be frank with ourselves and others as to what the cost benefits are.

The benefits, is that there's an ocean, it's still pretty chill people and area.

The negatives, very expensive housing as well as commercial rents (something to consider since the OP indicated they wanted to start a biz), a relatively competitive commercial marketplace competing for a much smaller population/consumer base vs the Silicon Valley.

One other significant thing to consider is emergency service coverage. In certain parts of the county, response times for sheriff's is troubling, worse because of budget cuts. SC county doesn't have a trauma center in any of the 2 hospitals, which means if you are in a significant accident or assault, you are in deep **** and need to be LifeFlighted to Santa Clara or Stanford.

These are things to consider when paying a premium for access to the ocean.

yeah ... i dunno.
i just live a simple and rural life and it's easy for me to do that here.
i'm not too plugged into the worldly world and the commercial scene so i'll defer to you on that.
rents are expensive.
that's the only complaint i have.
i've lived in major cities so, to me, the traffic in s.c. and county (aside from rush hr. on 1) is nothing.
chill people ... hmmmmm, i like the warm ones.

[MtnSurfer]

I notice the traffic thru Santa Cruz to be a lot worse than the Monterey area where we live now. And driving from one end of SC to another can come to a complete stop once the FWY ends and bottlenecks through town. However I guess if one doesn't drive as much for their work it is a non-issue.

A close friend of mine lives and works in Aptos. So for him it is not so bad unless he wants to going surfing on the other side of town during rush hour or on the weekend. But it has gotten a lot worse over the years in SC. I think part of it is due to poor infrastructure and road design. I mean that town was never meant to accomodate as many ppl as head thru there at peak times/seasons. And because it is closer to SJ more ppl have migrated there.

Monterey is different in that way because it is further from the Bay, population growth has averaged at ~zero which is many locals enjoy. Not many places in CA are left like that. My 'rush hour' drive from Seaside through Monterey is not bad at all even with DLI and NPS traffic.

Derek

[coyoteskye]

yeah, you and P. are right.
i'm spoiled because i'm not a 9-5ver and just avoid rush hour times.

[Petrala]

Oh I meant hwy 17, not 15 express, rocks. typos!!!1

[georgste]

PG is the best. When I live there I would get sinus attacks from the fog. Hated the fog.