The many reasons we love Lancaster ca! (Los Angeles: dinner, average)

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by C_A_Braun

Here are a few other things to keep in mind about navigating streets and roads in Lancaster (Same Applies To Palmdale, Quartz Hill Etc.).

Odd numbered addresses are on the North and West sides of the streets. Even numbered addresses are on the South and East sides of the streets.

There are exceptions, but they tend to be isolated houses that for some reason the address is pegged across the street from the house.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by user9430961

On a side note Reziac, how did you end up moving from AV to MT? Speaking of moving, I remember the last time I was in AV several years ago, I was in the market for a brand newly built home, and I remember seeing at least 12 or so new housing development advertising signs littering the side of the 14 freeway all the way between Santa Clarita as far north as the north end of Lancaster . . . yesterday I only saw (1) one new housing development sign off of the 14 Freeway the entire time we were in AV yesterday. I wonder did they finally stop or did they drastically slow down on building all of those new homes out there? Based on all of the driving that we did in Lancaster and Palmdale yesterday alone, there still is plenty of room to build a few thousand more housing developments there . . . if anyone were to ask me.

The city of Palmdale is almost built out, as there is very little room left to develop. Most of the land available for development is in Lancaster.

To my knowledge, Lancaster City Council and Planning Commission put a semi-moratorium on home building. They passed an ordinance that basically told developers that if they wanted to build homes, they had to build "smart homes" with net-zero utilities as part of a new "green" effort by the city.

So the developers are not going Hog Wild like they did in the past, and only building homes as the demand dictates.

[Reziac]

Palmdale has plenty of room to build eastward; lots of vacant land between there and Lake L.A. Of course that area won't bring in the primo prices that the homes toward Lake Elizabeth did, so isn't attractive to developers. And the easy money isn't there anymore either.

As a result of the last big boom, lots of cities are discovering that it behooves them to make developers pay for new infrastructure for housing developments, including long-term maintenance... because the increased property taxes are not enough, even where home values are steep and property taxes are high.

I won't complain about this slowing growth; once sprawl eats the rural areas, we'll never get it back.

[kttam186290]

The masterplanned Ritter Ranch project is supposedly getting ready to be jumpstarted again, but that is on the west side of Palmdale near Leona Valley.

[user9430961]

Thank you C_A_Braun, thank you for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

Reziac, thank you for shedding more light on the AV tourism . . . I’ll be sure to check some of those places out on my next visit to AV. Thank you for the links.

Volosong, thank you for the updates, comments and your thoughts . . . they are most helpful.

Reziac, since I live in the LAX area, I have plenty of alternate routes to get home via the side streets . . . plus I live less than 3 miles from the 405. As long as I make it home from work (in Culver City) before 4:00 PM or after 7:00 PM, the traffic is doable for me. In general from my experiences, the 405 is always jammed packed during the weekdays between at least the 605 Freeway and the 101 Freeway . . . with sporadic pockets where the traffic loosens up for a few miles ONLY . . . then it is back to bumper-to-bumper traffic. During the weekends (on the 405 Freeway), it seems that the traffic is a tiny bit lighter than the weekdays . . . but that is it . . . “just a tiny bit lighter. I remember in mid June of last year, my partner and I drove to San Diego on Saturday morning on the 405/5 Freeways. We left home (the LAX area) about 6:00 AM. Though we were able to drive the speed limit all of the way, you would not believe the thousands of cars headed south by the time we got to Irvine at about 6:45 AM! It was almost like a mass exodus (headed towards San Diego and Mexico)! We thought we were leaving early to beat the traffic . . . NOT!

For whatever reason during the week, I have noticed over the past couple of years, there always seems to be heavy traffic between the 105 Freeway until you get pasted the 5 Freeway (during non-rush hour) while driving on the 110 Freeway (Harbor Freeway). I swear, the few times that I have had to drive during a weekday, trying to travel south on the 110 Freeway from the 5 Freeway at about 1:30 PM to about 2:30 PM, the traffic is usually almost bumper-to-bumper from the 5 Freeway to the 105 Freeway . . . I have no idea how these people could be getting off from work so early in the day to keep up so much heavy traffic. Yet the traffic is almost as bad going in either direction any time of the day on the weekends.

Yet I ended up breaking down earlier this year to get a transponder (to use the toll road on the Harbor Freeway) just to be able to get between downtown LA to the 105 Freeway, because the traffic has just become unbelievable nowadays. . . even on weekends. Yet every since I started driving back in the 70's, trying to merge (in downtown LA) from the northbound Harbor freeway to the northbound Hollywood Freeway (101 Freeway) has always been a nightmare on any day at any time, yet I have noticed that it has gotten much worse to drive to Hollywood from downtown LA over the past 10 years (while trying to take the Harbor Freeway north to the northbound Hollywood Freeway). Though I used to occasionally enjoy the night life of Hollywood for over 30+ years, I basically have all but stopped going to that area of town, due to the traffic to get to and from there, plus the high cost of parking once I get there. Just over the past 5 years alone, I may get to Hollywood about 3 or 4 times a year max.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

The masterplanned Ritter Ranch project is supposedly getting ready to be jumpstarted again, but that is on the west side of Palmdale near Leona Valley.

I forget what happened the first time... was that about when we had the last big fire in the canyon?

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by user9430961

since I live in the LAX area, I have plenty of alternate routes to get home via the side streets

When I was doing bits and extras and worked all over the map, I developed a number of such routes to bypass standstill traffic. There are actually a lot of ways to get around the usual clogs, tho some eventually became clogged themselves, and some would benefit from stoplights at critical corners. -- When I had to go E-W I'd avoid the 10 entirely by taking Pico the whole way, and sometimes had it all to myself even during evening rush!

One night I was somewhere south of Pasadena and the northbound freeway was closed... I fell in with a stream of cars heading more or less northwest and making good time, and trusted that they knew where they were going, since it involved jinks through tiny side streets and even a couple of alleys! And pretty soon I got spit out on the main drag just off a convenient exit. That was when I realised it's actually fairly hard to get lost in L.A.; if you don't know where you are, just head in the right direction as best you can and eventually you'll get there.

Tho when they plopped an IKEA down in the middle of San Fernando Road, that wrecked the main N-S bypass for the north half of I-5. How they got away with that one escapes me.

When I moved up from Santa Clarita to Lancaster, the first thing I noticed was how peaceful it was at night, how quiet and DARK. The dark is now gone til you get well out into the desert (at my old place it used to be so dark that on a moonless night, the Milky Way shone bright enough to cast shadows) but it's still more peaceful.

[user9430961]

Thank you for your input kttam186290, I greatly appreciate what you have shared. Based on what you have shared, it does make sense. It will be interesting if the Ritter Ranch project comes back to life.

I guess for the most part, I did see much more land in Lancaster vs. Palmdale. So Reziac, that does make sense as well.

I think that most people that live in the Los Angeles area, have their own various alternate routes to try to get from Point A to Point B, LOL!!!, to try to bypass stand still traffic. A few of my original alternate routes to get home from Culver City have become clogged as well over the years. A few years ago, I did work on Pico (between La Cienega and Crenshaw) . . . oh the traffic was a nightmare if I did not leave work by 4:00 PM. Yet I too avoided the 10 Freeway, as it looked like it was often clogged going east and west after 4:00 PM during the week.

I am not sure how dark it gets in Lancaster nowadays, however when my friend lived there in the 80's and early 90's, I do recall how much darker and quiet it was there at night.

[Reziac]

Dark depends where you're at and how recent the nearest development is. The light pollution that eventually ate my night skies was from the bunch of condos at Ave.I and 90th (I think) and worse, they were PINK. Lights from town made no impact, but those, argh! Way more light pollution than I got when I lived a block east of the Baptist college, even tho the condos were much further away! But the streetlights in the older parts of town don't seem to be a problem that way.

Trying to think what else is around to gawk at Lessee... you've probably seen the commune ruins on Pearblossom Hwy; not much left of them now. The commune actually only lasted about four years.

Saddleback Butte State Park is probably quite nice right about now.
Saddleback Butte SP
If you go west on Ave.J until it goes up a big hill, there you are, you'll see it (on the right at the top of the first hill).

There's an Indian museum nearby -- never got around to checking it out as the one time I went through there when it wasn't early and in a hurry or late and dark, they were closed for remodeling.
Antelope Valley Indian Museum
More regional stuff to see:
http://www.avim.parks.ca.gov/info.shtml#other

Here's a Handy Map that shows both:
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.6693...17.8339824,14z

On 150th you'll also see the Club Ed movie set.

That oughta keep you busy for an afternoon

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by user9430961

I am not sure how dark it gets in Lancaster nowadays, however when my friend lived there in the 80's and early 90's, I do recall how much darker and quiet it was there at night.

If you drive way out into the rural areas, like out towards Rosamond, it gets pretty dark at night.

On some nights, you can see the intense glow of L.A.'s lights coming up behind Palmdale and Lancaster.