Want to relocate from Calif to Medford Ore (Portland, Central Point: crime, neighborhood)

[metfan012]

Hi, I am wanting to move to Medford or Central Point, sounds like my kind of town with no gangs, small crime problem and good schools? How is the quality of life there? Friendly to outsiders? No gangs? Quieter lifestyle for a new grandma?
I live in a pretty alarmingly high-crime town. Riddled with gangs with most good areas surrounded by very bad ones. I lived in a circle with asian gangs, sorry to say my kids grew up there. Love the Cambodian culture just not the violent youth in gangs. We escaped any major bad things happening to us, very lucky. I now finally live in a very good area that is not surrounded by bad ones but I am concerned for my grandson, the schools here are some of the worst performing in all of california.

I live in the san joaquin valley, so no use going up or down for a better area. Too bad because this is the agricultural capital of the country! Great fruits and vegetables and festivals. But I cannot ignore the alarming rise in crime against people, lots of muggings, murders, robberies.

What do you say? any place is better than where I live?

Desperate in calif.

[knurly]

When people find their paradise,... Forget that. What you are experiencing is a natural phenomena that compels people to spread out, it never ends. During the interim, we'll try to strangle each other and perpetrate crimes on each other until we find enough space to separate us. When we find a comfortable place, we'll propagate and give the crowd to our kids. They'll complain about the same things and another day begins all over again. Go ahead and try your move, luck is better in your pocket than research. No one can know the details.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by metfan012

sounds like my kind of town with no gangs, small crime problem and good schools?

Huh? What Medford are you talking about? Three indicted in gang drive-by | MailTribune.com

[StampinTami]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

Huh? What Medford are you talking about? Three indicted in gang drive-by | MailTribune.com

Well, when you live with that kind of stuff on a daily basis something like this from 2.5 years ago isn't that bad!

From my quick search there doesn't seem to be a lot of "gang" stuff going on in Medford and it seems that they are really trying to crack down on what is there before it escalates.

OP- Medford is NOTHING like Stockton. We were just there a couple weeks ago and it was beautiful! I didn't notice any graffiti unlike here in Stockton. I also did not notice any Thugy people. It was too hot to see if there was a lot of booming music coming out of cars like here. My cousin lives there tho and he said that they really never come across stuff like that.

[metfan012]

I am not sure what Knurly is getting at...have you ever lived on a block with gangs? with your small children? We had to drive through a gauntlet of young men in the street who made sure you were not welcome and you better watch out. My family was always respectful, drove down the street slowly and attempted to make friends.
I would hear a small 4 year old girl use the Cnt word and other "body part" words that was awful...no...not the kind of words found in everyday language, not even TV. My new neighborhood is diametrically the opposite! Very polite children walking with their parents or riding bikes. No loud music...the other place the music was going day and night and I mean that. We just had a murder of a young cambodian man who wanted out of the gang. He was beaten to death for that. Per capita we have one of the largest murder rates in the country. So paradise? not here. What's wrong with me moving? as far as I can tell I am not living in the 1960's in Russia.

[StampinTami]

Originally Posted by metfan012

I am not sure what Knurly is getting at...have you ever lived on a block with gangs? with your small children? We had to drive through a gauntlet of young men in the street who made sure you were not welcome and you better watch out. My family was always respectful, drove down the street slowly and attempted to make friends.
I would hear a small 4 year old girl use the Cnt word and other "body part" words that was awful...no...not the kind of words found in everyday language, not even TV. My new neighborhood is diametrically the opposite! Very polite children walking with their parents or riding bikes. No loud music...the other place the music was going day and night and I mean that. We just had a murder of a young cambodian man who wanted out of the gang. He was beaten to death for that. Per capita we have one of the largest murder rates in the country. So paradise? not here. What's wrong with me moving? as far as I can tell I am not living in the 1960's in Russia.

Don't worry about the rude people. For some reason people have something against "Californians" coming into their state. It is a free country (for now) and we have the right to move where ever we want to. I have been on this forum for awhile now- off and on. It seems whatever state you look at people think that if you are from Ca and you are wanting to move, you are going to be bringing your "problems" with you. People made reference a lot in the ID forum to Californians that moved their families to get their kids away from gang problems and then gangs became more of a problem out there. I can understand them being upset about that but not all of us have any ties to gangs at all, so there is no chance of the gangs following us out.

I'm not sure what part of Stockton you are in cause really I didn't think there was any "nice" neighborhood in Stockton any more. Even the nice new subdivisions that I have been in have thugs in them. I don't see Stockton getting any better since we are quickly losing the ground that we gained during the 2000's and getting back to the violence levels of the 80's and 90's with all the cops being let go in the last year or so.

For anyone that is truly interested in what the OP and others here in Stockton are dealing with, here is a recent newspaper article.
City's burning question: Fire or police | Recordnet.com
Make sure you check out the comments at the bottom of the page to see the real reason Stockton has its financial mess.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by StampinTami

Don't worry about the rude people. For some reason people have something against "Californians" coming into their state. It is a free country (for now) and we have the right to move where ever we want to.

I don't think it's that at all. Many Californians seem to conceptualize the social problems they want to get away from as "California issues" and the Oregon/Nevada/Arizona state line as some kind of magic boundary on the other side of which such issues can't exist. There are very few problems that are endemic to the State of California. There are many areas in California where gangs are not a problem and many areas in other states where they are. Like California's San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, Oregon's Rogue River Valley is an agricultural area and there is a significant migrant work force that resides there. Social issues that arise from that economic reality have little to do with what political jurisdiction that agricultural labor culture has become established under. The gang issue in Medford may be no where near what it is in Stockton, but by Oregon standards, it's certainly not in the "relatively gang-free" category.

[mdvaden]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

Huh? What Medford are you talking about? Three indicted in gang drive-by | MailTribune.com

Medford's thing is inconsequential compared to many other cities.

I noticed that you went back to a 2008 article on that one. Must be something more recent. But its not like a main staple of the news.

We were in Medford area for 3 years and I thought the area is child's play compared to Portland. And Portland is nothing compared to some other places.

@ the OP ... there is plenty of shopping and stuff. But not like big cities. If you don't mind that, its a pretty nice area. A bit dry for me, but a pretty friendly area.