Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The reddest county in California is rural Modoc County in the extreme northeastern part.
Sacramento itself leans Democractic, but its not super outspoken like the Bay Area or LA. The whole Sac Metro is generally center-left (but not leftist or rightist). There are some liberal portions like Sacramento proper and Davis (woo woo!), but then there is the more conservative area of Placer or El Dorado Counties.
You may want to consider Dixon or Vacaville, both are not 100% red, but are much more so than their neighbors. You may be comfortable there. Vacaville is pretty family friendly and Dixon is a mix of rural and suburban. Solano County once you get away from Vallejo or Benicia, is much more conservative than Yolo (liberal becuase of its four incorporated cities of Davis, WSac, Woodland, and Winters but conservative in its very rural farmland) and maybe even Sacramento. According to CA Sec. of State certified elections, Both Dixon and Vacaville voted for conservtive Rebulican Fiorina vs. liberal Boxer. They did vote for Democratic governor Jerry Brown, but both he and Whitman were running on moderate platforms with many common agreements. In 2008, they voted for Obama, but also for abortion restriction (parental consent, which did not pass statewide) and for Prop 8 (which did). http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/...senate-all.pdf and http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2008_general/ssov/11-ballot-measures-by-political-districts.pdf (broken link)
Last edited by Glenview94602; 03-28-2012 at 05:51 PM..
Placer County has ranked as the highest county by percentage of registered Republicans several times. I don't know what the trends are for the county, I don't care, and it doesn't matter because those rankings don't prove anything and the percentage of Registered voters for a party can shift if one of the parties gets a candidate who is good at PR and can BS the public into registering for whatever party the candidate is affiliated with. The overall trend is trending to the left throughout California and many other parts of the country anyway, and it has nothing to do with liking Democrats over Republicans, but rather, the middle-class, which was solidly Republican for many years, is starting to figure out the Republicans have abandoned them for the campaign contributions from global entities.
The amount of registered Democrats or Republicans doesn't make a region left or right. The City of Sacramento is predominantly Democrat, yet it is rare for the voters in the City to vote for increasing taxes. The transportation sales tax and the proposition regarding community college construction are the only two exceptions I can think of. Many regions with a majority of registered Republicans voted similarly, so these things aren't polarized as conservative vs liberal as much as many people think they are.
Once you leave the City of Sacramento the rest of Sacramento County has a majority of registered Republicans. The exceptions are those areas with a lot of minorities, section 8 housing, or a combination of both. Florin, Del Paso Heights/Arcade Creek, some areas of Rancho Cordova. I just moved to the area between Starfire and Rancho Cordova and surprisingly I've seen a few faded McCain 2008 bumper stickers on several cars. Although most of the neighbourhood is solid middle-income with the exception of the areas with multi-family housing. Yolo County is majority Democrat in all urbanized areas regardless of income, as far as I know.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,313,597 times
Reputation: 6471
I've never understood posts that are looking for conservative or liberal areas.
My voting precinct has the highest % of Republicans and the highest % of Green voters in my county.
Does that make my area conservative or liberal? I just live here in contentment, say hi to anyone I see without asking what their political, religious, or economic status is.
Its matters most in older neighborhoods. In new neighborhoods a lot of the infrastructure is paid for by the developers as a condition of development, so taxes can be lower in those communities because the cost was passed onto the buyers in the form of higher building costs rather than higher taxes. But as this infrastructure ages its going to need to be replaced and those costs can't be passed onto the property owners indirectly, but must instead come from higher taxes or reduced government spending. Since a lot of the spending is mandated, lower tax rates in older neighborhoods generally seem to translate into poorly maintained public infrastructure. Areas that are more to the left have an easier time getting a consensus to raise taxes to upgrade neighborhoods.
If you look at the older inner suburban neighborhoods the places older than 30 years old that still have Republican majorities, generally the infrastructure isn't holding up well. The sidewalks are cracked, the schools streets have lots of pot holes etc. The pool at Carmichael Park was so poorly maintained that it was closed and there are no plans to re-open it in the foreseeable future. Drive through Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Arden Arcade or Orangevale the infrastructure in these neighborhoods is starting to get long in the tooth. These neighborhoods are in transition right now as the older Republicans who bought into these neighborhoods when the housing stock was brand new 30 or 40 years ago die off and are replaced by younger families who are less to the right.
Now there are some exceptions to the rule, but the exceptions help prove the rule. In Roseville, Rocklin and Folsom, the property taxes from the new development is being used to offset the cost of fixing up the older infrastructure in the older neighborhoods of these areas. Citrus Heights was formed to capture sales taxes from all of the retail generated by the stores near the Sunrise Mall. Davis doesn't have the retail of these other areas, but its residents in general are just more willing to assess taxes on themselves to pay for higher levels of government services, see the most recent vote to assess themselves to parcel tax for better schools. In Arden Park the residents voted to assess themselves higher parcel taxes to improve the local Parks.
Its matters most in older neighborhoods. In new neighborhoods a lot of the infrastructure is paid for by the developers as a condition of development, so taxes can be lower in those communities because the cost was passed onto the buyers in the form of higher building costs rather than higher taxes. But as this infrastructure ages its going to need to be replaced and those costs can't be passed onto the property owners indirectly, but must instead come from higher taxes or reduced government spending. Since a lot of the spending is mandated, lower tax rates in older neighborhoods generally seem to translate into poorly maintained public infrastructure. Areas that are more to the left have an easier time getting a consensus to raise taxes to upgrade neighborhoods.
If you look at the older inner suburban neighborhoods the places older than 30 years old that still have Republican majorities, generally the infrastructure isn't holding up well. The sidewalks are cracked, the schools streets have lots of pot holes etc. The pool at Carmichael Park was so poorly maintained that it was closed and there are no plans to re-open it in the foreseeable future. Drive through Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Arden Arcade or Orangevale the infrastructure in these neighborhoods is starting to get long in the tooth. These neighborhoods are in transition right now as the older Republicans who bought into these neighborhoods when the housing stock was brand new 30 or 40 years ago die off and are replaced by younger families who are less to the right.
Now there are some exceptions to the rule, but the exceptions help prove the rule. In Roseville, Rocklin and Folsom, the property taxes from the new development is being used to offset the cost of fixing up the older infrastructure in the older neighborhoods of these areas. Citrus Heights was formed to capture sales taxes from all of the retail generated by the stores near the Sunrise Mall. Davis doesn't have the retail of these other areas, but its residents in general are just more willing to assess taxes on themselves to pay for higher levels of government services, see the most recent vote to assess themselves to parcel tax for better schools. In Arden Park the residents voted to assess themselves higher parcel taxes to improve the local Parks.
Shelato,
Those "fees" levied on the property tax statements serve the same purpose as taxes. It doesn't matter if it is a direct tax, a "fee," or if the cost is passed directly through inflating the purchase price of a new home because, in the end, you have the same amount taken out of your bank account regardless of what they refer to it as.
Additionally, I've spent a lot of time looking for a house in the Carmichael and Fair Oaks areas. It doesn't look like the infrastructure is falling apart to me. The pool isn't getting fixed because the cost of maintaining pools has become prohibitively expensive. These areas are also in the county. The county has lost quite a bit of revenue from areas which have been incorporated into the cities of Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights.
When it comes time to pay for replacing existing infrastructure willingness to get people to agree to tax increases to pay for it determines how good your infrastructure will be. The reason the residents of Arden Park still have a local pool while the residents of Carmicheal don't is that residents of the Arden Park district agreed to assess themselves a parcel tax to pay for pools in the Arden Park District while the residents of the Carmichael Park district did not and as such no longer have a public park with a functioning pool. Is the cost of sustaining the public pool in Carmichael really more cost prohibitive than in Arden Park or is there just an unwillingness to pay for the full costs of sustaining infrastructure so residents are left with less of it? Why politics of your local neighborhoods matters is that finding a group of them willing to assess themselves to pay for a local public pool pretty much determines whether your neighborhood will still have a public pool in an older neighborhood.
Before these neighborhoods were built out 40 or 50 years ago, it didn't matter economically whether infrastructure is paid for directly by higher taxes or indirectly by making developers pay for the infrastructuere and then letting the developers pass the cost onto subsequent buyers at one level doesn't matter. Either way the property owners are paying for it so economically the transactions functioned pretty similiarly. But as the neighborhoods age and infrastructure needs to be replaced, now how infrastructure is paid for does matter. If your neighborhood isn't willing to pay more for higher levels of government services then you will have less of them. If you want to live in a older neighborhod with a working public pool its much better to live in Arden Park district then in the Carmichael Park district.
I would also suggest that the OP look towards Wilton, Galt, or even Lodi for conservative neighbors.
Politics and taxes is one thing. However, when it comes to culture and family values, it doesn't really matter where you live in the Sacramento area apart from avoiding midtown and certain high-crime areas. Elk Grove-Laguna, for example, looks "blue", but that's only because it has a high percentage of Dem-registered minorities, many of whom are socially conservative and make great neighbors.
Last edited by WesternPilgrim; 03-29-2012 at 08:18 PM..
The cost of maintaining pools has become prohibitive for most communities. That one community decides to voluntarily pay more to keep those pools open is another issue entirely. Sacramento's public pools will be closing too if there aren't enough donations to keep them open.
Rocklin and Roseville would probably fit your needs. They are more than 30 minutes to Dixon, however, but not more than an hour unless you drive during rush hour. Possibly Folsom as well. Antelope might be okay as well and closer to Dixon.
The nice thing about going with El Dorado county is that your wife could use the commuter buss down to downtown Sacramento, think Placer county has one as well.
As far as living on the valley floor, it really is not great! Traffic is pretty bad, the law enforcement departments are all short staffed and won't respond unless it is a major crime, and the air quality is horrible. If you've never had allergies before you will upon moving to the Sacramento Valley!
Avoid Elk Grove, anything in South Sacramento, Natomas, or Rosemont.
One alternative although not super conservative, is West Sacramento specifically Southport. Kinda the perfect in between for Dixon and great commute time to downtown Sac. Most of Southport is new construction, the town is building up its side of the river, the Mayor is bringing in businesses. Southport is still erecting new shopping stores, they have a Lowe's, Target, Nugget Market (upper scale food store), couple of Starbucks, and a couple of new fast food places and most of this has been built in the last few years even after the economy went downhill.
If I was suddenly hog tied and forced to move back to the Sacramento area I would go to Southport, it's close to everything yet still has that smaller town feeling.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
