Trying to understand Sactown (Los Angeles, San Diego: apartment, house, neighborhoods)

[nalmak]

As a city me and my fiancee are researching to move to (San Diego is the other), by 2017, I'm trying to understand the city. I was out there 3 weeks ago, for about 3 days, and previously was there in 2007. It was a night and day difference between the 2 periods. I honestly thought people came to Sacramento to die in 2007. I was born, raised, and lived in LA (West La) for 29 years, been living in Houston the past 2 (same applies to her). It just seems that something is missing from Sactown.

Downtown, the grid, midtown, or whatever its called, just the whole general area is phenomenal. But I agree with some other posters that it can be a bit overrun with hipsters. Is there another area that offers the amenities of downtown, with a different vibe(sporty,elegant etc just to give an illustration), or is downtown surrounded by suburbs? It doesn't have to be the same size, just a different style.

Without addressing Folsom, it seems Downtown, and Carmichael are the only distinct areas that look different than all of Sac. Is this true, or did i miss something? I'm not saying it all looks like North Natomas, but not that different varying degrees, from what I can tell.

I do like that investments are starting to stack up in the city, as on the downtown sac website that has all the developments, it looks great. The Mills, Railyards will be a awesome place, once done.

[wburg]

No, it's pretty much all suburbs outside of the downtown/midtown grid. Now, there are many varieties of suburb, from the old upscale streetcar suburb (east sac, land park, curtis park), the old downscale streetcar suburb (oak park, north sacramento), mid-century auto suburbs (south land park, river park, little pocket) to the later 20th century suburbs (pocket, south natomas, florin) and so on to the 21st century insta-burbs inside and outside the city limits (Southport in West Sacramento, Elk Grove, North Natomas). Davis is a college town, with that college-town vibe and a mecca for biking, but despite its location in another county it's still basically a suburb with a very college-y feel. Some regional cities are former small farm/railroad towns with suburbs accreted around them, like Elk Grove, Woodland, Roseville, Folsom and Rocklin. Others are suburbs without even that small-town center or a city government, like El Dorado Hills, Rancho Murieta, Orangevale and the many sub-suburbs of Arden-Arcade. And there are even still some surviving bits of farm town relatively close to the city, like Florin, Freeport, Rio Linda/Elverta, but those are being rapidly swallowed by the suburban blobs.

Keep in mind that the city of Los Angeles has about nine times the population of the city of Sacramento. LA County has about nine times the population of Sacramento County. Looking for a 1:1 comparison with LA is always going to be hazardous, especially if your life was spent in the wealthier parts of Los Angeles (as opposed to the poorer parts.) As a result, the rich parts of the Sacramento region aren't going to be as concentrated as the rich parts of Los Angeles (nor are the poorer parts, respectively.) And because we grew into a big city during the suburban era, rather than during the great era of American city building of the early 20th century, a lot of our neighborhoods are very suburban, as are most of Los Angeles' and surrounding communities, by proportion, but without the long-term numbers and density that made people build upward 100 years ago. So if the "amenities of downtown" you're looking for are things like tall buildings, walkability, public transit, concentrations of civic amenities and restaurants etcetera, then no, the Sacramento city grid is about it, although to some extent it's now leaking out into the old streetcar suburbs I mentioned, both the upscale and downscale ones, to varying degrees.

[derekjones]

What do you mean by sporty/elegant? Also what amenities exactly are you looking for? Bars and nightclubs?

Have you checked out East Sac? Curtis park/Land Park?

[Chimérique]

wBurg has given a good descriptions of Sacramento neighborhoods and the variety of suburbs.

I'll add that the majority of cities in the US are of that smaller city center grid with a lot of suburbs surrounding it like Austin, Denver, San Antonio, Portland, Kansas City, Orlando and many others.

All these Sacramento area places have walkable grid, or grid-like, or historic main street city centers from largest to smallest: Davis, Auburn, Placerville, Roseville, Folsom, Woodland, West Sacramento, Lincoln, Fair Oaks Village, Loomis, Elk Grove.

Note that El Dorado Hills does have a "center" where folks of all ages can hang out outside at outdoor cafes with music, festivals and events. It's basically a shopping center but designed like mainstreet small town with a large pond, very small lake.

I agree with wBurg about comparisons with LA. There are vast areas of LA city/county that are as suburban or more suburban than Sacramento. I like that in Sacramento I can, in 15 minutes, be truly outside of any kind urban environment if I want it. Can't do that in LA...that house in Malibu or the Hollywoods Hills doesn't count...your still in a huge very urban environment.

LA has something I'm not too fond of either and that is miles and miles of 3 to 6 story buildings that lack any sort of appealing urban walkability, extremely dense suburban environments with huge apartment buildings with huge garages and nobody walks anywhere. These areas are supported by Huge shopping centers with huge garages and/or parking lots. Huge blocks of very unappealing streets made only for driving. That still exists in huge parts of LA and Orange counties.

[JohnS_15]

Which neighborhoods would you be considering in San Diego? Obviously money on a home would go a lot further in Sacramento. What probably $1MM+ for an average single family home in a good neighborhood in San Diego these days? You could get into a very nice house in one of Sacramento's nicest neighborhoods for under $1MM. Just depends on what your priorities are...

Others have given good general overview of some of the neighborhoods. You are right that downtown/midtown area has the most walkable amenities and feels the most urban. There are areas of midtown that are quieter and have a more mature and less hipster feeling crowd. East Sacramento and Land Park are upscale and close to the amenities of the midtown/downtown area and with amenities of their own too.

Sporty/elegant? Are you looking for more of a country club crowd? The area around Fair Oaks Blvd as you head east from Sacramento State University (I'm never sure what to call this area, sort of South Arden-Arcade/Carmichael) - is upscale, some of it very upscale. There are some places that might be walkable and definitely bikeable... but it's more shopping centers. The population around here is more of the tennis club variety with designer clothes and cars if that's the kind of thing you are looking for.

Roseville/Rocklin/Folsom/El Dorado Hills have a more Southern California suburban feeling with golf clubs, fancy shopping centers, lots of shiny new SUVs. While each may have somewhat of a town center it's not really comparable to the midtown scene and everyone drives everywhere.

[Adamson865]

Former resident of Sacramento here, now living in Palm Springs. You can't compare Sacramento with either LA or Houston. Those two are vast mega-metropolises and Sacramento is definitely much smaller. That would be like me complaining that Palm Springs (population 50k on a good day when the snowbirds are here and it's not 117 in the shade) doesn't have decent freeways like Sacramento. I don't want this to sound as dire as it sounds, but you will have to scale back your expectations a bit. Everyplace (yes, even San Diego) will be a step down from LA or Houston.

My best analogy for Sacramento is that it is Portland with sunshine... a mid-sized city with aspirations.

[wburg]

That's the best description I've heard too, by a touring Portland band--Sacramento is basically Portland with palm trees.

[pistola916]

Originally Posted by wburg

That's the best description I've heard too, by a touring Portland band--Sacramento is basically Portland with palm trees.

Sacramento is Portland with sunshine, palm trees, and minorities.

[Adamson865]

Originally Posted by pistola916

Sacramento is Portland with sunshine, palm trees, and minorities.

Hey - I'm a native Portlander - they have minorities! They basically fall into three categories... those from the Pacific Rim who have wandered down from Vancouver & Seattle over the years, high tech workers on H1B visas, and the Portland Trailblazers.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by JohnS_15

Sporty/elegant? Are you looking for more of a country club crowd? The area around Fair Oaks Blvd as you head east from Sacramento State University (I'm never sure what to call this area, sort of South Arden-Arcade/Carmichael) - is upscale, some of it very upscale. There are some places that might be walkable and definitely bikeable... but it's more shopping centers. The population around here is more of the tennis club variety with designer clothes and cars if that's the kind of thing you are looking for.

These are the more popular names used to describe the area: Moving from the west to the northeast these neighborhoods follow Fair Oaks Blvd , American River Drive, and their southern boundary is the American River.
Moving west from Sacramento State University northeast following the American River you have:


Campus Commons - one of the first upscale "semi-gated" communities in Sacramento.
Sierra Oaks(north of Fair Oaks Blvd) - used to be large acreage Fruit Orchards, now 50-70 year old large homes and lots.

Wilhaggen (south of Fair Oaks Blvd) - Governors Dukemejian, Petey Wilson, and Grey Davis all lived here - This neighborhood and others nearby are classic mid-century Californian suburbs, large lots, custom, semi-custom, large floor plans, California Ranch, California Adobe, large backyards and swimming pools. Note all these governors were Southern Californian and they all lived in these beautiful suburban type neighborhoods in some the of best parts of SoCal - these type of neighborhoods in the LA city, county, and Orange County are in the 5-10 million range.

Arden Park, Arden Hills, Garden of the Gods, Mission and Cottage (north of Fair Oaks Blvd)

Del Dayo (south of Fair Oaks Blvd) - Think Jesuit High School, and the large homes, lots, and estates of the area. "Del Dayo Estates".

Before Roseville, Rocklin, Folsom, El Dorado Hills, etc. - This were the new upscale SPORTY/ELEGANT neighborhoods. - These neighborhoods were all very "SACRAMENTO" unlike our newer suburbs they had no need to distinguish themselves as "not being from Sacramento".

Most of the neighborhoods all have "Sacramento zip codes" and you will find many slightly different versions of these names and more distinctions in neighborhood names.

Also, these neighborhood names were used more often than "Arden-Arcade", rather you heard the "Arden" area or the "Arcade" area and the distinctive neighborhood names mentioned above.

Note: The major thoroughfares are named after famous inventors: Watt, Marconi, Edison, Whitney, etc.

Garden of the Gods : Streets named after the Gods: Ulysses, Pluto, Aries, Mars, etc.