Texan Visited Sacramento (Impressed) (San Jose, Oakland: lease, crime, homes)

[houstonview]

Been living in Bayarea for 4 months now, i'm from Houston, visited La & Sd plenty of times before moving to the Bayarea without ever visiting. I went on a road trip to visit Sacramento to check out the city and watch the rockets play the Kings. Went to old sac, Davis, Folsom, midtown areas.

I left impressed, after getting bad opinions of sac, from people in the Bayarea. Being from Houston I loved the country feel of the outskirts/suburbs, and the fact that you can still drive into the city easy when you need a fix. Only bad thing is It made me miss my truck that I got rid of before I left for the Bayarea.

I know the city has crime and gangs. But I was shocked at how people made me think I was going to a desert type of town with nothing to do and boring.

(austin) with Austin being the capitol of Texas, I prefer Sac more, because even though Austin has music and more night life, you cant beat going to SF, NAPA, Tahoe, RENO & quick flights to SD, LA VEGAS.

-new arena was packed, it's nice, a lot of energy

-folks seemed wayyyyy nicer than the bayarea, more diverse, laid back

-you can still have a truck here

-midtown is super nice so many places to eat, nice older homes

-a lot of parks

-good suburbs to raise kids

-people just seemed more down to earth easy going not in a rush, and not always worried about their next move

-old sac was nice, the capital was nice to see

-Davis seemed like the perfect little town to live in, with a high Quality of life. (looking form the outside in)

[49erfan916]

Alot of people who bash sacramento are very ignorant. They never set foot in Sacramento or just viewed the city on google maps and gave their best educated opinion. I use to hate it up here as a kid, but now as an adult, i love it. There's alot of things to do out here and it's relatively safe for a big city. The only things i dislike is the rising COL and increased traffic. But hey, that's the bad thing about a growing city, I guess.

[Chimérique]

houstonview, Great post!

Next time you visit you from the Bay Area you might want to try taking the Capitol Corridor Train (10-12 trains per day).

It connects San Jose(downtown/Arena), Santa Clara(University), Santa Clara(49ers stadium), Hayward, Oakland(Coliseum), Oakland(downtown-Jack London Sq), Emeryville(transfer point to SF via Amtrak bus which is included in your ticket via the Bay Bridge), Berkeley(4th Street), Richmond(transfer point with BART), Martinez(downtown), Suisun City/Fairfield, Davis(downtown) Sacramento(Downtown), Roseville(1-2 trains per day) and Auburn(1-2 trains per day).

Sac's train station is 1 1/2 blocks from Golden One Center, and Old Sac.

I just love this train, the time always goes by so fast as the train is very smooth, clean and comfortable with free wifi. You can bring your bike on the train.

One very cool reason to visit Sacramento in the summer is to raft down the American River! Good reason to bring your truck,

[houstonview]

Originally Posted by 49erfan916

Alot of people who bash sacramento are very ignorant. They never set foot in Sacramento or just viewed the city on google maps and gave their best educated opinion. I use to hate it up here as a kid, but now as an adult, i love it. There's alot of things to do out here and it's relatively safe for a big city. The only things i dislike is the rising COL and increased traffic. But hey, that's the bad thing about a growing city, I guess.

Yeah me and my wife honestly feel in love with the city, we're late 20 and early 30. We plan on finding jobs there when our lease is up.

[johnnyz]

Originally Posted by houstonview

Been living in Bayarea for 4 months now, i'm from Houston, visited La & Sd plenty of times before moving to the Bayarea without ever visiting. I went on a road trip to visit Sacramento to check out the city and watch the rockets play the Kings. Went to old sac, Davis, Folsom, midtown areas.

I left impressed, after getting bad opinions of sac, from people in the Bayarea. Being from Houston I loved the country feel of the outskirts/suburbs, and the fact that you can still drive into the city easy when you need a fix. Only bad thing is It made me miss my truck that I got rid of before I left for the Bayarea.

I know the city has crime and gangs. But I was shocked at how people made me think I was going to a desert type of town with nothing to do and boring.

(austin) with Austin being the capitol of Texas, I prefer Sac more, because even though Austin has music and more night life, you cant beat going to SF, NAPA, Tahoe, RENO & quick flights to SD, LA VEGAS.

-new arena was packed, it's nice, a lot of energy

-folks seemed wayyyyy nicer than the bayarea, more diverse, laid back

-you can still have a truck here

-midtown is super nice so many places to eat, nice older homes

-a lot of parks

-good suburbs to raise kids

-people just seemed more down to earth easy going not in a rush, and not always worried about their next move

-old sac was nice, the capital was nice to see

-Davis seemed like the perfect little town to live in, with a high Quality of life. (looking form the outside in)

Completely agree with your entire post.... I'm originally from deep South Texas (Rio Grande Valley) but have been living in Austin for 3.5 years now..... Growing up I also lived in Woodland CA which is 8 miles from Davis and 13 miles from Sac..... As much as I like Austin, it's just gotten way too crowded here.... over 1 Million people in a city that is meant to hold 500,000 ..... I visited Sac / Davis / Woodland and SF two years ago and still loved it..... I'm considering moving back up there to either Woodland or Davis if I can make the right job opportunity happen...

[houstonview]

Originally Posted by johnnyz

Completely agree with your entire post.... I'm originally from deep South Texas (Rio Grande Valley) but have been living in Austin for 3.5 years now..... Growing up I also lived in Woodland CA which is 8 miles from Davis and 13 miles from Sac..... As much as I like Austin, it's just gotten way too crowded here.... over 1 Million people in a city that is meant to hold 500,000 ..... I visited Sac / Davis / Woodland and SF two years ago and still loved it..... I'm considering moving back up there to either Woodland or Davis if I can make the right job opportunity happen...

yes its a great town I'm surprised it doesn't have more hype. Austin is nice but if I had to pick it would be sac if I was past my party days or had a family. which we do have a young child even though were young, nice cool walkable areas with restaurants and few bars is just enough for us to have night type of fun.

[houstonview]

Oh and I heard about the farmers markets in Davis on sat. and the vineyards not too far from sac from a co-worker today.

The farmers market seems really cool my wife would love going on the weekend.

[sacreole]

@houstonview, I appreciate your review and positive portrayal of Sacramento. Generally folks from the Bay Area have a condescending view of Sacramento and are surprised at how nice it really is when they visit. As a native Californian who was born and raised in So Cal and lived in Visalia (San Joaquin Valley), I concur with your assessment of Sacramento. I've lived here nearly 13 years and found it to have a good balance of big city amenities with a smaller town feel. From where I live, I could be downtown in 5 to 7 minutes or in the Delta in 10 minutes.

You mentioned farmers markets. Yes, Davis has a great farmers market. There are several good ones in Sacramento proper as well. Here's a directory of farmers markets in the Sacramento area:

Farmers Markets - America's Farm-to-Fork Capital, Sacramento California

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by johnnyz

Completely agree with your entire post.... I'm originally from deep South Texas (Rio Grande Valley) but have been living in Austin for 3.5 years now..... Growing up I also lived in Woodland CA which is 8 miles from Davis and 13 miles from Sac..... As much as I like Austin, it's just gotten way too crowded here.... over 1 Million people in a city that is meant to hold 500,000 ..... I visited Sac / Davis / Woodland and SF two years ago and still loved it..... I'm considering moving back up there to either Woodland or Davis if I can make the right job opportunity happen...

If you think Austin is crowded, you might want to reconsider Sacramento. It actually has a higher population density than Austin and the metro area is quite large and sprawly.

[Californiaguy2007]

A lot of Central Valley towns and cities get bashed by those who live in the Coastal Metro Areas,even though their are many nice, affordable and safe communities to live in here in the Central Valley.