Bay Arean's Do you like living in Sacramento? (San Francisco, Pittsburg: apartment, hotel)

[Sherri222]

FYI, Seattle is a real city. Gorgeous, tons to do , huge skyline, and a great nightlife. Culture everywhere. You can't compare a walking city like Seattle to a farm like Sacramento. They are just way too different.

[krudmonk]

Ugh, the sad marriage of urban culture and chick fashion...

[alexxiz]

Originally Posted by yanea

Just wondering, I know a ton of people who moved from the bay to Sacramento. Thinking of moving to Sacramento too. My mother moved from Palo Alto 6 years ago to Fair Oaks. I live in Portland currently. Thinking about relocating to Sacramento, Houston, or South Carolina. Any thoughts?

You know you shouldn't ask these questions online. Every one will have own different view of each city; one's garbage is another one's treasure. You should spend a couple of months traveling and living for a couple of weeks in each city on your list, perhaps get a weekly hotel rate, and see things for yourself, how you feel about a city.

[shelato]

I think the more relevant comparison is various parts of the Sacramento region with various parts of the Bay Area. I see some comparisons between say Orinda and Granite Bay, and Rockridge and to say East Sac. Downtown Sac with Downtown Oakland.

[sacramento916]

Originally Posted by shelato

I think the more relevant comparison is various parts of the Sacramento region with various parts of the Bay Area. I see some comparisons between say Orinda and Granite Bay, and Rockridge and to say East Sac. Downtown Sac with Downtown Oakland.

True. At most Sac's urbanity is only most comparable to Oakland, or San Jose. There's nothing like the SF Peninsula in these parts.

But overall, a good place to raise a family. And it's improving.

[moovin]

It's interesting that I've heard the below reasons from other Bay Area transplants living here. Especially, the little things like the warm evenings. It's truly important because this applies to all evenings between April-ish through October-ish. You can have pool and swim in the evening and not freeze when you get out.

I like the river aspect too. If you've ever traveled to Europe, East Coast, or midwest, and been to any number of its large cities you would find a river running through it which adds a particular, attractive ambiance. Sac is nowhere near a Euro city but there are some nice riverfront areas to see and it has further potential. There's no other Ca city that has that.

If you ski or board you can cruise up 80 and be at Sugarbowl in 45 minutes. A little longer for Northstar, Squaw, or Alpine.

Schools are excellent, at least in Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Folsom, El Dorado, and certainly other areas - just don't know em well.

Originally Posted by moovin

I moved to Rocklin (but this goes for Granite Bay, Folsom, El Dorado...). Things I like are:

Houses are 40% of the cost in Bay Area or better for similar, good school district area.

Warm evenings. It could be an 82 degree day in the Bay Area and then cool off to 60 by 7pm when the ocean breeze/fog rolls in.

Close to mountains - skiing and summertime camping/hiking/backpacking.

Sac is a city with a river flowing through it. There's nothing like that in Ca (don't mention Stockton). The river brings recreation, bike paths, people to it's shore.

Traffic. I was worried about posts about traffic in Sac. There is little traffic on the highways here. The definition of traffic is in LA or parts of the Bay Area. Go there to baseline "traffic".

People are friendlier. Strange but true. People wave to me in neighborhoods I drive through. It happens very frequently. I've met all my neighbors.

Generally a good family-raising area. If I were single I would probably not be here. It's quite sleepy otherwise.

[sacramento916]

Originally Posted by moovin

It's interesting that I've heard the below reasons from other Bay Area transplants living here. Especially, the little things like the warm evenings. It's truly important because this applies to all evenings between April-ish through October-ish. You can have pool and swim in the evening and not freeze when you get out.

I like the river aspect too. If you've ever traveled to Europe, East Coast, or midwest, and been to any number of its large cities you would find a river running through it which adds a particular, attractive ambiance. Sac is nowhere near a Euro city but there are some nice riverfront areas to see and it has further potential. There's no other Ca city that has that.

If you ski or board you can cruise up 80 and be at Sugarbowl in 45 minutes. A little longer for Northstar, Squaw, or Alpine.

Schools are excellent, at least in Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Folsom, El Dorado, and certainly other areas - just don't know em well.

The rivers are a great asset here. Unfortunately up to now Sac has not taken advantage of it at all. However, hopefully with the Bridge District project and the future Railyards project, this will be changing.

[wburg]

"Has not taken advantage of it at all" is a bit of hyperbole--our biggest tourist attraction is right on the river (Old Sacramento) with river cruises and a tourist railroad ride on the river levee, two major hotels are located on the river (Le Rivage and the Embassy Suites) and there is a half-mile "River Walk" south of Old Sac that leads to a bike route that follows the levee down into the Delta. Along the American is another bike trail, one of the most popular in the country, and a large nature area and public park (Discovery Park), upstream is another nature area with river access (Effie Yeaw Nature Center), and farther upstream in Folsom more river-oriented recreational options.

Sure, we could be doing more with our Sacramento River waterfront, but given the legacy of heavy industrial activity along the waterfront that continues to the present day (steelworking and heavy manufacturing, shipping, coal gas generation, electric power generation burning coal and oil, garbage incineration, oil storage, sewage treatment etc.) most of the focus in the past couple of decades has been on environmental cleanup. Not to mention the fact that most of the development of the county has been to the east, away from the river.

[ryuns]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

The rivers are a great asset here. Unfortunately up to now Sac has not taken advantage of it at all. However, hopefully with the Bridge District project and the future Railyards project, this will be changing.

And don't forget about the Powerhouse Science Center! Powerhouse Science Center

[wburg]

I'm definitely looking forward to the Powerhouse Science Center's completion. One thing about that particular building--the "ugly" side (board-formed concrete) faces the land, while the "pretty" side faces the water. It was designed to be viewed from the river side! It wasn't the only building designed that way, a few of the West Sac rice mills and other waterfront buildings were intended primarily to be pleasing to those arriving in Sacramento by riverboat or over the I Street or M Street railroad bridges. We don't have riverboats to San Francisco or Red Bluff anymore, but there is still a lot of recreational river traffic on the Sacramento.

Oh yeah--speaking of things facing the river, I forgot to mention the Miller Park marina just south of Broadway.