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Hey everyone, hopefully I'll be going to Sac State in the fall of next year. Just a few questions for anyone living in Sacramento or going to Sac State.
What is the area like around campus? Is there much going on like a lot of other larger universities? What is Sacramento like for the gay community? Is the city itself pretty interesting?
I grew up in Orange County and have lived in Virginia Beach for the last 3.5 years and am looking for a change. Just curious of Sac State/Sacramento would be a good fit for a young 20's kid trying to finish off his degree with very little money to throw around.
The neighborhoods around campus are quiet residential communities, some are pretty spendy but there are some relatively economical apartments. There are some nice little shopping-type areas nearby on J Street, but not much in the evening. Sac State was built as a commuter campus, far from the central city and where lots of things go on. A series of new developments are being built nearby, at 65th and Folsom, that may change that, but much of it hasn't been built yet.
Sacramento has, by some accounts, the seventh largest gay community in the country. Most is centered in midtown Sacramento; there is an epicenter of sorts along 20th Street from roughly J to L Street, sometimes called "Lavender Heights." A lot of people in midtown are also Sac State students: there is a lot of public transit from midtown to Sac State (bus and light rail) and it's an easy bike ride.
I think Sacramento is interesting, but many people think I'm crazy for thinking that. It helps if you are the sort of person who doesn't mind sometimes having to look around for things to do, and doesn't mind a city that can be kind of quiet and laid back--but if you know where to look, there's actually a heck of a lot going on in this town.
What other areas are you considering? Do you still have residency in California?
In comparision to other places in California, the cost of living in Sacramento is pretty cheap. But I doubt I would not want to pay out of state tuition to go the Sac State.
The people I know who are married with kids tend to appreciate Sacramento the most because in general Sacramento is somewhere you can buy into better neighborhoods with better schools for a given amount of money compared to elsewhere in California. I know a several lesbian couples with kids in the area and they love it.
But for the people who are single and don't have family in the area, are much less enthusiastic about the area. Sac State is a commuter campus with the problems associated with that. Campus events tend to have poor turn outs. You don't see lots of people showing up for sports events or much else.
Sacramento is more suburban than urban. When you meet people in the area, the first thing they tell you about is how close it is to other places like Tahoe, the gold country, Napa or SF. If you are willing to drive, there are some things to see and do.
But the pace of life in Sacramento is probably a lot slower than Orange County. If you see that as an advantage rather than a disadvantage, than I think Sacramento could be a good fit.
But if you were looking for a real active gay community, you might prefer the bay area, Sonoma and Humboldt or some place in southern California like San Diego State.
Humboldt? Seriously? Their biggest city has a population of about 25,000 and its major industries are lumber (slowly dying) and marijuana. I lived there for four years, and if you want to go live someplace that makes you long for the urbane, energetic nightlife of Sacramento, it's Humboldt County.
If you are looking for a cheap place to go to school and you don't care about how gay friendly the community is, I think Fresno State is probably a really good choice. Rents are cheaper than Sacramento and the school is big enough to offer a lot of programs. There is a small gay community in the Tower district.
I grew up in Fresno, and Sacramento is just a larger more expensive version of Fresno. The region is mostly suburban and for California its socially conservative. Sacramento is where Rush Limbaugh got his start. Prop 8, had widespread support in most of Sacramento. It only failed in Davis and the central city. If you are willing to hang out in Davis and the central city, you won't encounter much homophobia, but as you get further away from that you will.
If you are looking for a cheap place that is much more gay friendly, I would look at the North Coast. Humboldt is cheap like Fresno, but socially its a world apart.
The primary industry in humboldt isn't logging, its growing pot and that industry is much more recession resistent. The north coast is very gay friendly. Between the enviromental activists and the pot growers, and all of the beds and breakfast places, you have one of the most gay friendly regions in the state. Its also really cheap as you get into Humboldt and Arcata.
When you grow pot, you create a lot of green industries, that nourish progressive communities. In order to keep the feds from spotting your growing operations, you need to get off the grid and that creates demand for lots of alternative electricity industries. You also need to get rid of the waste in a manner that won't attract law enforcement, and that means lots of composting operations. All of this creates communities who really believe in progressive policies and politics. That creates communities that are also really ***** friendly.
If I was gay, I can think of a lot of places that i would feel more welcome than Sacramento. Sacramento has some restaurants, but it definitely is not a gay mecca and I think its a stretch to label the nightlife here urbane or energetic.
Its a government town filled with civil servants. Sacramento is about as hip as my hometown of Fresno. I like both places, but I am not a young single gay man either. If I was, I suspect I would have a lot less enthusiam for the place.
If you are looking for some place that is urban, I would head out to the SF Bay Area. Rents are more expensive, but there is rent control and wages are higher.
ubu: Have you ever spent any time up there? You're not giving all that accurate of a picture. Outside of Arcata and to some extent Eureka, Humboldt County is a very, very conservative place. Even in those two cities (population 15,000 andf 25,000) there are plenty of "townies" who are quite conservative and have an often-contentious relationship with perceived "outsiders" (generally, anyone who wasn't born there.) In the smaller towns, people tend to be very working-class conservative country folks, very religious, and very suspicious of outsiders.
Pot growers are nowhere near the kind of socially progressive eco-farmers you make them out to be. Growers hide their waste by illegal dumping, just one of the hazards of backwoods dope farms (besides tripwires, boobytraps and paranoid, well-armed growers protecting their harvest from poachers.) And while pot is the big-money crop in Humboldt County, most of the actual political power brokers are connected with the logging industry, and other than the Arcata city council, most electeds there tend to be pretty conservative even if they're Democrats.
Nightlife in Arcata or Eureka generally consists of going to one of the dozen or so bars, going to some frat's keg party, seeing a country, reggae or Grateful Dead cover band (venues that play music from more recent decades tend to get shut down very quickly), catching some student play at Humboldt State, or going to Don's Donut Bar or one of three or four 24-hour diners. Trust me, I'm not under any illusion that Sacramento is one of the great entertainment destinations of the world, but there is a whole lot more to do in Sacramento than in Arcata/Eureka entertainment-wise.
I don't mean to cut the place down, I really don't. I went to college there. I loved it. Part of me wishes I never left, and some places up there are my favorite spots on the planet. The ocean and the trees and the mountains are beautiful, there are some amazing historic places and architecture. But, at best, Arcata and Eureka are very nice small towns.
edit: Of course, none of this is particularly helpful to the OP, who has apparently already decided on Sac State.
ubu, also don't forget that Fresno's GLBT film festival was the spark that made Sacramento start a GLBT film festival.
I always find that amusing when people think Fresno is more conservative than Sacramento.
Quote:
Founded by Allen Cole, the Film Festival in Sacramento started in 1992, based on the student run gay and lesbian film festival at Fresno State.
About SIGLFF (Sacramento International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival) (http://www.siglff.org/about.html - broken link)
Fresno's Reel Pride is no longer a student run film festival, its now a community wide event. Home :: Fresno Reel Pride
Hey everyone, hopefully I'll be going to Sac State in the fall of next year. Just a few questions for anyone living in Sacramento or going to Sac State.
What is the area like around campus? Is there much going on like a lot of other larger universities? What is Sacramento like for the gay community? Is the city itself pretty interesting?
I grew up in Orange County and have lived in Virginia Beach for the last 3.5 years and am looking for a change. Just curious of Sac State/Sacramento would be a good fit for a young 20's kid trying to finish off his degree with very little money to throw around.
Thanks!
Don't do it!
I am a dyke, I grew up in Sacramento, its so much worse than Orange County. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.
There are much better options in California than Sacramento. Sacramento has a huge redneck element. Its loaded with mega churches. You have the Capitol Christian Center, all of the Bayside Churches, Trinity Christian and Arcade Baptist.
In Sacramento the immigrants are also religious nuts. The region is a hotbed of religious nuts from the former soviet union. The local Russian churches solidify there membership by getting there memberships all worked up about homosexuality and the leads to the Russian kids killing *****s.
Hate-crime trial hears of slurs before Lake Natoma killing - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/970295.html - broken link)
If you are *****, Sacramento is an incredibly dangerous place to live. You are at risk of getting beat up all of the time. It happens quite regularly there. Don't live there.
ubu: Have you ever spent any time up there? You're not giving all that accurate of a picture. Outside of Arcata and to some extent Eureka, Humboldt County is a very, very conservative place. Even in those two cities (population 15,000 andf 25,000) there are plenty of "townies" who are quite conservative and have an often-contentious relationship with perceived "outsiders" (generally, anyone who wasn't born there.) In the smaller towns, people tend to be very working-class conservative country folks, very religious, and very suspicious of outsiders.
Pot growers are nowhere near the kind of socially progressive eco-farmers you make them out to be. Growers hide their waste by illegal dumping, just one of the hazards of backwoods dope farms (besides tripwires, boobytraps and paranoid, well-armed growers protecting their harvest from poachers.) And while pot is the big-money crop in Humboldt County, most of the actual political power brokers are connected with the logging industry, and other than the Arcata city council, most electeds there tend to be pretty conservative even if they're Democrats.
Nightlife in Arcata or Eureka generally consists of going to one of the dozen or so bars, going to some frat's keg party, seeing a country, reggae or Grateful Dead cover band (venues that play music from more recent decades tend to get shut down very quickly), catching some student play at Humboldt State, or going to Don's Donut Bar or one of three or four 24-hour diners. Trust me, I'm not under any illusion that Sacramento is one of the great entertainment destinations of the world, but there is a whole lot more to do in Sacramento than in Arcata/Eureka entertainment-wise.
I don't mean to cut the place down, I really don't. I went to college there. I loved it. Part of me wishes I never left, and some places up there are my favorite spots on the planet. The ocean and the trees and the mountains are beautiful, there are some amazing historic places and architecture. But, at best, Arcata and Eureka are very nice small towns.
edit: Of course, none of this is particularly helpful to the OP, who has apparently already decided on Sac State.
I am a dyke and I have lived in the North Coast. Sacramento is really crappy place to live if you are gay. In the north coast you don't have the huge presence of religious nuts. Its a much safer place to live.
The North Coast is much more socially progressive than Sacramento. In Humboldt, they supported gay marriage. I don't think you realise just how incredibly conservative Sacramento is. Sacramento is really violent and the violence is directed all of the time at *****s.
Election Results - November 4, 2008 - California Secretary of State (http://vote.sos.ca.gov/Returns/props/map190000000008.htm - broken link)
ubu, also don't forget that Fresno's GLBT film festival was the spark that made Sacramento start a GLBT film festival.
I always find that amusing when people think Fresno is more conservative than Sacramento.
Fresno's Reel Pride is no longer a student run film festival, its now a community wide event. Home :: Fresno Reel Pride
The central valley is incredibly conservative. Why would anyone who is ***** want to live in a community where people are voting to take away your civil rights. There are other much better places to live in California.
Election Results - November 4, 2008 - California Secretary of State (http://vote.sos.ca.gov/Returns/props/map190000000008.htm - broken link)
In California, Republicans and minority members voted overwhelmingly to revoke the right of *****s to marry. The only group that supported gay rights was highly educated liberals and those folks by and large live on the coast.
The central valley including Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno has really low levels of educational attainment. These are places where warehousing, agriculture and truck driving are major industries. While I am sure the world needs these types of employees, these type of people don't believe in civil rights for homosexuals. These are the people who beat people up for being *****.
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