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@norcalsocal - Thanks for sharing your short and sweet opinion as well. As mentioned earlier, my toddler is 2 and we'd be moving in 3-5 years anyways so if you took schools out of the equation, how about personal safety of just walking around the neighborhood and/or to a local park?
I am not a big expert on these three areas but I imagine that the Rancho Cordova location might be the safest of the three and that walking around and to a local park should be fine, certainly in daytime. Still, please take this comment with a grain of salt.
You will not see many Koreans walking on the streets of Rancho Cordova but you will probably see a pretty sizable Slavic Baptist community (Russians, Ukrainians). If I understand correctly, there was a relatively small (a few millions perhaps) Baptist community in the former Soviet Union and many of those people were allowed to immigrate to the US as refugees because of the religious persecution in the old country.
The community is quite conservative. Women are sometimes dressed as babushkas at the turn of 20th century and it is not uncommon to have many kids in a family. Last year Sac Bee reported that a Slavic Baptist mega-church in Rancho Cordova was somewhat reluctant to follow State's COVID guidelines.
Privet norcalsocal, wow that is very interesting to hear. Spasibo for this information. I never knew Sacramento had such as diverse history of so many cultures.
Appreciate the feedback and yes, Rancho Cordova closer to the river has caught my attention along with other river locations.
It is an open secret that, say, a working-class Pole has much less in common with a working class Korean than a well -educated Polish person has with a counterpart from Korea. I am afraid Rancho Cordova is not a very prosperous part of Sacramento so ethnic tensions might be higher there. But again, I am not an expert on Rancho Cordova and ethnic communities in the Sacramento region so I could be very wrong.
I second previous posters that some Korean restaurants in that area are very good (and not very expensive at the same time).
Thanks shelato and wburg! I owe you both a beer, smoothie or whatever your choice of poison if I do move up. I'm in the process of getting pre-approved now so once I get the go-ahead, will venture up to survey the area. I'll make sure to bring my bullet proof vest just in case, jk.
Both of your comments have brought a whole new dimension to my home search. The biggest drawback to moving right now is leaving the ocean. It's a 5 min walk and I'm only realizing now how much I take it for granted. It's definitely not Malibu but it's still the ocean so having a river nearby would actually be really nice to have. That's one huge drawback to Plano. So just to confirm, other than the Discovery Park area by the River, there aren't any other huge homeless encampments (that you know of) along the river? Not sure if you heard of this, but in Venice beach, there are multi-million dollar beachfront properties who now have homeless encampments in their backyard: https://nypost.com/2021/05/10/califo...ss-encampment/
I don't want to make it seem like I'm heartless as I do feel sorry for them and have even volunteered for homeless orgs in the past. It's a shame that our cities don't have the knowledge or capacity to deal with human lives. But with that said, there's always that small % of transients who have violent tendencies so would want to avoid that altogether. But yes, going back to the positive, I happened to find 2 places in the mid $350k range right by the river? Am I missing something here? Are these decent areas? For the first time, I'm actually a little bit excited about Sac (haha sorry)
There is a light rail station at Watt and Manlove Way. There is a secondary bike trail that runs along Watt Avenue from this light rail station that connects to the American River Bike Path. On this secondary bike path adjacent to Watt Ave (between US 50 and La Riviera Drive) there is a large homeless encampment. You can find smaller homeless encampments along Folsom blvd, but those aren't Venice beach style encampments yet either. But you will see those when you are driving.
I mention this more so when you are looking at these places you can figure out if either of these homes is far enough away from where you no longer care. The issue with the homeless is both feces and needles. With small children, you don't want them picking up either of these, I get that.
Larchmont Park itself is nice and of the two places you listed here I would go with the Rio Bravo site because of the proximity to the Park. Additionally Hagan Community Park is really nice because it runs all the way out to River. So if you see any homes near that keep that in mind. It also has a mini train and farm animals to feed that might be fun to do with a younger boy.
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Originally Posted by musicsaverdude
Oh, here's one more right at the top of my budget but it's a lot larger:
This neighborhood gets better as you get closer to Larchmont Sunriver and the Gold River development on the other side of Sunrise Blvd gets much nicer. The American River Bike Path is on the North Bank of the American River between Discovery Park and the Harold Richley Bike Bridge and then it crosses over to the Southern Bank of the American River until Lake Natoma.
The big advantage of this location is that you are much closer to this bike path and with a wife and kids you will likely end up using this a lot from this location. There is a bike path on the South Bank of the American River from CSUS to Watt Avenue and there are plans to connect it to Gristmill and ultimately add another bike bridge, across the River, but that hasn't been built yet and while I think they have built part of the trail near Larchmont, it doesn't doesn't yet connect to the larger system of bike trails along the American River Parkway.
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Originally Posted by musicsaverdude
@shelato - Thanks for the opinions on church. Makes sense and completely agree with your idea. I grew up Catholic and my wife is Buddhist but we both respect anybody's religion so long as it gives them happiness and peace of mind. Oh coincidentally, I took the family to the Botanical Garden yesterday in Palos Verdes and made a stop by Aldi's in Gardena so remembered your comparison. Not sure if you remember the exact street names in Gardena but would you say it's closer to Artesia or Redondo Beach Blvd closer to the 110? As a reminder, Artesia is closer to Torrance and has the Ranch 99 grocery market.
Thanks all!
When I lived in Southern California, I was starting out and didn't have a lot of cash, so I was looking to buy a fourplex, where I would live in one unit and rent out the other three. Gardena was one of the few areas I could afford that was closer to the Ocean and so I spent some time looking at buildings in Gardena and a lot of South Sac was built out at the same time as Gardena. Additionally you have areas that were one time African American that are transitioning to being either Asian or Hispanic. You have race based gangs having disputes with each other in both places. But the areas I was looking at were off Rosencranz, Vermont and Normandie.
Now I ultimately bought and still own a fourplex in Burbank, so I didn't move to Gardena, but did spend some time poking around there.
It is an open secret that, say, a working-class Pole has much less in common with a working class Korean than a well -educated Polish person has with a counterpart from Korea. I am afraid Rancho Cordova is not a very prosperous part of Sacramento so ethnic tensions might be higher there. But again, I am not an expert on Rancho Cordova and ethnic communities in the Sacramento region so I could be very wrong.
I second previous posters that some Korean restaurants in that area are very good (and not very expensive at the same time).
Before the Soviet Union collapsed. There was a Church in Bryte (now a part of West Sacramento) that used to broadcast the Bible in Russian via shortwave radio. At that time, if you were escaping communism, you qualified for refugee status especially if you were claiming escaping religious persecution. When these people got across the border and applied for asylum, the only place they had heard of in the US was this Church so they wanted to come to Sacramento. The local Protestant Church took sponsoring these religious refuges as their cold war patriotic duty, and that seeded Sacramento with both a Russian/Eastern European community, but also a community that was more religious than most of the other Russian Eastern European communities in the US. When the USSR finally collapsed, these people could bring over their families and many of them also married women from the home country, which brought over even more.
So the Russian/Eastern European community in Sacramento is a lot more religious than in the rest of the country. The first generation is still quite distinctively Russian acting and dressing, but their children are quickly Americanizing. So you don't see the women dressing as distinctively as they did when they first got here. Rancho Cordova, West Sac, Arden Arcade, north Highlands and Antelope all have sizable Russian/Eastern European communities.
Wow, are you a tour guide/historian/realtor? If not, you'd be GREAT as I've learned so much Sacramento history from this thread alone! As always thanks for the great details. Also appreciate the warning on the homeless camp near the station. Jeez, that one property is right by it so that's probably why it's reflected in the lower asking price. I'll definitely check out those trails and good to know that the Russian population will have religious roots vs being the Russian mafia. (sorry for my dark humor but before moving to SoCal, I had no idea how much gang culture is integrated into so many of the communities although a lot of it caused by racist housing policies ala redlining but still: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...900000001&z=10)
Lastly, you really lucked out getting a place in Burbank. What a great location convenient to everything but still with a relaxed vibe perfect for families.
The first generation is still quite distinctively Russian acting and dressing, .
In an extremely unlikely scenario that say Amish community feels that their religious liberties are infringed upon in the good old USA and decides to immigrate (well, I do not know where) would you still say that their first generation abroad distinctively American in acting and dressing. I doubt it. Same here.
I was told that these folks came from a deep province and they lived a somewhat isolated life in their old country. I have no way to confirm it as I had very few casual encounters with these folks in Sacramento. But this is what I was told.
In any case, the community looks somewhat strange and quite different from a typical Eastern/Central European immigrant crowd
The same with Italian and any other mafia, by the way.
Haha very good point! Yes the thought did occur to me that even those who weren't quite so religious might take the opportunity to just leave.
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Originally Posted by norcalsocal
In an extremely unlikely scenario that say Amish community feels that their religious liberties are infringed upon in the good old USA and decides to immigrate (well, I do not know where) would you still say that their first generation abroad distinctively American in acting and dressing. I doubt it. Same here.
I was told that these folks came from a deep province and they lived a somewhat isolated life in their old country. I have no way to confirm it as I had very few casual encounters with these folks in Sacramento. But this is what I was told.
In any case, the community looks somewhat strange and quite different from a typical Eastern/Central European immigrant crowd
Wow! Now I'm very curious to drive through Sacramento. All this time I thought Sacramento was sort of this sleepy second tier city with typical sprawling suburbs but come to find out there might be some crazy backwoods Amish Russian people in one area, an Asian version of South Central gangland in the other and the confederate KKK on the opposite end. Cool! LA is starting to seem normal compared to the pictures popping in my head of Sac haha. I'm kidding of course but I am definitely more curious so thanks everybody for sharing their opinions. We should make a new movie "Escape from Sacramento" or "The Streets of Sacramento" starring some movie star like Vin Diesel or Jason Statham. Or if I want to make it autobiographical, some Asian actor like Jet Li. A simple man wanting to start a new life ending up getting entangled with the Russian mafia and Amish cult, betrayed by the Asian gangs and escaping to a farm next to KKK members high on meth only to find his true happiness fishing with the homeless.
They actually already made a movie about someone escaping from Sacramento, which kinda made a local splash for its inclusion of a lot of very well-known Sacramento landmarks and institutions as the background for many scenes:
And yeah, while your perspective on it is distorted by the very opinionated posters here (including myself) that basically sums up Sacramento; a place everyone thinks is a sleepy second-tier city (including a lot of people living here) with a lot of weird stuff happening below the surface that most people don't really notice because, heck, why would you?
And we haven't even started talking about the really weird stuff, like why there's a Jerry Falwell memorial closet in the Sacramento LGBT Center office.
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and it is not uncommon to have many kids in a family. Last year Sac Bee reported that a Slavic Baptist mega-church in Rancho Cordova was somewhat reluctant to follow State's COVID guidelines.
