Is Thousand Oaks a good place to live? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: home, landscaping)

[NorCalGuy]

Our family lives north of San Francisco and we've been contemplating a move to someplace north of LA, but we're a little put off by the number Mexicans coming over the border and the anti-American attitudes they bring with them. We'd like to move to a place that isn't 50% Mexican, where we can be assured that employees in the stores where we shop speaks English, and where the Mexican demonstrations are nonexistant. I've been told Thousand Oaks might fit the bill...Any thoughts?

[fastfilm]

Hi Guy. You will like Thousand Oaks. The western portion of the San Fernando Valley has home developments carved out of farms, rather than inner city patterns of residential alongside commercial or former industrial areas. Be prepared to pay the big bucks.

If we could afford to live in a $800,000.00 2-bedroom home there we would. But not everyone can afford same.

[Raoul]

You'll really like Thousand Oaks.
It's full of great people like you, who are happy to hire cheap migrant labor, as long as they stay in their place, and go away at night.

I would suggest a gated community, just so you can feel extra-secure.

Hasta la vista, baby!

Raoul Hernandez

[fastfilm]

Hey Raoul. I can't afford Thousand Oaks or any labor, migrant or otherwise, so it's possible I live close to you: I could be your neighbor. Was that one of your buds who threw eggs at my friend waiting at the bus stop during the recent demonstrations?

[GregJ]

Thousand Oaks is a great place. I grew up there. It was one of the first master planned communities and has a very open, country feel. Newbury Park is TO's unincorporated neighbor and is also a pretty good place. Good schools, etc. The Conejo Valley (where TO and Newbury Park are located) is a different world than LA. It's in Ventura County which is very anti-growth. You might also take a look and Simi Valley, Moorpark, and Camarillo. If you've got the bucks, you'll also like Westlake but it's mucho expensive and pretty yuppie. I'd stay out of Oxnard (even the name of the place suggests that!). Ventura's a great beach side city also. Inland you can find Ojai which is very artsy, kind of like what you'd find in Marin County for half the price. Fillmore and Santa Paula are the kind of places you don't seem to be interested in.

[Jamileena]

If you don't want to live around Mexicans, then I suggest you stay up north, oh wait...Nor Cal is full of Mexicans too. I lived in Santa Cruz an hour south of S.F. and worked mainly with people of Latin decent. Good luck finding a non-hispanic person to mow your lawn, pick your fruit and veggies, clean your house, watch your kids, wash your car, sell you gas, cook your food, etc. all for only pennies a day.

And to correct a few of the previous posters, most places in the Conejo Valley ("Conejo" is Spanish for rabbit, btw) and surrounding areas are populated with Mexicans. Pretty much, anywhere you live in So Cal has a hispanic population. Ventura is a nice beach community, but beware, the Mexican-Americans were there demonstrating near the college and the pre-schoolers learn Spanish.

Try a state far from the border of Mexico, like Hamburg, Il, population 149, its 99% white.

[fastfilm]

Thousand Oaks is a delightful area for ANYONE that can afford it. How telling that one has to make a $120 K annual income to afford $800K to live in an area without gangs.

I wash my own car, clean my own house, cook my own food: you are making one hell of a stereotypical assumption there in your previous post. And very nice people of all persuasions grow and harvest my food in the South and the MidWest: they don't seem to require illegal workers, just people who want to work!

Were you the one who threw the eggs at my friend waiting at the bus stop during your pro-criminality rally?

[fastfilm]

Thousand Oaks is a delightful area for ANYONE that can afford it. How telling that one has to make a $120 K annual income to afford $800K to live in an area without gangs.

I wash my own car, clean my own house, cook my own food: you are making one hell of a stereotypical assumption there in your previous post. And very nice people of all persuasions grow and harvest my food in the South and the MidWest: they don't seem to require illegal workers, just American people who want to work!

Were you the one who threw the eggs at my friend waiting at the bus stop during your pro-criminality rally?

[Jamileena]

Have you ever eaten in a resturant? Have you ever looked in the kitchen? Do you know who is cooking your food or washing the pots and pans? Ill bet it ain't Billy Bob from South Carolina...

If there were more American people who wanted to work, why dont I see them picking strawberries in Camarillo? Or working in McDonalds, the car wash, or doing landscaping?

When I was applying for a job as a cook at El Torrito in Thousand Oaks, the manager said to me, "do you speak Spanish? Most of the employees speak Spanish in the kitchen. We usually dont hire women to work back there, have you ever waitressed?"

Im stating what I see. Someone asked if Thousand Oaks was a nice place to live, if it was someplace that wasn't 50% Mexican. They asked if Thousand Oaks was somewhere they could count on English speaking people to ring them up at markets, well, they cant-not really. There is a big population of hispanic people all over So Cal, as well as Nor Cal....just like any border state. I was simply stating, if someone wants to live AWAY from Mexicans, then the obvious solution is to move far from the border.

Thousand Oaks and the surrounding areas may be nice enough, but there are hispanic people living and working there-and not all of them speak English.

btw: I would never throw eggs at anyone, that's wasting food.

[fastfilm]

And I know whereof I speak. Camarillo isn't the entire United States. (In fact California represents fairly inefficient farming overall, despite its wondrous alluvial soil.) My family is comprised of farmers from Tennessee and the South, and I'm fairly up on current farming practices outside of California. Small farmers work with teams of locals, agribusinesses employ trained farming machinery specialists, then recruit from the people that the small farmers work with, which is to say experienced locals.

And Thousand Oaks/Los Angeles isn't the entire United States as well, luckily. Elsewhere people are proud to learn English to communicate with the rest of America, and Billy Bob is welcome to work wherever he is qualified to work, as you would be as well.