is sacramento ghetto? (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach: city hall, high crime, neighborhood)

[AuburnJack]

I don't yet live in Sacramento, but I am fairly familiar with some of the neighborhoods from visits to friends, and I don't think that's necessarily a fair description. True, there aren't large swaths of nice, upper-middle-class enclaves until you start moving farther east, but then again, "undesirable elements" is an extremely subjective (and loaded) term. There are bad parts of town, like any area (even beautiful Monterey, where I come from, has them), but I personally wouldn't characterize the Sacramento area as a whole as "dumpy" or "ghetto."

When you start moving further south down the 5, though, towards the little towns on the Interstate... well, that's another story.

[Billy the kid]

I grew up in land park in the 1950's very nice era, still nice area to live in but very expensive now, back in the 60's they started building up south sac and it was good at first, but declined a decade or so later' like any city there are good parts and bad. when I retire within 5-10 years from now I plan on relocating to another area, just not sure where yet.

[callygrl]

Originally Posted by Gal On The Move

I think Sacramento is wonderful. It has it's bad parts (stay away from Rio Linda, North Highlands, West Sac) but overall, it's an awesome place.

If I could afford to stay here the rest of my life, I absolutely would.

Sacramento is a good place to live if you want to settle down and have some kids and North highlands is no where near a bad area. I have family and friends who live there and North highland is not bad.

[abstractchick40]

I just had to move from Oakland to Sacramento's Arden Arcade area to go to school. I think Oakland is totally cooler and more diverse and more culturally stimulating than Sacramento. As far as major cities go, Sacramento is really dull. I am from SF so I could be a little biased, sorry to offend.

[CityGirl72]

I lived in Sacramento for 10 years and I have kids

You could not get me to move to the North Highlands area if you paid me...and I love Sac...

[CADRMNDANES]

I lived close to N.H. for 15 years. I would NOT even think about North Highlands!! Lots of crime, drugs and gangs. Not a good area to raise kids.
I just drove through there twice this week. It's not pretty!!

Even Foothill Farms has gone down hill.

[CADRMNDANES]

Originally Posted by cityx

my issue is with the behavior that you usually see from this demographic. You will find that the neighborhoods are in decay, the streets are littered with garbage, there is an overall lack of civic pride, and a great deal of them seem to have some sort of chemical dependency issues by the unpredictable and unruly nature of their public behavior, particularly in the way they drive. There are a few nice areas in the city proper. East Sac, "Fabulous Forties", McKinley Park, and Land Park, and even Midtown are very quaint but the unfortunate reality is that if I lived in these beautiful neighborhoods, I would always be within two to three miles of the absolute worst parts of Sacramento. That's the one thing about this town that is so bizarre, you are always a stone's throw away from an absolutely vile part of town. .

That's what I don't understand with CA. There are so many areas like this all over CA. When we are in the Midwest there are the same class of people and their neighborhoods are clean and they don't look trashy. You won't find old cars up on blocks in the front yard and beer cans thrown all over the front yard. Even the "poor" farms are not filled with old cars, trucks, tires and trash. They are spotless.

[niy38]

This weekend I stay in the hotel around Arden & I80, and when I drove along
the Del Paso Blvd, I saw the people, teenager, woman,etc, walking on
the street, I'm not sure this is the worst community of Sacramento, but this
is I've ever seen worst.

[CADRMNDANES]

Yeah, you'll see plenty of people walking around during the day.

[niy38]

actually it's around 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm. For all community I visited before,
only see people jogging, or dogs, etc. Never say teenager WALKING
around on the street corner.

And almost hit a car when I do the U-turn: another car turning right
in the middle but stopped there, two women in the car begin to
talk a young man walking on the street .... there might be some
transaction negotiating.

Originally Posted by CADRMNDANES

Yeah, you'll see plenty of people walking around during the day.