is sacramento ghetto? (Los Angeles, Oakland, Orange: apartment, rent, crime rates)

[jgrand78]

my cousins say sacramneto is getting pretty bad...i wanna know is this true and what parts of sacramento are bad?

[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.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by jgrand78

my cousins say sacramneto is getting pretty bad...i wanna know is this true and what parts of sacramento are bad?

I find these ghetto discussions to be ridiculous. In the Atlanta, Georgia forum you state you just left Sacramento, so I guess you already have observations anyway.

Someone on the Ohio forum keeps going back to this same issue city by city, and the comments and rebuttals should be beneath us. It turns into a big accusation and defensive discussion, all sounding childish.

All cities of any size have some less desirable areas with high crime rates. All cities face problems with trying to minimize poverty and crime, especially things of a physical or property nature. Anyone who doesn't understand this probably shouldn't be posting comments or observations on adult forums.

[Texas Mack]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

I find these ghetto discussions to be ridiculous. In the Atlanta, Georgia forum you state you just left Sacramento, so I guess you already have observations anyway.

Someone on the Ohio forum keeps going back to this same issue city by city, and the comments and rebuttals should be beneath us. It turns into a big accusation and defensive discussion, all sounding childish.

All cities of any size have some less desirable areas with high crime rates. All cities face problems with trying to minimize poverty and crime, especially things of a physical or property nature. Anyone who doesn't understand this probably shouldn't be posting comments or observations on adult forums.

Pretty straightforward, I agree. I also find the term "ghetto" to be very nebulous. Do we mean ghetto in terms of urban decay? Crime? Both? General culture?

[CityGirl72]

I lived as a single female by myself in Midtown (by Downtown) and never was scared once - never crime or whatnot

Every city has the "bad areas" and you just stay away from those

Rio Linda, North Highlands (West Sac is getting better but has bad areas) and YUCKY South Sac

[CADRMNDANES]

I would say many areas "Look" like the ghetto. We have lots of people here that have Okiefied the area. Remember the dust bowl?? Then there is those that moved up from LA who have turned the area into what they were running from. You can find this pretty much anywhere..... Like, Portland & Seattle.

But there are a couple of very nice areas in the city.

[CbGuy]

Originally Posted by CityGirl72

I lived as a single female by myself in Midtown (by Downtown) and never was scared once - never crime or whatnot

Every city has the "bad areas" and you just stay away from those

Rio Linda, North Highlands (West Sac is getting better but has bad areas) and YUCKY South Sac

when was this? or do you still live there

[CityGirl72]

I got older, got married and had kids. At the time the hosuing boom went nuts and I needed to buy a house, and the suburbs in Sac were going insane

So I moved to Seattle, which at the time was more affordable. It was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made - but it wasn't financially.

We are looking at moving back to Sac now that we have equity and now that Sac houses are going down.

So to answer your question - that story was three years ago. I moved when I was 31

[UseJeff]

Remember in baseball how you could swing two bats for a few minutes, then when you went up to the plate your one bat felt really light?

Same concept...go rent an apartment for three months in Oakland. Sac will then look like a rose garden

[cityx]

Originally Posted by jgrand78

my cousins say sacramneto is getting pretty bad...i wanna know is this true and what parts of sacramento are bad?

Compared to Oakland, Detroit, or South Central Los Angeles, Sacramento would probably not be considered as "ghetto". But those would be the extreme comparisons that people would make. The severity of the "ghettoness" in Sac may not be what you would find in the above named cities, but, if you are evaluating the city as a whole, you would find that the entire region has a subtle to moderate coating of undesirable elements that you would find in the ghetto. People here, in general, are poor to lower middle class, rather unsophisticated and conduct themselves in public as such. From every race and ethnic background, you see it everywhere. Foothill Farms, West Sac, and Rio Linda have the poor white folks. Oak Park, North Highlands, Del Paso Heights, South Natomas, have the poor Black and Hispanic people. For the record, I have no issue with individuals who are poor and struggling to survive since I came from a similar upbringing - 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. When I lived in Orange County I was amazed that you could drive for miles and miles and still be in a safe, upper middle class area. Even in Los Angeles you can live in an entirely nice region many miles away from the bad part of the city. In Sac, it's almost the reverse. The entire city is more on the dumpy side with a few nice pockets scattered within the mess.