The CA. high desert area: Edwards AFB, George AFB, China Lake Weapons Test Center etc. are changing. These areas used to be highly educated white professionals. After the base closings and reductions the housing prices have dropped up to 75%. The blacks and mexicans have been flooding into these areas. The blacks have been moving from the high crime areas of LA to escape the crime and the Mexicans. The mexicans have been successfully driving the blacks out of the downtown area. The Mexicans have in some cases fire bombed the blacks houses to drive them out of their neighborhoods. The blacks that move into the desert area are not the type of people we are used to.
Ditto for the Apple Valley high desert area. Our local Bank of America has been robbed at least six times in the last year and a half. The area is still better than Lancaster/Palmdale though, but it is getting worse fast.
I've recently been transfered to the San Fernando Valley and have been looking for housing closer to my new location. Good-luck, with the exception of the extreme westside of Palmdale(Still too expensive), there is no way I'm moving my family to that area. May as well buy a home in S.F. Valley and stop driving so far.
Just retired from working for Los Angeles County in the San Fernando Valley and relocated to the Placerville area in the Sierra foothills because of all the factors mentioned above: tremendous increase in the number of people, congestion, crime, rapid demographic changes. This is a very nice area, sometimes it seems that I've returned to 1958 Calif! Of course the long time residents complain of all the changes including more population and congestion. Some complain about commuting 35 miles to Sacramento for work, but that hardly compares with some poor souls that I knew commuting to LA from Lancaster or Riverside. There are rumored to be folks living up here who commute to the Bay area for work (120 miles.) All things considered this is still a great part of this rapidly changing state. Beauyt and very little crime.
where is the jaquin(sp.?) valley? Site of the 1960s television sitcom, 'Big Valley.. ' Ted
The San Joachin Valley is the agricultural heart of California running north-south for a couple of hundred miles from Bakersfield in the south to the southern outskirts of Sacramento in the north and is bounded by the Sierras to the east and the Coastal Range mountains to the west. America's largest agricultural production area and home to Gary Condit among others. I'm not sure where exactly "The Big Valley" was filmed--it's been awhile since I watched that.
thanks bill for the reply.. is it safe ? military bases nearby? would joel skousen pick this area? ted
I doubt that Joel would re-locate here, mainly because of the state's leftist policies. Most of the military bases in the area (Castle AFB, etc.) were closed down in the past 10 years or so. The nearest military targets would be Edwards AFB east of Palmdale and Beale AFB north of Sacramento. This whole area gets very hot and dry in the summer. There are also 2 major north-south highways cutting through the Valley (US 99 & I-5.)
A very large proportion of the residents are poor Hispanic agricultural laborers, mostly illegal aliens. This is not an area where I'd choose to hunker down in. If you're thinking about re-locating to Calif. you might want to consider the northwest portion of the state which is sparsely populated, green and mountainous and far from any military targets. It is, in fact, one of the safest areas "radioactively" speaking in the country and has attracted many "survivalist" types from all over the country for these reasons. The same can be said of parts of southern Oregon. I live in the Sierra Foothills, about 70 miles east of the Valley, between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. This is another fairly safe and scenic area which has attracted a lot of folks for a number of reasons. And east of here are some safe areas in northern Nevada including the area where the TV series "Bonanza" was filmed. I hope this helps.
thanks for the info bill.. it helped a great deal!! ted