Why does Fresno have a bad Reputation? (San Diego, Sacramento: house, unemployment rate)

[fresnochili]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

I agree with you that much of Fresno isn't bad at all. On my many trips to see family down in the LA area we stop at Fresno, and have probably gone at least ten miles off the highway on both Shaw Ave and W Herndon Ave. Both were pretty nice areas, as were the residential areas when we drove around Ft Washington, Woodward Park and Clovis. As with any large metro area I'm sure there are parts that are a bit worn, but we have seen quite a bit of the north side of Fresno and it seems pretty nice to us.

Thank you!
Sure, there are parts of town that are undesirable, that were built in the 1930s and 1940s that have gone downhill. Times have changed. Development has changed. Zoning laws have change.

Communities have moved North, where there is land available. The fig trees have been removed.
It's called 'Growth'

[CCS414]

I've got two young children and will be moving there by the end of April. I could care less about affluence, culture or how walkable down town is. I want to know more about crime and the quality of the schools. Stockton is no big secret and it's only a few hours away. From what I've heard south Fresno is pretty bad. But is there spill over crime, specifically violent crime north of Shaw Ave? We had some people come to pick up some furniture we were selling as we clear out our house for the move and he flat out told me not to move there. To put it more bluntly, would you raise your kids there? Thanks in advance.

I know the ole, "every place has it's good and bad areas" routine. We live in southern UT right now and have to go to Vegas about once every couple of months and there's no way in hell I'd ever raise a family there. The majority of Vegas is crap, with plenty of crime and yes, spillover crime to the few nice pockets like Henderson and the west side up against the redrocks. It's not getting better either. Worse actually. But enough about crappy Las Vegas.

When I was in Fresno job hunting I noticed a few things. There were nice views of the Sierras, though the people that I spoke with on the matter said that air pollution typically blocks your view and the clarity of the view was mostly due to all the recent excess rainfall. I went to Target to get an electric shaver and noticed that a lot of things were in locked cases. I went to the Target here and nothing was in a locked case. I also noticed that many business parking lots had closed locking gates. Again, not how it is where we live now. Thanks again for honest objective opinions. Even more objective would be thoughts from CDers that have lived elsewhere and moved to Fresno (i.e. non native Fresno-ins).

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by CCS414

I know the ole, "every place has it's good and bad areas" routine. We live in southern UT right now and have to go to Vegas about once every couple of months and there's no way in hell I'd ever raise a family there. The majority of Vegas is crap, with plenty of crime and yes, spillover crime to the few nice pockets like Henderson and the west side up against the redrocks. It's not getting better either. Worse actually. But enough about crappy Las Vegas.

Overall, crime rates are about the same in Las Vegas and Fresno. Las Vegas has higher violent crime, whereas Fresno has higher property crime. But pretty similar overall.

[dontbelievehim]

Originally Posted by CCS414

I've got two young children and will be moving there by the end of April. I could care less about affluence, culture or how walkable down town is. I want to know more about crime and the quality of the schools. Stockton is no big secret and it's only a few hours away. From what I've heard south Fresno is pretty bad. But is there spill over crime, specifically violent crime north of Shaw Ave? We had some people come to pick up some furniture we were selling as we clear out our house for the move and he flat out told me not to move there. To put it more bluntly, would you raise your kids there? Thanks in advance.

I know the ole, "every place has it's good and bad areas" routine. We live in southern UT right now and have to go to Vegas about once every couple of months and there's no way in hell I'd ever raise a family there. The majority of Vegas is crap, with plenty of crime and yes, spillover crime to the few nice pockets like Henderson and the west side up against the redrocks. It's not getting better either. Worse actually. But enough about crappy Las Vegas.

When I was in Fresno job hunting I noticed a few things. There were nice views of the Sierras, though the people that I spoke with on the matter said that air pollution typically blocks your view and the clarity of the view was mostly due to all the recent excess rainfall. I went to Target to get an electric shaver and noticed that a lot of things were in locked cases. I went to the Target here and nothing was in a locked case. I also noticed that many business parking lots had closed locking gates. Again, not how it is where we live now. Thanks again for honest objective opinions. Even more objective would be thoughts from CDers that have lived elsewhere and moved to Fresno (i.e. non native Fresno-ins).

You can get mountain views any time of the year, but summer time views are the rarest. You basically only see mountains during sunrise/sunset during summer unless theres been summer rain or a lot of wind. And summer views just cant compare to a nice winter view even if you get them. Vegas and other locations are better for year round views for sure. I dont notice too many locked things in fresno stores, but theres more locked stuff than previous years. I remember not seeing anything locked up not long ago. Locking up items is a recent trend. Weak antitheft laws are probably to blame for the trend in California. Theres talk of going back to older, stricter rules. Locked items are an issue throughout Californian cities, btw.



Southeast fresno is probably the only part of south fresno id raise a family in. There are some nice neighborhoods there and crime isnt too bad. Theyre building a new shopping center in southeast fresno, too. Southwest and south central = avoid! Central fresno isnt too bad, but the schools are awful. Avoid unless it's far east central fresno(clovis schools).




Edit:

Spillover is rare, but it happens. Fresno is a lot more dense than any southern utah city, so spillover cant be completely stopped. The farther east or north you go will help in preventing spillover. so if youre concerned, go as far north or east your budget lets you.

[HuntersCrackPipe]

Fresno is alright. I lived in San Diego for 20 years and while I can count on 1 hand the times I went to the beach, I missed it when I moved to Fresno, probably some psychological thing. I bought a house in Copper River, a house that would be $1.75-$2m in San Diego. We make a hair under $200k/yr which is like 4x the median household income here (above 95th percentile) and probably equivalent to making $300k-$350k in San Diego (hell probably more) so we live pretty decently. I can tell you I would never be able to put $400k down on a house, buy a Model Y in cash, solar in cash and still have nearly 6 figures in savings in a more "desired" area of the state. Pismo/Avila is 2 hours away, Yosemite an hour, China Peak ski resort 90 minutes away, Monterey 2.5 hours. There's decent Mexican food but nothing quite like San Diego, the whole food scene is eh but there's really nice restaurants too especially in the North Fresno/Woodward Park area. This area has Clovis schools which is much better than Fresno Unified and Millerton Lake is 10 minutes from the house. There's been some bay area movement here due to WFH that drove up prices in the north side but it's still pretty affordable compared to most areas of the state. We are considering moving to Temecula when I retire from the state at 50, housing prices are about the same compared to this side of Fresno and obviously Temecula is closer to all that SD has to offer.

[HuntersCrackPipe]

Originally Posted by dontbelievehim

I never said being 3hrs from Los Angeles was a benefit.

Some of us would consider that a major benefit lol

[Dad01]

what are the best parts of fresno /clovis to buy a house in currently ?

[malcorub16]

I visited Woodward Park for the first time this Memorial Day Weekend. This is quite a nice attraction for the city, the parking meters were quite annoying but other than that the park felt clean, safe, fun and very big. Despite how warm it was Sunday afternoon, there are plenty of trees to walk under in the park. It was busy on Sunday but not overly crowded and the Japanese Garden was the highlight of the park. I'm guessing this must be Fresno's "central park" or the main park of the city.

We also stopped by River Park Shopping Center which seemed to be the city's higher end shopping mall. It was nice but way too crowded this Memorial Day weekend so we didn't stay long.

[considerforamoment]

I haven't kept up on why it is bad, but recall my experiences marketing there in the nineties and it was awful from many perspectives - just butt-ugly and unimaginative, number one - miles and miles of suburbia on a grid - tract houses with no decorative or architectural interest - horrible, scorching weather, Bible-belt/dust bowl mentality and politics, truly SCARY downtown (I actually had demons blasting through my radio in an underground parking garage - thought I was going to die). It's ghastly from every possible perspective. Hellish.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by considerforamoment

Bible-belt/dust bowl mentality and politics, .

Along with Bakersfield, Fresno's the last of the larger city REPUBLICAN mayors now that Anaheim and San Diego city councils went Democrat.