Moving from TX to Monterey area (Salinas, Seaside: apartments, crime, neighborhoods)

[allyson17]

Hello!
In the spring, I will be moving to the Monterey area from the Dallas, TX area for a semester of school. My boyfriend is a Marine, and will be studying at the DLI. I will only be out there for one semester of college (or so that is the plan). We are looking at apartments, and I don't know much about the area. I was hoping that someone could give me some advice about the surrounding areas (Salinas, Marina, Seaside, etc). Some of the crime statistics are pretty frightening, but I'd like some opinions from people who live around that area. The only information I can find is kind of dated, but seems to say that things were getting better. I wonder if they're better yet? Thank ya'll so much in advance!

[ferretkona]

I lived there for a few years, very nice towns there.
A lot of fog, usually breaks around noon. A lot of golf courses. The deer have to be played around as they lay on the greens. The most theft I seen was by the raccoons in Carmel. Carmel has dog friendly restaurants, not all but enough to share. The Carmel beach is dog friendly. Open air malls. Weather temperature rarely exceeds 75, only hot for a couple weeks and it is only 90 if that.

Join the aquarium, the yearly passes are reasonable and there is always something going on. Jazz at the Aquarium, wine tasting, Halloween. They have member only nights that you can see the fish more active than the day time. Most places there thrive on jazz but there are a few that have rock or country.
A lot of celebrities are in Carmel, I saw Clint Eastwood nearly every week. Never at his restaurant thou, his is one of the best happy hours in town.

[MtnSurfer]

I would say Monterey, PG, Carmel and Pebble Beach are the nicest areas of the Penninsula. Our favorites are PG and Monterey for great proximity to everything. Crime happens everywhere. No place is totally immune. That said I think these areas are the safest generally speaking.

More frequent crime occurs in Salinas where gang shootings occur pretty regularly - mostly gang on gang. There are parts of Seaside and Marina which are not too good either.

Here is a thread talking about the neighborhoods that is still relevant:
Monterey neighborhoods.

If you are looking for economical check out the properties on base at Fort Ord. They have military housing.

Derek

[allyson17]

Thank you so much for the info, and for that other thread. That's exactly what I was looking for!