Your help is needed PLEASE!!!

[Kibbiekat]

It is very hot for a lot of the summer and cold and damp for a lot of the winter. Spring and fall are beautiful, but kind of short. The air quality can be very bad. During the weather report they'll tell you what the air quality prediction is for the next day. Some days are so bad they cancel school sports and keep the kids inside for recess. go to airnow.gov to compare Fresno to other places so you have a frame of reference. Fresno is in a big, flat valley, which traps the pollutants. If you like a small town feel, you would probably like Clovis. It has a cute old downtown. There are good areas of town, and bad areas; safe areas, and not safe areas. I'm guessing you wouldn't have a problem affording the nicer, safer areas. There are gangs, but you'd probably just stay out of those parts of town. Oh, and Fresno has a teaching hospital. University of California San Francisco sends their med students to Fresno, and some of them stick around the valley. There are plenty of doctors. There is St. Agnes Hospital (my kids were born there), and Community Medical Centers in Fresno and Clovis; and Children's Hospital just over the river in Madera. If I were moving to Clovis, I'd look at the neighborhoods around Buchannan HS and Harlan Ranch, which is a newer planned community.

[Adriatica]

Schools: I don't know about class size. You could easily email CUSD and ask. Here's their FAQ page: Clovis Unified School District

Seasons/Weather: Yes there are seasons. Summer is hot. Winter is cool and foggy. Spring and Fall and fantastic. Fog can be very thick in the winter months and, if you've never lived in fog, it will take some learning to get used to driving safely in it. Air quality varies throughout the year. In the summer there are some days where it is bad and the local news will tell you if it's extremely bad or not. But most people are outside year round.

Safe to play outside in Clovis? Yes, with common sense of course about cars and such.

Safe for a woman to go to the store alone? Yes, certainly!

Gangs: There are gangs, mostly concentrated in bad neighborhoods in Fresno. You could easily live in Clovis and be far removed from all of that.

Medical care: Lots of good doctors around. For kids, I can recommend Peachwood Pediatrics (Peachwood Medical Group (http://www.peachwoodmedicalgroup.com/pediactrics/ - broken link)). Good hospital care here. There is Children's Hospital of Central CA, an excellent pediatric facility (Children's Hospital Central California). For regular hospitals, there is 1 Catholic hospital called St. Agnes that's very good. Then there is the Community Medical System with a large downtown hospital and a smaller full-service hospital in Clovis (Our Facilities (http://www.communitymedical.org/45.htm - broken link)). There is also a large Kaiser hospital in Fresno, if your insurance is Kaiser.

You might enjoy contacting the Fresno Multiples Club to meet some ladies: Central Valley Multiples Club, for parents of twins, triplets or higher order multiples

There are a good number of stay-at-home moms in the area. Meeting people should be easy enough in your neighborhood, through your school, your church, and groups like the one above. There are also free children's programs at the local libraries where moms can meet each other.

[FresnoFacts]

Don't listen to people who feel this is the worse part of the state, the only experience many of them have with the area is driving by on one of the freeways. You have a good group of posters on this thread who are current and past residents.

Clovis Unified class sizes are typically about 20 in K-3. I don't have the average for higher grades handy.

Safe for shopping? Yes, My wife is very petite in stature and is not afraid to shop alone. Here are some of the larger shopping areas.
http://www.clovisoldtown.com/
http://www.shopfiggardenvillage.com/
http://www.shopriverpark.com/
http://www.fashionfairmall.com/
http://www.sierravistamall.com/

A few other resources to hook up with parents would be these websites.
Fresno Family has resources and info on mommy/playgroups
Fresno Local Mommy/Play Groups (http://www.fresnofamily.com/local/playgroups.htm - broken link)
Central California Parent Magazine
Central California Parent Magazine • The Magazine for Central California Families!
Fresno Mommies has active discussion boards.
FresnoMommies.com--Fresno County's Mom-to-Mom Connection

[momojojo]

Don't forget centralvalleymoms.com. Our local paper is fresnobee.com. You'll definitely meet people through the schools. I'm sure your kids will do just fine. Clovis has a farmers market downtown every Friday night during the summer.

Where will your husband's job be based? If its in the outlying area, check out Reedley and Kingsburg. They are near the Kings River, Reedley has a junior college and a beach (Kelly's Beach) where you can float the river.

The valley really is beautiful. The air isn't as bad as it once was. It gets hot, but at least its dry. Thank God for A/C and swimming pools. We have a couple of water parks too. We live out in the country and on most summer nights we can turn off the A/C, open the windows and leave on the ceiling fans and we're just fine because a breeze kicks up every evening, but that's in the country.

I'm not afraid to go shopping anywhere in the area. It's like anywhere, you have to be aware of your surroundings. We do have great shopping areas, some malls.

I hope you can look at this as an adventure and enjoy it. Good luck. Let me know if you need any more info. Have you checked out houses?

[FresnoFacts]

Originally Posted by momojojo

The valley really is beautiful. The air isn't as bad as it once was. It gets hot, but at least its dry. Thank God for A/C and swimming pools. We have a couple of water parks too. We live out in the country and on most summer nights we can turn off the A/C, open the windows and leave on the ceiling fans and we're just fine because a breeze kicks up every evening, but that's in the country.

Same thing happens in the Fresno/Clovis area. The wind currents shift (maybe its valley air mixing with cooler air off the foothills and mountains) and there are very nice breezes particularly on the east side of town in the evening.

My preference was to build a house with the backyard on the north side of the house with trees on the west side of the lot. It helps avoid one long side of the house heating up by being on the west side (afternoon sun).

That layout gives us a nicely shaded backyard and we spend a lot of evenings out there. It works well for hosting BBQs and outdoor parties.

But my neighbor across the street likes a sunny yard, so he intentionally built with the backyard on the south side. They have a covered patio for shade and prefer the rest of the backyard to be in the sun. Too sunny for my taste in summer, but they prefer it that way.

[mostie]

Formykids, I would live in Kingsburg, work in Fresno/Clovis- but that's just me, lol- however...Kingsburg is small, friendly, and has excellent schools.

[hovermom]

Hi my name is Chelsie. The actual city of Fresno such as downtown is populated with lots of blacks and such.-Sort of poverty stricken. But there a lot of other nice places to live right outside of Fresno. I live in Squaw Valley about 45 minutes away from Fresno. Surrounded with mountains beauty and peace. I wouldnt recomend choosing to live in Fresno dirrectly because of what the population is like and I can only imagine what school are like but there are a lot of nice cities surrounding the Fresno area. I would suggest supporting your husband and your families financial needs weighing out the pros and cons and what your family will benefit most from. Keeping in mind that change can be a good thing. We become sort of immune to our every day habitual lives so perhaps a move to a new home will give not just your family but YOU the oppurtunity to experience new changes growing as individuals and as a family. Good luck. If you have any more questions or any thing here is my email pa2671@aol.com Chelsie

[FresnoFacts]

Fresno is a city of contrasts, but it is also a city of 500,000 people so like any larger city you see a lot of diversity in incomes. Race has nothing to do with it.

While there are poor areas in the older southern parts of the city, the north side within the Fresno city limits is at the other end of the income spectrum.

Median incomes in north Fresno zip codes like 93720 or 93711 are much higher than California's statewide median income. North Fresno is far from being poverty sticken areas.

[opoll602]

You are right, but in the real world first step is hard work and next step is luck . So, when your hard work is go on right way then your luck is work.
So don't bother about it.

Lets play some Fun Quizzes (http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/index.php?category=Fun+Quizzes - broken link) and Quiz