Midtown, Land Park, East Sac? (Sacramento, Stockton: salon, real estate, rentals)

[caligirlz]

There are other businesses in the historic district. And depending on where one lives, the grocery store could be within walking distance. I believe the closest grocery stores to the historic district are Vic's in American River Canyon, or Raley's at Wales & Riley.

For kayaking & bicycling, you can't beat Folsom's proximity to the ART & Folsom Lake.

Just trying to provide an insider's view of Folsom.

[wburg]

There are other businesses in the historic district, but not too many serve day-to-day needs like a drugstore, food market or hardware store--it's mostly cute stuff, gift shops and other things that are great from a tourism/recreational shopping perspective but not so much for everyday life. From Sutter and Riley, the IGA is more than 2 miles away, the Raley's a bit over a mile, along with the Wal-Mart and the other power-center stuff along East Bidwell. From the historic residential neighborhood uphill from Sutter Street, the Raley's is more feasible as a "walkable" grocery store (as well as proximity to Wal-Mart, Kohl's and other bigboxen) but it's a not-fun walk through a variety of parking lots. Folsom is great for access to Folsom Lake, but not so much in the "walkable urban neighborhoods" department.

[caligirlz]

La_cavalière, if you are really interested in Folsom, PM me, and I will put you in touch with friends who live in the historic district & can answer all of your questions.

[la_cavalière]

Thanks to both of you for your excellent perspectives! We plan to check out all theses areas on our scouting trip. In the meantime I will keep scouring craigslist and the other rental websites.

We love living in the city, but being close to nature and recreational opportunities is also high on the list. We've been lucky to find great urban neighborhoods that fit all our needs in the last four cities we've lived in. We've also lived in the country, in the 'burbs, and on a lake, and while we appreciated aspects of all these areas, we seem to feel most at home in city neighborhoods.

I think it's great that Folsom has invested so much recently in its historic downtown, and hopefully in time more neighborhood-oriented businesses will come. Has the neighborhood has "gelled" enough to create a true sense of community yet? Bummer about the light rail service ending so early in the evening. Bizarre.

[ryuns]

Originally Posted by wburg

As long as the husband doesn't plan on working any later than 7 PM--that's when trains stop running to Folsom. It's also not all that walkable from a practical perspective--you can walk to the restaurants and antique shops, but not places like your dentist or the supermarket. And other than the one light rail stop there's basically no public transit out there, nor bike lanes for transportation other than recreational use.

Re: 7 pm--that doesn't seem slated to change. All the trains directly funded by SacRT are changing to later schedules but Folsom, which pays for a share of the transit serving their area, does not apparently plan to restore funding to levels necessary to run the trains later. Hopefully that will change. Still an hour commute each way. Obviously sitting on the train is much nicer than driving in traffic, but it's still time not spent at home.

I wouldn't sell it quite so short on bicycling, as they've done a decent job (better than any other burb) at maintaining bike infrastructure. But still, there's a lot of development which is just not on the type of scale to facilitate biking and walking.

All that said, Folsom would definitely be our top bet if we didn't want to live in the city (and my girlfriend didn't work in Woodland!).

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by la_cavalière

I think it's great that Folsom has invested so much recently in its historic downtown, and hopefully in time more neighborhood-oriented businesses will come. Has the neighborhood has "gelled" enough to create a true sense of community yet? Bummer about the light rail service ending so early in the evening. Bizarre.

I don't know if it was ever Folsom's intention to have the historic district be a modern small scale version of an urban neighborhood. Originally, it had all the businesses that a family needed close by. But as the town expanded, it was left behind to become a touristy, specialty shop, food/beverage destination, and an established historic neighborhood. You could always check the master plan to see what's in store for the historic district (I'm looking for it but haven't found it yet...it's definately on the myfolsom website but I just can't remember where).

Here's the link to the trail maps: http://www.folsomtrails.org/?p=581
The Folsom city website: http://www.folsom.ca.us/about/default.asp
Folsom Historic District website: http://www.historicfolsom.org/
Historic District charter: http://www.folsom.ca.us/depts/cnc/hi...on/default.asp

As for the light rail's limited hours to Folsom, the local rumor is that this was a planned decision to limit access to riff raff... to keep them out of Folsom, especially at nighttime. It's kind of a 'tongue in check' joke up here. Whenever there is a crime, some blame it on the light rail. We talk about this topic sometimes on the local Folsom forum.

[Lillp]

Another option, sort of in the east sacramento area is River Park. It is just east of East Sacramento, and west of the American River. It is a somewhat isolated/quite neighborhood of single family homes. If you can find a rental it will be within your budget, and likely with a yard for the dogs, and walking distance to the American River (Glen Hall Park). But like many of the nicer areas it is heavely owner occupied and it can be difficult to find something for rent. With kayak carts you could even walk them to the river and not have to drive at all. There are not a ton of resturants, but it's within 1/2 mile of the services in East Sac.

[ryuns]

Originally Posted by caligirlz

As for the light rail's limited hours to Folsom, the local rumor is that this was a planned decision to limit access to riff raff... to keep them out of Folsom, especially at nighttime. It's kind of a 'tongue in check' joke up here. Whenever there is a crime, some blame it on the light rail. We talk about this topic sometimes on the local Folsom forum.

I wouldn't doubt that at all, although I think the original reduction in operating hours was consistent with the greater SacRT's efforts to trim costs. But if people are talking this way, even if some of them are trying to be funny, I imagine that perception makes its way to city hall. Regardless, it just gives city folk more fuel for suburban stereotypes. Where's wburg at?

[wburg]

Trains to Folsom stopped at 7 PM even before service reductions. And yeah, it's pretty much to keep Those People from coming to Folsom at night.

[la_cavalière]

Whatever the reason, the lack of trains after 7 is unfortunate. It may affect our decision whether or not to move to Folsom, or to visit if we find a place in Sacramento. So it may keep out These People as well as Those People.