FlowerGirl

The BF had to make a stop here to pick something up so I got to experience life in Linden for a couple of hours. Now this is not the smallest of towns in this area--it has more than 1000 residents which is a lot more than Farmington--but this is pretty much a small farm community. You can drive through it in less than minute on your way up into the Sierra and never even realize that it is a town onto itself.

Being a city gal, I have a hard time imagining life in a place this small, where there are literally fewer total people than at my high school. It seemed nice enough though. There are some shops like a hair salon, a martial arts and yoga place, and a roadside restaurant that we stopped at.

You would definitely not want to make the commute into anywhere farther than Stockton from here, but I could see why someone might like to get away from it all. Property values for one thing seem a lot more reasonable. Most homes, even newer ones from as late as 2007, seem to be selling for between $150 and $300 thousand, which is pretty impressive.

Schools are pretty good too, with Linden High being above average.

So, I guess as long as you don’t mind the boredom of small time life or are willing to make the long jaunt into Stockton, this could be an okay sort of life.

Robin Lane is a short, two block street in Concord just a few blocks off Monument. I have a friend who found a really cheap place to live here, which is what brought us here over the weekend.

This is basically boxy apartment row with one shoe box shaped building after another. They almost all look to be about 50 years old and are a bit on the dreary side. The rent is definitely affordable, but you do get what you pay for.

The only break to the buildings is a trailer park at the south eastern end of Robin.

The area around here is not very appealing, being along the section of Monument right by the freeway, which is fairly downtrodden. And my friends mentioned they thought the schools around here were not very good either. They said they wouldn’t have moved here if they had kids but that it was good cheap alternative for now.

Overall, I would rather pay $100 to $200 more per month and live in a slightly nicer spot, but maybe I am just getting un-adventuress as I enter middle age.

Farmington is the kind of town that you would barely consider a town at all. There are probably more people living on your block than live in Farmington. In fact, it is actually getting smaller. There are barely a hundred residents now.

If you are a Peter Fonda fan, you may recognize it as the setting for part of Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry--but otherwise there isn’t much to it.

That said they do have a general store and some authentic looking western buildings. So they can’t be all bad.

Woodbridge, just to the north of Lodi, is best known for being the home of the Robert Mondavi Winery. More than ⅔ of the population of Woodbridge lives in South Woodbridge.

South Woodbridge at this point is basically an addendum to Lodi. Though most of the homes here are newer, the property values in South Woodbridge are actually lower than they are in Lodi. Most of the homes here date from the 70’s and 80’s. They are relatively nice Contemporary style homes, but they sell for around $150K because there is not much going on in South Woodbridge these days.

One place where things are okay for South Woodbridge and Woodbridge overall are the schools, which are relatively strong.

Crime is about average and commute times beyond Sac are pretty bad, but overall this is an okay place to live.

I had never been to Lodi before this weekend. Frankly, I knew there was a place called Lodi and that it was in NorCal but before this weekend if you had asked me to point it out on a map I would not have been able to.

So here is what I found out about it and my general though limited impression. Lodi is a relatively small city with less than a 100,000. I guess Blue Shield is the major private employer here. (That’s who my BF’s friend works for.)

It is an older middle class looking sort of place, with lots of Ranch style homes along flat grid-like streets. The homes here were mostly of the older 50’s variety in the neighborhood we were visiting. We drove around though afterwards and I did notice that there were some really nice looking newer neighborhoods on the southern end of Lodi with nice newer, Contemporary style homes from the 80’s and 90’s. (A little cookie cutter, but still pretty nice.)

At the bbq, I overheard someone saying that there was a big difference between east and west Lodi, and that one was nice and the other one pretty bad, but I didn’t notice that. (Seemed more like a north-south divide to me actually.)

Lodi also has a pretty cute, very authentic downtown. Sort of like the place from “What a Wonderful Life” but paved of course. And Lodi is also the hometown of Robert Mondavi.

I also did a little research on some other figures:

In terms of crime Lodi is about average compared to the national average. It gets about 1-2 murders per year.

The average home here sells for around $200K--though in can rise to twice that in the really nice spots.

I guess where you really see the class divide in Lodi is in the schools. Schools on the east side of town like Liberty High and Washington Elementary get really bad ratings, while schools like Lodi High and Larson Elementary are on the opposite end of the spectrum.

As far as commuting goes, you can only really manage Sacramento and Stockton from here.

So I guess overall I would say that Lodi is an okay place to raise a family if you have a job there--but I am not sure if I would chose it for myself otherwise.

Usually when you think of country clubs Stockton is not the first place that comes to mind. But if you look up Country Club, California, the Stockton neighborhood is what you get. It does have a nearby golf course, but you would probably not call this neighborhood, “Country Club” if you were just visiting it for the first time.

It is not that this neighborhood is ugly. It just doesn’t have that sort of posh feel that you expect from a place you associate with country clubs. The neighborhood is mostly made up of older 1950’s style Ranch homes, with worn lawns and sidewalks that are actually pedestrian friendly. (Something that is pretty rare in the newer burbs.)

This is not to say that there isn’t a nice well kept feel to some places in Country Club. The section to the west of Highway 5 is actually fairly nice, and you can see the foundations for a rather nice neighborhood. What do homes cost around here?

About a $100K. That’s what I hear. So pretty much rock bottom like the rest of Stockton.

The reason for this has to do with a lot of factors starting with the bad schools. People don’t want to start lives in a spot where they don’t feel they can send their kids.

The other issue throughout Stockton is crime. There have been about 4 dozen assaults in Country Club in the last 6 months, which though not terrible is not promising either.

That added onto the city government’s bankruptcy and the high unemployment rate here explains why this is one country club people are not clamoring to get into.

Saranap Avenue in Walnut Creek is right at the border between Walnut Creek and Lafayette. It slips off Mt. Diablo Blvd. and skirts the southern end of Highway 24. This is pretty much apartment row in this section of Walnut Creek. You get what looks to me like 30 to 40 year old apartment buildings, all pretty much set up in the long boxy row format with parking spaces on the ground level and one to three levels of apartments above. (Some of the places do feel a little bit like motels because of their set-up but some of the complexes are fairly nice--it varies complex to complex.)

Had friends who lived in one of the so-so places here. Apartment was okay but a bit thin walled, so you pretty much knew what your neighbors’ TV habits were and whether they snored (or did anything else) loudly at night. You are also right at the spot where Highway 24 and Highway 680 meet, so there is a bit of traffic noise when you are outside, though I do not remember it while I was inside their apartment, so I’m not sure if this is much of a problem.

This section of Walnut Creek is also on the southwestern end of the the highway crisscross, so you are not right by the heart of Downtown Walnut Creek, though you could still walk there in probably 15 minutes or so.

That said, you still get all the benefits of living at the border of Walnut Creek and Lafayette. You get basically a safe residential area with great schools--if you have kids, most people here are single I think--and you also get nearby dining, entertainment and nightlife. (Walnut Creek does not, of course, compare with San Francisco but it probably is the central destination for those seeking bars, movies and shopping in Contra Costa County.) As I mentioned in earlier blogs about Walnut Creek, I used to work here, and can tell that it also has a lot of office buildings and jobs, for those looking for work.

The walk to BART might be a bit too much for most people but you could probably bike there. This is an okay place to begin a commute from if you don’t happen to work in the area.

Overall, I would say this is a pretty good, fairly affordable place to live. (I think I saw a one-bedroom for $1200 around here, which isn’t too bad for this part of Walnut Creek.)

Carmel Drive is a short winding street to the north of the Safeway Supermarket in Walnut Creek. Like Alta Vista Drive and Mt. Pisgah Road this whole section of Walnut Creek is basically just a bunch of apartment complexes. I am not sure if it was intentionally designed this way or if this just happened naturally because of the proximity of Downtown Walnut Creek.

These are mostly older apartment buildings in this area (some of them maybe from the 1950’s?). These are very square but well kept apartments. Pretty much shoeboxes with windows and occasionally, recessed balconies.

The main draw of the apartments on Carmel Drive is the location, of course. Not only are you within walking distance of the supermarket. (You really wouldn’t have to ever worry about running out of something when the supermarket feels like it is a pantry for your apartment.)

You are also within walking distance of the heart of Downtown Walnut Creek, so you have all the shopping, restaurants and entertainment that you could hope for in a location. It is the kind of location that is perfect for singles who like being right in the middle of the action but still want to be in a relatively safe area. It is also perfect for single parents because of the great Walnut Creek schools, so it is sort of the best of both worlds in that sense.

Rents around here are about average for Walnut Creek apartments as well. You pay about $1400 for a one-bedroom.

Overall, this would be a pretty cool place to live if you like the sort of fun you can find in Walnut Creek.

East Street is a tiny little dead end street in Lafayette. It is easy to miss even if you have lived in Lafayette your whole life. This, like most of Lafayette that is not on Mt. Diablo or Moraga, is a residential area. But this part of Lafayette actually has a lot of apartments nestled in between the homes.

When I was in college I used to date a guy out here at one of the apartments hidden away at the end of this street, so spent my share of weekends out here. It is actually a great spot. You can, first of all, walk to just about anything, from the supermarket to the shops. And Lafayette has gotten a lot nicer since I lived there with a lot more shops and restaurants.

It is also a great spot for commuters since the BART station is nearby as well. Me and the old bf spent many a Sunday morning get coffee and hanging out at nearby coffee shops. Lot’s of fun, though a little on the slow side.

Lafayette is also a great spot if you are an outdoorsy type and like to go for hikes that sort of thing. The Lafayette Reservoir is a favorite spot for locals on the weekends.

The great Lafayette schools and suburban safety also make this the perfect spot for single parents needing a pad.

Overall this is a great little spot to live, even if the apartments on this street are a little run down and on the ugly side.

Brookwood Road in Orinda is probably the only place that anyone of moderate income can afford in Orinda. Well, at least one half of the road is. I visited a friend who lives in one of the apartment complexes that line the northern end of Brookwood, right by the rumble of the freeway. They are happy to be here because of the great Orinda schools, so they are willing to pay the extra hundred bucks or two to rent an apartment here. (Basically $1500 for a 1 bedroom.)

The apartment is kind of cavernous even though it has two big sliding glass doors that lead out onto the balcony (with its view of nothing in particular). The apartments are okay, I suppose. The location really is the main appeal of this location. As I already mentioned Orinda schools are great by all accounts.

The other great thing about these apartments is that you are a 5 minute walk from the quaint downtown area of Orinda where there is a movie theater, some restaurants and a little shopping area. It is really nice.

The other great thing is that the Orinda BART is right there as well, so if you are commuting to work--as you most likely are since Orinda is not known as a big commercial center, then you can walk right to your train. (You can be in Berkeley in about 25 minutes and in SF in about 45 minutes, I think.)

On the other side of Brookwood Road, it is practically a different world with million dollar homes with beautiful leafy entries. Brookwood road itself is also particularly attractive, with lots of tree cover and an appealing look to it.

I can see why my friend likes living here and was willing to pay the extra $2000 a year to do it.

The Lincoln Village neighborhood in Stockton is just to the north of the Pacific Neighborhood. History buffs will really love this neighborhood as I believe the streets here are named for Lincoln’s famous “Team of Rivals,” the cabinet Lincoln assembled to get him through the Civil War and which were filled with giant egos.

Homes here sell for a little bit more than some neighborhoods to the south with places averaging maybe $150,000. Homes here date largely from the 1960s and look to be in okay though not great shape. It definitely does have a sort classic 1970’s suburban neighborhood feel to it, with older cars and so-so maintained front yards.

Unfortunately this neighborhood still has the same level of high crime as most of Stockton. In the last 6 months there have been 4 murders right at the edges of this neighborhood. There have also been more than 200 assaults. Put simply this is just a dangerous neighborhood.

So even though this is in the supposedly safer northern end of the Stockton, I just don’t see this neighborhood as a serious option for anyone who values their safety.

Okay so lets begin with the crime problem here in Garden Acres in southeastern Stockton. Crime in this neighborhood is actually pretty mild with only the occasional assault. The problem, though is that if you go just to west of here over Highway 99, you are suddenly in a very crime ridden area where there have been 2 homicides in the second half of last year and more than 2 assaults per month during the same period. So, if you are worried about living close to a crime ridden area you will not want to live here.

That said, however, Garden Acres itself, as far as I can tell from the handful of times that I have been here, actually seems like a fairly chill neighborhood with older Ranch homes and a sort of semi-rural suburban feel to it. (Though I would not really call this a rural area by any means--I only mean that it feels like the kind of neighborhood you would find in a small, 3000 person town like say Arbuckle.)

Probably because of the terrible economy and nearby crime, houses here are rock bottom in terms of prices. The median home price is less than $100,000. In fact, few homes here go over that amount and you can actually find homes here that sell for $35,000. Now these are not very nice homes. A 1960’s Ranch home here can look like it is a 100 years old because of poor maintenance, and realtors don’t seem to bother to try to fix them up for sale--probably expecting the ROI would not be high enough to justify it.

The school system doesn’t help matters either. Most of the schools around here are well below average--often with bottom basement API scores. Franklin High School is an exception with a solidly average score.

In a nutshell then, high nearby crime, rock bottom prices for run down homes, and bad schools add up to a pretty lousy neighborhood that I would not recommend for anyone.

The Kennedy neighborhood in Stockton is just a big industrial area where you can find things like trucks and industrial yards. Basically you have places like a Reddaway Trucking yard, a fencing place, a crane place, and a junkyard that sells used parts. This is just one of those ugly, very manly sorts of places where all the dirty gritty stuff that cities need to get done, gets done. That’s about it.

It is however well placed being near the highway and not far to the north of the airport--so you wouldn’t really want to have too many homes here, anyway. (Though there are some just outside of this neighborhood anyway.)

The Taft-Mosswood neighborhood is one of these neighborhoods on the far south of Stockton. It’s the kind of neighborhood where there are no sidewalks, the asphalt just giving way to the dirt or grass of homes. That, combined with the fences and the fairly unimpressive set of Ranchers that make up much of this neighborhood give this area its rural feel.

This is definitely not Kansas, however. Not with the level of crime you have here. I was looking at a crime reporting website to see if what I had heard about the crime rate in stockton is true and it looks like it definitely is. There has been at least one murder in this neighborhood in the second half of the 2012, and there has been another 8 more within a mile to the north most in the afternoon during the heat of summer. Those are the kind of crime rates you expect in somewhere like Oakland.

This is not the heart of the crime problem but it is definitely close enough where I would feel a little unsafe. You also get about 2 dozen assaults in this neighborhood and more than 200 in the neighborhoods just to the north. And there have also been more than 300 burglaries and robberies in the area.

Schools are also pretty lousy around here. Edison High is a bit below average and the local elementary school, Taft Elementary is pretty much bottom of the basement.

One thing this neighborhood does have going for it is home prices, with no home selling for more than $100K. Some even falling as low as $25K. These are actually homes. (Granted they are kind of old and ugly.)

I guess, however, you get what you are paying for. The added costs would be the price of living in a crime ridden neighborhood with terrible schools.

Okay, so let’s start where you have to with Stockton: crime. It’s high. More than twice the national average. That is on a par with San Francisco. Of course, the difference is Stockton does not have everything going for it that SF does.

They get about 40 murders a year with a population of 300,000. Rapes are even worse. There are consistently more than 100 rapes. And assaults are over 2000 year after year. (So if I am doing my a calculation right, you have a 1 in 50 chance of getting assaulted there if you live there for two years.) I’ve lived in some place with crime problems like Berkeley and SF, but this is pretty awful.

Okay, but let’s say you want to roll the dice and take a chance on Stockton. The other problem is that Stockton is just a mess financially now. They declared bankruptcy this year, becoming the largest city in American history to do so. On the way to doing so they got rid of a quarter of their cops and a third of their firefighters and they still couldn’t close the gap.

Now there are a lot of newer, nicer homes in Stockton that were built since 2000 when Stockton was riding the good times. But unfortunately, these houses are exactly what has pulled Stockton down. I read somewhere that Stockton has the second highest foreclosure rate in the entire country.

It is actually pretty depressing for Stockton which felt it was finally going to pull out of its problems. And Stockton does have a lot to build on. It is a major port, and it is from here that California’s agriculture ships out. It does have a strong business community.

University of Pacific is also in Stockton. It is considered a good school for getting a degree like dentistry. The area around the university is a pretty nice college town and one of the best places to live in Stockton.

The Downtown area has a lot of potential too. Stockton has a pretty solid museum, the Haggan Museum. And they have the Asparagus Festival, of course. (Like the Garlic Festival in Gilroy.)

They also have some okay bars like Basil’s and Taste Ultra. And they have an okay selection of restaurants.

Overall, however, with the current crime and financial problems combining with the horrible reputation Stockton has gotten as the 10th most dangerous city in the country and being listed on the Forbes 25 list of worst places to live, I don’t see many people taking a chance on Stockton anytime soon.

French Camp is a small town just to the west of Stockton Airport. It is a pretty typical town, except for the fact that two thirds of the population is male.

Why male?

Because a third of the population is locked up in a men’s prison there. That makes up a full third of the population, thus explaining the two guys for every girl demographics of the place. (Of course, unless you like your guy to have a strict curfew and only be able to see you for conjugal visits, not so sure it is really such a panacea for single gals.)

French Camp also has a hospital--San Joaquin County General, I think--and an arms depot to the south, which doesn’t seem like a great combination to me. (Generally, I wouldn’t want my prisons close to my armory myself.

Okay, but my reason for liking French Camp is neither the attractiveness of a bad-boy behind bars (a bit too unavailable even for me) or the chance mass mayhem offered by having a local armory nearby. No, what I like about French Camp is the Ghirardelli Factory Outlet. It is the ideal way to enjoy Ghirardelli chocolates for me: sans Fisherman’s Wharf tourists! You should definitely check this place out if you are in this neck of the woods anytime soon, as I was recently with my bf. You will loooooovvve it!

Okay, but what is it like living in this little town and is it worth it just for the chocolates?

I actually have little idea but I can imagine that it would pretty much suck. For one thing, Stockton is trying to annex you so that they can get more tax revenues and aside from the things I mentioned there really isn’t much to do here. For restaurants and entertainment you have to drive either to Stockton or to Lathrop, and let me tell you, if you look up to Stockton for entertainment and culture, you definitely don’t have much going on.

So my recommendation is come here for the chocolates; but then go back home somewhere else.

August is the kind of place where houses have bars on the windows and chain link fences around their front yards. This is one of the easternmost sections of Stockton. It has an old timey sort of feel in that it doesn’t really have sidewalks so feels like it sprung up “naturally.”

You will not find a cheaper place to buy a home than this. Homes typically sell for less than $100,000. These are not trailers in trailer parks. (Though there are some these here as well.)
These are actual full-fledged houses. Some are a little worn out but most fairly promising. The age of the homes here is pretty mixed. You have a ton of 1950’s Ranchers, but mixed in you will also find a fair number from every decade, even homes built within the last decade, even though they only sell for about $100,000. What is strange is that even the newer homes just don’t feel all that much newer. They just look like someone has refurbished one of those older Ranchers--which is perhaps what they have done.

Of course, whenever you have low home prices in an area which has a bad reputation you start to look for crime and bad schools.

And this is pretty much what you find here. Crime is high. In the last six months the area (and the area just to the west of it) has experienced:

1 murder
250+ assaults
200+ burglaries
100+ robberies
dozens of rapes and attempted rapes

In Stockton overall, the crime rate is more than twice the national average and has been for a while. Looks like this may be a typical Stockton neighborhood in that sense.

Schools are similarly, from what I have heard, beyond terrible. Completely dysfunctional.

None of this, of course, is helped out by the fact that Stockton appears to be in the process of declaring (has declared?) bankruptcy. Will definitely not put more cops on the street.

I only passed through here once. Would definitely not want to live here.

So Ripon is another one of these tiny San Joaquin towns. (It is pronounced “Rippin’” by locals, as in, “I had a rippin’ good time in Ripon.”)

Okay so I am hardly a local. My entire knowledge of this quaint little town comes from having lunch at Pizza Plus on their main street, talking to people from nearby towns and a touch of internet research. People are really high on this pizza and so we dropped in to try it out and see what all the hoopla was about. It is very good pizza, and I guess if I lived near Ripon and had nothing better to do, I might drop in to grab some pizza on my way by. Not sure it is worth the trip just on its own, but if you’re on the way somewhere else and happen by, why not?

The “downtown” area is authentically historic, not like a lot of these downtowns where they try to make if feel quaint in a sort of classy way. This actually feels like it has been like this for a while. Which means that it isn’t super attractive, but it is nice. And there are some nicer older buildings.

What I saw of the surrounding residential areas was pretty nice too. Very much like a 1950’s style middle class neighborhood, wide streets, nice lawns. Lots of older Ranch homes. But really nicely kept.

I don’t know if it just when I was there, but the streets felt a little empty. This is not altogether surprising, I mean the total population of Ripon is less than you can fit in the stadium for a College basketball game.

On average homes here sell for $300,000--which is actually higher than I expected for somewhere so far out in the middle of nowhere. (Could it be the pizza?) My BF tells me there are a lot of big newer homes on the outskirts of town which accounts for the high prices. But I still don’t know where people are getting their money out here. The commute to the Bay Area just seems undoable from Tracy, much less from even farther.

In fact, it will take you more than an hour to make it just to Livermore during rush hour. (Sacramento is more than an hour away, too.) So who knows how people manage to rake in $80K living here, but if the census is right, that’s what they make.)

Schools are really strong here too, so that probably has a lot to do with it. Though I think I saw Ripon High on Main Street and it didn’t look like much. (There were also like 3 churches, so you certainly won’t lack in soul saving--you could get yourself saved at least three times over on your way to getting a pepperoni slice.)

Overall, I don’t know if I would recommend Ripon, but I can see why some people would like it.

Okay, so Escalon is the kind of town where when you look it up on Google Maps, Starbucks is a major landmark. That gives you a sense of the scale of this one-horse town. (Btw the horse is name Sal--he’s the second landmark. That’s a joke, but I’m not kidding. This is a small place for a city gal like me.)

Came here over the long holiday weekend to check out the bf’s childhood home. Supposedly Escalon has put the brakes on new housing developments, but I saw tons of new homes there including one of those adobe walled, red tiled roof neighborhoods that are so popular now. Big wide streets; clean, clean clean--just that very nice look that is so appealing now. So I’m not sure if they just slowed down growth or what?

Anyway, homes here in Escalon are even cheaper than in Manteca--probably because it is too far from the Bay Area for commuters. It is, however, just 10 miles or so north of Modesto, which has its own charms. The average home here barely reaches $200,000. Very cheap.

As to schools, they are pretty strong with Escalon High school being well above average and the middle school that feeds into it being just so so.

There are some drawbacks to living in farm country however. One is the weather. Fog for what seems like weeks on end in the winter. (Another reason you don’t want to try to commute from here if you value your life the other being that Sacramento is more than an hour away and San Jose, San Francisco, Walnut Creek even are more than 2 hours away.) Then the summers are hot as hot gets--no cooling coastal winds out here. The other reason you might not like the climate here is that you will get your fair share of pesticides and such as well. During the summer when the crops are being reaped, if you get a windy day you will definitely find out if you have any allergies, because all sorts of stuff will blow into town. (I have seen people in Davis, CA resort to surgical masks during the spring and summer to protect themselves.) That just comes with the territory.

So that is pretty much it. Not my kind of place, but okay if you have a job in the area and are married with kids I guess.

Okay, so Manteca is not really my sort of town. I was there over Thanksgiving weekend meeting my guy’s family and we hung out for a while. DULLLLLLSVILLE!

So, let me put it another way. It is like when I saw Terms of Endearment when I was a kid. Now I know it is supposed to be a great movie and got some Oscars and all that, but at 8 or 9 or whatever age I was when my moms rented it for us to watch, it was a snoozer. Because I was 9. Not the right audience, right?

Well Manteca is pretty much the same way for me now. Although I am to the point in the relationship where I am meeting his family, I am definitely not to the point in the relationship where I am thinking about a nice place to settle down. And even if I was, there is settling down and then there is putting your enjoyment into a box and burying it forever to raise your kids and Manteca feels more like that.

Manteca is by design all about raising the kiddies in as safe and boring an environment as possible. It makes Leave It to Beaver seem like Mean Streets. (Okay maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but still.)

So what do people like about Manteca?

It is pretty simple actually: good schools and cheap houses within reach of San Jose and SF (if hubby is willing to commute for 5 hours every day, anyway).

How cheap are homes here? The average home around here is probably less than $250,000. Maybe less. And there are basically no homes that go for more than $500,000. For people used to unbelievable prices in the Bay Area, this sounds like pocket change.

These prices probably have a lot to do with the Foreclosure Crisis, which probably affected Manteca more than other places since so many of the people here came into (and then out of) their homes in the last decade. (Manteca grew about a third larger during the last decade--raising incomes though not reaching the California average--people here still make a lot less.)

A lot of the homes here are newer homes from housing developments that popped in the last 30 years or so to keep up with Manteca’s explosive growth. You can actually see the homes expanding outward from the little town that once was, with the oldest 1950’s and earlier homes in the middle and newer and newer homes the farther out you head. There are tons of houses trading hands actually.

Okay, and schools?

Schools, I’m told, have a similar pattern to the homes. The farther away from the center of town you get, the better the schools seem to get. So Manteca High in the center of town is pretty awful, but Sierra High is pretty great! (Or at least well above average.)
They have malls and all the usual suburban deals but that is pretty much it. No one heads out to Manteca for a good time.

Crime is about average in Manteca. I forget where I was seeing this stat but I guess they get maybe one murder per year.

Oh yeah, and in terms of nightlife here, I got a taste of it and it didn’t have a great aftertaste. We went to the Rusty Hook one night. I am not kidding, the one pub in town is called the Rusty Hook. Not exactly a name that inspires you to want to taste the peanuts, if you get my drift. But heck, after a couple of drinks, the inappropriate jokes at expense of the bar’s name actually started to seem funny.