So Tell Me About Fresno, Ca
 

I have been offered a very good position in the Fresno/Madera, Ca area. It's an unbelievable opportunity.

So, for those of you in or near the Central Valley can you give me some idea of what I'm looking at? Tell me about the weather. Can I play golf all winter?

Is this a good town for cycling and outdoor activities? Anything at all feel free to chime in.

It's a shithole. Hot, boring, flat, crappy central valley pollution. The only good thing I can say about Fresno is it doesn't smell as bad as Visalia.

What he said!

its not that bad. its far enough from the big cities, but close enough to drive out there for the weekend. I love our winters though. Winters kick ass in the Central Valley.

Also, if your an outdoorsman, there is alot of good shit out here and on the way to Yosemite. alot of great fishing out here if your into that.

When you say "unbelievable opportunity" and "Fresno" in the same sentence, I'm completely baffled.

WTI says, "**** it, I'm heading to the Pac-12."

Catch that plane, brother.

It is all a matter of perspective. if you are coming from kc area you probably wont think its hot for at least 10-15 years. the dry heat is nothing when you are used to humidity.
I notice the LA folks are calling the valley a shithole.......somehow that seems funny to me. If you are not into the worlds largest collection of traffic jams, strip malls and concrete you will prefer the valley to lala land.

Taint of the country sums it up about as well as I can.

In all seriousness, if you have a great opportunity you can build a nice life for yourself there (or anywhere short of Oakland, really).

Your thread is just getting hijacked into a pissing contest between No/So Cal'ers.

Do realize though that your unbelievable opportunity will be taxed into oblivion, so keep that in mind.

Best thing about Fresno is its close enough to kewl places that you can drive to them on weekends.

Weather: Hot in the summer. Winter is not too bad, a little foggy, but not too cold

There is a fair amount of activities, most good outdoor places are 30 min to 2 hours away.

Look at Clovis for a home, its a nice area.

If you don't need a big city life, and don't mind taking things a bit slower, it's a good place.

It gets VERY VERY VERy humid here at times. Not all the time, but it can be 105plus and very very humid. There are times in the middle of the summer where its 105 and raining. Its not always just dry heat here.

it's a much better prison....

Hi Mike! Long time...

Yea, to those in SD it's probably a different way of life and scenery. But it really is an unbelievable opportunity. I'm only tied to it for two years at most. When I went on the interview it seemed a lot like Western Ks. Flat as hell. Hot. But much closer to the things that interest me.

The cost of living overall in Fresno is about 9% higher than KCMO. Housing is a wash. Fuel/utilities are comparable. Food is much higher. (On average 18% higher).

But I'm not moving a family. Just me. And I can deal with the idea of having LA/SF and the Central Coast within a 2.5/3 hour drive.

I go back this week. Start Oct 24th.

Thanks kciv. I get the feeling that coastal residents don't care much for the Central Desert Valley. I'm anxious to hike through Yosemite and drive to Tahoe. The idea of being within 4 hours of cactus league baseball in March puts a smile on my face too.

Lots to check out and when vacation rolls around, I'll drive to SD, Ca and rent a place on the beach. I think it's going to be a very good experience.

I'm the undisputed winner of the "We had options!!!!" trophy currently held by KU fans from last season.

It wont be that bad...I am on the Coast but I would rather live in Fresno than alot of other places in the country...You can Golf all year and have a lot of great courses within a couple/few hours drive if Golf is your thing. If you ever wanna drive up to the North Coast I can give you some tips on some cool courses and places to stay and whatnot.

The taxation is a more than a little rough. But I'm not looking to have a mortgage and the pay is more than competitive.

Please people, we're all Californians here, so let's keep it peaceful. (hang 10 sign)

Actually property tax among the lowest in the USA due to Proposition 13......its all the other taxes that are a killer.

I plan on touring a lot of this area. I'm leaving behind 11 brothers and sisters and about 50+ nieces and nephews. And I will take you up on it when I'm settled.

My only tether to home is a nephew who lives in Pasadena.

Which taxes are then ones that are killer besides state income tax?

Sales tax is high where I live, not sure about Fresno but its almost 10% here....not sure what it is compared to KS/MO tho...but to me 10% is high.

State Income tax is pretty high, as you mentioned. Especially when there are a couple nearby states with zero state income taxes.

Also (and I am speaking from a business owner here) but business taxes are very high (workers comp...etc)...

Gasoline is pretty high out here.... (again, not sure about Fresno, but I think gas will be 10% higher probably in Fresno than in KS/MO).

We have some BS hotel taxes that get added on to rooms in different parts of the state...

Water is ****ing ridiculous now, not really a tax, but it is a goverment controlled entity and where I live it is ****ing insane....again, not sure about fresno...


The thing about property taxes is once you buy a place, Prop 13 keeps your property taxes locked in at that rate and it cant go up very much...so once you know you are going to be there for a while buying a house might be the best move if it will 1) be cheaper to buy than rent, which may be the case and 2) you can write off your mortgage and 3) if the cost of buying a home is still lower than the cost of building it when you are ready to buy.

Anyhow not to de-rail your thread but buying a place would probably save you tax money, as you'd be able to write off your mortgage and taxes are only about 1% right now ($2000 per year on a 200k home, maybe $175 per month).

Back to the topic at hand, when you get ready to come up to the wine country, PM me or something I can make a list of some bad ass spots.

(summary of taxes: http://retirementliving.com/RLstate1.html#CALIFORNIA)

Just for comparison:

Sales tax in KCMO is just over 7.725%.

If you work in the city there is also a 1% earnings tax on every paycheck.

Unless fuel has jumped in price it was actually +/- .10c per gallon. Been keeping tabs on that. So I think the idea of not having a mortgage may have been a little premature. However, I don't know that I'll stay over two years, so best to go the safe route.

You can bet I'll be looking your way for advice in the near future on golf and other activities.

Thanks for the summary. That's a good synopsis. I've saved that to my iPad and phone.

So long Will we hardly knew ya.

Absolutely. In fact, I am a little more conservative and would perhaps be inclined to raise that to 5 years. The moment you KNOW youll be there 5 years is the time you wanna pull the trigger...At least in today's market IMHO. Anything less than that involves quite a bit more risk. Anything more than 5 years involves very, very little risk if the property meets a few simple criteria....but yah your logic is very similar to mine in that regard.

Best of luck in your new digs, brother.

I'll still be here, B. Just posting from another time zone.

CA-395, which borders the Sierra's and Yosemite from the east is really cool. You have Mt. Whitney, the bristlecone pine forest (oldest trees in the world), Mammoth Ski/recreation area and Mono Lake. Also some cool old towns like Lone Pine and Bishop. I always feel like I'm driving through what CA used to be like 60-70 years ago when I drive that hwy.

Cool 'grats on the job offer. I'm trying to get out to San Diego myself the winters here just suck too much.

Thanks B'sP.

Milder winters played heavily into consideration. Plus this area just isn't conducive to riding a bicycle. People just don't look for you and the trails are few, and crowded.

I think the idea of waking up on Sunday to watch the Chiefs get their stool pushed in for a half. That allows while the frost burns off the greens in December and I can tee off at 1pm.

SD is beautiful. It's where I vacation every year. It's expensive to live there, but there's no better place in America.

I'm from KS been here 12 1/2 years and love it. The Central Valley, for California, the cost of living isn't bad. Gas does get high at times(right now $3.75). I've lived in several places since I moved out here and I liked Fresno best of all. Now I live about 45 min south of Fresno. I can hit LA in 2 1/2 hours, SD 5 hours, SF 3 1/2 hours, Sacramento 3, the beach 2 hours, and the mountains 1 1/2 hours.

I live in Merced, about 45 min north of Fresno. I love the Valley. Allergies suck out here, but like i said i love our winters. Summers suck, its really ****ing hot. Its not bad out here at all. Its just not the city, but the cities hell all major ones arent far away.

Also, can go watch Fresno State play. they may not be elite, but that team never gives up and Pat Hill is ALWAYS trying to get games with the big named teams. Every once in a while, you can see a big NCAA team come down.

Hill brought CSU-Fresno into Manhattan in 04 and destroyed KSU. Then they beat the snot out of KSU in Fresno. We bought out the last <strike> embarrassment </strike> game.

I toured the campus with a guy who played baseball at Fresno St. We went into the stadium during their camp. Nice place. The reason I felt pretty comfortable is that the entire region is agribusiness driven. It seemed like a desert version of western Kansas. Kinda desolate. Few trees (Some palms, some fir, lots of scrub.)

But I really liked it. And to be that close to watching the Clippers or the Lakers or the even the A's is pretty cool

as much as i hate the Giants as well, Pac Bell Park is beautiful. I dont mind the A's, but the Collesium is a piece of shit. Yeah, like i said, far away from the big Cities, but close enough to go spend the day in the big city.

Tons of agriculture out here. I work for my neighbors from time to time they are labor contractors.

Enjoy the ride!

I would rather live in Fresno than KC.

Fresno is the bunghole of CA. Oakland is even better than that place. Check crime stats for it.

We had a lot of rain in Fresno this year- or at least more than usual. There was SOME humidity, but nowhere close to the summers I spent growing up in the Joplin area.

I live in Clovis, and I like it a lot. Clovis is a rodeo town with a small town feel- not unlike towns like Webb City, Missouri (where I went to HS). There is a nice sense of community spirit, love of our local sports teams, great farmer's markets, a tradition of great writers and poets (including current poet Laureate Phil Lavene who taught at Fresno State). The central valley was the only place in Cali where I didn't have any culture shock. I would much rather live here than LA of SF or Sacramento.

That being said... Certain parts of Fresno are awful to live in the West side and South East Fresno are freaking scary places to live. Avoid them if possible. Those sides of town are very ghetto and have a very high crime rate and a ton of gang activity. Downtown Fresno is dead and depressing, with one of the most disgusting homeless "tent cities" that I've ever seen. Avoid these parts of Fresno.

The Riverpark area of Fresno is pretty awesome. Clovis (which is right next to Fresno) is great, and the area on Herndon Ave between Marks Ave and Cedar Ave seems decent.

Plus, you have taco trucks here. the best thing ever. Carne asada taco or a torta and your on your way.

Breakfast burrito ftw! I miss normal taco trucks. Hard to find them anymore in normal parts of LA - it's all gourmet grilled cheese trucks, or Mongolian flatbread trucks, etc. that cost a shitload and ppl looooove to wait in line for.

I lived in Lemoore for 4 years; about 40 minutes south of Fresno for for four years. I spent a lot of time in that area. overall, I liked it. this was about 10-14 years ago, but at that time crime was a bit iffy - but was like most cities, in that it was relegated to certain areas of town.

I really enojoyed the surrounding areas; Merced, Hanford, Visalia, Concordia, etc.

I was in the military at that time and there was a huge issue between civiians and military at that time; but I always thought I would enjoy living out there as a civilian.
Close to so many things; Sequoias, SF, SD; even LV to a certain degree.

HOT as a MF in summer however. and extremely 'foggy' in the fall in the San Jaquin valley.
I really liked Visalia, although probably a bit of a drive to Fresno if you're talking a daily commute etc.

Don't know jack about the place but congrats on your opportunity anyway.

You plagiarized that from the Fresno Chamber of Commerce website

LMAO
...i mentioned Visalia in one of my posts lol.
I always thought Lemoore/Hanford had more of a funk than Visalia....

Never been to those. Tempting though.

I'm not sure if Visalia always smells like driving past the stinkiest dirt cow pen ever. But it sure did when I was there.

Me: "Um does it always smell like that?"
Local: "Like what?"

I guess that's my answer.

yeah, between the cow poo, and rotten tomatoes on the ground, it can smell a little 'off' at times. lol

I drive around Cali a lot for my job, and here is how I rank the stank for the cities:

1. MacFarland- The stank is so thick and rotten from plums and poop you can smell it through eyes and it attaches to your car long after you've returned home. The air is like skunk spray. You can always tell if someone has been to MacFarland recently.

2. Exeter- see Goshen, but with less plums/prunes

3. Gilroy- Death by Garlic!!! Vampires will die if they get a whiff within ten miles of that place.

congrats, william

Where are you from BreakingWind? There are definitely areas to avoid. My tour with the real estate guy was pretty comprehensive. We covered the whole city.

It's really no different than KC. I don't go drive down Troost or Prospect on a Friday night looking to buy groceries.

One more question for the Central Valley. In order to stay on top of things politically I noticed there is high speed rail construction ready to start soon.

Why is there HSR being built in the Central Valley? Is it to move agricultural commerce? Are there that many people to move from the valley to SF, LA, SAC ?

I've been reading up on it and can't quite understand the need for it in this area.

I've never been to Fresno, but I spent the night in Barstow once. It smelled like Godzilla took a dump on the entire town. Terrible, awful place.

Thought I'd give you an update.

Been here five months today. This is a different place. I have never worked in a state that was this 'employee friendly". If you (claim) you didn't get your morning/afternoon break, the employee can claim a break penalty. A break penalty consists of 1 hour of OT paid.

If you don't punch out for lunch prior to the 6th hour? You get a "Missed meal" penalty: One hour of OT. I have never seen so many candyasses who try to claim this shit. It's an epidemic. And the sneakier types will try to claim them two or three days after the fact.

I've met a lot of great people. People who really care about what they do and how well they do it. Conversely, I've also met the not so nice people.

I was at a WalMart on a Saturday. Rode my bicycle there to get groceries. I get off the bike and, right next to mine, is fairly nice Canondale bike worth about 600$. As I'm getting ready to chain mine up, this big Mexican dude walks up with bolt cutters and pops the thick wire lock like it was kite string. He then picks up the bike and walks away. On a Saturday in broad daylight with a billion people walking around.

I was kind of stunned, but I realized what was happening and I turned and said: "Hey, you're a good union criminal". He turned back to me and said "I'll be back to get that one", gesturing to my bike. I hopped on my bike and rode away. He was serious as hell and I wasn't taking any chances. Plus he was bigger than me.

It's great to get the freshest, best fruit and vegetables I've ever had in my life. Even in the dead of winter I can find a non greenhouse tomato. And they are so ****ing good I eat them like they were apples. I had an orange from a coworkers tree in late January that was literally the best orange I've ever had. It's like the Garden of Eden here.

Cycling has been great. The winter was pretty mild and I rode my bike to work (28 miles round trip) every day. I'm happy that the time has changed and I can ride without it getting dark during the last 4 miles.

I've been up to Yosemite and to the central coast. I'm taking a bus tour to SF. They charge like 35$ and they drop you off and let you wander around the city for 6 or 8 hours and then return to the valley. I figure this is the best way to get a lay of the area before I drive into SF for a weekend. Good idea? Bad idea? I'm open to opinions.

The culture is, obviously, a little different. I'm white in a city that is 60% hispanic and black. So it's kinda weird. I can go ,ost of the day and rarely see another caucasion. I've met some great people. Lots of great Mexicans. It's funny because it shows just how small town I am. People are people. Most of the folks here want what I want. A good life. A better life for their kids. So they get up every day and go to work like I do. Like all of us do. It's been a good experience in that regard.

Of course there is also a large thug element here. Lots of bad dudes. They ran a headline here several weeks ago in the Fresno Bee detailing "The 10 Greatest Car Thieves Of Fresno". (Not kidding). Had their pictures and everything in the paper. The top guy had been arrested but not given a jail sentence because they had no place to put a "nonviolent offender" in the Fresno City Jail. If you google it, it's a funny - yet sad - read.

I'm a cheapskate about travel so I take the bus a lot. Saves on gas money. City bus travel is an adventure. The meth monkeys are everywhere. And they are entertaining. There are some real whacked out meth addled MF'ers out here. I had a bus driver stop the bus I was on in order to throw two meth monkeys off the bus who kept fighting with each other. The bus driver stopped the bus and said:

"Get OFF MY BUS" NOW!!!!!

They looked at each other and kept yakking. (one of them forgot a camera or a cracker and they were really bitching at each other about it). This time he said:

GET OFF MY BUS RIGHT NOW. (pneumatic doors open) GET OUT, OR WE CALL THE COPS AND YOU DON"T RIDE ANY BUS AGAIN! EVER!

I guess the Fresno transit system doesn't screw around. You **** up on the bus and they have to toss you, you get banned for a year. If you've already been in trouble, it's a lifetime ban. And they keep pictures of the banned people in the terminal. It was awesome.

There are more adventures to come I'm sure.

It is quite an interesting town. I lived there 18 years. If you want some good steaks and meat, try the Meat Market, it is near River Park.

I was between fresno and berkeley when the drugs began to take hold

I enjoyed The Mad Duck on St. Patty's day. Check that place out.

The only thing I liked about Fresno in my short stay there was their baseball stadium. If I lived in Fresno, it would be somewhere near that stadium and I'd go to every game.

One of the things I hated was the clear drug dealing right outside my hotel room the entire time I was there.

Lots of esè's in Fresno. Lots of gang related bs, known as Bulldogs or Sur 14 lmao. Just wear red and you'll be alright.

My wife is from there. You definitely want to live in Clovis if you move there. Fresno itself is a shit hole. Lots of stuff to do a few hours away though.

Yeah, anything north of Bakersfield is Red. ITs also Norte 14 not Sur they are 13. lol Yes, im mexican and i know. I was previously involved in all that stuff.


Anyways, glad William is enjoying it. Its not as bad as people say. He just hasnt been around for the Summer. He's going to ****ing hate it. Fresno gets insanely hot. We get dry heat and humid heat. He will find out soon. lol

Hey William glad to hear your adjusting. I don't know if you are interested in a CCW Permit, but Sherriff Mims is very understanding of the need. She believes the more law abiding citizens who carry will kinda chase the riff raff away. And it sounds like there is a lot of riff raff up there.

True. I live near Old Town Clovis, and it's far nicer and quieter on this side of town. I love the farmers market, and just walking around down there and hanging out with the statue of Festus.

I don't think about going to the Walmart on Kings Canyon. That place is scary, not East LA scary, but scary.

You're right, if it weren't for my family -I could probably go days without seeing a Caucasian. It's cool though, I like Mexican, Hmong, Filipino, and African people around me. They're all good people.

The gangs suck! When I first moved to Fresno, I got a job teaching at a continuation School where most of the students were about the same age I was and being watched by Parole officers. I wore a red Chiefs Polo once and immediately regretted it. I was adopte d into the ESF Bulldogs and dubbed "KC Bulldog," which helped me get fired for something I didn't want to get involved in the first place. Oh, well... don't really like teaching anyway.