Tell me about Santa Clarita, CA

There's a job opening for one of the companies I work for that I'm close to applying for that would potentially be worth moving from Alaska for. The job would be mostly in Santa Clarita, CA, a city I know next to nothing about beyond it's part of the morass that is Los Angeles. Wife and I are in a day-dreaming state of mind, so anyone have any experience with the area? What's the weather like? Any racing (SCCA Solo) or Enduro/Hare scrambles or kart tracks in the area? How are the schools (a primary reason for considering leaving Alaska, we're both worried how living at the end of the world will impact our kids education)? Cost of living? Are there affordable places to live or does tent space sell for $400k?

Good stories, bad stories, story stories?

It's actually a decent location for tracks. Willow springs is pretty close and Buttonwillow is not far away (VERY close by LA standards). That area is mostly a commute living spot to the LA area (it's a bit north), but is clearly gaining businesses. It's essentially the high desert, so it will get the heat of LA, but not the ocean cooling (still dry though). Very easy access toward the north (5 freeway), and good acces towards the west (136) and the ocean (Ventura / Santa Barbara area).

Houses will be a bit less then LA, but not a huge amount, as I said, it a popular commuting community. If you said you will live there and work in LA, I would be concerned, but if you work there, it's actually a pretty good location. Look into the house prices though (realistically probably a condo). Mostly new housing there, so grange and yard sizes will generally be small.

It's also less than five hours to Laguna Seca .

The key to dealing with California is living where you work. I know lots of people who struggle with that aspect of California life, ie, getting an awesome job but hating the commute. Plus, the increased pay may be worth it if you can actually live a bit cheaper than a similar spot with a shorter commute, but that's so rare in California that most of the time you've gotta live within 10 minutes of the office to justify the massive increase in housing. In your case (and mine) housing is pretty expensive in our respective small towns, so I could get a similar sized home in California for the same price as Flagstaff, but have far more employment options. I'd probably struggle to find a job within 5 minutes of home like I currently have, though.

At least in Fairbanks you get a decent quality of life due to the short commute.

A few more things: Good access to LAX (flights to EVERYWHERE), 30 min to 2 hours (depending on traffic ). Very easy access to Burbank airport, maybe 15 min. Basically NO public transit though (welcome to LA ). The metro (access to most of downtown / Hollywood areas) though, can be gotten to in North Hollywood, which is 20 or so min away.

I would say the most obvious issue with the area is that is serves as the northern exit to the LA area. That means a LOT of traffic on the freeway just south of there into LA at commute times an vacation exit and return times. If you work THERE though, not much of an issue. Most of the housing is the the east of the freeway I believe. There is almost nothing north of there for an hour or so (mountain pass to the central valley).

Very close to Castaic and Piru lakes. But... these are SoCal lakes, so they get VERY busy at times. The largest roller coaster park in the wold (Great America) is in the town, if you like that. Easy access to central and northern CA as well as the coast, reasonably good access to Vegas area. Offroad areas are rather close (in the mountains, and Pismo is not that far away)

For housing, if you are more interested in a bit more rural housing, look to the west in Fillmore or even Santa Paula (at bit more ocean influence also). Basically farming communities (schools will not be as good) and probably a 20-30 min reasonably easy commute.

I just drove past there last weekend (126), and they are building a bunch of commercial buildings to the west of the town.

Point of trivia: If you ever saw the old TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep, it was shot just west of the town in what now is a farm. The runway is gone, but the hanger is still there.

Honestly, for LA, if you work in the town, a good location.

BTW: NO snow, no humidity, and almost no rain (not really a good thing, get used to looking at brown)...

"only thing I never could stand about Santa [Clarita.] All the damn Vampires."

I was only skimming the titles and when I saw yours my brain read "San Quentin". That would make for a completely different thread indeed.

I lived in Canyon Country for years, Its the rural part of Santa Clarita.

Its Hot in the summer, Cold in the Winter, Traffic Sucks. Willow springs is an Hour and a half away in a hotter/colder part of the desert. Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor is in Santa Clarita so someplace to bring the kids. Lots of Movie industry people live there and support services for the industry, Several Movie ranches on the outskirts of town. Its a planned community, A good size indoor mall, Last big town in L.A. before going up "The Grapevine" on the way to San Fransicso. Fraizer Park at the top of the hill is Mountain Community with Snow and Ski resorts not too far away. Bakersfield is an oil/ag city up the 99 on the way to Buttonwillow raceway.

South is L.A. proper. San Fernando Valley aka "The Valley" If you are looking for something it can be found there. So many car related activities it will make someones head spin. Some of the best driving roads anywhere are in the Santa Monica Mountain and Angeles Crest area as evident by all the bikes and cars.

All in all its culture shock for most people coming from anywhere. The vastness of Los Angeles is overwhelming. One day a trip can take 30 minutes, the next it could be 4 hours. There was a big fire recently, The Sand Fire, (3 weeks ago) that burned a bunch of the outskirts of Santa Clarita. The schools seem to be sports oriented, Very big campuses.

Check out some of the regional Facebook pages, Look at the Craigslist for the area, http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ Houses are expensive, Rent is worse. Car insurance is high and be sure to price out uninsured coverage because 60% of the drivers have no insurance and about the same for no license.

Any questions just ask!

www.socalcarculture.com has a lot of the shows listed under events.

Housing cost = more expensive
Food etc. = less expensive
Car stuff = much better
Outdoor activities = probably less variety

And I thought you didn't like crowds

I'm indifferent to crowds, having grown up in the near suburbs of Baltimore I remember well living in sprawl and the constant grind to get anywhere. I do like my quiet little cabin in the woods, but I wouldn't mind getting back to a place that allows me to ride a motorcycle 365 days a year.

The vastness of LA was really impressed on me the last time I was in the area, about 2 years ago. It really is a small country in of itself. The plan would be living fairly close to Santa Clarita, which is where the job is located, because like back home I'd rather pay the price to be close to the job to avoid living in my car. Of course I'm already in outside sales so I basically live in my car now, but at least usually I'm going places. Denali National Park today actually, for sales calls to my accounts in and around the park entrance.

In any event, I finished my application and applied today. The job itself is kind of a long shot, but would be an incredible bump up in my career.

Sweet, Keep us in the loop.

In reply to skierd:

As far as being worried about the schools where you are I will say one thing. I did my last 3 years of HS out in the boonies of CA, about 60 miles west of Reno NV. There were 32 people in my class and only @ 150 in the whole school. On the face of it you would think that would suck, but. I got to play varsity basket ball, being short and not very good, and do a lot of other things that I would not have been able to do in a bigger school.

Don't discount the school system where you are, as long as there are good teachers everything else will work out, at least in my experience.

Hi skierd,

I’ve spent the last twelve years working in Sylmar which is just south of where you’re looking. I live in Ventura and make a 42 mile east-west commute each way because Sylmar is a god forsaken hell hole…seriously, 1/3 of the population is, or at least has been, on parole…twice I’ve been trapped inside the office due to large scale police shootouts, etc.

Depending on your budget, look at Valencia (preplanned, modern, upscale community that is too large to be swallowed up by the surrounding junk) where a typical 3,000 Sq. Ft. home will be 750K to 1.25M or do as Aircooled suggested and look at Santa Paula / Fillmore (lower income area with lots of migrant farmers who tend to be decent, hard-working people so the crime levels aren’t bad) which has outstanding costal influence weather year round and beautiful rolling hills covered with various crops or rugged rock outcroppings. The range in home prices here is very wide as you’ve got everything from post WWII returning GI type homes that go for as little as 350K up modern developments that’ll start in the 500K range.

Added later,

The public schools in the affordable parts of Santa Paula / Fillmore will be 80%+ speaking Spanish as a primary language so you’ll have to budget for private school which pretty much negates the cost savings relative to living in Valencia. Besides, you’re better off directing money towards a more expensive home rather than tuition as you’ll likely wind up with more equity which can be recovered later.

ultraclyde wrote: "only thing I never could stand about Santa [Clarita.] All the damn Vampires."

Damn too slow

Santa Clarita's surrounding suburbs (Lancaster and Palmdale) have some of the purest Meth you've ever seen. Seriously. But don't worry, it doesn't creep into normal society. Meth cooks are rarely Meth users, and they certainly don't want to bring attention to themselves. Just an interesting piece of trivia for you.

I lived in Sylmar briefly (northern end of San Fernando). Clarita is a nice town with good shopping/dining, but not much else that held my attention. I would go up there frequently to where I had stored my RV and enjoyed the shopping, but not much else to speak of.

Its a half-hour drive to the L.A. valley; burbank, van nuys, noho. You're up close to Gorman which is a huge off-road public facility; dirt bikes, quads, jeeps etc. I had tons of fun up there.