wanderer

We are considering moving to CA at retirement, and have been looking at Petaluma, Santa Rosa, San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande.

We thought the Monterey area was too expensive for us, but someone mentioned to look at Marina and Seaside but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of housing.

There does, however, appear to be lots of housing that looks fairly nice in Salinas. I checked weather.com, and the weather is not as hot as we suspected (at least what they post).

Can anyone tell me how Salinas compares to say Santa Rosa or Petaluma for services, attractiveness, safety, livability, etc.?

perrier

Salinas is primarily an agricultural commumity. In erms of safety, crime is a problem in certain areas of town. It's about 25 miles from Monterey (about 30 minute drive) and about 1.5 hrs. to the closest major city (San Jose) by either car or Amtrak.

suzy

Personally, I think Petaluma and San Luis Obispo have a lot more going for them than Salinas.
The best that can be said for Salinas is that it has the wonderful John Steinbeck Museum. Otherwise it's a pretty dead town (and, for the most part, not all that attractive).

J_Correa

There are quite a few new developments in Salinas as people move further and further from the San Jose area in search of affordable housing, so the demographics of Salinas are changing.

Traditionally it has always been an agricultural town.

There are some nice areas and some areas with some bad gang problems.

alex94115

Salinas is a differnt world than Monterrey. Seaside just annoucned new homes and there was so much interest that they had to do a lottery just to pay $675k starting... SLO is awesome- Arroyo Grande is livable. SLO has the college and it is a little crazy. Morro Bay is nice and Cayucas or Pismo Beach... good luck

wanderer

Someone recently told me that Pismo Beach was like Coney Island NY - tacky, crowded, etc.

Is that true??

McCabe

I've found Pismo Beach to very relaxing. Our favorite place to stay is the Kon Tiki Inn, right on the beach. We used to go to Morro Bay but after a while just got tired of it. It turned into more of a collge kid hangout. The main attraction there is Morro Rock. It's okay for the first few trips, but the novelty of the rock soon wears off.

http://www.classiccalifornia.com/index.htm

tpl

Hi Wanderer,

Salinas is actually a pretty nice town, expecially south Salinas, which is 20 miles from Monterey. I grew up in Salinas and Carmel, and still think this is a great area. I posted a response to your earlier message about N. vs S. CA; you can check my comments out there.

Salinas is a little less than 2 hours from SF, about an hour from San Jose, and about 5 hours to Tahoe. The demographics vary widely, from pockets of tremendous wealth to lower income, but it's mainly pretty middle class. It's sort of like a 'big' small town. Friendly people, lots of banks, good hospitals in Salinas and Carmel. What else will you look for as retirees?

I live in Marin County now, nearer to Santa Rose and Petaluma than the Monterey Peninsula. I like them both, but find SR and Petaluma to be a little more isolated, and quite bit hotter than Salinas.

I would look at some of the streets off of West Alisal between Blanco Rd. and Hartnell college. There are also some nice streets near Salinas Memorial Hospital.

In the end it will be your personal preference as to what area you like, but I think Salinas has more going for it than the Steinbeck museum.

Good luck with your decision!

sgbslo

Pismo Beach is an old-fashioned beach town and, yes, it can be a bit tacky and crowded. But it has a beautiful beach and some nice places to eat. Just north of Pismo is Shell Beach which is a very high-priced residential area.
I'm not sure Pismo Beach would be my choice of a place to live but it's actually a fun place to go.
Morro Bay has some nice residential areas and a rather charming downtown.

turn_it_on

The downtown Pismo Beach area is very tacky, but the Shell Beach area, just north of PB, is very nice and is where we stay when we visit. We've seen some very nice looking houses around there and it's really beautiful.

Having lived in Santa Cruz, I saw that Salinas was always the butt of like Trashville USA jokes--I've been there and it's not really anyplace I'd like to live. I mean, you could do worse, but you could do a lot better.

"SLO has the college and is a little crazy"?? Yeah, a LITTLE crazy, I guess, maybe, not really. Even downtown on a Friday or Saturday night is pretty tame. I think SLO would be a good place to retire--nice weather, nearby other nice places to see, beaches, mountains, etc, and a nice downtown area. It seems like you could be as active or as laid back as you wanted to be.

Good luck!

love
roxy

singing_gal

I'm not a big fan of Pismo Beach. Too touristy and tacky for my taste. Morro Bay and Cayucos are much nicer beach communities. I've never had the experience of finding lots of college kids in Morro Bay. Actually quite the opposite. Quiet, relaxing town.

I hope you have a significant budget for housing. The prices are so high in this region and they keep going up, up, up! Friends of mine just bought a small old beach cottage in Cayucos for $1.2 million. Great location, but not much of a house at 950 square feet.

Arroyo Grande is also nice, but not a beach town really. More of a suburb style town. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. Cute, but kind of dull downtown area.

AllanS

Salinas in not a particularly attractive place to live or retire. There's gang problems and it's primarily an agricultural town. The Steinbeck museum is about the only thing of culture in the area. The Monterey/Carmel area, about 20 miles west, is way to pricey for the average retiree, especially those from out of California.

Now San Luis Obispo is a great town. Lots of outdoorsy stuff to do and lots of cultural activities. The Thursday night Farmer's Market is a wonderful event; the main road through the town, Higuera Street is shutdown from 5pm to about 10pm. Lots of barbeques, organic produce, street artists. SLO has many wonderful restaurants, the streets are clean, crime is low, and there is a performing arts center on the campus of
California Polytechnic State University, with plays and concerts that go along with it. Despite being a college town, it doesn't have the hard pary atmosphere that plague other college towns. Cal Poly is predominantly engineering, business, architecture (building and landscape) majors, and there's no "undeclared" major. Students hit the ground running into their field of endeavor.

My bias: I have lived in the San Franciso bay area for 13 year, and I graduated from Cal Poly. I miss the SLO Life! Ask any graduate of Cal Poly and they'll fondly remember "SLO Town".

babette

Have you considered Cambria (just up the coast from SLO)? There are many retirees there and it is a quaint little town.

wanderer

Yes, we had considered Cambria, but find it way too expensive. Our "short" (still too long) list for Central CA is:
Paso Robles, Atascadero, SLO, Arroyo Grande, and Marina and Seaside in Monterey County.

nadienc

Not an ideal place to retire. Take it from someone who sitting in the town right now.....Agriculture and gangs.