Town A: Deodar cedars on White Oak. Remember the scene in ET when they fly over trees on their bikes? This is the street.

The Deodar cedars line the sleepy street of White Oak to the north of where I live. The trees tower many feet over the well-manicured homes, set back far from the street. The wide avenue, built to handle plenty of cars, sees but only a few with one single stop sign at the end of the block. A couple walks their small, white toy poodle down a quiet residential sidewalk covered in a blanket of pine needles.

Five miles south on the same block renowned for its cedar trees (yet are predominately lacking), I look out my window and see a beater van parked indefinitely outside of my home. A group of five men from the nearby wayside house, quietly disguised behind a large, black fence, saunter down the sidewalk. The alley where I enter and exit from my garage is riddled with graffiti of the unattractive kind.

Though only five miles apart, the scenes from my current neighborhood and the one I grew up in are worlds apart. The “Valley”, once known as a rustic get-away for the celebrities of yester-year, has grown into a hodge-podge of seedy neighborhoods intermixed with a “good” pocket every now and again. The valley is perplexing; a large, flat sprawling suburb built on a seemingly-endless grid system bordered with rolling hills and mountains. Without the obvious barriers, the cities merge into one another with barely a marker to distinguish you’ve entered into a new zip code.

But why is one town so well taken care of, while another just a few miles away without any geographic barriers, has become a dumping ground for litter, graffiti and over-grown lawns?

Due to the lack of physical barriers, cities seem to define themselves through subtle cosemetic differences: graffiti and litter,or statues, pergolas, and renovated shopping centers built to attract consumers willing to spend. Since I’m not a city counsel member, I can only assume a city’s budget and income are dependent on property tax, and the concept that the community will continue to generate income within its own city.

A few things I’ve noticed that may be directly related to the differences between these two towns (I’ll call them town A and town B) are:

Town A:

• A small, well-maintained business center reminiscent of the 1950’s. Though many stores have closed due to the recession, the landlords haven’t allowed strip clubs or Triple-X stores to open in their place. The town recently built a statue and seating area at the beginning of the 4-block district under a giant Deodar Oak to show their dedication to their small, yet clean business area. One can tell the residents pride themselves on these four blocks – very rarely do you see graffiti.
• Well maintained lawns. During the real estate boom, this area increased in price by a near 4-fold. Even though this area has been hit hard by the drop in prices, there aren’t very many homes for sale or overgrown lawns. Either people have lived in these homes a long time, or the people able to afford these homes are doing okay financially. I assume this area is financially stable.
• Renovated shopping center. Over the past few years, the city took a very old, vacant shopping center and completely renovated it making it the center shopping district complete with grocery store, home store, and plenty of fast-food restaurants. (The high school kids love it.)
• A renowned high school. It’s funny, I graduated from this very same high school many, many years ago. However, it has since turned into a well-respected charter school that is the envy of all who can’t get their kids into it.
• Movies filmed: E.T. was filmed all over Town A from the trees you see in the photo above to the homes being built in the surrounding hills in the late 1970’s early 1980’s. Fast Times at Ridgemont High car scenes were filmed in Town A’s business district.

Town B:

• A run-down business district. Back in the 1950’s, the area near my house was one of the first bustling business districts of the valley. Unfortunately, time has not been very good to this center. Riddled with graffiti, burned out buildings, and corner payday loan offices, the business district lacks a cohesive purpose.
• Over-grown lawns and vacant homes. During the bubble, prices in my area peaked over $500,000. I feel terrible for the people who purchased homes at these prices considering the area really isn’t deserving of those prices. I’m beginning to think they feel bad for themselves as well, as many have walked away from their homes.
• Corner Mini-Marts. Sprinkled at almost every busy intersection is a mini-mart. Great for a quick soda. Not so good for a community. How many liquor stores does one city need?
• Low-income apartment buildings for blocks on end. People from every economic level need a place to live. Unfortunately landlords often associate low income with low maintenance; uncared for properties quickly become the target for graffiti, broken windows, and littered lawns only further depressing an already depressed area.
• Movies Filmed: Boogie Nights was filmed on a busy street in Town B. The television show My Name is Earl was filmed extensively around my neighborhood as well. (Note the glaring difference?!)

What are the solutions for town B? Obviously, the economy picking up steam would help; fewer people leaving the area would fill the vacant homes. Home owners tending to their lawns and cleaning up the graffiti would also be a positive movement. I’ve found that if graffiti is painted over immediately in an area, the tagger usually moves on to another area that doesn’t seem to care as much.

Perhaps I need to make it a point of walking up and down my alley painting over graffiti-covered walls. Maybe I need to begin picking up litter within a 1-mile block range; my initiative alone could cause a much larger change by encouraging my neighbors to do the same. This may be my Labor Day Weekend goal.

What changes have you seen in your town? What is the solution? Is there anything you could do to help?

Oxnard Harbor

About a year ago, my husband and I began discussing moving into a neighboring county. We have lived in Los Angeles County for many years (I’ve practically lived here my whole life) and are disappointed in the way the city is declining, i.e. graffiti, traffic, bumpy roads, too many people squished into a few hundred square miles. We also are tired of the scorching, dry summers. So, I began investigating nearby cities and counties. Using BestPlaces.net as a jumping off point, we narrowed down our search to San Diego, Santa Clarita, and Oxnard/Ventura. Each of these areas cost about the same, give or take a few dollars, than where we live based on the cost of living index Best Places offers.

Based on the data from BestPlaces.net, we decided to research these three cities for the reasons listed below:

• San Diego – Amazing climate, quaint downtown districts,  and cultural diversity.
• Santa Clarita – Affordable housing (compared to our neighborhood), excellent city planning with paseos and bike paths, new neighborhood amenities, proximity to mountains and hiking.
• Oxnard/Ventura – Amazing climate, affordable housing (in some areas – not all), laid back atmosphere, quaint downtown districts, less dense population.

Last summer, we drove nearly four hours to San Diego. We absolutely loved the climate, but we just weren’t jiving with the city itself. It was much hillier than I thought it would be, not great if I hope to increase my daily bike riding. It also seemed like it was a city made up of “pockets” of neighborhoods. One moment we felt like we were in a slum, the next in a very prestigious neighborhood made up of million dollar homes. We just couldn’t find the right neighborhood that really caught our attention (and that was affordable enough for us to live within our means!)

After our San Diego trip, we realized we might feel more “at home” if we stuck closer to home. Just a mere 30 minutes north of us is the Santa Clarita Valley; a community made up of a few cities such as Valencia, Canyon Country, and Newhall. I lived there briefly right after college and thought it would be a good place to check out. The home prices and cost of living are just slightly less than where we currently live, so it seemed like a possible match. Within 20 minutes of driving around Santa Clarita’s mostly new housing developments and endless mini-malls, we felt it was much too “corporate” and built up for our liking. There was a very commercial feel about the whole community that just didn’t set well with us. The city has definitely grown since I lived there 10 years ago! Any “character” (a very subjective definition) that the town once had, has disappeared into endless cookie-cutter style homes.

This weekend, with my Spring Break ending, we decided to head North-West towards Ventura County, our final destination. Forty-five minutes off the 101 FWY, we exited near Oxnard – Camarillo, not quite sure where we were, and headed north west on Lewis Road. We drove past endless strawberry fields and fruit stands; a completely different environment than what we are accustomed to. We finally came to Port Hueneme and headed towards the Channel Islands harbor. We initially liked the overall laid-back feel to the city. We drove into the harbor and sand dunes passing million-dollar homes (quite reasonable for beach-side living!) and my husband got the chills! He so badly wants to own a boat (this, I’ve told him, he’ll have to wait on!) After driving into the historic old downtown, past red-bricked store fronts and FREE parking (this got us excited – free parking!) we realized this could be a town we could live in. Driving 10 minuted farther north along the shoreline, we ended up in historic downtown Ventura; antique store fronts lined with boutique restaurants and more FREE parking! I also made a mental note, there were plenty of painted bike lanes on most streets, and I saw many parked bicycles outside of store fronts. This is an encouraging sign. Our next step is to plan an entire weekend discovering the best Oxnard and Ventura neighborhoods.

As excited as I am about our potential move, I have to be realistic: there aren’t ANY teaching jobs in Ventura County. My husband could easily relocate his web and graphic design business, but for me this could mean a very long drive, or a potential loss of income. More research still needs to be done on my part!

Have you recently relocated? Have you been thinking about moving? What is holding you back?

Returning from my trip to Arizona, I began comparing my city (a suburb of Los Angeles) to the Phoenix/Mesa/Tempe area of Arizona. I observed some drastic differences that got me thinking about my quality of life here in Los Angeles.  Let me preface this by saying that I’ve lived in the Los Angeles area for over 33 years and consider it my home. But, I began thinking about what makes a city run smoothly, remain clean, and how cities keep up with their population growth.

A few things that really stood out when I was visiting in Arizona, that got me comparing it with Los Angeles, are the following:

• Roads and traffic
• Cleanliness
• Air quality
• Cost of living

Los Angeles is a sprawling city of too narrow roads and freeways with endless tail lights as far as the eye can see. Our potholes are almost as famous as New York’s, they can swallow whole SUV’s in a matter of seconds. Our population is larger than the Phoenix metro, by about 5 million. But in contrast, the  roads in Arizona are 6 lanes wide and newly repaved. Their highways are smooth, wide, and the city is continually adding more connections and highways to link their also sprawling communities making traveling around the city pleasant. The difference between these two cities, at least with city planning, is that Phoenix is anticipating a larger population – they are thinking ahead. Los Angeles, being an older city, never planned on so many people inhabiting the area. By the time our population had swelled to current numbers, we were land locked and unable to expand our highways. Obviously, geography does play a part. We are slightly more mountainous than the Phoenix area. Yet, for the amount of money I pay in auto registration and insurance, I feel shortchanged in the quality of roads I travel on.

Another drastic difference I noticed while in Arizona was the clean road sides and NO graffiti. Phoenix either has a terrific road side crew of maintenance people, or their population is more conscientious of throwing trash out their car window. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is littered with garbage from one end to the other. Our road side crews can’t keep up with the amount of trash, and somehow people can’t make it into the trash cans! Graffiti is another problem in our city, everywhere you turn you can find graffiti somewhere on a wall or side of a building. Again, in Phoenix I didn’t see one dab of spray paint anywhere. Unless their roadside crews are also constantly repainting walls and buildings, their population must be less likely to “tag” their turfs. As a city with one of the highest sales tax rates (almost 10%), I think my money is getting lost in the shuffle. It surely isn’t being invested in keeping the city clean.

California was one of the first states to implement zero emissions on their vehicles. Yet, in Los Angeles, you’d never know it. Our air is frequently a warm shade of beige. The coastal fog combined with factory and auto emissions equals smog. Considering our population is very health-minded, it’s ironic that we have the worst air quality in the nation. While in Phoenix, I noticed that I couldn’t see the air. This is a good thing, because air is supposed to be clear! I know that during their sweltering summers, their air quality isn’t as good as during the winter months, but at least they have a period of clean air.

Finally, there is the cost of living comparison. I’m always flabbergasted by how inexpensive other cities are compared to Los Angeles (except New York, of course). For example, the sales tax in Phoenix is just above 6%, that’s almost 4% less than L.A. Groceries, restaurants, and gas are much less as well. And homes? Well, let me just say that because of all the new communities popping up in Phoenix, you can nab a new home for under $100,000. The home prices are posted on all of the new development signs, ranging from $99,999 to the low $200,000’s. Finding a decent home for mid- to low- $200K in Los Angeles county is a near impossible feat. (I do want to touch more upon home developments, but I’ll save this for another post).

My comparison between these two cities made me realize that my husband and I need to move out of Los Angeles county. We are currently considering Ventura county, or moving just north of Los Angeles. We still want some of the benefits of being near a large metro, like the opera, shopping, the Getty Museum, and a variety of restaurants. We also like the idea of living within an hour of the beach, even though we really aren’t beach people. So, with a county population under 1 million, traveling around town will make life much more pleasant. Bike riding will also feel safer as many of Ventura counties’ cities have marked bicycle lanes. As we begin planning our move, I’ll be keeping these items in mind when choosing our new “home” city.

What do you like about your city? What do you dislike? Have you recently moved because of similar problems? Do you see your city becoming run down? How does that effect your psyche?

Last night, something scary happened. My husband and I left in a hurry to run some errands and thought we had closed our garage door. Of course, not closing the garage door may not seem too terribly scary, but our garage faces an alley where no one can notice strangers coming or going. Our alley has a few people who roam up and down collecting cans and a guy who drives up and down collecting things made of metal. This is all fine in my book. But last night, as we drove down our alley and headed back to our garage, I realized we had left the garage door open!

I love our bikes!

My husbands first words out of his mouth were, “Our bikes are gone!” Gasp! I thought, “My bike is gone? What will I do? I love my bike.” My husband starting searching through his tool boxes to see if anything else was missing or had been touched. To our surprise, nothing else was missing. So, we assumed someone, or two people, quickly saw two bikes, hopped on them, and rode off into the setting sun. What a great Christmas present those bikes would have made! My first reaction was that I needed a new bike. Yes, this is silly, but two days a week a ride my bike to work. One day a week I ride my bike to school and avoid having to pay for parking. And many days a week I ride my bike to Starbucks. I needed a bike!

My husband thought it would be best to drive around the neighborhood and see if we could find the assalients. As we were driving off, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that our bikes were in our backyard. Our backyard? I hopped out of the car and raced through the garage door  into the backyard. Sure enough, there they were, safe and sound. Relieved and confused, we parked them safely back in the garage and closed the door.

While eating dinner, we discussed who could have put those bikes there. I initially thought it might have been our next door neighbors who had been pulling in to their garage as we were pulling out of ours. Maybe they had noticed we hadn’t closed the door and decided to be helpful. My husband thought it might be the nice old lady who walks her dog down our alley that wrangled the bikes into the yard. I couldn’t picture her doing this with her dog on the leash, our bikes are heavy and she is elderly.

Later that night, we listened to a voice message on our answering machine that solved the puzzle. Our neighbor, three doors down who frequently hangs out in his garage, left us a message explaining the whole scenario. The elderly dog walking lady noticed our garage door was open. Not being able to figure out how to close the garage door herself (she would have had to push the button and run to beat the door), she talked our neighbor into moving the bikes into our backyard. He also couldn’t figure out how to close the garage door from the inside, had left it open and looked up our phone number to leave us a message (this is a neighbor who lives behind our house, so we are really alley neighbors.)

Thank goodness for friendly neighbors! I would hate to have to find a new bike or go without one for a while. It has become my second mode of transportation and I love riding.

I haven’t written about houses in a while, yet they are frequently on my mind. Small houses, large houses, cookie-cutter houses; so many choices, but what can I afford? So far, I can’t afford anything yet. My husband and I are still working on saving for a down payment. We’ve made progress, though:

• Paid off $6,000 in credit card debt
• Paid down $1,700 on our line of credit
• Gotten my student loan out of default
• Saved $5,000

Every month we accomplish some small goal towards owning our little house in the valley. While we are hard at work saving for our down payment, we often talk about what we like about the houses in our neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods. This keeps the objective of our goal in mind and it will hopefully save us some time when we begin searching for homes.

A house for sale in my neighborhood, 1951

Our current neighborhood, where we rent a house, is compiled of 1950’s mini-ranch style homes. Due to their small size, all hovering around 1,000 square feet, I wouldn’t call these homes ranch-style at all. However, I came across a very old brochure of our neighborhood and that is how the original developers marketed these homes. If I were to redesign their brochures, I would have called them more cape-cod or cottage style homes. Our rental house is basically a large square shape, with 3 smallish bedrooms, 2 teeny-weeny bathrooms, one long living/dining area, and a decent sized square kitchen. In contrast, ranch style homes are frequently more rectangular in shape and long.

Our neighbor, who has been camping in his tent while his rebuilds his house, has decided to disregard the neighborhood architecture and appears to be building a Mediterranean-style mansion that takes up the entire lot. As I have been watching the progress over the last several months, I’m a bit taken aback by his choice in design. When the house is finished, I’m afraid that it will stick out like a sore thumb. This is something I’ve taken into consideration when thinking about what kind of house I would like to purchase. There’s something to be said about consistency within a neighborhood.

I’m not taking about the current cookie-cutter style homes that developers are now building. The ones that have only 4 different models and appear in an AABB pattern within newer communities. I’m talking about slightly older communities that have had time to change color schemes, add on rooms, and have some sort of variation in design (even if it is just a matter of moving the placement of the garage.) These homes don’t seem like duplicates of each other, and there is more detail in the architecture, whether it’s the fake birdhouse-style homes or the added scalloped trim around the porch. Older homes may need more work, but this can mean fixing it up to my liking and adding features I think are important, like a solar-heated water heater.

Here is a snapshot of an older block not far from where I live. You’ll see that the homes have taken on unique changes over the years:

Changing neighborhood architecture

Hopefully by this time next year, I will be reporting back that I own a similar style house.