Very OT - Moving to Sacramento

Submitted by allezbleu on

Dear MGoCommunity,

I am moving to Sacramento and I wanted to ask about recommendations on places to live. My work is in Folsom (25 mins outside Sacto) but since I am a single dude fresh out of college, I figured I would live in Sacramento where there are young people, restaurants and nightlife. 

I'd be really thankful if anybody had knowledge about specific neighbourhoods or apartment buildings and realtors.

Also has anyone experienced the "reverse commute" from Sacramento to Folsom?

And anyone know of any Mchigan bars here? I don't see any listed under MGoBoard > Michigan bar locator...

Any good bars in general? My favorites in AA were Charley's, Ashley's, Jolly Pumpkin and Grizzly Peak. 

Sorry for such an OT post and thanks in advance!

--

rockydude

June 11th, 2011 at 7:01 PM ^

I live down in SoCal, and always had a bad impression of Sacto. When I got up there, I found it was really a nice town. It is surprisingly green, there are lots of good restaurants, the whole nine yards. I can't give you the name of an apartment complex or anything, but I can give one idea. You could take a look at Davis, which is a town over. That houses UC-Davis, a great state school. You'd probably find a lot of the things that you are describing there. It's got all of the stuff that works for younger single people, and is a stone's through from Sacto proper. And get ready for some warmer weather than good old AA !

jmblue

June 11th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^

I have a friend who lives in Sacramento.  He says the weather is pretty pleasant most of the year (people complain that it "rains too much" in the winter, but it's basically a normal amount  to someone from Michigan) - but be prepared for near-Phoenix/Vegas-type heat in the summer.

Go2011Blue

June 11th, 2011 at 7:13 PM ^

Uh, you wouldn't be working for Intel would you?  

 

I'm moving to Folsom in September to start my job there and have pretty much the same questions.  

 

From what I've heard, the reverse commute is about 40 min.  Def. don't live in Davis, cool town but wrong direction.  You'll hit the commute into Sac going East, then the reverse commute traffic heading back out of the city.  

 

 

allezbleu

June 11th, 2011 at 7:24 PM ^

yeah Intel it is. I'm starting in a few weeks.

Yeah Davis seems to be out of the question even though it seems nice. I just tried driving from East Sac to the office and it took 25 mins. Hopefully it isn't that much worse during actual commute hours.

I'm leaning towards East Sac because its close to midtown which people have been saying is the place to hang out and on the edge of Sac close to Folsom.

Do you know if a lot of Intel employees live in Sac? If they all just live in Folsom then i'd think twice about it.

Go2011Blue

June 11th, 2011 at 7:30 PM ^

I think it depends on the type of employee.  Like people with families will be living in the suburbs around Folsom, but singles will probably be living in midtown.  

 

From what I hear though, if you can afford it, Midtown is the place to be.  

 

What kind of work are you doing for Intel?  

Zone Left

June 11th, 2011 at 7:17 PM ^

Davis is probably going to be too far for you once you factor in the traffic (it's on the opposite side of the city). I'm not too familiar with Sacramento, but I really think you'd do well to find something temporary near work and take a couple months to figure out where you actually want to live.

I've lived in seven states since graduating from college and if you can afford to wait a month or two in a short term rental with your stuff in storage, it'll make you a lot happier.

Good luck.

SchrodingersCat

June 11th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^

Did an internship with Monsanto in Davis last summer. I would prefer to live in Davis, Sacremento is more like Detroit while Davis is like Ann Arbor. College lifestyle all around, amazing bookstores, a bunch of great bars and a couple of clubs. Great outdoor activities! Buy a mountain bike, I loved the area for its biking/hiking.  Definitely go to The Graduate, a bar near UC Davis. I was there for the world cup and it blew my mind! I would recommend Davis as it has more a lively feel. Sacremento is fun, but also dirtier!

 

jdfogel

June 11th, 2011 at 7:53 PM ^

I lived in Sac for a few years, but it has been a while (moved to FL in 2005).

I'm sure a lot has changed since then, but I lived near 13th & P Street and was very happy with the area. For the most part, anything in midtown from Old Sac to Alhambra and within the alphabet streets was good and had a young professional kind of feel to it. If you're looking to rent, try checking with CADA. They have a number of buildings specifically in the capitol area of midtown.

Not sure on M-friendly bars as the local alumni club would rotate the game day viewings frequently. That said, I never went to Harlows without having an awesome time, and there are several breweries in the area as well.

To this day I still maintain that two important "bests" live in Sacramento:

  • Zelda's for best pizza: cash only hole in the wall place that serves great Chicago style with a cornmeal crust.
  • Vallejos (the one on O Street - they all have different menus) for best burrito: get the Zapata and a bucket of Coronitas on a hot day and you won't be disappointed.

Overall, Sacramento is by no means a big city, but I loved it. Maybe the best part is its convenient location for easy weekend road trips to Tahoe, Napa, and San Francisco.

Good luck with the move.

Leaders_and_Best

June 11th, 2011 at 8:43 PM ^

I live in Sacramento now after growing up in Saratoga (in the Bay Area) and going to UM 05-09, my suggestion would be to look for some place in Folsom as Sactown is not very nice.  I work at Sac St with the football team and live right near campus and the immeadiate area is not very nice.  Imagine the crappy overpirced apartments that never get inspected in AA and add in a not very nice area and thats what living in Sac is like, except you can find very low rent.

I would advise staying near folsom and looking for a nice place as many places  near Sac St. are not very nice.  Sac St. is a big commuter school so there is not that great a atmosphere for young people, well not great compared to AA but it is still good.

Michigan bars I am not aware of, the Alumin club out here gets together and watches the game, but they meet at Chris Webber's restaurant so I choose not to patronize that establishment.  Being sinlge is a good thing, there is a wide variety of very pretty girls here of every type, and they're not as stuck up as Bay Area/Socal girls.  As for the nighltife, I'm a homebody so I'm not very knowledgable on that but there's always something going on if you're looking for it.

All things considered, living in Sacramento is not the nicest experience of Northern California but it is still Cali and is therefore awesome.   You're only  2 hours from Tahoe and snow, and 2 hours from the beach, and all the outdoor sports you can want.

Let me know if you want so more info as I've lived up here since I graduated and am working and going to school here and therefore staying for a while. The only major drawback of living out here, get used to waking up at 9 am to watch the game and no BigTen network HD!!!!

MIdocHI

June 11th, 2011 at 8:53 PM ^

I lived there for a while some years ago.  It is not a bad place.  There are some "beaches" (parks) on the American river where younger people hang out.  There used to be some pretty big parties at those places during the summer.  I lived off Howe Ave near the river, and there were more single people in that area than Orangevale where I also lived.  Orangevale is close to Folsom, but it is more of a residential suburb.  Roseville is close to Folsom also, but whenever I think of Roseville I think of strip malls.  There are lots there.  The Folsom area has fewer singles, but  there is more outdoor stuff- mountain biking at Salmon Falls, boating...

MICHNO1

June 12th, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^

I've lived in Folsom for the last 10 years and love it!  The weather is usually good year round, although it was a little wetter this year.  Try and find an apartment/condo/ or house here. The living complexes are newer.  You do not want the comute from Sacramento.  The night life is ok, downtown (Old Folsom) is mostly made up of bars, (Powerhouse Pub) go there. They will close down the steets on a regular basis for Block parties down there. They will have live music of all types, food venders, and lots of Ladies. As far as sports bars there is a lot to be desired, but I usally go to the Sports Garage, I've ran into quite a few M fans and a few Sparty's. There is actually a lot of M fans here but they are not organized.

 

Hope this helps

Cam