keenanm

I'm hoping that by writing this review, I can give prospectives a fair picture of Riverside, CA from my point of view. First off though, let me start by saying that California residents are huge whiners. If you are moving from out of state, take everything a California resident complains about with a large grain of salt. If you are already a California resident, Riverside, CA may not be as nice as the city that you already live in, but the majority of the cities in the United States of America are not. About where I'm coming from. I spent half of my childhood in Northern California and the other half in the Seattle Area. As a full fledged rent-paying adult I've lived in the Seattle, WA - Hilo, Hawaii - and now Riverside, CA. Compared to Hawaii, everything in Riverside is cheaper. The groceries are half the price, the internet is 4 times faster for $10 less a month, and the rent is very affordable. That being said, my pros and cons of Riverside are as follows. The Pros - -The diversity is amazing. Coming from white Northern California, White/Asian Seattle, and Hawaiian/Asian Hawaii, I've never lived somewhere so diverse. -The people are incredibly friendly and helpful, especially compared to Hawai'i and many areas of Seattle -The weather is nice. Yes, it's hot during the summer, but I'm in my office from 9-5ish so it's cooler in the morning and the evening. In addition, all of the apartments I've looked at come with pools as well as central AC (which Hawaii surprisingly didn't have). -Housing is affordable. I pay $790 a month for my one bedroom apartment that I share with my girlfriend. It's 750 sq-ft., comes with a yard, there are two pools, two bbq's, and a hot tub at the complex. Laundry is shared in complex. NOTE FOR BIG DOG OWNERS - your best bet for Apartments accepting large dogs are Concord Village, Hidden Springs, or Boulder Creek. They're all comprable, but Concord Village and Boulder Creek have units with yards. -Proximity to all types of things. (Drive times are with little to no traffic, which is often weekends) Disneyland is a 35 minute drive, Santa Monica is 45-60 minutes, Palm Springs is 45, Joshua tree is 45-60, Big Bear is ~60 minutes, Temecula is 60-70, Los Angeles is 45 minutes. In addition, Riverside has 300,000 residents and has the amount of retail, recreation, and resources necessary to fit a city of that size. For those who arrive attached, there are a number of relatively large neighboring cities (San Bernardino, Corona, Ontario). Depending on their profession, there are job opportunities in those cities as well as Riverside. My girlfriend works for the department of parks and recreation and got two interviews in her first two weeks in Riverside (one in Riverside one in San Bernardino). -UCR is a UC school that comes with all of the resources of a UC. Especially compared to the University of Hawaii school system, the student resources are extremely nice to have. -Downtown Riverside. It's beautiful and historical looking. From my understanding, it has been cleaned up significantly over the last 20 years. This is the case for a lot of Riverside because quite a bit of the city looks very new. The cons - - Southern California drivers do not drive safe. They'll pride themselves on driving defensively, but that's because many of the other drivers are driving like bats out of hell. - There are a lot of people who speak only Spanish. I speak enough spanish that it doesn't really bother me but it definitely bothers other people in the area. - There are days where the smog hovers above the city. The valley Riverside is in naturally catches fog anyways, so on smoggy days it'll catch that as well. Of course knowing about the clean air of the Pacific Northwest it's unfortunate, but I've also lived in Hawai'i which gets Vog (volcanic smog). For me, it's not enough to notice, but from comments on here it seems that some people seem to mind. My girlfriend thought it would be a huge problem for her based on the comments, but in reality it hasn't. - There are 'bad' areas, but there nothing compared to the bad areas of Hawaii. I think it will depend on your perspective. If having an older part of the city where poverty is more prevalent is something that seriously bothers you, then look somewhere else. If however, you are realistic and understand that that is part of life, you probably won't care at all. - The public transportation isn't amazing. But there is a lot of housing around campus, so biking to school is extremely doable (that's what I do). If you're moving here single, get in a shared house, townhouse, or apartment and your stipend will do you just fine. If you are coming with somebody, you're stipend will also be just fine. If you have the chance to visit I would do so. Before my campus visits, I was convinced that Riverside was horrible while Long Island was wonderful. After my visits, I really loved Riverside and Southern California in general, and found that Long Island, NY didn't suit me. Overall, I recommend Riverside, but it'll really depend on your needs.