rvs

A quick look at padmapper.com suggests that the cheapest apts are likley to be in the high 700 or low 800- almost $100/month more than Eastside apts. There's one studio apt listed for $595, though. A walk to campus would be a little long- 1.5 miles, but that's defintiely bikeable, and as a mentioned earlier, there's a shuttle (RTA route 51) on school days, and the 16 route that runs all the time. I would have loved to rent a 2 bedroom with someone else there, if I didn't have other limitations. Personally, I don't think a Canyon Crest 1 bedroom without roommates is affordable on a TA stipend- which for me will be about $16.5K next year (I have a more generous fellowship for my first year), but maybe you can get a nice, quiet grad student as a roommate.

I only know the full story (more or less) for crimes that happen fairly close to campus, because then the campus police sends out an email. In those cases, people have been threatened with weapons (guns, knives), but no one's been hurt in the half year that I've been here. Here's a quote from the police dept: "the suspects have used force ranging from grabbing the victim’s property and running to pointing a firearm. In most cases, the suspect was not alone and was normally found working in conjunction with at least one other person. In a majority of the incidents, the victim was using or carrying openly at least one item of value that was stolen (Such as a lap top, tablet PC, smartphone and similar items)." I recommend crimereports.com for more info. I don't know about car break-ins near campus. Someone's motorcycle was stolen from the campus parking lot, though. If you want garage parking, you'll probably need to rent in a nicer building geared towards students- those will only be cheap if you are sharing an apt, but the landlord can help you find a roommate. I actually live farther west of UCR, near downtown, and take the bus. It's 40-50 minutes one way. If you live near the 16 or 1 bus routes, it could be less, because I need to walk to get to the bus stop. Those are the best routes to get to campus, other than the 51 which is the campus shuttle (but only runs on school days).

If crime (i. e. robberies) doesn't bother you, Eastside (west of campus) is cheap and has shopping along University Ave. The Iowa/Blaine/Linden area often has apartments available, it's techincally not in Eastside, but it's close and there are robberies there pretty often. There's also the area east of campus, which is somewhat safer, but more residential. As far as I know, it only has one grocery store: Goodwin's organic, which is probably relatively expensive. Canyon Crest, south of campus, is a nicer area, with shopping (canyon crest town center), but somewhat more expensive. It's a long walk, because the agricultural experiment station is south of campus, and canyon crest is south of that, but it is bikeable and there's a shuttle too (look up RTA bus route 51). I don't think you'll have much of a problem finding an apartment a few weeks before the start of the quarter, esp. if you aren't looking for anything particularly nice. From my experience, there aren't many studio apts in Riverside. You can get a 1 bedroom apt for ~$700/month. With roommates, you can get a room for ~$400-500.

keenanm, thanks for the detailed post. can you recommend any specific apartment buildings? I'm looking for an apartment in Riverside.