Transferred to Palmdale - advice?

Rosstafari

Rosstafari

Likes tacos
I got a call from the FAA a couple weeks ago, telling me that I'd be waiting as much as 2 years or more to start work at my assigned facility, Seattle Center. They offered me a redirect to either Fremont, CA or Palmdale, CA to start earlier, and we settled on Palmdale. That's fine by me -- we moved up to Seattle in February and immediately realized that it wasn't where we wanted to live. Good people, nice place and all, just not for us.

So do any of you have any advice on living out there? Decent places to live within an hour's drive to Palmdale, what it'd be like for a young couple expecting their first kid, things to do, ups and downs of the place... anything? I send a flight or two down to Long Beach every day at work, but most people I find the time to talk to don't know a thing about it other than "it's hot". Which is fine by me, but I'd like to know a little more.
 
Rosstafari said:
I got a call from the FAA a couple weeks ago, telling me that I'd be waiting as much as 2 years or more to start work at my assigned facility, Seattle Center. They offered me a redirect to either Fremont, CA or Palmdale, CA to start earlier, and we settled on Palmdale. That's fine by me -- we moved up to Seattle in February and immediately realized that it wasn't where we wanted to live. Good people, nice place and all, just not for us.

So do any of you have any advice on living out there? Decent places to live within an hour's drive to Palmdale, what it'd be like for a young couple expecting their first kid, things to do, ups and downs of the place... anything? I send a flight or two down to Long Beach every day at work, but most people I find the time to talk to don't know a thing about it other than "it's hot". Which is fine by me, but I'd like to know a little more.
Click to expand...

Hot and dry. Higher in altitude too. Just over the mountains from LA. Did some aerial mapping for a week there, never landed at PMD. Look like a nice enough place from the air.
 
I haven't spent that much time in Palmdale but like everything else in SoCal there's some decent areas and really trashy ones. It's in the middle of the desert, which I'm sure you already know, thus the really hot in summer but it does get cold enough to occasionally snow in the winter due to it's higher elevation. Since you're ok with an hour drive I would check out Acton, Canyon Country, Agua Dulce and even Santa Clarita. I can't really comment on any of those places as my only experience is driving through on the way to Vegas.
 
MarkE said:
I haven't spent that much time in Palmdale but like everything else in SoCal there's some decent areas and really trashy ones. It's in the middle of the desert, which I'm sure you already know, thus the really hot in summer but it does get cold enough to occasionally snow in the winter due to it's higher elevation. Since you're ok with an hour drive I would check out Acton, Canyon Country, Agua Dulce and even Santa Clarita. I can't really comment on any of those places as my only experience is driving through on the way to Vegas.
Click to expand...

Mark hit it right on. To be more specific I hear the Eastside of Palmdale/Lancaster is the place to avoid. I live in Santa Clarita and even though the drive is a short commute in L.A. terms, there is only one freeway going out there and at lots of spots it narrows to two lanes coming from where there was three before. That only means heavy congestion during rush hour but at least once a year they close that freeway because of black ice on the two lanes. Lots of people make the commute so I don't know if they're desperate since all the jobs are towards L.A. or if it isn't that bad.
 
Check out Tehachapi as well. It's on the 58 headed toward Bakersfield (where I live) and I think it's still within an hours drive to PMD. The upside is two airports with tons of glider activity and the air tends to be cleaner. Occasionally in the winter, there may be a small amount of snow but the roads are pretty straight and traffic moves pretty good. How long will you be based in PMD?
 
I used to live in Santa Clarita right there. (Born and raised out there) Palmdale and Lancaster, like said before, are right in the middle of the desert.. hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Not much to see out there, like a baron wasteland out of a movie. It's flat and brown. MarkE pretty much hit it, look in those areas. I know in the recent years since I moved away, Santa Clarita Valley (made up of a few cities) has been exploding with people. Plenty of places to find a house. I recommend living on the Valencia side since it's the newer part of town. I used to live in Saugus, it's not rundown, but it's not new either. I also have a cousin who lives in Stevenson Ranch with her family and absolutely loves it. I'm sure Sprint100 could recommend places to since he lives there now.. I haven't been there in years.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. Assuming I don't fail miserably, I should be there a minimum of three years... more realistically five or more. So it'll be for the long haul. Well, long-ish.
 
JulietBravo said:
I also have a cousin who lives in Stevenson Ranch with her family and absolutely loves it.
Click to expand...


I'd personally stay away from Stevensons Ranch. To many rules on what you can and can't do. And the school system imposes crazy taxes on it residents. It's definatly a "keeping up with the Jones's place. If you like that kind of thing, you'll fit right in. Valencia is nice, Castiac is o.k., Sagus is decent. If you live out that way the traffic will be going the opposite direction.
 
mshunter said:
I'd personally stay away from Stevensons Ranch. To many rules on what you can and can't do. And the school system imposes crazy taxes on it residents. It's definatly a "keeping up with the Jones's place. If you like that kind of thing, you'll fit right in. Valencia is nice, Castiac is o.k., Sagus is decent. If you live out that way the traffic will be going the opposite direction.
Click to expand...

Really?? Haha, well she hasn't told me that part. I'll keep it to myself, but that doesn't sound fun. I was nice and content in Saugus :D
 
I don't know much about Palmdale itself, other than having driven around the airport once in awe of its size, but I've spent a fair amount of time in nearby Lancaster, Ca. My brother's best friend lived down there and I'd come along pretty often when he visited just for the opportunity to check out the place. It was pretty high crime, desert kids get bored. Lots of tough guys walking around it seemed, but I'm not talking about thugs. More like the kind of stuff from "The Outsiders". There were also a lot of rednecks, its funny how people pick up those "Southern" accents living in places like California. Part of the life style I guess? Most of the desert cities looked to be about the same as far as the layout. There was always a huge mall in the mid-sized cities where everyone flocked to do everything, and that was about it. I'm also used to diversity coming from the Bay Area, down there everyone was black, white, or Latino. One positive thing I'll say about the place(and for the record I'm not trying to be negative, I just didn't really like the place), was that people were very neighborly. Neighbors don't really talk where I'm from, it was kind of neat to see a Midwest type neighborhood network in CA.

Its been about 7 or 8 years since the last time I was down there, and this is Lancaster, not Palmdale, but they were pretty close to one another, and hey, its all the desert. Just my impression of the place as a kid then later a teenager.
 
Rosstafari said:
I got a call from the FAA a couple weeks ago, telling me that I'd be waiting as much as 2 years or more to start work at my assigned facility, Seattle Center. They offered me a redirect to either Fremont, CA or Palmdale, CA to start earlier, and we settled on Palmdale. That's fine by me -- we moved up to Seattle in February and immediately realized that it wasn't where we wanted to live. Good people, nice place and all, just not for us.

So do any of you have any advice on living out there? Decent places to live within an hour's drive to Palmdale, what it'd be like for a young couple expecting their first kid, things to do, ups and downs of the place... anything? I send a flight or two down to Long Beach every day at work, but most people I find the time to talk to don't know a thing about it other than "it's hot". Which is fine by me, but I'd like to know a little more.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest Valencia -- which is about 45 minutes to an hour away from Palmdale. Valencia is also about 45 minutes from Los Angeles -- and about 30 minutes from Santa Monica... so it is a central location for you (because quite frankly, there is nothing in Palmdale, lol).

Anyway, Valencia is nice; it has good public schools and is low-crime. Valencia is also home to Six Flags Magic Mountain; but since you're starting a family, you might be more interested in Disneyland -- which is located in Anaheim (about an hour from Valencia).

The weather isn't too hot (having lived in Arizona, Texas, and Florida, I can tell you that California weather is pretty good!).

BTW, expect freeway traffic... lots of it (not so much for your commute to/from Palmdale; but rather, if commuting to/from Los Angeles during rush hours).
 
I was stationed at Edwards for a while. Here's my gouge for the area: As said by everyone else, East Lancaster and East Palmdale are the ghetto. Santa Clarita and Valencia are nice but close enough and the opposite direction from the LA commute. I knew a couple guys who lived "over the mountain" in LA. They liked it, but I wouldn't do the drive. Tehachapi is an hour to the north east and is the closest thing to "quiet mountain town" that is within a reasonable commute distance. LA county schools are absolute ass. Between all the school-aged parents I knew, at least half either home-schooled or enrolled into private schools. Within an hour of Palmdale, you're basically still in the desert or just into LA. Within 2 or 3 hours, there's everything you'd ever want to do. The wife and I went to Vegas as many times as we went to LA. There's alot of good weekend trips in the area. Mammoth is a 6 hour drive, as is the SF Bay Area. San Diego is 3 or 4 hours. The Santa Barbra winerys are 3 hours. If you're an out-doors person, Kings Canyon and Sequoia parks are about a 4 hour drive. Message me for any further gouge: the spouse and I were masters at getting out of the Antelope Valley at any availible opportunity.
 
I keep hearing good things about Techachapi, and glad to know that the east side's a no go. Part of me just wants to look for a trailer in Mojave so I can wander around Scaled Composites till I get arrested... but that's probably not a great idea.

Any guesses on what the commute would be from Santa Clarita to the southern side of the Palmdale airport?
 
Rosstafari said:
I keep hearing good things about Techachapi, and glad to know that the east side's a no go. Part of me just wants to look for a trailer in Mojave so I can wander around Scaled Composites till I get arrested... but that's probably not a great idea.

Any guesses on what the commute would be from Santa Clarita to the southern side of the Palmdale airport?
Click to expand...

I would guess 45 mins to an hour drive without traffic.
 
We have an office in Palmdale I have to visit sometimes. I've never see the good part of town.
 
If I were you, I'd head over towards Valencia. If I ever had to move back to the Los Angeles area, it would be straight up to Valencia/Santa Clarita.
 
Came really close to moving to Valencia a couple of years ago and really like it. Also, since housing prices have collapsed it is REALLY a good deal now. I was starting to look pre-crash and was looking at things smaller than my current house and they were around $750k. A friend just bought a house in the same neighborhood I was looking at and picked a place up for $409k. Valencia seems ok.
 
I'm big on family life and since you have kid(s) I would HIGHLY recommend the Fair Oaks community here in Santa Carita. My daughter goes to Fair Oaks Ranch and that school is a breath of fresh air.

Oh yeah, Anaheim is about a 2 to 2 and a half hour drive from here:D
 
Valencia's a nice place, but the commute from there to the south side of the airport, where the ARTCC is, would be about 1-1.5 hours... further than I care for when I'm already out of the city anyway. Santa Clarita's looking up, and I'm trying to get my wife interested in Techacapi.

Anyone think PMD will get commercial service again anytime soon? BUR isn't that bad of a drive, but I'd just as soon avoid the drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top