I have the opportunity to move from high and dry Colorado (which I love) to Corona, CA. After my visit, my seatmate on the return flight said Corona used to be a gang-infested shithole and that she would rather live in Colorado.
So what’s the scoop? Anyone have dissenting (or agreeing) opinions before I move there and realize I hate it?
If you worked in Corona, where would you live? Corona, Riverside, Lake Elsinore, LA, Compton (j/k)?
And I have to be able to ride my motorcycle without getting killed. Is this doable in the Inland Empire?
I haven’t spent a ton of time in Corona but it’s not bad. It’s along I-15, which is a superb place for riding your motorcycle. Along that corridor are a ton of malls and shopping centers, but you’re also close to wine country in Temecula and relatively close to both Palm Springs and LA. The desert and the national forests are great places for getting away and enjoying nature.
I know a woman who lived in Corona for about 10 years (by herself and her dog). She’s in her mid-late 50’s now. She never had any trouble with crime or gangs. There is crime but she wasn’t affected by it. With LA, and CA in general, you have to understand that there are gangs all around. It manifests as tons of graffiti but isn’t something that keep middle-class people from living their lives. The gangs are comparable to the earthquakes in that respect.
If I worked in Corona, I’d check out living in Corona proper and the other places you mentioned, but I also would check out maybe Rancho Cucamonga. I wouldn’t go further East than Riverside. The cities Northeast of Riverside get closer to my definition of shitholes.
That said, having lived in both CO and CA, I’d prefer to live in CO. Corona, and all of the Inland Empire in general, would be a step down from CO.
My wife’s family and a lot of her older friends live in the IE, including Corona.
You can live well there for fairly cheap, but there are some better areas and worse areas. If I had to live in the IE (Inland Empire) area, I’d probably opt for Redlands, which is nicer and more town-like than a lot of the other areas including Riverside. That’s generally where we stay when we go out there.
Corona is all right, but a lot of those IE towns are just loose collections of strip malls and don’t have much of a real identity. Rancho Cucamonga is fine, but dominated by a large mall (as is Ontario) and gets pretty trafficky.
There are lots of largely empty roads and freeways out that way, though I would steer clear of driving too much on the 60 freeway, as a lot of racing goes on especially at night, and it gets dangerous.
It’s hotter than Los Angeles, especially in the summer, when it gets up to 110 to 120 degrees. There isn’t a great deal of culture out that way, but you are within reasonable driving distance to Los Angeles, Pasadena, Palm Springs, Temecula (the aforementioned wineries) and other places.
I drive through Corona fairly often (I live in San Diego, and go up I-15 to visit relatives in various parts of LA). And I was working for a company that did business with a company in Corona, so I visited this company a couple of times.
Prior to my first visit, I remember mentioning that it was (somewhat) fortunate that this company was in Corona, as it was only about an hour away, to one of my co-workers. And his response was “Ah Corona: all of the bad things about ‘LA’ and none of the good !” We had a good laugh, but there’s a lot of truth to it:
The bad:
a lot of the smog from LA is blown east to…the inland empire and there it hangs. Corona isn’t as bad as, say, Riverside. But it does get bad.
traffic. Corona is kind of at the “entryway” to LA for people commuting from the south. The I-15 north and the 91 west are parking lots during commute times in the morning (and the opposite directions are parking lots in the evening commutes). So if you were to work in Corona, it would be advisable to either live in town, or live opposite to the traffic patterns.
weather. LA covers a big area but a good amount of it stays pretty moderate being on the ocean. Corona has these nice hills separating it from the ocean, so it gets hot. Like really hot in the summer. Not quite Palm Springs hot, but hot enough. So combine hot and smoggy, and you have some pretty typical summer days.
The “none of the good”:
culture. For all it’s faults (no pun intended), LA does have theatre, museums, galleries, etc… Corona, to my knowledge, is pretty lacking in this area. A lot of the inland empire came to being purely as affordable housing for people who work in LA (or Orange County - but it’s all the same in my book). So the neighborhoods kind of reflect that.
access to beaches. It’s a decent hike to any beach from Corona. So on those hot and smoggy days, you will really need to head out early to get some relief at the coast.
Look at google maps and take note of the 91 freeway that connects Corona and the Inland Empire to Orange County and LA. On the 91 between the 71 and 241, north of the 91 is the Prado dam and the Chino Hills State Park, and south of the 91 is the Cleveland National Forest. Through that gap, there are no surface streets connecting OC and Corona. The only way between them is the 91, a bike trail, and the railroad tracks. No streets. No good options either. So, like everyone else in Corona and Riverside who works in OC, they sit in that nasty traffic twice a day.
Make damn sure that if you live in Corona you work in the IE, or if you do work in OC, work a schedule that keeps you off that fucking 91 freeway during normal traffic hours.
This is a “seemed like a good idea”, where there were two ideas which were pretty much the exact opposite, and both were stupid.
Years ago I had a roommate who got plastered with one of his friends and together they decided they were going to TP a mutual friend’s yard. They also thought it would be a great idea for me to come along and help. I was sober, and I didn’t think it was a great idea to go along and help. They insisted. I insisted not.
The roommate’s friend was a real dick and actually grabbed me and started dragging me out the door toward the car. I did not take well to that and we started a more or less wrestling match that started to escalate. Fortunately, my roommate came to his senses, and defused the situation by stopping his friend by explaining what a joyless jerk I was.:rolleyes:
Had I thought about it, I would have just gone along and sat in the car or something. It would have been a much smarter option than getting into a fight.
Did I mention that the dick sometimes carried a gun? I don’t know whether he had it that night or not, but I knew that he might’ve. Which made me all the dumber – getting into a fight with a drunk guy who could be armed.
Boyo Jim, did this happen in Corona? Sorry, I’m a little lost.
I don’t know Corona, but I know that drive on the 91. I think I’d just lose it if I had to drive that road during rush hour, which is more like 3-4 hours, in the direction of LA in the morning or back towards the IE in the afternoon.
I did work in Temecula for a bit south of there, and that area seems nice enough if not a bit dull for me.
“It’s hot. Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking.” “Well, can you tell me what it feels like?” “Fool, it’s hot! I told you again! Were you born on the sun? It’s damn hot!”
So since other people are joining in to point out the shortcomings of the IE and Corona in particular, maybe I can provide some good points too.
It’s not that far from Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Pasadena, so there is the potential for culture and the finer things these cities can offer, but you would probably need to endure some driving to get to them.
It is, as I had mentioned, affordable. There’s a good amount of housing and open space. If I was going to buy a largish house, I would probably look in the nicer parts of the IE first.
If you like to bike or hike there are some nice wilderness areas close by, including Lake Arrowhead/Mammoth Mountain not too far. Those mountain roads make for good driving at off hours as well. If you work in the area that you live in - and if you work in the IE it only makes sense to live there too - the drive is manageable.
If you like Mexican food, it’s one of the best places around.
I’d say the nicer parts of the IE area are Redlands, Riverside (though it smells kind of funny there) and maybe parts of Rancho Cucamonga.