Tell me about your town
 

I'm applying for clerkships now throughout the ninth circuit area (and beyond.) I know little to nothing about life in these various cities. But you guys do!

So, if you see someplace on this list you know something about, please share. Is it great? Is it a bulging red pimple on the nose of the universe? Is it a fabulous place you want to keep safe from the likes of me? Is it too damn expensive and I'd better prepare to live in a cardboard box?

Here's a list of the cities currently under consideration:

LA
San Fran
San Diego
Pasadena
Reno
Las Vegas
Phoenix
Tucson
Sacramento
Spokane
Portland
Medford
Honolulu
Santa Ana
Fairbanks
Boise
Billings
Anchorage
Juneau
Riverside
Woodland Hills
Fresno
Oakland
San Jose
Missoula

And if your city isn't on the list but you think it's the best place to live and I should consider it - tell me! There are circuits beyond the ninth.

Woodland Hills

Grew up there. The good: Upscale and a generally safe part of Los Angeles (with pockets of unsavoriness, and even those are tame in the grand scheme). Ventura blvd is an entertaining stretch of road with some darn fine restaurants and shopping. Los Angeles is accessible...when traffic cooperates.

The bad: Traffic doesn't cooperate. It gets bloody hot. Ventura blvd gets old. Housing is bloody expensive, no matter what part of LA you end up in.

Santa Ana
The good: Disneyland close, LA close, moderate temps. If you're willing to handle a commute, "affordable" housing can be had further inland

The bad: The commute's pretty gnarly from "affordable" housing. Santa Ana itself is largely ghetto-ish (though there are plenty of alternatives to actually living IN Santa Ana). Orange County kinda sucks, ya end up driving to LA a lot.

Bite your tongue!


There are plenty of good towns and cities on your list. No need to go clerking for some barbaric circuit operating on some 19th century version of justice and jurisprudence, Prudence.

San Diego
in alot of ways, see GD's post. pockets of bad surrounded by a majority of decent areas. traffic isnt what I'd call LA level, but it sure aint great and gets worse as the years go by. housing is pricey(period). I think the mid level for housing is from 400 to 500k. it can go way the 773H up from there without seeing alot of difference from the 400k versions. just location. gas is about as high here as anywhere in the US, considerably above the national average...so take that into account for sure

pretty laid back compared to some equally dense cities.
weather is hard to beat. it gets hot, but only maybe a week or two out of the year its really sucky. the rest is pretty tollerable depending on what micro climate you live in.

Where is this affordable housing you speak of?

I agree with GDs assessment of Santa Ana. However there are a lot of areas that you can live in if you don't mind driving. Santa Ana has some nicer areas but most are ghettoish. Fullerton, Orange and Anaheim are right around Santa Ana. They have nice and bad areas. As does all of the state.

(FYI: Seattle's pretty bad for traffic and housing too.)

I know I'll get laughed at, but of the cities with which I have any familiarity, I'd put Oakland up near the top of the list. While parts of Oakland are pretty much as bad as the reputation this is hardly true of the majority of the place and it is centrally located to all of the good things about the Bay Area without having to actually live with the people who think that San Francisco or Berkeley are evidence of God's beneficence.

The courthouse (which I presume is where you'd work) is well located for daytime dining and entertainment (not so much for evening as Oakland has not really had much success with revitalizing its downtown) and there are several nice and reasonably affordable (by local standards) neighborhoods within short driving distance. If you still want to live farther out in the suburbs it benefits from allowing you to skip the worst parts of the commute from many destinations.

As far as SF, I assume you won't be making much money and will end up commuting in from outside the city anyway, so you might as well go with Oakland.

So of the Bay Area choices, I'd rate it on top (without knowing anything about what makes a specific court better or worse for working; and knowing that the SF people will likely be appalled).

If you can handle the extremes of daylight and long winters then Anchorage is nice.

Reno is a place I like to go to gamble but I can't imagine why anybody would want to live there unless you really want proximity to good winter sports. It is boomtown that has busted. It lost the development war with Vegas and feels like it.

I saw earlier that you'd rejected Honolulu and I don't know why. Personally I found it a great place to live except for two things: I'm not a fan of tropical climate and I get island fever something awful. But otherwise I'd move back in a heartbeat.

If you're wanting something that is like Seattle but not actually in Seattle then Portland is your place. Imagine Seattle as a smaller town and you've pretty much got it.

Sacramento: Long stretches of 100+ degrees in the summer are not uncommon and it is a humid hot. That is a disqualifier for me but if not for you then it is only 80 minutes away from the best of the Bay Area, a couple hours from good skiing and is going through a boom that is bringing some culture to the area but with room for growth keeping prices somewhat down.

I haven't spent a lot of time in Medford but what I have the place felt like a suburb without any nearby city. If you're big into theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has its seasons in nearby Ashland. The worst winter weather on the west side of the Oregon Cascades.

I see Spokane is on the list, but I know you are far too smart to even consider it. I concur with Alex about Portland- nice place, not too big but still plenty to do and fairly progressive. Housing is expensive, but it's getting that way nearly everywhere.

San Diego
Honolulu
Pasadena

I vote for those.

Might you perhaps have more information for me than a vote? I've never been to those three places.