Reply #11: Ack, stay away from Stockton!

[Xithras]

Stockton is a very high crime area, and most of that new growth is in gated communities. It's had serious gang and drug problems as long as I can remember. In some ways, it's like Detroit or the northeastern mill cities...Stockton was a huge port and industrial town from the 1800's, but the industry left, the military left, most of the shipping left, and nearly all of the cities wealthy and middle class residents left starting in the 1950's. By the 1980's Stockton was simply an empty shell of an industrial city filled with people too poor to move elsewhere. The new growth has injected some new economic life into the city, but most of it is still incredibly run down and isn't an area you'd want to live in.

One unfortunate side effect of this is that many of the ghetto bangers getting gentrified out of Oakland, SF, and Palo Alto are ending up in Stockton because it has some of the cheapest real estate in Northern California. This just intensifies the gang fighting and drives crime up even higher.

The new development is primarily along the I5 corridor to the north and south of the city, and the homes are primarily being bought by commuters who drive into Sacramento or the Bay Area for their needs and don't want to "deal" with Stockton.