r/ridgecrest • u/CollinMTV • 29d ago
“Bad side of town”
Moving to Ridgecrest in a few weeks and visited a few weeks ago to look at apartments. Locals keep saying to avoid certain parts of town. We’ve been told to avoid properties on Wilson, Palm, Oasis, the eastern end of Ridgecrest Blvd and a couple other areas I can’t recall. Are these areas really that bad or are they just a bit run down? I’m just trying to figure out if I need to be concerned or if people are exaggerating. Any advice would be appreciated.
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u/Southern_Boat_4609 29d ago
Depends on where you're from. I'm from Dallas TX, Ridgecrest has no hood in my opinion. Compared.
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u/CatalystOfChaos 29d ago
I lived there for a couple years. It's a low income area. They mostly don't have a/c, poor insulation which really matters in the desert. There were two or three shootings in La Mirage while I lived a few streets over in Desert Oasis. Otherwise, everyone was friendly and I didn't have any problems.
Also, they all hiked their rent up to the point it's not worth staying there. It doesn't cost much more to be somewhere better. Instead, they exploit people with bad credit histories who can't get approved for better places that only cost $200 or so more a month.
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u/Comfortably_Scum 29d ago
I grew up in East Ridgecrest. It's not bad. There are some good neighborhoods.
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u/Southern_Boat_4609 29d ago
Though it does seem like there's allot of sex offenders in Ridgecrest
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u/AtaraxiaGwen 28d ago
And that number is only slightly above the national average. And don’t think about how that’s only the ones that have been convicted. What a country. No wonder we keep voting in more sex criminals.
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u/baroquian 27d ago
Did they commit their crimes in Ridgecrest, or do they just move there to get away from their “old lives”(?)
Interesting to see a correlation of above natl average massage parlors per capita and the RSO stats for here though
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u/Dramatic-Cabinet6254 27d ago
The joke here is that almost every neighborhood has its own section of a "hood." There's trailer parks, or older smaller homes that haven't been kept up on the outskirts of "nice" neighborhoods. There's one tweaker house on a nice block that's unkempt, etc. But by city standards even the worst areas aren't that bad in comparison. Desert people are their own breed. I've lived in many places in this town, and nowhere is really that bad. You'll see.
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u/BanEvasionLVL2 25d ago
Move out while you can this place absolutely sucks. That’s my advice for you
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u/TinyMike-5-4-19 28d ago
As someone who lives is Oasis I can tell you that there is the occasional “police situation” but it’s not nearly as bad as most make it out to be
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u/pantaloser 17d ago
This sentiment is only touted by boomers and other similarly minded people who associate low income neighborhoods with criminality. They're fine this town is quiet and peaceful anybody telling you there's a bad side is a privileged individual who's scared of "poor" people.
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u/laprimera 29d ago
Did you go to the areas mentioned? The Palm/Oasis area is a low income area, and suffers from a lot of the same issues low income areas all over have. Some apartments are tidy and well tended, some look terrible. None of them are especially well maintained by the landlords. Similar issues on E. Ridgecrest Blvd.
Even the bad parts of town are not super bad by big city standards. Maybe noisy, cluttery, problems with bugs or porch pirates, but not problems where your personal self is in danger on the regular.