The author's posts are entirely his or her own and may not always reflect the views of Movoto.
1. The Inland Empire has the best Mexican food on the planet.
Even better than in actual Mexico. Why? We have the authentic mom and pops (Alberto's, Rosa Maria's plus tons more), but we also have the chain Mexican restaurants such as Del Taco that you don't have in other states. Even Baker's has bomb burritos that you can dive into.
What's better than a 2am run to get some carne asada tacos?
2. You can get a cheap (and decent) education.
With UC Riverside and Cal State nearby, you can get your BA without breaking the bank.
I attended both and can attest that UCR is pretty boring and, unless you want some science degree, Cal State gives you what you want--an education without huge school loans.
After all, most employers just want to see you got a BA, they don't necessarily care where you got it from.
3. There are mountains everywhere (but most people don't hike or ski).
You can get to
Big Bear or
Lake Arrowhead within two hours, which is great if you board/ski (or fish).
Tack on an additional hour and you can get to
Mt. Baldy or the
San Gabriels.
4. There's tagging everywhere.
Believe it or not, tagging (graffiti) was a lot bigger in the early 90s. Seemingly everyone knew someone who was in a tagging crew and all they did was smoke weed and spray paint their crew's letters on walls and in ditches.
That's not the 'in' thing to do anymore, but there's still graffiti all over the place in the Inland Empire.
5. The lakes are overrated.
How many people have actually swam in Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear Lake,
Lake Elsinore, or
Lake Perris? Not many. Either wealthy boaters close off the lakes or the water it too nasty to get into (I'm looking at you Lake Perris).
All of this is why we went to the beach in the summer...
6. The Orange County beaches are way better than LA beaches.
Most of the people I knew went to
Huntington or
Newport. It's closer and a lot less drama.
Trying to get to
Santa Monica or
Venice or any of the other South
L.A. beaches is a waste of time and money. The water is the same at both and you feel safer.
7. Lets face it, the IE is kinda ghetto.
But not as bad as other parts of SoCal.
Once you're past the 605, it's pretty much ghetto until you get past USC. While the 909/951 gets a bad rap for being a total mess, it could be worse. There are parts of north
San Bernardino, eastern
Riverside, and large pockets all over that are far better off than Los Angeles County.
8. Developments are taking over the hills.
Remember as a kid when you could look at the hillsides and see mountains? Or when orange trees dominated the landscape? Now, it's turning into development after development.
Most of the people I knew wanted to 'move up into the hills' meaning they valued getting the bigger track home on a winding road in some development. Which is fine if you can handle this fact..
9. Overpriced homes are everywhere.
Large homes with salmon paint schemes and tile roofs are all the rage. You get about a postage size yard and you can literally pee out your bathroom window and hit your neighbors roof.
While these homes are new, for $500,000 you could get a huge home in a much better neighborhood in most of the U.S. But, that would mean you'd have to leave the burritos. And the warmth.
10. The weather is always really, really nice.
It rarely drops below freezing, even in winter. I remember it snowing maybe 5 times in the 33 years I lived there. Summers are hot (above 100 for large stretches), and late fall/winter can be really windy. Winters are mild (60s) and hardly any of the trees lose their leaves.
Now that I left, I do have some appreciation for the four seasons. Even though we had more than 5 feet of snow in
Indiana this year!
11. Rain = The end of the world.
Yes, we all know that when a 'storm' comes in, it's all over the news. The cliche of Channel 4 news reporters standing in a puddle beside a flooded intersection in a raincoat is true.
People can't drive in the rain here--they either drive way too slow or way too fast.
And when we had a three-inch, three-day long storm, that's all the news talked about for a week. Remember El Nino in 1992? Oiy.
But this year I hear there's a drought. How boring it must be to hear about the weather!
12. Fire season used to be in October.
Now it's all the time.
Remember when the Santa Anas brought that hot, windy weather every fall, and we'd go out and watch the hillsides burn after some pyro decided to cause some havoc?
Now, it seems like fires are all year long. Those fire retardant chemical spraying jumbo jets are really keeping Norton and March AFB busy.
13. The smog is a lot better nowadays.
I grew up in the end of the valley in
Highland (at the base of Big Bear), and as a kid, it seemed like we had stage three smog alerts every other day in the summer. You couldn't see the mountains in the afternoon, and I remember we'd go home and take a deep breath and cough.
People who complain about the air quality now need to pipe it down.
14. High speed chases are simply fascinating.
I remember watching a high-speed chase evolve into a 2-hour ordeal once, as the guy jumped from car to car and continued to evade the cops. I actually called in late to work that day to watch.
You can always count on every LA station breaking into programming to cover whatever new chase was going on. And when they went to a brief commercial, you changed the channel to keep watching on another network.
The worst part was when the driver pulled over and got out with his hands up. It was a rare occasion when the car actually crashed or was forced off the road, but when it happens, it's awesome!
15. Oh my does the traffic suck.
A long time ago, it seemed like there were certain hours that you could drive to avoid traffic (especially after 8 pm). Now, the only time the freeways aren't slowed down is between 2 and 4 am. There's really no way around the 91 log jam, but at least you can make a choice to take the 60 when the 10 is jammed up. Or at least, until everyone else jumps on there with you.
There's one obvious reason the traffic sucks...
16. Public transportation is horrible.
The MetroLink goes from San Bernardino to Los Angeles/Orange County. Which is nice if you work directly downtown or nearby a train stop.
I think one reason no one I know takes public transportation is because they don't know how to do it. That, or they feel like they're 'too good' to be seen on a city bus. I bet most of you have never even been on a train/cab/city bus in Southern California.
17. Don't go to the Inland Empire and expect much culture.
Recently the IE helped the following bands get their starts:
- No Doubt
- Blink 182
- Voodoo Glow Skulls
- The Skeletones
- Alien Ant Farm
- And even Sublime
Yes, you can find some indy band playing at a small venue somewhere, and there are a handful of below-average art destinations in the area, but overall, now that the punk scene has died down, you have to go to Los Angeles to see art or watch some good bands.
Unless you want to head up to
Blockbuster Pavilion... no wait
Glen Helen Amphitheater... oh it's
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater now? Whatever the hell it's called.
18. The desert is way overrated.
It's a Southern California moniker that you can do the beaches/mountains/deserts in the same day. But we know that besides
Palm Springs, there really isn't much worth seeing in the deserts.
No awesome dunes or pretty mountain formations (or even much wildlife).
The only part of the desert worth seeing is on the way to...
19. Vegas.
Most of us have been to
Las Vegas by the time we graduate high school. Whenever someone asked us how many states we had been to, it was always
California and
Nevada.
Oh yeah, and Tijuana.
20. No one really pulls for one sports team.
When the Raiders left, a lot of people still stayed on that bandwagon.
In L.A., you have determined Dodger and Laker fans.
But there really isn't an allegiance in the 909/951. Some like the Angels, some fluctuate between UCLA and USC (depending on who is better). There's a smattering of Cowboy fans, Charger fans, 49ers fans, Yankee fans, etc.
21. High school football games aren't the same.
Remember back in the day when Ike/Fohi meant something? Now, there are so many schools opening that the talent is watered down.
Not only are the players a lot smaller for some reason, but the stands are a lot emptier.
22. Forties were a thing.
Maybe it was because we were all so much closer to the LBC, but if you didn't have an Old E or a Mickey's in high school, you simply didn't have a life.
Most of the people at San G. carried theirs around in paper sacks just like the rappers did. Most of the girls would take sips of ours while they nursed their Boone's Farms or Wine Coolers.
Moms and dads out there, yes your kids thought they were in a music video for a small part of their lives.
23. Slammed cars/trucks with systems were also a thing.
When I was in high school, most of the friends I knew (and some girls) had their cars slammed with fat rims on them. A lot of them had to park their cars in the back of the school parking lot because they couldn't even drive over speedbumps. Most of them had Viper alarms with about ten different siren settings and everyone had 12-14 inch woofers in the trunk.
Eazy-E and Dr. Dre never sounded so good.
If you're so old that you didn't own a car like this, there's a good chance your kid did.
24. Drugs weren't that big a deal.
Yeah, some people smoked weed, but unless you were on the fringe of society, meth/crack was limited to the homeless/bad parts of the neighborhood that you never went into anyway.
25. Everyone knows why the IE is better than L.A. and Orange Counties.
Better people, less crime, more affordable, and overall less 'drama' than the rest of Southern California. The Inland Empire is the best spot to chill in SoCal. (Unless you want to count
San Diego. But who can afford to live there?)
909/951 in the house!
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