It's a wasteland.
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2/17/2007
We've lived here since 1990 and had high hopes. If you work "down below" you can expect commutes easily in excess of 1-1/2 to 2 hours each way in stop-and-go traffic. We do have light rail, but it never seems to run when you need it, to where you need it. Most local jobs pay less than similar jobs out of town. There is little to do unless you like run of the mill movies and theatrical presentations done by locals. To travel to Los Angeles or Hollywood for a play requires an overnight stay, due to traffic conditions. Travel time to Los Angeles International (54 miles) can stretch to over three hours - Burbank Airport (48 miles) can take nearly two hours to reach. Palmdale airport is opening in June 2007, with only two daily flights to San Francisco.
If you like to dine on, or cook gourmet foods, Palmdale is a culinary wasteland. Grocery stores stock primarily mundane, prepackaged, frozen and canned foods (which is okay if you like that type of eating). There is no regular farmer's market. The opening of a Trader Joe's a couple of years ago was wonderful, but when I plan a gourmet meal, I often have to drive to Valencia 35 minutes away for provisions. There is no place to go anywhere in town for a special-occasion meal. It's all chain restaurants and mom and pop. The restaurant that regularly gets awarded for the best views and the most romantic, has some of the worst food in town.
The City Governments of Palmdale and Lancaster are extremely poor urban planners. When Palmdale put in an Auto Mall, Lancaster also built one four miles down the freeway. Both sit half empty. Palmdale built a regional shopping mall, Lancaster built an outlet mall that is now nearly vacant. Lancaster has a Community College and instead of expanding classes or building much needed parking structures, we are instead building another Community College in Palmdale. Whatever Palmdale builds, Lancaster wants and whatever Lancaster builds, Palmdale wants...whether we need it or not. Our tax dollars are squandered at an astounding pace on these duplicate projects.
We do have many, many, many big box, low price, warehouses. Because of that, if you plan to open a business, you need to be prepared to bring your pricing in line with the big box giants as the residents have a very strong "get the most for least amount of money" mentality.
This is the high desert, where it's horribly hot during the summer. Unlike the deserts of Las Vegas and southern Arizona, this a real ugly desert.
Dutch | Palmdale, CA