Sonora Review
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7/24/2007
Having lived here for almost a decade, I have found that Sonora is just plan wired. The locals that have been here for a number of years are either nice and respectable or are drunk out of work losers that have a huge egos about themselves and everything their granddaddy's did before they lost their ranches in a poker match. For a small rural county and area, Sonora has very few real working ranches. The community is all about fast development and sprawl. The area has absolutely no planning and traffic is a nightmare.
For most of the new comers, almost everyone is from the San Jose, Livermore, and Santa Cruz area. Most of these folks sold their homes for high dollars and have relocated to Sonora in hopes of becoming the new upper class. Bling, Bling in a lifted pickup trucks is everywhere. SUV's for family's lifted ten feet in the air are commonplace. Between the drug users, parolees from the prison (oh ya there’s a State Prison here to), the prison guards (what a sad scary group these folks are), developers, and everyone else; Sonora is just wired. All it takes is a stop at the town’s big shopping store, Wal-Mart to see the high concentration of different folks. It’s like going to a side show from 100 years ago.
What's also different is that everyone has tattoos,(including women - your standard moms but they also have implants and big bleached blond hair) and go to beyond normal non denominational Christian churches. Yet the amount of racially negative comments that are said is crazy. Sonora also has a group of anti gay protesters that drive in trucks around town with big signs that say "No Gays". Yet people don't seem to notice that may be a little different or insensitive. Then there’s the contestant flying of the Confederate Flag from trucks and cars in town. I mean come on, the war was over a 150 years ago and this is California not Mississippi in the 1960’s
Sonora’s economy the last few years was built on the building boom. But now that has dropped out and now people homes are worth much less they paid for them. Yet the town keeps trying to build more homes.
The local drinking water comes from Phoenix Lake that is surrounded by houses and leaking septic tanks. In the summer, the water tastes so bad that the water department gives out bottled water. The rest of the year the water tastes and smells of chlorine. Most people move to the mountains for the "Fresh Air and Clean Water" but not here. The smog from the cent
Susan | Twain Harte, CA