I lot of the people in this area have never lived anywhere else their entire lives and because of this are extremely close minded, one dimensional and not cultured in the slightest. This leads to a lot of ignorance, the "clan mentality" you're speaking of, where everyone just copies everyone else and no one actually thinks for themselves, they're products of their environments, which is really quite sad. The extreme conservatism you speak of is very real. I've seen guys wearing t-shirts to pick up their kindergarten child wearing shirts that say "F@ck 46" which is basically saying screw the 46th President (Biden). If that isn't a prime example of extreme ignorance and unintelligence, I don't know what is. Then you got other people driving around in huge pick ups thinking they're cool, arms hanging out the window, going around calling everyone "bud" or "buddy." Even worse that people who have never lived anywhere else are the ones who's families have lived here for generations, the ignorance is off the charts unreal. When you have never lived anywhere else, been around new people who can challenge and discuss ideas with you, and experienced life outside of your little bubble, this is what you get...ignorance and an intolerance towards anything that you don't agree with. Then you got the roads, some of which like Snell / Racetrack are literally covered in pot holes. If you have a nice vehicle, it won't stay nice for long around Sonora as it gets bounced around and rattled to death while trying to commute. Then there's the city parks, which are not maintained property, infrastructure is damaged or failing AND worst of all the main city park downtown Woods Creed Rotary Park has been taken over by homeless people. I know many families, including my own, who will drive by the park before hand just to make sure its safe to go to. Even if there is no one there, you can only imagine how much the transients that hang out there are spreading germs at the children's playground while they loiter and hang out there all day, not to mention discouraging families from visiting by their mere presence. The local police don't seem to care that these people loiter at the park all day long, as in nearly 6 years of visiting I think I've seen the city Police drive by twice, even though their station head quarters is literally blocks away. Then you have extreme heat in the summer time with temperatures regularly reaching 100+ degrees. And be prepared for a power outage because those happen regularly here too. If you don't have a backup power source, you're home can easily become uninhabitable as the temperatures climb, I would argue for some this could even be life threatening. Speaking of summer, be prepared for wildfires in this area and esp the smoke that will drift in from them. Air quality is absolutely horrible during fire season, you can't even go outside for more than 5 minutes without throat irritation and coughing. To make matters even worse, a lot of people in this area are not very intelligent and will choose to spend hours burning their yard waste, allowing the smoke to spread throughout their neighborhood, and potentially starting a fire, instead of paying $3.50 to drive and dump at one of the local green waste disposal sites. Living here is like going back in time, but not in a good way. Yes the area is beautiful, but that's about where the benefits of living here ends.
Ryan | Sonora, CA | Report Abuse