Magalia Rocks! Just Joking . . .
-
9/20/2012
Well, it looks like I get to be the very first to comment on Magalia, California.
For reasons I still don't understand, my folks moved here 40 years ago. I inherited their property, and against my better judgment, came to know the place over several years. Let me offer some advice: stay away. For the sake of your family, your bank account, and your general well-being, please stay away.
This is a desperate community populated mostly by the working poor, tired old folks waiting to die, and true dirtbags involved in crime and street drugs. Lots of trailers, lots of junk, lots of white trash idiots. It's the kind of place that invites trouble and conflict, conspiring against success in any form. Check the map, Magalia is literally on a dead-end road.
Paradise, a few miles south, is similar, but better. It has a strong Adventist medical community which is a resource for the community. But the only real point of civilization is Chico, 20 miles to the southwest. Believe me, 20 miles makes a huge difference.
Ted Koppel of ABC News once reported from the the only other significant city in the area, Oroville, which he described as "remote and poor". That's exactly right. By California standards, living in Butte County, with the exception of the lifestyles enjoyed by some professional folks in Chico, and some rich rice and nut-crop farmers, is about as remote, provincial, and poor as you can get. By the time you get to Magalia, you're even farther into remote poor territory.
About the weather. It's actually quite nice in the summer. Warm sunny days and cool, clear nights. That's typical of the Sierra foothill country. Winter, which lasts from November through April is WET and cold. Magalia averages about 70 inches of rain per year. Some years have approached 100 inches. Sometimes there's little snow, but I've seen three feet on the ground too. We're talking about a cold, drippy, cloudy, gray, dense forest environment for at least five months a year, with a lot of poor and sometime malevolent folks trying to survive.
I've seen this place evolve from curious but defensible retirement option to a haven for meth labs, bikers, truants, welfare moms, ex-cons, right-wing nut-jobs, and yes, a minority of regular folks who against all common sense, hang on.
There's essentially no employment, poor prospects, very little to do. In a word, it's a depressing place. I'm telling you straight, if your reading this and considering a move, I can advise you from experience, the only place worth living in the county is south Paradise or Chico. But if you can't handle the extreme summer heat and limited prospects, then move on to somewhere else. We did.
Jason | Magalia, CA