Upper Land Park

On the northern half of Upper Land Park, you have the Sacramento Cemetery, a strange housing project like place, and an industrial area—none of which is terribly inviting for obvious reasons.

The cemetery is actually kind of nice. It’s big and old, so if you’re into that, its sort of cool. But, of course, it is a cemetery.

Just to the west of that there is the strange looking housing project that looks like a bunch of barracks. These look like one room apartments in non-descript brick shells with tiny front yards—about as inviting as a flea bag motel and just as weird. Not sure what those are or who lives there.

On the northwestern end of Upper Land Park is an industrial area that is home to auto-body shops, warehouses and the Sacramento headquarters for ABC News—the antenna for it is a landmark in the neighborhood. This is basically big rig and warehouse territory, all rust and dust.

On the western end of the neighborhood is Jedediah Smith Elementary and Health Professions High School. I don’t have any personal knowledge of either one, but I hear their test scores are less than spectacular.

To south of there on the western end are more of those strange looking housing units, this time not in brick but still as uninviting.

The overall southern triangle of the neighborhood takes on a very different feel from the rest however, with nice older homes with pools in the backyards and leafy streets. This part of Upper Land Park feels like it was once one of those idyllic 1950’s neighborhoods. It also feels a little bit like that was its height—it now feels more like your grandparents’ neighborhood than one that is quite as attractive for you.

Which is not to say that there aren’t signs of change. You do sees newer VW Beetles alongside monster gas guzzlers, and much of the neighborhood in this area is well kept. It has that sleepy Sacramento feel of a lot of this area but it also feels rather quaint and is very flat and walkable.

One of the real attractions to the area, I’m told, is the elementary school—Crocker/Riverside Elementary that does very well on its assessments.

As to the cost of living here? The area has been hit pretty hard by the Recession and the Real Estate Crisis so although there aren’t many homes for rent here there are a lot of good deals for those looking to buy a home. A number of the homes here go for as little as $200K. (Mostly due to foreclosure.) The most expensive home I found on a cursory look was one really nice place with a nice backyard for about $440K.

In terms of night life and restaurants, though there are some greasy spoons on the northern end of the neighborhood, this is not the neighborhood for that.

Supermarkets are few and far between as well with Muir Market being the local independent grocery store. It basically looks as old fashioned and sleepy as the neighborhood—though there is a Safeway north of the I-80.

Overall, I personally think that it is a neighborhood that is primed for a rebirth.