Stockton, CA

[Thundertubs]

Stockton is a city of 300,000 on the San Joaquin River in California's Central Valley, roughly 60 miles east of San Francisco Bay. The 1940 population was about 55,000 (to give an idea of the city's pre-war footprint).

The downtown had a lot of great old buildings, but was not in the best shape. Photos were taken around 5-6pm on Easter Sunday.













































































Northeast of town

[plinko]

Sadly, this is what Sacramento would look like if the Capitol was elsewhere. Stockton is a city with a great potential downtown, but it is so poorly run. They are getting a new tallest building (you can see the tower crane in your first pic). I think one of the best hopes for the city is if the HSR is ever built. It would put it within an hour of San Jose or SF.

[Pistola916]

Originally Posted by plinko

Sadly, this is what Sacramento would look like if the Capitol was elsewhere. Stockton is a city with a great potential downtown, but it is so poorly run. They are getting a new tallest building (you can see the tower crane in your first pic). I think one of the best hopes for the city is if the HSR is ever built. It would put it within an hour of San Jose or SF.

Yeah, without the capitol, Sactown would resemble Stockton, Fresno and Bakersfield. Luckily, there is zero chance of moving the state capitol.

Stockton has some cool historical buildings. It's a shame the city gets a bad rap but unfortunately, it is justified. Stockton is the Detroit of CA.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Looks like the rust belt has a cousin in northern California. Sad to see so many great old buildings sitting empty and forlorn.

Thanks for the tour Tt.

[xzmattzx]

Wow, Stockton is worse than I thought it was. Stockton looks like one of the gritty cities of north Jersey.

Are there any nicer areas in Stockton? I've read that Stockton has a nice minor league ballpark, so you would think that some other sections are nice, even if Downtown isn't.

[Austinlee]

Great pics. Surprised it looks so rundown being only 60 miles from one of the richest cities in the world.

[gatt]

it dosen't look like California.i see potential.thanks for sharing.

[mello]

From these pics Stockton looks way worse than Fresno. The vast majority of the buildings look like they aren't being used at all. Has anyone been to downtown Bakersfield lately I have heard that it isn't doing too badly.

[sterlippo1]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Great pics. Surprised it looks so rundown being only 60 miles from one of the richest cities in the world.

to be fair, its 60 miles from the bay but about 90 miles from SF but i hear you. Sad because there are some nice bones downtown

[ozone]

Originally Posted by plinko

Sadly, this is what Sacramento would look like if the Capitol was elsewhere. Stockton is a city with a great potential downtown, but it is so poorly run. They are getting a new tallest building (you can see the tower crane in your first pic). I think one of the best hopes for the city is if the HSR is ever built. It would put it within an hour of San Jose or SF.

This is the kind of argument that shows you really do not understand the history of either cities. "Oh gee. They both are in the Central Valley, therefore...." That's pretty lame.

[Centropolis]

one day i was perusing google earth following a two week roadtrip to california and back and "discovered" stockton. it appears to have a small harbor with seagoing vessels - i imagine that the san juaquin has been dredged far inland to allow this, which was a surprise. the way the waterway "ends" downtown sort of reminds me of baltimore.

[plinko]

Originally Posted by ozone

This is the kind of argument that shows you really do not understand the history of either cities. "Oh gee. They both are in the Central Valley, therefore...." That's pretty lame.

Please, enlighten me. Having lived in Sacramento on two occasions as an adult and having visited the city extensively all my life, what am I missing? I've also designed work in Stockton. Again, what am I missing? To be clear, I like both cities very much.

[Evergrey]

Stockton looks like one of those zombie West Virginia cities.

[tech12]

Nice pics! I don't think I've ever seen a Stockton thread here, or anywhere on the internet for that matter.

Originally Posted by sterlippo1

to be fair, its 60 miles from the bay but about 90 miles from SF but i hear you. Sad because there are some nice bones downtown

uhh...except SF isn't 90 miles from Stockton. Yeah, the bay is about 60 miles away, but SF is about 70 miles by car (or 60 by air). Unless the bay suddenly became 30 miles wide when I wasn't looking. A 90 mile trip west from Stockton would put you in the pacific ocean, not in SF.

And for the record, Stockton has been considered a part of the Bay Area CSA since 2013. Though culturally, people mostly consider it a separate thing and not part of the Bay Area.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Wow, Stockton is worse than I thought it was. Stockton looks like one of the gritty cities of north Jersey.

Are there any nicer areas in Stockton? I've read that Stockton has a nice minor league ballpark, so you would think that some other sections are nice, even if Downtown isn't.

From what I can tell by looking at Streetview, Stockton has nice areas and not so nice areas, just like every other American city.

I've always heard of the city, but have never been there.

[plinko]

I did a megathread on the 'other' Central Valley cities in early 2007 here. It is the only thread featuring Stockton I've seen in 16 years on this forum.

Pre-recession, Stockton (as opposed to Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, etc) seemed poised to make a huge leap forward as a city. Not unlike many places, the city was being vetted by major developers looking at multi-use projects all over the downtown area. Unlike Fresno and Bakersfield, each seemingly stuck in 1970, the city managed to pull together a few really large projects such as a waterfront ballpark, waterfront arena, waterfront amphitheater, the Fox Theater renovation and really put itself out there for the next round of private projects (a few of which got built). Unfortunately when the economy imploded, the city was way too far out on a limb and the results have been disastrous. Much worse than virtually any other city in the state.

It is really too bad. The developers I worked with that were looking at Stockton did so primarily due to it's proximity to the Bay Area, being on the future HSR link to the Bay Area, and the fact that the area wasn't already over-developed.

Maybe someday.

For those wondering about nice areas... The area around U of the Pacific is gorgeous. Suburban, sure, but leafy and extremely nice. Most of the rest of the city is fairly generic.

[eschaton]

It's hard for me to believe that Stockton looks this bad when it's a city which has never shrunk in population. I mean, I understand it's not a gentrifying area by any means, but you'd think the Latino and Asian immigrant communities would result in some commercial vibrancy downtown.

Is this one of those cases where the city continues to annex new suburbs, which makes up for the decay of the inner core?

[Shawn]

^--- Let me second this. These pics do not look like a place that has seen 250,000+ new residents since WWII.

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

I never thought I'd see a Stockton thread on here, let alone such a comprehensive, solid set. Good job.

Originally Posted by eschaton

It's hard for me to believe that Stockton looks this bad when it's a city which has never shrunk in population. I mean, I understand it's not a gentrifying area by any means, but you'd think the Latino and Asian immigrant communities would result in some commercial vibrancy downtown.

Is this one of those cases where the city continues to annex new suburbs, which makes up for the decay of the inner core?

Originally Posted by Shawn

^--- Let me second this. These pics do not look like a place that has seen 250,000+ new residents since WWII.

I'll take a stab at this since I'm a born and raised Valley kid.

You know how there's sort of a general aspiration among kids to go to the big city? You know, kids all over the Midwest, as they grow up, dream of going to Chicago, bright lights, big city type stuff? It's the same with the Valley, except perhaps stronger. It's not something you really hear talked about openly, but there's this mindset, growing up all over the Valley (to a lesser extent in Sacramento and to far greater extents once you get to the Stocktons and Modestos and Escalons of the Valley) that you do whatever it takes to get the hell out. My own cousins, born and raised in deep ag country, the moment they could get out, they got the hell out to LA and never really looked back except for family emergencies.

In a state like California that's romanticized and publicized so heavily around the world as paradise, as a dream, growing up it sure doesn't feel that way when you're not on the coast. The Valley's practically a second tier of California, so close yet so far away. For the most part, the aspiration is either for SoCal or the Bay Area (and to some extent, Sacramento for those who want the city life without the level of problems those respective regions have). Even I remember growing up, after my first visit to San Francisco when I was 4 and seeing all the shiny cars and skyscrapers, thinking that I wanted to live there (of course, now you couldn't pay me to live in the Bay Area). Sacramento is the exception to the rule, though, because everyone I know that's gone away for school or moved for work, they/we all want to come home at some point, and these are people living in Chicago/New York/Miami/etc. Back to Stockton, you've got a city bombed out like this because, for the most part, the only people really left are the ones that couldn't get out. You see horrible gang issues, drug trafficking, all kinds of issues because the smart kids, the hard workers, the proud dreamers, all came from the dusty, overlooked part of Paradise looking out toward the mountains in the west and knowing the "real" California was just beyond. These are the future small business owners and city council members and doctors, and they just feel it growing up that they need to get out while they can.

Those other cities? The kid from outside Des Moines dreaming of Chicago? Chicago's a whole other state, maybe five, six hours away. All of us growing up in the Valley, we look at any freeway sign, they all point to two places: San Francisco and LA, and you realize pretty quick that San Francisco isn't five hours away; it's just an hour over those mountains on the horizon.

[mello]

Here in San Diego we have a negative view of Stockton simply because of the perceived cheapness of the Spanos family who owns the NFL Chargers and has never really been very popular since they bought the team in 1984. Now with the stadium negotiations about to take place it should get more heated. How many tract homes would you say Spanos has built over the years in the Stockton area?