Originally Posted by
afcraig2010
New hire, just got the job today. I plan to move to Medford later when I’m done with training and I would like to get any input and advice on where to live and where to avoid. Jacksonville looks nice but I don’t see any apartments there and it’s obviously more pricey. Where’s the other good parts of town? Or maybe go further out? I wouldn’t mind up to an hour drive if it meant living in a safer area. Safety and crime is what my wife and I are most concerned about.
Sadly, southern Oregon has a lot of issues with drugs and petty crime. I lived in a nice apartment complex just north of the Rogue Valley mall. The apartments were nice, but there were always a lot of "transients" in the area around the property.
You might check out Central Point or Ashland. At least one of our FO's lived in an apartment just north of the downtown area in Central Point. Probably took him less than 15 minutes to get to work.
Ashland is a great place to live, but more expensive than Medford or Central Point. It has the same problems as Medford.
Overall, the Medford base was fun. Great crews, relatively inexpensive, and not much traffic. There's some spectacular hiking, biking, and camping nearby. I also found that apartments and rental houses are readily available (it's gettin' hard to find anything at any price in some parts of Seattle or Portland/Vancouver).
If you get some time off during training, jumpseat down to Medford or drive down and look around for a couple of days.