The valley is most dramatic at night, when the clear desert air sparkleswith an oasis of lights. Street lights, house lights, headlights. They illuminate an inland valley once known best for its touristy antique stores, its rolling vineyards, its wide-open cattle ranges. A couple of side-by-side blinks of towns in the rural countryside halfway between San Diego and Riverside alongside Interstate For years, they were the kinds of places that made you wonder: Who would live there besides retirees and ranchers, and maybe the fellow who runs the gas station?
Today they are boom towns, overnight sensations born of refugees from San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange counties--many of whom still drive hellacious commutes to their old jobs until these bedroom communities can catch up in the jobs market. The dizzying growth has taken its toll in Temecula, foremost in the arena of traffic. Lacking sufficient signals, the former hayseed of a town now is forced to put traffic cops at crowded intersections during rush hours.
In 10 years, the population of Temecula and Murrieta valleys at the southern edge of Riverside County has catapulted from less than 10, to about , Most of that growth has occurred in the past three years, swamping the area like a flash flood in the desert. And, Riverside County planners say, the two young cities and the adjoining unincorporated county area are going to double in population before the dust settles.
Little wonder, for here are spanking-new homes in spanking-new neighborhoods at bargain prices, framed beneath clear blue skies and unmarred hillsides. For people like Dave and Chris Davis, moving to Temecula meant the chance to buy a home that, in the late s, was significantly cheaper than comparable homes in Orange County.
The Davises, who moved from Tustin in that county, are hunkering down for the good life with their 9-month-old daughter, Sarah, even if it means a minute commute for Dave to his office in Riverside. Everything is new. And there seems to be a lot of young couples moving here, buying houses, having babies--people who are in the same place we are.
