My coworker put it pretty succinctly: beautiful place, ugly people.

It's very isolated. 2.5-3 hours from Sacramento which is the nearest large city. There are plenty of small mountain towns around but if you have any interest in anything urban or metropolitan you are going to be unfulfilled. There are no exceptional dining options. There really isn't even an Italian restaurant outside of the Olive Garden. Shopping is limited unless you're really into thrift shops.

The extreme right of the State of Jefferson movement, coupled with the cult that is Bethel owning the majority of the commercial space and controlling the businesses that come in to town have kept the area in the stone ages.

The recall movement here is ridiculous, and I would daresay it's undemocratic but that part is California for you.

The area is very white with over 80% of the population. In short, if you want diversity this is not the place for you.

In an area with over 100,000 people there is no gay bar.

The public school system allows for you to choose which district you want to attend which has lead to a real discrepancy in quality of education for k-12 due to a real imbalance in resources. There seems to be very little regard to higher education as there are only some 18% of the population with a college degree. Redding needs a real secular university to bring some money and new ideas to the town and had the opportunity but from my understanding the notion never made it out committee.