Transplants who love California (Santa Ana, Anaheim: condos, crime, daycare)

[bad debt]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

The real issue I’m trying to get at is someone working in Chicago, Detroit or Baltimore has a much easier time commuting to downtown to work a few days a week and living in a safe suburb with good schools. For someone working in Los Angeles or SF a 40 minute commute will (sometimes if you’re lucky) get you to Daly City, Oakland or Pasadena. These cities while not as dangerous as downtown St Louis are still more dangerous than 90% of Us cities and crazies regularly take public transit right into neighborhoods. So families have to watch homeless smoking meth and screaming right outside their door and robbing them for drugs. The schools are also pretty lousy overall and most parents with means pay for private school. Overall state averages don’t matter because even if Morro Bay, CA has virtually no crime it doesn’t help someone working in tech in Santa Monica.

Can someone work in LA and commute 2 hours each way to Newport Beach where schools are good and the crime is low? Sure. And lots do it. But that has its own problems. And far too often the big money jobs that allow one to afford ultra expensive housing in CA are right in the middle of urban centers. Though that is changing. But even with remote work many still expect you in the office 2-4 days a week so living 3 hours away is untenable for most.

South Pasadena, La Canada, San Marino, Alhambra, San Gabriel all have lower crime stats than Pasadena and are equally close to DTLA.

You also are completely ignoring Orange County or San Diego. With 3 million people each, both of those are on par with the size of the Denver/Baltimore/Orlando/St. Louis/Tampa MSAs. They have very strong schools and high paying white collar jobs.

[bad debt]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

San Marino: safer than 31% of US cities.

Arcadia: safer than 8% of US cities

La Canada safer than 21% of US cities.

So yes schools are good in those areas but you’re still absolutely dealing with some urban blight and well above average crime. And due to school quality housing costs are usually 1 million+ for even small homes (1000-1200 sq foot).

Also, depending on where you’re going and when driving might frequently take an hour + to get to your job in that area, even if it’s not that many miles away.

If you really think that crime in La Canada is higher than 80% of cities in the US, there are very few suburbs of any major city that is going to help you. Go move to some some Tumbleweed, OK town with 500 people in it where nothing happens if you want to be in the top 1% of low crime cities.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Have you ever actually lived in southern California, much less in any of these cities? The only "urban blight" in the city of Arcadia would be the blight of mansionization.

https://www.sgvtribune.com/2015/08/2...ion-editorial/

I was just through there last weekend. Its still smoggy and there’s some characters.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by bad debt

South Pasadena, La Canada, San Marino, Alhambra, San Gabriel all have lower crime stats than Pasadena and are equally close to DTLA.

You also are completely ignoring Orange County or San Diego. With 3 million people each, both of those are on par with the size of the Denver/Baltimore/Orlando/St. Louis/Tampa MSAs. They have very strong schools and high paying white collar jobs.

South OC is pretty darn safe though there is higher than average theft and property crime in some cities.

Definitely some nice areas in northern SD too. If you can get a job locally those areas are great.

[bad debt]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

I was just through there last weekend. Its still smoggy and there’s some characters.

Now you bring up smog? I thought the issue was crime and homelessness? Stop moving goal posts.

There have been characters in cities forever. You think there are no characters in NYC? No characters in Dallas? No characters in El Paso? No characters in Miami?

[bad debt]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

South OC is pretty darn safe though there is higher than average theft and property crime in some cities.

Definitely some nice areas in northern SD too. If you can get a job locally those areas are great.

Most of south county is fairly boring and architecturally sterile with limited access to good food, entertainment, and employment opportunities. Irvine and north/west is a better option for most people.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

The real issue I’m trying to get at is someone working in Chicago, Detroit or Baltimore has a much easier time commuting to downtown to work a few days a week and living in a safe suburb with good schools. For someone working in Los Angeles or SF a 40 minute commute will (sometimes if you’re lucky) get you to Daly City, Oakland or Pasadena. These cities while not as dangerous as downtown St Louis are still more dangerous than 90% of Us cities and crazies regularly take public transit right into neighborhoods. So families have to watch homeless smoking meth and screaming right outside their door and robbing them for drugs. The schools are also pretty lousy overall and most parents with means pay for private school. Overall state averages don’t matter because even if Morro Bay, CA has virtually no crime it doesn’t help someone working in tech in Santa Monica.

Can someone work in LA and commute 2 hours each way to Newport Beach where schools are good and the crime is low? Sure. And lots do it. But that has its own problems. And far too often the big money jobs that allow one to afford ultra expensive housing in CA are right in the middle of urban centers. Though that is changing. But even with remote work many still expect you in the office 2-4 days a week so living 3 hours away is untenable for most.

We live in San Diego and used to live in the Bay Area. We always noticed the same thing. If you really wanted to live in a safe suburb in the Bay Area that was also a reasonably priced, you had to go a good 45-60 minutes out of San Francisco. In San diego, you used to be able to drive only 15 to 20 minutes out of major job centers and live in an affordable safe suburb. These days, those safe suburbs are still safe and still only 15 to 20 minutes from the city, but they are no longer affordable. In a safe suburb it's conveniently located, you'll be spending well over a million dollars for small, old but remodeled Ranch house, or you'll spend well over 2 million and often into 4 million dollar range for a bigger tract home

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by bad debt

Now you bring up smog? I thought the issue was crime and homelessness? Stop moving goal posts.

Exactly. Or was the issue urban blight? Or maybe long commutes? Quality of school districts?

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by bad debt

Now you bring up smog? I thought the issue was crime and homelessness? Stop moving goal posts.

There have been characters in cities forever. You think there are no characters in NYC? No characters in Dallas? No characters in El Paso? No characters in Miami?

You’re mentioning “safe” suburbs. Safe suburbs shouldn’t have people walking around screaming to themselves or doing drugs in public, or stealing mail packages of people’s porches, or catalytic converters from the car in your driveway. In NYC a 30 minute train ride has you in Summit, NJ. That’s not an issue for the most part. Wealthy Dallas suburbs same.

[apple92680]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

You’re mentioning “safe” suburbs. Safe suburbs shouldn’t have people walking around screaming to themselves or doing drugs in public, or stealing mail packages of people’s porches, or catalytic converters from the car in your driveway. In NYC a 30 minute train ride has you in Summit, NJ. That’s not an issue for the most part. Wealthy Dallas suburbs same.

Move back to Jersey, then!