Need some honest opinions for good schools and neighborhoods for the following cities... (Los Angeles: sex offenders, crimes)

[blmccloud]

Well, just to give you a little info... my husband wants to move closer to his family (mom especially) so our kids and he can spend more time with her before she passes and plus our kids can have the rest of his family close too!
My husband's mother lives in Lancaster, CA.. but I have heard it is not a very good area anymore and the schools suck! So, I have been doing some research for areas around there up to 2 hour drive away, cause I figure we can always drive that to vist!
So, I have heard good things about these following cities I will list below and would like to know which ones have good schools k-12 (by good schools I mean safe, and quality education), good nieghborhoods (safety first!!), and nice areas to live for us! Please any insight would be great!! Thanks!

Cities:
Palisades Park
San Gabriel
Cerritos
Thousand Oaks
Irvine
Riverside
Alhambra
Manhatten Beach
Los Alamitos
San Marino
Santa Clarita
Arcadia
Burbank
Claremont
Agoura
Culver City
Torrance
Long Beach
Sherman Oaks
Redondo Beach

[BRinSM]

where will you and your husband be working?

[blmccloud]

my husband works in construction and I do office work

[sgvkev]

Palisades Park- VERY expensive... lots of celebrities in this area. In LAUSD which is a bad district..
San Gabriel- Good schools but if you live in the incorporated part stay above Las Tunas. The central and south parts are more lower/working class and have gang issues. The unincorporated part is very midle class.
Cerritos- Good area with good schools although it gets a bit sketchier the closer you get to Artesia, Norwalk, and Bellflower.
Thousand Oaks- Nice, hilly, and has good schools.
Irvine- A bit cookie cutter (although very nice) but great schools and the police get the job done.
Riverside- One that you should stay away from. Southeastern part is very good but the schools aren't that good and lots of undesirables who were kicked out due to Los Angeles gentrification in the central and northeast areas are moving there.
Alhambra- Solid area with good schools. Areas to avoid are the southeast, central, and parts of the west.
Manhatten Beach- Great choice and has what you want... huge price tag though.
Los Alamitos- Good area although a bit low on my recommendation order. Outside of the race track nothing stands out.
San Marino- Has everything you want but VERY expensive... known as the Bel Air of the San Gabriel Valley.
Santa Clarita- Valencia and Saugus are good as is nearby Stevenson Ranch. Canyon Country and Newhall can be a bit sketchy though...
Arcadia- Great area with a good school district. Many of the areas have "McMansions" which are large homes on small lots though. Really close to Pasadena, which has lots of night life...
Burbank- Very good schools, nice neighborhoods, and a great police force. The northwest parts near the airport are a bit sketchy.
Claremont- If you love a small town atmosphere this is the place. Has everything you ask for and is very pretty.
Agoura- Very similar to Thousand Oaks...
Culver City- Pretty good although west of the 405 isn't that good...
Torrance- Okay... south and west are fine, north is hit or miss, and east is pretty bad.
Long Beach- The eastern part is the best area for you. Avoid zip codes 90805, 90813, and 90810 at all costs. Same with most of 90806 and parts of 90804. Those areas are mainly lower income and can be very dangerous...
Sherman Oaks- Nice, blue collar area except that it's in LAUSD and the affordable parts are going a bit downhill.
Redondo Beach- Same as Manhattan Beach.

[timelesschild]

Go to lalife.com and check out the cities there. That is a website with 0-10 ratings for safety, schools, and affordability. There is a big interactive map on there of ALL of LA county. It even includes details like school test scores and breaks down the numbers and kinds of crimes in each city. Very cool tool.

On this city-data website, you can gather more information on each city such as education levels, racial mix, median house price, median income, and names and addresses of sex offenders (ugh).

There are several websites specifically for researching schools, but I don't remember them right off. Charles knows them all.

Where will you and/or your husband be working? Do you know that already, or are you targeting a community before looking for jobs?

[blmccloud]

thanks so much

[blmccloud]

Originally Posted by timelesschild

Go to lalife.com and check out the cities there. That is a website with 0-10 ratings for safety, schools, and affordability. There is a big interactive map on there of ALL of LA county. It even includes details like school test scores and breaks down the numbers and kinds of crimes in each city. Very cool tool.

On this city-data website, you can gather more information on each city such as education levels, racial mix, median house price, median income, and names and addresses of sex offenders (ugh).

There are several websites specifically for researching schools, but I don't remember them right off. Charles knows them all.

Where will you and/or your husband be working? Do you know that already, or are you targeting a community before looking for jobs?

we would like to target a community first!

[BRinSM]

it doesn't really work like that here. you really should find the job then find the home, otherwise you could be spending upwards of 3-4 hours commuting everyday. there are plenty of good neighborhoods with good schools all over southern california that you should be able to find close to where ever the bread winner of your family finds his/her job.

[timelesschild]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

it doesn't really work like that here. you really should find the job then find the home, otherwise you could be spending upwards of 3-4 hours commuting everyday. there are plenty of good neighborhoods with good schools all over southern california that you should be able to find close to where ever the bread winner of your family finds his/her job.

That's what happened in our case. We were targeting Claremont (great town, beautiful, great ballet school); then husband got job in Pasadena with long-term project in Koreatown. Waaaay too long of a commute, so we were back to square 1. No Claremont for us!

We are currently in Alhambra, which has good safety and schools, very pretty where we are, and decent commute for husband, but haven't found a ballet school. We are going to check out the ones in Pasadena.

[CESpeed]

Why not stay in the Santa Clarita or San Fernando Valleys? Stevenson Ranch or Valencia are nice. My ex-husband and I looked at a very nice community called Pine Mountain Club which is very safe and has decent schools. It's also incredibly affordable. In SF, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Northridge or Granada Hills would be ideal for your family.