La Mirada, Skinheads??? Is this a great place to raise kids? (Santa Ana: new house, neighborhoods)

[blessedin08]

I have a couple of questions about La mirada.My family plan on moving in that area durning the summer and I don't see many blacks in the area.I saw a lot of asians. Looking on rate my schools they are great but not much diversity there.1) How is is living out there? 2)Are there a lot of gangs &skinheads there? honest answers please before I move my family there.we have just started looking at homes in that area and I have heard little rumors. I work there but it's different when you actually live there,so any feedback would be great.



Thanks in advance

[BRinSM]

I think La Mirada gets a bad rap because it borders some not so great neighborhoods. With that said, it also borders some very nice neighborhoods. I remember driving through La Mirada when I used to work in Santa Fe Springs and being surprised on how nice and quaint the majority of the city was, especially around Biola University. I can't give you any hard facts on the city but my guess is that the city is mostly older folks, who have lived much of their lives in the same houses, and immigrant families looking for nicer neighborhoods than the inner city, escpecially asians considering its location to Sunny Hills in Fullerton.

[blessedin08]

Thank you BRinSM for responding. I was hoping I worded my questions right. My thing is I have four children and my husband works there and he is tried of communting. I have only visted the are twice looking at houses and I didn't feel to comfortable(out of place I guess) Anyway my concern lies with my children being happy at school and in the neighborhood. I found it strange not seeing any kids outside playing on a saturday morning. The first couple of homes we looked at we were not impressed because these homes out there are very old.So we finally got used to the style of homes there.Also do they have an area with track homes?We are willing to look in different areas like LA Harbra,fullerton etc... We just don't much about these areas. Thanks again for your feedback BRinSM.

[BRinSM]

Well, if you can afford it, Brea and Fullerton are very nice and would probalby be great options for you and your family. In fact, Troy High School in Fullerton is consistantly ranked as one of the best academic high schools in the country.

[calipoppy]

Not to be a negative Nelly or anything but if you are an African American family, I would think very long and hard about deciding to move into "some" parts of OC. I have personal knowledge of some very disgusting racist incidents against Blacks by their neighbors in Northern OC...specifically parts of the following areas: Cypress, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Brea, La Habra, Stanton, Buena Park, Westminster, Garden Grove, Fullerton.

I would not expose my children to the type of trauma that they may encounter especially when there are more open-minded areas which are just as nice if not nicer than these parts of OC.

[blessedin08]

Yes I looked up Troy High school and others.Naturally we looked at the best school distict and then decided to look for homes in that area.I did notice than LA Mirada high had about 3% blacks than the 1% at Troy and Sunnydale(I think that was the name.

calipoppy PLEASE be a negative nelly(LOL) These are they things I want to know before I move out there then get in a situation where my children are treated badly.so please let me know the areas where we wil be happy even if you have to send me a direct message. This is what I was sharing with my husband exactly what you just said.my teen is a 4.0 student and model child and so are my other ones so I don't want any unnessary problems when it could be avoided. My husband is trusting everything this realtor is saying,but my thing is he's just trying to make a sale. I want to hear from the people that live in the area and what the cold hard truth.

[timelesschild]

My sister has lived in La Mirada for 9 years and loves it. It's very safe, VERY very safe. I am not sure about its racial diversity, but in 9 years, my sister has never talked about gangs or skinheads. Her husband works at the university there, so they meet lots of lovely people of every shade.

Like you, I am less than enthusiastic about the housing options there, speaking from a purely architectural point of view; however, the safety factor seems to be very good.

Maybe you could call the La Mirada police and find out what they know about gangs and/or racially motivated incidents. That could be an option!

[calipoppy]

To be quite honest I would say that Northern OC has a moderate hostility towards AfrAms. This is from my personal experience, as a person of color(Black) who has worked in Brea and Fullerton; shopped in OC and visited/hung-out with family and friends who live in various parts of OC.

Are there nice people in OC...yes. Do the nice people out way the "bigots"...probably. But the bigotry and ignorance that you and/or your family may endure won't feel so small when "little" things start happening to you. And remember that all racially motivated incidents are not reported to the police.

Just to give you some insight...my family and my friends are well educated, professionals. They property owners, tax payers and simply good citizens. But in the not so distant past, family members in Cypress had racists neighbors who threatened to unleash their pitbull on some of the very young children because they were on the sidewalk in front of their house. Another family member, in Anaheim lived next door to a family who named their black cat the N-word. Another friend (Black woman/married to White man) had racist comments from neighbors in an apt complex.

There are more little incidents but I won't go on. I do believe that we have the right to live wherever we can afford to buy but just use caution. In my opinion, the problem with OC is that the reason that a lot of Caucasians live there is so that they are not near "LA people" which means non-Caucasians. There is a very real lack of sophistication that OC has that I found very unappealing. Not a lack of money but a lack of true cultural sophistication.

[BRinSM]

I can't speak for the bigotry in the area, neither myself nor the people I spent time with while living in that area are like that, but Orange County as a whole is definitely in short supply of african americans. I'm not sure if there is a reason for this, but there are not very many at all.

[mollymonk]

I live in La Mirada, I've been here for 15 years. My husband has worked for the city of la Mirada for over 21 years...17 years ago a new gated housing development was built here in la Mirada. We bought a new house in the new development so he could be close to work...I love it here, in my neighborhood we have people of all races and we all get along great and I've always felt safe here.

Money magazine listed La Mirada as a good place to live...Here's the link to the article!

City of La Mirada

Our neighboring cities, Fullerton and Brea are really nice cities too, both have great schools...But like any city, some sections of all these cities have poorer neighborhoods which aren't as nice...But over all, one needs to come here and check it out for themselves.