Lakewood, Long Beach, etc; (San Jose, Santa Clarita: city hall, renting, low crime)

[BillyJacc]

Greetings, Does anyone reside in Lakewood, Long Beach, or any surrounding city? I train in martial arts in Lakewood, & my National Guard unit is in Los Alamitos so I wanted to be close by. I live in Hawthorne & I make the 20 mile trip to train in Lakewood as well as a few others but I've never hung out out there, just one time after a morning class I rode around some of the nighborhoods & they seemed really nice. I'm black & my fiance is puetorican (we're from the east coast originally) she has two teens from a previous marriage (boy 18: looks african american like his dad & a girl 13 looks latina like her mom) my children from my first marriage are black like me & their mom) I say that because they 're from New York & have been living in Northern CA for last five years & they've had to deal with some closed minded people up there (San Jose) & since there's a lot of racial BS between blacks & mexicans in certain areas I wondering are theses good areas for us to live in especially our children. When they first arrive they'll reside in Santa Clarita or Valencia where they have family until we're married next year. I really didn't want to move any where near the valley again (too hot... not nearly enough other blacks & culture) When I resided in North Hollywood & Burbank there were very few black families & when I wanted to read certain papers, magazines, eat certain foods I had to drive about 20-25 miles to do that.
My neighbors were nice but they were all surrounded by their culture (Armenian, latino, thai) So now I'd like to reside in an area that multicultural, nice schools, houseing, low crime, churches, etc; Am I asking too much in these areas of LA County?

[NaplesRes]

Do a search on LB and a lot will come up. Basiclly it's a big city with something for everyone including what you mention above.

[bhcompy]

are you buying or renting? how many rooms do you need? house or apt?

Eastern Long Beach is a great family area. For Lakewood I would choose anywhere east of Lakewood Blvd. When you get into East Lakewood east of the 605 it varies greatly neighborhood to neighborhood, street to street, though you can find a good neighborhood to live like my family which lives in the neighborhood east of Bloomfield at Centralia. The city mostly neglects this area though(it was unincorporated LA county that was taken in by Lakewood when it probably should have went to Cerritos considering the geography that puts that little sliver of Lakewood very far from Lakewood proper and the farthest from the police station and city hall).

Or you could look at Cypress, Cerritos, La Palma, or Los Alamitos.

None of the cities mentioned really have any racial issues. Lakewood is fairly large and may have some areas that would be less desireable, but overall you'll be just fine there.

[BillyJacc]

Thanks Napes.... Uh can a MOD move this over to the Long Beach Forums?

[Chowhound]

Originally Posted by NaplesRes

Do a search on LB and a lot will come up. Basiclly it's a big city with something for everyone including what you mention above.

Agreed Lakewood / Long Beach area should suite you fine

[jmoder]

I'm going to stay off the topic. I see that your in the national guard. I was active Army for 3 years. I want to go in the guard. I want to know how it is on a typical weekend you go in for your drill.
The 2 weeks out of the year, do you go in the field?
Not that I don't mind field training, just curious you know.
Thanks for serving,
from a vet.