Lakewood-- good or ghetto?

[vegaspilgrim]

Thank you very much NaplesRes, ferretkona, bhcompy, Chowhound, and AlongTheI-5, you have all been a great help.

I'm going to look into Long Beach some more. The northeast area of Long Beach may actually be exactly what I'm looking for. I've been to Long Beach before, but only the coastal part. I was under the impression that Long Beach was either an urban nightlife area, an industrial area, or a really ghetto bombed out area, I didn't know there are quiet suburban areas in Long Beach as well. I'm also going to add Cypress and Los Alamitos to my list. I'm going absolutely forget Paramount, Bellflower, and Norwalk though.

Let me ask a few questions now: I see there is a pretty large airport in the middle of Long Beach. Does this create a lot of noise problems for the whole area? What do you think about the area around the intersection of Carson St & Bellflower Blvd? Lakewood Center mall-- good or ghetto? How far west or north can you go in Long Beach or Lakewood before it starts getting "ghetto"?

I received an update with more detailed information on what my "territory" potentially covers. It's bad, but not as bad as I first thought. It's basically everything in LA county south of the 105 and everything in Orange County pretty much. There will be occasional times when I'll need to go beyond those areas, but we're talking probably once or twice a month max. Which freeway generally moves the fastest-- the 405 or the 91 combined the 5? For people who have lived in both, is LA traffic worse than Bay area traffic? How much worse?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

[NaplesRes]

The airport noise doesn't affect that many LB neighborhoods. First there is a strict noise ordinance that caps the number of daily flights. Also do to the flight patterns it really is only bothersome to a couple neighborhoods.

If going north is your preference, look at Bixby Knolls and Virginia Country Club. Very nice (but expensive). They film a lot of movies there (Ferris Beuller, American Pie, etc).

The truth about LB is it is a big city of 500k people but because it is made up of very distinct smaller areas it feels like a small town. There is something for everyone (beach, suburb, urban, etc.)

Another northern quiet suburb is El Dorado Park Estates.

Carson and Bellflower isn't as nice as the areas I mentioned. It's a nice, middle class area but it doesn't have the older, larger, stately looking homes. It's more 1500 ft 50s looking stuff. However, a group is apparently building the largest movie studio in the world on an old Boeing plant over there so the property values will probably see good size increase with all of the new jobs that will come along with it.

[vegaspilgrim]

Thanks for everybody's input, I really appreciate it. I've already identified a number of houses in Lakewood and nearby Long Beach available for rent within my budet. I'm planning on coming down there in a few weeks to view some of these properties first hand.

[flymaac]

Hello!

I am from Lakewood, lived there my whole life until I moved out of state (I'm back in CA now). My mom is still there in the same house.

West of the mall is fine as long as it's south of Del Amo. Stay out of the 90715 or 90716 zip codes. Avoid anything in Lakewood with a five digit address, like 12345.

I live in Downey now (I rent). The demographic difference between Lakewood and Downey can be seen by going to the city-data.com home page and typing in each city's name. Look at the demographics. I am ready to buy a home and you won't catch me buying in Downey, Norwalk, Bellflower or Artesia. If I could afford to live in the good part of Lakewood or the Los Altos/CSULB area of Long Beach, I would. Cerritos is very nice but you can't park your car on the street at night.

Avoid the apartments directly west of the mall (north of Del Amo) on Hayter, or any of those streets.

I grew up going to all Lakewood Schools. Some people from my era went to UCLA, UC Davis, Harvard, and MIT. Others joined the military, went to beauty school, or enrolled in community college. I, like so many others, went to CSULB. When I was growing up there, the schools you went to were all based on where you lived. That may have changed. Contact LBUSD for more info. I went to Lakewood High but there were people who lived less than a mile from my family who had to go to Jordan High, which is way over on Atlantic Ave. and Artesia Blvd.

My mom's area is the only one I know with the homes elevated up from the street, with sloping driveways. Also, the houses are built so well that when her late neighbor needed to replace a plank in his hardwood floor, he took it to Home Depot where he was told they don't make them that thick anymore. However, with age comes repair (electrical, plumbing, roof, etc).

Hope this helps. Please feel free to provide specific addresses or intersections and I'll be happy to tell you what I know.

[yelknib]

I have lived here in lakewood since 2000.I live in the very quiet peacefull area. I agree with the post terretkona. I lve in the good area she describes. My youngest goes to newcomb acadamey that is the top elementary in the area,Rated a 9. My oldest goes to lakewood High. Good schools close to shopping centers.Look on map at google and look for the 6000 block of Harvey and that is the best area.