Fountain Valley photo tour (Huntington Beach, Orange: apartments, city hall, condo)

[EscapeCalifornia]

City Hall Grounds:






Green Valley: Green Valley is one of the first master planned communities in Orange County. It was built between about 1968 and 1974 and contains mostly single family homes but has a couple of condo complexes. Most of the houses are pretty original but some have been remodeled and look much newer than their age. The houses surround a central green belt that's lower than the houses and floods during big rain storms. A local elementary school is seen in the distance in one of the pictures of the green belt.











The Colony, aka The Barrio: Small decades old community founded by Mexican farm workers. These houses and the church are on Ward St at Warner.






New senior center on Bushard St. at Talbert. This is the original center of town and the senior center now sits on the site of the first school in Fountain Valley. Fountain Valley High School is directly across the street.





Talbert St. looking toward Brookhurst. The building under construction to the left is the new medical center. The second picture shows the same building closer up.




Shopping centers on Brookhurst between Talbert and Garfield.





Ranch house on Brookhurst in front of the Ralphs shopping center. The center was built in the 1980's and the owner kept his house.



Warner Plaza on Warner Ave between Ward and Euclid:




Palm trees on Talbert looking east. Saddleback is seen in the distance:



Church on Slater:



Water tank at Euclid onramp to 405 south:



The last picture (attached directly to City-Data) is a panorama of one of the last agriculture fields in Fountain Valley. The city was nearly all agriculture until the 1960's when tract homes took over.

[vegaspilgrim]

Looks like someone here has taken my cue of posting photo tours of non-touristy suburban places, 1960s tract homes and ethnic strip malls.

Nice job. I saw parts of Fountain Valley a few weeks ago when I came down on a Sunday and bicycled around Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, and Costa Mesa. Didn't take my camera though. I definitely got the impression that FV felt like it was kind of stuck in a time warp-- everything there seemed to be built in the 1970s with not much before or since. At the same time, it felt like a nice, safe, middle class community, majority white people (despite a few of those ethnic strip malls). Very boring though. Compared to where I live though boring is probably a good thing. My favorite part of, what do you call it, north coastal OC?, is the part of Costa Mesa along Newport Bl from the triangle south. Maybe I'll do a photo tour of that area?

I love taking pictures, but lately I've been a little nervous about doing it, after back home in Denver I was taking a picture of a strip mall and someone thought I was some kind of spy taking a picture of his truck and starting getting pissed off and yelling at me. You have to be super careful whenever you pull out a camera, it makes some people automatically get on the defensive.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Yeah I'd say the bulk of the city was built out between about 1965 and 1980. Very little before or after that in terms of housing although some light industrial and commercial stuff was built after that. Some older shopping centers have been torn down and rebuilt or heavily renovated but there just really isn't any land left for development. I guess it is boring but I don't mind. Its safe and quiet and pretty much everything is within a short drive. Being master planned, Fountain Valley's zoning was laid out long ago and things for the most part are orderly and sensible. Retail stores tend to have sufficient access and parking, turn lanes are plentiful, and streets are wide. Contrast that to where I'm at now, Costa Mesa, where it seems like they let anyone built whatever they want, where ever they want and you wind up with lots of awkward stuff. Like strip malls you can only access from one direction, have to force your way out of, and only have half the parking they should. Or a couple of 4-plexes wedged in between a gas station and a car dealer on a major street with no parking on the street and no guest parking on the property.

[streetscenes]

Hey escapee, thanks for the photos. I like taking the the mini virtual tour of these areas. Lets people get to see a slice of SoCal they wouldn't normally go to unless they lived or worked in the area.

[OChomepro]

Nice place to live. I lived in some apartments just south of Mile Square Park 30 years ago. Great memories of driving down Brookhurst Street with friends and late at night jumping out of the car and raiding the corn fields lol. My uncle was the first Chief of Police there many years ago. Not that it kept me from getting tickets lol. And when I drive through the city now it still looks good.

[missionhome]

Great photos Escape. They were fun to see! I hope you added them to the sticky thread at the top for photos, they are a great addition

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by missionhome

Great photos Escape. They were fun to see! I hope you added them to the sticky thread at the top for photos, they are a great addition

Thanks, I just added a link back to this thread.

[missionhome]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

OK I just added a link back to this thread.

Neat

[LASam]

Nice work! I love browsing these mini-tour threads.

[IloveOC]

Thanks for the great photo's - they are so much fun to see, since I have been gone for over 30 yrs and do miss it so much.

VegasPilgram: I would love for you to take some of the Costa Mesa area. I always loved Newport Beach and the little downtown area right on the beach. My aunt and her mother owned a little cafe/diner there when we were kids. And our parents always took us to that beach when we were kids. I am sure that whole area is totally different now.

P.S. If anyone can find an orange tree that would be awesom.