Your best pick for a well-educated , progressive neighborhood

[bhcompy]

You may also like Seal Beach or neighboring cities like Sunset Beach, Surfside, and coastal Long Beach(Belmont Shore, Naples). You won't find Russians in particular, but the areas are fairly progressive for Orange County standards(Long Beach is LA County) and there is a fair amount of diversity.

Politically, these areas will be fiscally conservative(possible exception with Long Beach), but generally moderate socially, but very accepting. More or less an old surfer culture. People don't care who or what you are as long as you aren't in their face about it, regardless of what end of the spectrum you are on. In my experience, Laguna, Newport, etc down south is where the more flashy money people go while from Huntington on up through Naples or Belmont Shore you have the more quiet types that would rather live the typical suburban and/or beach life without drawing much attention to themselves.

Academically, Sunset, Seal, and Surfside all are zoned for Los Alamitos High School which has high academic standards and coastal Long Beach is primarily zoned for Wilson Classical High School which also is recognized for academics, though Long Beach Polytechnic High School is considered to have the best academic programs in the Long Beach district(and there is always the possibility of transferring in there). I know less about the Irvine area, but Woodbridge was always very good in Mock Trial competitions during my time involved in Mock Trial in the late 90s/early 00s and both Woodbridge and University High Schools have always been respected locally as are as I can remember.

[ocexpo]

Are you looking for progressive people or total nutjobs? San Fran=total nutjobs. Progressive=downtown San Diego or Laguna Beach.

Well I guess your from Boston, sooooooo total nutjobs it is.

[BearLaker]

This might give you an overall idea, look at how the areas voted on Prop 8 (the gay initiative). You're probably able to identify progressive/liberal areas somewhat with this:

Compostela trails (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/util/map_popup.php?url=/newsimages/Graphics/2008/11/prop8OCg1106.gif - broken link)

[anagrig]

Great replies!! thanks guys. As of today, we have concluded that Irvine should be a good match for us. I was actually tempted by IB program in Mission Viejo, but then picked Irvine based on the demographics data. We'll try Woodbridge, and see what happens!!!

[bhcompy]

For what it's worth, Woodbridge always had the top Mock Trial team in the county when I was involved in Mock Trial in high school. Lot of lawyer dad volunteers

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by anagrig

We will be moving to SoCal from Massachusetts. Picked OC because of the better air and better schools. We are Russian-speaking immigrants from Armenia.
Where in OC would an immigrant with our background fit best?

Our primary concern is to find a great High School for our daughter with emphasis on academics. Also we would like to live in a neighborhood where a lot of people are well-educated and of progressive views.


We were thinking Irvine, or Mission Viejo... Any thoughts?
Thanks

Depending what you mean by progressive? You will find most of Southern Ca especially OC very different from Mass. Fitting in shouldn't be a problem and both areas would attract well educated families. I will add, if by progressive if you mean liberal, you may be disappointed, both areas are conservative and if you are looking for an area where people stress their educational background, again you may be disappointed. Irvine does have the college, that might be a better choice.

I just read the rest of the thread, looks like the decision has been made.

Nita

[jfields]

Take the advice of someone who is very, very progressive, you don't want to live in the OC; it is very conservative. You should check out Long Beach;it's the first city when you arrive in LA county. It is a progressive area, except for the Bixby Knolls neighboorhood.