Is Santa Ana dangerous for an European exchange student? PLEASE HELP!! I'm freaking out... (San Diego: apartment, crime rate)

[EscapeCalifornia]

There's also neighborhoods up in the hills that have a Santa Ana mailing address but are actually unincorporated Orange County and have pretty much nothing in common with Santa Ana itself.

[roosevelt]

It makes my head swim and very depressing to see all these posts about how safe are California cities; it is like a bad dream. How could the land of oranges and sun deteriorate so fast? Immigration? A succession of power hungry governors? Probably just getting all touchy feely about crime and not enforcing the law.

[Sugarr]

Windsor Village North, how is that place like??

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Sugarr

Windsor Village North, how is that place like??

I've never heard of it but Google turned up this:

Windsor Village North Real Estate | Santa Ana, CA | Redfin

Is that it? If so, it's not the greatest part of town.

Now that I look closer, I think that's where my parents lived when I was born. We left when I was a year old because the neighborhood had declined in the 5 years they'd been there. It hasn't gotten any better in the 35 years since.

[Raelyn28]

What are you talking about here? She said she was learning English and learning about the culture not that she didn't know ANY English. She is saying she is a foreign exchange student. Wow!! Talk about paranoid and making generalized opinions and judgments... Typical, so typical of the Orange County mentality...

I think she is quickly learning about the culture already by this forum and she isn't even there yet.. LOL...

Originally Posted by flo2900

Good one!...hahahaha! coming to America to learn english yet your english is perfect! Looks like you`re a local that doesn`t like Santa Ana and...whats in it!

[Coldjensens]

There are safe areas and bad areas in Santa Ana. You need to use common sense. We had a niece living with us while she was trying to get into modeling in LA. She is strikingly attractive.

She needed to use common sense. For example if she went out alone, guys would floow her in their car and hoot and holler at her. If she walked with me or other familiy members (or brought our giant dog), she was generally left alone. The only real hassle that she had was a girl came to our door and asked her if she would go out with her friend who was a lesbian.

[Raelyn28]

I think the dog thing is really great Never thought of that for myself but it would have been a very good idea. Actually, I had a stun gun when I lived in Tustin. I was an apartment manager for awhile and did not feel safe showing apartments to men as I wouldn't anywhere, even here in Washington State!! LOL I probably would have passed out from fear before I could have zapped the guy... I was pretty fragile back then!! Basically.. any woman needs to be careful these days... I wouldn't let fear keep me from visiting a city. Hopefully she can enjoy her learning experience where ever she goes...

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

There are safe areas and bad areas in Santa Ana. You need to use common sense. We had a niece living with us while she was trying to get into modeling in LA. She is strikingly attractive.

She needed to use common sense. For example if she went out alone, guys would floow her in their car and hoot and holler at her. If she walked with me or other familiy members (or brought our giant dog), she was generally left alone. The only real hassle that she had was a girl came to our door and asked her if she would go out with her friend who was a lesbian.

[Raelyn28]

You should be fine for the time that you are there. Just follow all the advise.. I love the advise about the dog!! Hmmm.. I wonder if they rent out guard dogs LOL... Anyway, have a great time there and enjoy. In all the many years that I actually lived there I didn't have anything bad happen to me and I lived in some pretty rough neighborhoods. Just be smart and don't venture out alone at night. I wouldn't do that anywhere in this world anymore. Hope this puts you at ease... Enjoy and let us know how the trip went...

Originally Posted by Sugarr

Thank you all so much for replying!!! I was a bit scared of what I read online because it seemed like an horrible place full of crime, kinda like the Bronx, but your comments have made me feel a little better, thank you all!!!=)
And to the person who said my English is perfect, well thank you so much!! I try... but my spoken English is a lot worse than my written English=P
Again thanks so much to everyone!! And please feel free to keep giving me advice or info about Santa Ana if you feel like it because I'd love to learn as much as possible about the place before going there.
Thank you!!!! xoxo

[esmith143]

Santa Ana is poor, and it is almost completely hispanic, but it's not particularly dangerous. You're more likely to get raped and/or killed in Long Beach or Palm Springs than in Santa Ana. Old-time locals tend to be afraid of the new face of California (hispanics) and that gives some neighborhoods a bad rap that is often unwarranted.

Truly dangerous places in CA are the ones with significant black population, such as Oakland, Compton, Inglewood.

If you're a Scandinavian blonde, you'll stand out ... if you have black hair, especially you're from Mediterranean, it's not such a big deal.

That said, you're probably going to learn more Spanish language and Mexican culture than English language and American culture.

[antibes]

Sugarr, is your post for real? It contains comments which would be unusual for a european to know in english unless they had lived for years and years in the U.S. which makes it a bit suspect to me as a fake comment. Not only that, but some other expressions sound so 'odd'. Are you trying to gain attention Windsor Village North to sell apartments or something...?

If I'm mistaken here's my 2 cents:

If you can avoid it, don't go to Santa Ana. You have too big chances to get in trouble. You have to be rather street smart in these areas. BUT there are areas which are borderlines to Santa Ana and are within the SA zipcode and that are fairly good... so it all depends on where you will be.