anything you know about westminster california (Huntington Beach, Irvine: condo, loans, houses)

[cigarfanatic]

If you are use to 96% White then you will be shocked to find 90% Vietnamese in Westminster, and yes I am exaggerating that amount a bit... If you are use to the Mid-West than you are in for a BIG shocker, get ready for heavy traffic on major streets such as Beach blvd and Brookhurst. The drivers in the area are fairly bad but you will get acquainted to defensive driving. Since you are Hispanic you will fit into the LA/OC area very well because 99% of Los Angeles seem to be Mexican/Hispanic (again a bit exaggerated).

Just to comment on what you said and I am going to be direct:

What people are like ect...

I am from the midwest we are for the most part frienldy and welcoming down to earth not into latest fashions ect...
Here not so friendly and we are very into fashion.

I mean I know there is a few but I am talking about the majority in the midwest excluding chicago,

I am also very sick of the weather here I do live in the coldest city in the usa

And I always wanted to move somewhere warm, what is the average temperture ect...
The weather is the best here.

Anything anyone wants to add would be great. Keep in mind where I am from people shop at walmart ect...

You dont really see name brand ect...
People still shop at Wal-mart here, actually heavily, but you also have expensive malls and shops. Name brand is what it is all about but you will find your mix of poor families to the very rich driving around in fancy cars. We have an odd mix here with the rich and poor mixing, you will see Vietnamese with Benzos then you will see plenty with old Hondas.

[llbennett]

Westminster is a nice place to live. It has a heavy asian population. Vietnamese to be exact. You should go check out little siagon cool spot i think. The weather is typical SoCal.

[tikbj]

Ok I guess he was being silly and yes he does live within two blocks from southcoast shopping plaza.

His business in located in westmister, Anyone familur with that area around the shouthcoast shopping plaza? When I talk to him he makes it sound as if it is a nice area, he does tell me though there is allot of hispanic and viatnamess everywhere.

I am used to green grass and tons of tall pine trees I hope it is not dry looking

He also said he is a few miles from newport beach

[EscapeCalifornia]

The area around South Coast Plaza can go either way. There's some very nice houses and apartments. There's also parts that look like Tijuana. The only green grass you'll see is on people's lawns. There's zero open space in that area and when you do find it, the natural color of everything is brown. You will see pine trees but they're not exactly in forests.

[cigarfanatic]

Moderator cut: ...quote and comments edited because reference has been deleted



Back to the original poster; the area around South Coast plaza is fine. Since you are neat Newport Beach that means snooty people aren't far from you. In Westminster gangs use to be a small problem some time ago, but thanks to the local law enforcement and gang patrol I don't see problems in that area anymore except the increase of traffic congestion.

[Sal Monella]

Nó là một thành phố Việt nam!!!!
(translation; It's a Vietnamese town!)

[dtran103]

Westminster is center of the vietnamese community in ALL of the world outside of Vietnam, so you'll be seeing a LOT more asian faces then in the midwest. It's pretty suburban, lower middle class to middle class.

The asian supermarkets are really cheap, especially the produce. The good thing about that is that asian supermarkets have certain produce that you won't find in ordinary grocery stores like bittermelon, durian fruit, etc.

South coast plaza is about 15 to 20 minute drive south. So even though the city may not be the most exciting, you 'll be near other cities with things to do.

I don't know how the schools are in that area, but at it's worse, this is Orange County and we do have some of the best schools in the country.

[truealucard]

I grew up in Westminster and had a very pleasant experience living there. The population is very diverse and consists mostly of Asians, Mexicans, and Whites. There are other ethnicities, but not as prevalent as those mentioned above.

You'll find an array of ethnic food and cheap grocery shopping at the local Asian markets, but still have access to the American stores such as Ralph's, Vons, Stater Brothers, Food 4 Less, ect.

Walmart, Westminster Mall, Bella Terra, South Coast Plaza, The Block, and other various places to shop at are within driving distance. The 22 freeway has been expanded too, so the congestion isn't bad at all except for the on ramp to the 5/57. They're still not finished with the expansion, so if you drive late at night, you will have to take detours. I do have to admit though, the 405 can be bad at times.

Theme parks such as Disneyland and Knotts are fairly close and there are numerous parks for the kids. The beach is 20-30 mins away and snowboarding is an hour and a half away. There's a lot of entertaining things to do with a short drive away.

Schools are pretty good. I attended Westminster High and although they have a bad reputation, it's not even as bad as everyone makes it. Appearance wise, many call it the jail school because of the fences and I guess there have been some gang activities that gave it a bad name. It did progressively get better at dealing with each year though.

The teachers are excellent. They love what they do and have been teaching for decades. I'm not too sure if the teachers i had are still there now, it's been about 4 years. Those teachers created an extensive program for the top echelon students called "MERITS" which catered to excel the studies of these students. The test scores for Westminster, aren't as high as surrounding schools such as Marina and Huntington beach due to the high influx of ESL students there compared to other schools. The high scores and lower scores from ESL students balance it out to be a mediocre score. I was enrolled in the Merits program and was presently surprised when I found myself ahead of many students from the schools listed above during my first year of college.

The crime and gang activities have been greatly decreased over the years due to police crack downs so it's relatively safe.

[sgvkev]

Westminster is okay... most of the bad areas are in the northwestern part. East of Beach Boulevard is pretty good however for the most part...

[pootie562]

the area of westminster down bolsa chica rd is actually quite a nice area. westminster is great where else can you get pho at 3 in the morning. overall westminster is not bad at all its certainly no stanton or santa ana