Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There aren't any. If your income is that of a genuine multi-mega-millionaire, you can live in Palos Verdes, Pacific Palisades, Holmby Hills, Bel Air, San Marino, Han**** Park or Malibu, the only sectors in Los Angeles county that have a majority of "old money" socialites or nouveau riche Film people, who both of whom still tend to be Caucasian.
There aren't ANY middle-class white neighborhoods?
I must say I never knew this. Infact, I find it a very alien idea! Where I am now (Long Island, NY) has VERY distinct neighborhoods. There is not one black person in my neighborhood and never any when I went school. Very few (if any) hispanics either. There are however some Asians, but they don't pose any threat and only seem to raise the housing market. Blacks and hispanics have their own areas, some being more affluent than others. And believe it or not, there are no outward threats of racial tension. Everyone seems just fine with where they are. NOTHING like LA
Maybe it would've better if LA were like that too.
Anyways, after hearing all the negative things being said, I'm getting a little scared and depressed. I have to relocate to LA myself and now I don't really want to come.
BUT since I must, I really would like to find a pre-dominantly white neighborhood also. Asians are fine because they are safe, but was hoping for less hispanics (mexicans) and no blacks. But from you are explaining, it looks like it will be hard to find such a place for under $1 mil. : (
Yeah, it may be racist, but just look at the statistics. Certainly I never want graffitti in my neighborhood let alone my sidewalk.
Well, if I haven't p*ss'd off enough people, I was wondering if I could get advise which is better area to buy. Specifically I will be looking at Arcadia or Torrance. Are they good areas, which is safer or better? I am looking for $800k - $900k, is that enough?
Edit: Can this amount buy 2,000 sq ft + in a decent area?
Torrance is adjacent Palos Verdes, which will have many, many benefits: delightful coastal air free from smog, and proximity to the beaches, always good for investment as well as recreation.
Arcadia, despite its idyllic name and nice looking neighborhoods, is surrounded by East Los Angeles neighborhoods that are not as safe as you may wish, and that you'll have to traverse to get anywhere.
You can purchase something suitable for the sum you mentioned, lucky you! I don't know where you going to be working, but try to balance the trade-off of living in a nicer place, like Torrance, with the very long commute you'll be facing if not working in the South Bay areas.
Let me mention that the reason I bring up the realities of unpleasantness here is that to many people it seems to be abstract. When you live, as we do, in an area where we indeed get graffiti all over the block and sidewalks weekly, it's rather less abstract.
It is so sad that people still believe everything they see on the news. The media only wants to cover what's beneficial to them. Who controls the media? Not all Mexicans are bad people, such as not all White people are bad. I know lots of white people in L.A. that are all-wheather liberals. Let me remind you that to say that Mexicans come back to murder and rape is a stereotype. Not all immigrants are Mexicans, immigrants come from all over the country. In California, the Latin-American immigrants are the ones that take the low-wage paying jobs like farm working, factories, restaurants, and housekeeping. They come to work hard and provide a better living for their families.
"In Chicano folklore, Aztlan is often appropriated as the name for that portion of Mexico that was taken over by the United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846, on the belief that this greater area represents the point of parting of the Aztec migrations. In broad interpretation, there is some truth to this in the sense that all of the groups that would subsequently become the various Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico passed through this region in a prehistoric epoch, as attested by the existence of linguistically related groups of people distributed throughout the US Pacific Intermountain region, the US southwest and northern Mexico, known as the Uto-Aztecan-Tanoan group, and including such peoples as the Paiute, Shoshoni, Hopi, Pima, Yaqui, Tepehuan, Rarámuri (Tarahumara), Kiowas and Mayas."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Beddington
I turned down the job.
After seeing those Mexicans making a ruckus on the freeway on the news I realized it isn't a safe place. I also read that prisoners are deported after their sentences back to Mexico and then they simply return to America to rape/murder again.
It's unfortunate also that California is now apparently, "Aztlan". What the HECK is that?
I greatly prefer the historical accounts of the Gabrieleno Native Americans, the ones living in coastal Southern California before the Spaniard colonists and before the Mexican colonists. They were extremely peacable tribes, given to fishing and beach life. A fascinating remnant of their culture is still on the grounds of one of Los Angeles best know high schools, University High (Uni High to the locals), an actual oasis, which would have been useful at that distance of 8 miles from the coast in a riverless area. It's somewhat hidden on the campus, but it's still there. A point I try to emphasize to people given to cultural relativism like the Aztlan ideas you enumerated is: just how far back do you want to reach? Why should the area be considered historically Hispanic rather than Gabrieleno? These are all past phases of what is now American history.
Lis, please re-read my posts remembering my own pronouncement: I live amongst some very, very nasty people doing awful things to my husband and me day and night. This unfortunately is life experience, not stereotyping. I really don't think people from other parts of the U.S. have gone through this in "normal" middle class areas elsewhere, things that have actually happened to us, like our dogs being shot at in our yard, neighbors destroying our property, gangs vandalizing the neighborhood constantly, constant gunfire, constant helicopters chases overhead, amplified noise 24/7 etc. Perhaps this seems "normal" to denizens of L.A. because they've grown up here, but this is not "normal" in other parts of the country unless you're in its most unfortunate slums. Another poster here considered it "normal" for teenagers to retaliate against those they disagreed with. Retaliation is bullying, and this is not normal even for rebellious teens: this is provincial thinking at its worst.
I love to learn about different cultures and I am sure I would be visiting that oasis of the Gabrieleno Native Americans. You are right about phases of what is now American history, as we look back into history we know that colonialism destroyed much of the Native American people's culture mainly becuse of ethnocentrism, also practiced by the Native Americans trying to resist and assimilate to the American way.
What I am trying to say is that is scary to think that we are living in 2006 and ethnocentrism still exist today.
Fastfilm, I am sorry for all the troubles you are your husband go through everyday. I use to live in South Central L.A. for 23 years, and I know what you mean; I am fortunate for not taking the wrong path of the streets maybe because I had two loving parents.
I live in North Long Beach now, problems still, but better than South L.A.
I think is they way society is structured and many of these teens are being label and tend to respond to and act on the basis of stereotypes. And I am sure there are other views and ideas regarding the problems and violence we constantly face everyday.
peace n' love
There aren't ANY middle-class white neighborhoods?
Not so. The west end of the San Fernando Valley, the foothill cities of the San Gabriel Valley (northeast of Los Angeles), and much of West L.A. and the beach communities are majority white and middle-class (more or less). So is the Santa Clarita Valley, the northern and coastal Orange County (Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Brea) and nearby Ventura County (Simi Valley). The advice previously proferred about Arcadia is incorrect, it is not surrounded by nor even adjacent to East L.A., and is quite a nice city.
removed is a good site to use to search for neighborhood demographic characteristics, including general education levels, wealth, and ethnic components, that are otherwise hard to find or not available from real estate professionals.
All additional info for those interested in L.A. is good, as is N. Weichel's take. But let me explain my semantics. I said Arcadia is indeed nice, and nicer still if you never leave it by any means but the 210 freeway. By "surrounded" I was speaking provincially, apologies offered, because one can't really traverse the north side of Arcadia, as that is the Angeles Forest/San Gabriel mountains part of L.A.
Hence Arcadia is "surrounded" by a great deal of East Los Angeles, El Monte, etc. I regularly go to a supply store adjacent the 605/10 freeways junction, and I would never recommend these surrounding areas to people. In Los Angeles, a very poor neighborhood equates with a dangerous neighborhood.
African Americans, if they prefer similitude, seem to like Windsor Square/Hancock Park or the Baldwin Hills if they're financially very well off, Liemert Park or Inglewood/Westchester for middle class, and if they're neither are stuck with everyone else here in overpriced dangerous low-income places like the rest of us.
I concur with Fastfilm. Our experience, living in Los Angeles, has been one of constant turmoil and aggravation. We moved here 2 1/2 years ago to manage the property for my mother who had fallen ill, rather than hire property managers. We have had plenty of occasions to regret that decision.
The neighbors on one side are gang members; the neighbors on the other side are friends with them. The property has already been tagged with graffiti, and during our relatively brief time here, further incidents have included several peltings of the building (broke a window) and cars (broke a wheel cover) with fruit from the neighbor (gangster-side)'s tree, gangsters always lurking around and hiding things for each other on this property (including someone's credit card), urinating in the parking area, frequent stealing of our garbage cans (never to be returned), repeatedly filling our garbage cans with their heavy materials so we'd be the ones stuck with trying to haul them out to the curb, repeatedly blocking off an access alley and covering it with graffiti, and threatening me with baseball bats as I drove through that alley to get home. Even when directly confronted while trespassing, they simply pretend you're not even there and keep doing whatever they want. Local police are completely overloaded and can't or won't do much about any of this. Believe me, I've tried!
The gangster-friend neighbors seem to be convinced of their constitutional right to have their dogs crying and yapping *all* day and howling *all* night, and have no one complain or do anything about it. Since their dogs are literally 3 feet from everyone's bedroom windows, you might imagine how that's a problem. They steadfastly refuse to quiet their dogs, and Animal Control is utterly useless. Animal Control does not come out for barking dogs issues; their solution is for you to write a letter to them, and they will send the owner a letter, after which the owner has a few weeks to correct it. If s/he does not, you can write another letter and then you and the owner will go to arbitration. No solution is offered beyond that, should the owner tell you to stick it in your ear. Animal Control's website advises that you squirt troublesome dogs with plain water to help deter the undesirable behavior. After 3 full weeks with almost zero sleep and still trying to get through 8 hours of work each day, I became truly desperate and began following this advice. Doing this has prompted the neighbor's whole family to harass me, scream and cuss at me, threaten to sue me and take my mother's property away, threaten to call the police for "animal cruelty," threaten to throw water back at me and retaliate against me... but never to quiet their dogs. Before the harassment and threats, the police refused to get involved, saying it's an Animal Control issue. After that, they said they would come down to take a report of the harassment on 2 occasions and never did. I guess they will wait until this neighbor finally pulls a gun and shoots me.
We are afraid to walk down our street because it is a favored gang hangout and there are now hundreds of gang members here. We hear gunshots and/or helicopter chases almost every day. The traffic is so bad we don't bother to leave the house at certain times of day, because we know it will take a half hour just to get a block down the street and back. A self-important "scr*w you" attitude frequently prevails if you dare to ask for a little consideration from people, and even more so when you're driving. Simply saying "Good morning" to someone as you pass each other on the street is much more likely to illicit a suspicious wierd look than an actual "Good morning" back. I have chronic sinus infections from the pollution, and asthma attacks especially on the worse days. A look from a tall building anywhere in the greater Los Angeles area reveals a thick brownish-gray soup hovering over the city and environs. There are beautiful mountains not far away, but most days you can't even see them.
Such has been our experience of Los Angeles. We have lived in its various suburbs for most of our lives, and if you're not rich enough to live in one of the outrageously expensive upscale neighborhoods, it has been our experience that this is for the most part how you can expect to live. Why people willingly come here despite all this is completely beyond me. They can have it. I'm fed up and planning to move completely out of the area. If you can stomach all of this without going insane, or are rich enough to buffer yourself from it, more power to you. Otherwise... run! Find someplace where you can live like a decent human being not an animal.
I am 34, married with 2 kids and have accepted a new job in Los Angeles. I'd like to live in a White suburb, do you have any recommendations?
I would look to cities such as glendora 80%+ white, Rancho Cucamonga, Parts of Orange County and commute to Los Angeles..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What the HECK is that?
L.a.
