Buying a house & looking for young people in Eastern LA County (Claremont, La Verne, San Dimas, Glendora areas)

[mellycopter]

The Village is this great little walkable section of downtown Claremont with restaurants, shops, and a movie theater.

[Joe Van Fossen]

By the way, both the Back Abbey and Viva Madrid tend to be sociable places. Probably not too hard to strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you at either place. If you're working in Upland, any of the cities you mentioned would be a fine place to live.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by mellycopter

It seems like people around my age aren't super common around the area or are very family-minded, which I'm not quite yet.

Claremont probably has more people your own age (certainly than La Verne, Glendora, San Dimas or Upland, which attract families). And I agree with you that the commute from Upland to Pasadena would be long and frustrating. I think that it takes awhile to meet people once one is out of college. I recall that years ago, many of us in our 20s moved to the west side right out of college, near our jobs, thinking how simple it would be to meet people. We were wrong; it took a lot more time and effort than we realized.

[asj222]

My husband and I (two young mid-20s with a dog) moved from Seattle to Rancho Cucamonga for work - I can relate to exactly what you are talking about. We have been here for about two years now. I tell friends back home that where we live would be great if I was a housewife with kids...but we aren't. We go to Claremont sometimes because the restaurant scene is much better than Rancho, though we still haven't met anyone that is even remotely close to "our scene". Claremont reminds me a little bit of Woodinville. Pretty, nice places to eat and shop, but not necessarily somewhere I would go for nightlife. It seems like Pasadena was the first place we visited away from the coast that gave us a more vibrant city-like feeling. We have spent a few random weekend nights in downtown San Diego's Gaslamp quarter, which we loved. It is farther away, but worth a weekend trip. Where in Seattle did you live? That might help me narrow down an area for you...

Unfortunatly SoCal is not like Seattle in that everything is spread out, and there's no good answer to the live-work question because there is not much industry here outside of entertainment. Not like Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, etc. IMO, commuting is always crappy. I would rather commute a little bit to work and live in a place near people like me and places I love to go, than to have to commute to those things. Just something I have learned being far from a social life.

[mellycopter]

Thanks for the advice. It sounds like we're in the exact same boat. That's exactly how I feel! If I had a kid wanted to find other moms to hang out with it would be a breeze. I only went to Woodinville once or twice, but now that you mention it, it feels a lot like the Village! We spend so much time there mostly out of convenience. It's hard to go anywhere else when with a quick walk we can be at The Back Abbey or one of the other cute little restaurants.

In Seattle, I lived in the north part of Capitol Hill for a bit, by the QFC. After that I lived in Queen Anne on the lower part of the hill off Taylor. Both places had everything I could ever want in terms of food and places to hang out within walking distance of my apartment (walking distance being 5 miles or so to me there).

I think after being spoiled with being so close to work, I can't bring myself to commute. I'll definitely head into Pasadena or other areas for fun, but right now I don't think I could live there since it's a bit of a drive.