San Marino vs. La Canada (Los Angeles, Pasadena: private school tuition, contractors, property taxes)

[HyperionGap]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Webb encourages students to board there, but the tuition for a day student will be higher than Poly's. La Salle is a Catholic high school in Pasadena (I thought the OP had kids in middle school). At any rate, if the OP lives in Bradbury Estates and choses Poly or La Salle, they'd need to get on the 210 before 6:00 am to avoid a long commute. Returning east on the 210, they will experience bumper to bumper traffic from about 2:45 to 7 pm. Side streets cut the commute by a few minutes. Poly charges tuition of around $22,000 for grades K-5 and $30,100 for gr 9-12. Depending on how many children one has, that's quite an investment, considering how high the public schools rank in La Canada and San Marino. Not worth it to many parents.

Yeah, just like it's not worth it for wealthy families to send their kids to Harvard or Princeton instead of UCB

[Londonteacher]

Both are dream locations- like the pacific palisades of the east. I hear more use private schools in La Canada but San Mario has top class public schools so maybe less go down the private route. La Canada much quicker to get to down town LA or Burbank/Glendale as the 134 is busy going east on an evening.
Both have beautiful homes in that price range.
Descanso gardens is walking distance from La Canada , The Huntington from San Marino.
I would check out both areas and get in touch with real estate agents before you make any decision- it will come down to the school you can get with the house available.
You will think LA is fabulous if you live in either place- few get this luxury...so enjoy!

[ccm123]

Well said!

Originally Posted by Londonteacher

Both are dream locations- like the pacific palisades of the east. I hear more use private schools in La Canada but San Mario has top class public schools so maybe less go down the private route. La Canada much quicker to get to down town LA or Burbank/Glendale as the 134 is busy going east on an evening.
Both have beautiful homes in that price range.
Descanso gardens is walking distance from La Canada , The Huntington from San Marino.
I would check out both areas and get in touch with real estate agents before you make any decision- it will come down to the school you can get with the house available.
You will think LA is fabulous if you live in either place- few get this luxury...so enjoy!

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by HyperionGap

Yeah, just like it's not worth it for wealthy families to send their kids to Harvard or Princeton instead of UCB

Someone can send their children to Harvard, Princeton or Berkeley no matter what city they live in, if their kids are accepted. What does that have to do with a thread about top ranked K-12 public schools in CA?

[HyperionGap]

If you live in Bradbury you can't send your kid to Exeter or Webb? Good to know.

It's called an analogy bro. You see the point wasn't about actually living in a specific city and going to Berkeley or Harvard. It was about if you had the money and had the option of going to the number one school in the country most people would choose that over going to a top 25 school in the country. Analogous to that would be living in la Canada and sending your child to poly, prep, westridge,sacred heart, etc when your child could attend lhcs for free. Now I understand why most of my posts have gone over your head.

And since when was this a thread about city school districts? The question was where should someone from Phoenix buy a 1.8 million dollar house with possible locations as a starting point.

[vironica.ee]

Asian population is huge in San Marino. La Canada is more secluded. La Canada does not have many parks and the houses there are with lower ceilings. San Marino is close to all kinds of supermarkets, grociery places. People living in La Canada usually has to drive to pasadena to get grocieries. La Canada also does not have enough resturants and so on. Not very convinient to me. But both have wonderful schools.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by nmnita

AS for the smog, we all know smog has been cleaned up: Bradbury does not have a smog problem. Just because it isn't close to the ocean does not mean people don't want to live there. It might be hard for some to realize: not everyone in Ca is a beach lover...the same with your comment about being far from downtown, do you really think the majority of people living in the Los Angeles metro area is dieing to live near downtown?

The smog is certainly not as bad as the 60s or 70s due to environmental restrictions, but in nearly all the foothill communities, it's still not good, especially in the summer (the smog is trapped by the mountains). Most people who work downtown don't want to live an hour's commute from work if they can help it, and once one moves east of Pasadena, including Arcadia, that commute time increases considerably. I doubt that there are many beach lovers in Bradbury Estates….more likely horse lovers who either work east of there or are retired. It is gated, and as you said, very exclusive. According to the 2010 Census, of the families who live in Bradbury, which includes the Estates, only 26% of them have children under the age of 18.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by HyperionGap

If you live in Bradbury you can't send your kid to Exeter or Webb? Good to know.

You can send your kid anywhere you want.

It's called an analogy bro. You see the point wasn't about actually living in a specific city and going to Berkeley or Harvard.

It sure wasn't. I think you inserted that in here.

It was about if you had the money and had the option of going to the number one school in the country most people would choose that over going to a top 25 school in the country. Analogous to that would be living in la Canada and sending your child to poly, prep, westridge,sacred heart, etc when your child could attend lhcs for free.

Um, the point was, those public schools are probably equivalent to the privates in that area.

Now I understand why most of my posts have gone over your head.

Right.

And since when was this a thread about city school districts? The question was where should someone from Phoenix buy a 1.8 million dollar house with possible locations as a starting point.

I think that's your slant on the question. Re-read the original post. (Sounds as if you're all wrapped up in $$.)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

The smog is certainly not as bad as the 60s or 70s due to environmental restrictions, but in nearly all the foothill communities, it's still not good, especially in the summer. The smog is trapped by the mountains. Most people who work downtown don't want to live an hour's commute from work if they can help it, and once one moves east of Pasadena, including Arcadia, that commute time increases considerably. I doubt that there are many beach lovers in Bradbury Estates….more likely horse lovers who either work east of there or are retired. It is gated, and as you said, very exclusive. According to the 2010 Census, of the families who live in Bradbury, which includes the Estates, only 26% of them have children under the age of 18.

I am very much aware of the commute time, but how far someone will commute depends on what they are accustom to; foe many an hour isn't all that long, for others more than 30 minutes is tooooo loooog. We lived in both Pasadane (Altadena) and Arcadia for many years. When we left Ca we were living in Glendora and hubby was communting to Burbank. After that our son in law made the same commute as he and daughter bought our home. As for beach lovers, what is your point? I made that comment; not everyone is a beach lover, so for someone to say, why would a person live in Bradbury, it isn't near a beach makes it sound like everyone in Ca wants to live near the beach. Obviouusly I am aware it is a gated community, as I said I sold property there. No, the majority of the people are not retired. Whether they have kids at home, I will have to take your word for that, I do not know. I do know many are duel income couples, probably without children.

As for the smog, of course it is worse in San Gabriel, most of us are aware of that, but it still in nothing like it was many years ago...That is my point..The worst was probably the 50s, before we even knew what it was....

Now, let me add just one thing: why are we all here even discussing this? I guess no one has paid any attention to the OP. She has only posted once and hasn't been back..

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Now, let me add just one thing: why are we all here even discussing this? I guess no one has paid any attention to the OP. She has only posted once and hasn't been back..

Just curious, nita...when did you move from here to AK? The commute time on the 210 has almost doubled since the mid-1980s, and is even busier since the 210 extension has been completed. A lot of housing was built, even just in the past decade.

Others may not know that Bradbury Estates is gated.

Although the OP hasn't been back, possibly others who read this thread can benefit from the info. (I wish some friends of ours had read the thread "Things I wish I knew about Murietta before moving here." )