Long Beach -- schools, atmosphere (Lakewood, Cypress: homes, neighborhood, place to live)

[Suburban_Guy]

some threads

//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...h-reviews.html

//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...each-live.html

//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...-beach-ca.html

[Phrogg]

Originally Posted by gogogo35

Phrogg -- Thanks, that is helpful. What other areas do you think I should consider for funky/artsy/educated/intellectual?

No problem; feel free to ask if you have any more questions about Long Beach's culture. I forgot to mention that Park Estates is another very nice part of the city. I don't know much about the El Dorado Park neighborhood, but the park itself has some surprisingly nice nature trails.

To be honest, the only place I can think of in SoCal that is strong in both of the areas you want (both funky/artsy AND educated/intellectual) is Laguna, which I saw had already been discussed in your other thread. Other than that, most of the educated/intellectual areas are cookie-cutter, and most of the funky areas are not particularly intellectual.

I suppose, given all of that, that the better parts of Long Beach might do after all, if you absolutely must live in SoCal. But LB would not be somewhere I'd personally want to raise a kid.

By the way, it might be useful to you to search for "educational attainment" in California. That could be a helpful stat for you. Some sites even break down cities' educational attainment by neighborhood.

[Chowhound]

Long Beach tends to get a bad rap. It's a large city and such it has a lot of large city problems and I won't deny that there are a lot of places in LB that are seriously questionable. That being said LB has a lot of awesome things going for it, it's a beach community, it's centrally located, it's about 20 min to downtown LA and about 20 min away from Irvine which is sorta of the business hub of Orange County.


It's a city with all of the amenities you could want, yet it's not in LA but has great stuff about it. It has a lot of great neighborhoods, it is a bit more on the affordable side, it's diverse, I love this city.


If I won 10 million in the lotto, It's still live here, I love this area so much.....

[gogogo35]

Originally Posted by Phrogg

No problem; feel free to ask if you have any more questions about Long Beach's culture. I forgot to mention that Park Estates is another very nice part of the city. I don't know much about the El Dorado Park neighborhood, but the park itself has some surprisingly nice nature trails.

To be honest, the only place I can think of in SoCal that is strong in both of the areas you want (both funky/artsy AND educated/intellectual) is Laguna, which I saw had already been discussed in your other thread. Other than that, most of the educated/intellectual areas are cookie-cutter, and most of the funky areas are not particularly intellectual.

I suppose, given all of that, that the better parts of Long Beach might do after all, if you absolutely must live in SoCal. But LB would not be somewhere I'd personally want to raise a kid.

By the way, it might be useful to you to search for "educational attainment" in California. That could be a helpful stat for you. Some sites even break down cities' educational attainment by neighborhood.

Thank you, that's a great idea to look up educational attainment. Why wouldn't you want to raise kids in LB?

[gogogo35]

Originally Posted by Chowhound

Long Beach tends to get a bad rap. It's a large city and such it has a lot of large city problems and I won't deny that there are a lot of places in LB that are seriously questionable. That being said LB has a lot of awesome things going for it, it's a beach community, it's centrally located, it's about 20 min to downtown LA and about 20 min away from Irvine which is sorta of the business hub of Orange County.


It's a city with all of the amenities you could want, yet it's not in LA but has great stuff about it. It has a lot of great neighborhoods, it is a bit more on the affordable side, it's diverse, I love this city.


If I won 10 million in the lotto, It's still live here, I love this area so much.....

Would you look around El Dorado if you were raising kids in LB? Bixby? Something else?

[jkozlow3]

Originally Posted by Chowhound

Long Beach tends to get a bad rap. It's a large city and such it has a lot of large city problems and I won't deny that there are a lot of places in LB that are seriously questionable. That being said LB has a lot of awesome things going for it, it's a beach community, it's centrally located, it's about 20 min to downtown LA and about 20 min away from Irvine which is sorta of the business hub of Orange County.


It's a city with all of the amenities you could want, yet it's not in LA but has great stuff about it. It has a lot of great neighborhoods, it is a bit more on the affordable side, it's diverse, I love this city.


If I won 10 million in the lotto, It's still live here, I love this area so much.....

20 minutes to DTLA? When? At 3am?

[Chowhound]

Originally Posted by gogogo35

Would you look around El Dorado if you were raising kids in LB? Bixby? Something else?

The southern and more eastern parts of the city tend to be the better areas. I like Bixby, but all the surrounding parts aren't the best, central and far west sides as well as the north gets a bit sketchy, especially central long beach, I think that's where a lot of the really more crappy parts are.

Originally Posted by jkozlow3

20 minutes to DTLA? When? At 3am?

It's probably closer to 30 min if you leave your house really early for work like I tend to do.

[Phrogg]

Originally Posted by gogogo35

Thank you, that's a great idea to look up educational attainment. Why wouldn't you want to raise kids in LB?

Air pollution that ranks amongst the worst in the country, too much crime/too many bad parts of town (there are bubbles in which you can live, but they are just that), very obvious drug culture. Many young people idolize Snoop Dogg and Sublime. Many people in their 30s-40s still act, speak, and dress like teenagers. Extremely liberal culture where it often seems like anything goes. (A few places, like Belmont Shore, are mostly excepted from the previous two points.) Also, while I don't know which elementary schools are good or bad in terms of quality of instruction, the ones by which I have driven have a sad, tired look: the schoolyards are all or mostly asphalt, surrounded by high chainlink fencing. They look more like prison yards than playgrounds.

[Chowhound]

Originally Posted by Phrogg

Air pollution that ranks amongst the worst in the country, too much crime/too many bad parts of town (there are bubbles in which you can live, but they are just that), very obvious drug culture. Many young people idolize Snoop Dogg and Sublime. Many people in their 30s-40s still act, speak, and dress like teenagers. Extremely liberal culture where it often seems like anything goes. (A few places, like Belmont Shore, are mostly excepted from the previous two points.) Also, while I don't know which elementary schools are good or bad in terms of quality of instruction, the ones by which I have driven have a sad, tired look: the schoolyards are all or mostly asphalt, surrounded by high chainlink fencing. They look more like prison yards than playgrounds.

Have you actually ever been in LB? You're making some weird assumptions, if you wanna talk about ultra liberal and an anything goes mentality I think you're mistaking LB for Venice, Santa Monica, west Hollywood, Brentwood and I could go on and on.


Yeah, there are bad parts of LB, won't deny that, but there are a lot of good areas, the eastside, all along the coast is nice and that's a lot of areas.

[Phrogg]

Originally Posted by Chowhound

Have you actually ever been in LB? You're making some weird assumptions, if you wanna talk about ultra liberal and an anything goes mentality I think you're mistaking LB for Venice, Santa Monica, west Hollywood, Brentwood and I could go on and on.


Yeah, there are bad parts of LB, won't deny that, but there are a lot of good areas, the eastside, all along the coast is nice and that's a lot of areas.

They are first-hand observations, not assumptions. Long Beach is certainly not Venice, but it does have a good number of half-shaven-headed/half-long-purple-hair vegans with ear plugs and three nose rings, 40-year-old facial-tattooed guys on skateboards, hipsters with enormous beards, etc., etc. Most are nice enough if you talk to them, but I would personally classify that as extremely liberal and (almost?) "anything goes". No chainsaw jugglers or things like that. I have seen some fire eaters/dancers, though. (Of course, the above does not apply to every area of Long Beach.)