Is Lawndale a safe neighborhood for families? (Los Angeles, San Diego: low income, apartment)

[LASingleMom]

Hi,

Is Lawndale a safe neighborhood for kids, specifically on Kingsdale Avenue near Rosecrans? I am considering leasing a home there for myself & my son; but have heard mixed reviews about safety and school quality. Presently, I live in the Santa Clarita valley and commute daily to downtown Los Angeles, and am struggling to find a decent home that is $2K or under in a safe neighborhood within a reasonable commute of downtown. It is shocking how expensive all the rentals seem to be; even in neighborhoods that are clearly crime & gang ridden. Can anyone recommend a safe, clean, quiet family oriented neighorhood within a reasonable commute of downtown LA; that doesn't have graffiti and bums everywhere? It is unbelievably difficult to find a decent neighborhood that is not ridiculously expensive. I have literally been driving all over LA for weeks, viewing scores of potential homes, and each one is both expensive and in a sketchy neighborhood with poor quality school ratings. I am sick of the 2 hour commutes each way from Santa Clarita, and desperately need my life back.

Thanks!!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by LASingleMom

Hi,

Is Lawndale a safe neighborhood for kids, specifically on Kingsdale Avenue near Rosecrans? I am considering leasing a home there for myself & my son; but have heard mixed reviews about safety and school quality. Presently, I live in the Santa Clarita valley and commute daily to downtown Los Angeles, and am struggling to find a decent home that is $2K or under in a safe neighborhood within a reasonable commute of downtown. It is shocking how expensive all the rentals seem to be; even in neighborhoods that are clearly crime & gang ridden. Can anyone recommend a safe, clean, quiet family oriented neighorhood within a reasonable commute of downtown LA; that doesn't have graffiti and bums everywhere? It is unbelievably difficult to find a decent neighborhood that is not ridiculously expensive. I have literally been driving all over LA for weeks, viewing scores of potential homes, and each one is both expensive and in a sketchy neighborhood with poor quality school ratings. I am sick of the 2 hour commutes each way from Santa Clarita, and desperately need my life back.

Thanks!!

Is leaving Southern California an option for you?

Check this out. It may give you some clues:

California School Performance Maps

[sgvkev]

That's not a great area... good areas do exist near downtown LA however, you will pay more for them than places like Lawndale. Places like Alhambra and Monterey Park are a short drive off the 10, Glendale and Burbank are right off the 5, South Pasadena's right off the 110, etc... stay with the established cities as some of the cities close to downtown have nice looking ghettos (east Inglewood, northwest Gardena, Carson Dominguez Hills, parts of South Central LA) and schools with good ratings are hard to come by unless you're in the middle class and up cities. If you can't afford a decent rental maybe you should consider buying?

[Lake Conroe resident]

Lawndale is not going to be a safe neighborhood for you nor will the schools be very desirable to attend for your children. Fact is it's almost impossible to find areas in CA that are affordable that will have safe neighborhoods and good schools, that's why places like SCV, Agoura, T Oaks, etc... got so big, which is also the same reason the freeways are so crowded because folks have to keep going farther out to get what their looking for unlees they have the $ to live in West LA. I feel yor pain and I do not miss the 405 at all..

[Beth56]

Lawndale is not the best area, but it's no ghetto either. Lawndale is just East of Manhattan Beach which is a high end area. I don't think the schools are very good though. Instead of Lawndale, you might consider the North Redondo Beach area. It's next door to Lawndale and Redondo Beach schools are great. Look in the zip code area of 90278 and see what you find in house rental prices. You might also consider North Torrance 90504, also next door to Lawndale. Torrance also has great schools. If you are interested in an apartment, you might also look at El Segundo. This is a very family oriented city and has great schools and freeway close, if you don't mind some airport noise. I believe you can find a home in your price range. I have lived in the South Bay over 50 years so I am very familiar with the area.

Do a guest search for North Redondo Beach or other city:

South Bay Rentals - Apartment and House Rental Search Service

Do a guest search for South Bay:

Apartment Rentals in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego

[f_m]

I don't think so, at least you'd be better off looking at Torrance in that region. It is known for good schools.

[once-ler]

Please ignore those who think that BeachCities = SouthBay, and get the vapors every time they hear of some place existing east of the 405. I have lived several blocks from where you are talking about for about a year, and in the general area for 10 years. Yes it is safe... it is a pretty friendly hispanic working-class area, and tho I am lily-white, I have never had any problem even feeling unsafe here. North of El Segundo gets pretty rough but its not like you would wander up there anyway.

That said, I think given your post that the answer is no you should not move here. There are lots of happy kids running up and down my street, and I know several well-balanced adults who have grown up here. But there are certainly bums running up and down Hawthorne Blvd, and many pockets of trailer park/low income areas. Aside from your concerns about your child, it would be a real shock coming from Santa Clarita to more urbanized place like this. I dont know of any serious gang activity in my nbhd, but certainly gang culture exists around here. The middle school on my block looks fine, but Lawndale High School is apparently pretty tough (and looks it too...).

[pbergen]

Originally Posted by once-ler

Please ignore those who think that BeachCities = SouthBay, and get the vapors every time they hear of some place existing east of the 405. I have lived several blocks from where you are talking about for about a year, and in the general area for 10 years. Yes it is safe... it is a pretty friendly hispanic working-class area, and tho I am lily-white, I have never had any problem even feeling unsafe here. North of El Segundo gets pretty rough but its not like you would wander up there anyway.

That said, I think given your post that the answer is no you should not move here. There are lots of happy kids running up and down my street, and I know several well-balanced adults who have grown up here. But there are certainly bums running up and down Hawthorne Blvd, and many pockets of trailer park/low income areas. Aside from your concerns about your child, it would be a real shock coming from Santa Clarita to more urbanized place like this. I dont know of any serious gang activity in my nbhd, but certainly gang culture exists around here. The middle school on my block looks fine, but Lawndale High School is apparently pretty tough (and looks it too...).

i've never understood how a small city like lawndale that's right next to manhattan beach, with great weather and some very respectable-looking areas could be predominantly working-class or even poor. you'd think that more people with solid-middle-to-upper-middle incomes who can't afford manhattan or hermosa but want to live nearby would flock to lawndale. why isn't there any spillover effect? i'm amazed that the city hasn't gentrified.

not to mention, lawndale is separate from LA's USD, so theoretically if it became more solidly middle-to-upper-middle class its schools could improve dramatically: wealthier parents generally place more pressure on their kids to perform well in school, not to mention the higher property values would lead to a more stable tax base.

normally you'd expect there to be a more gradual decline in incomes from the beach areas to the inland areas, with areas like lawndale serving as a middle class buffer between the super rich (manhattan and hermosa) and the poor-to-working class (areas further east).

[neenee99]

yeah, don't move to lawndale. it's icky. no place to raise kids. i live next door in el camino village, there is a nice subdivision just east of lawndale before you get to crenshaw, between manhattan beach blvd and prairie. but the schools here are not good and you would probably want to put your children in private school. rentals in this neighborhood go for around 2200-2400 a month for a 3 bedroom house which is easily the most affordable neighborhood in a safe neighborhood in the southbay. the reason for a cheap house in lawndale is you don't want to live there.

i wish i had an answer for why lawndale can't escape it's reputation. it's location is certainly not bad, being between manhattan beach, redondo and torrance. however, i think their local government is terrible and there are so many renters in lawndale that they don't have a strong homeowner base. maybe that's one of the reasons.

north torrance is also an option. torrance schools are better in general altho north torrance is the worst of all of them. better to try and find something in central torrance or south torrance. stay away from east torrance, it's bad as well.

if you work downtown your commute back down to the southbay would still be a commute altho you would be looking at under an hour in traffic. if you really want to move down here, i would recommend southwest torrance or south redondo beach, which is an excellent place to raise a family. i used to live there and miss it dearly. schools are good. it is, however 15 minutes from any freeway so you have to add that to your commute. you also have the ocean breeze down there. getting a house for 2k in that area isn't really possible but you could get a 2bd apt near the beach for under 2k.

[dingo050]

Well, it's all relative for school districts. I was born and raised in the South Bay, and attended elementary schools in Gardena (LAUSD) and Torrance (TUSD), and went to middle and high school in North Torrance. Torrance High and North Torrance are the "weaker" Torrance schools, but I had no problems and overall had a great high school experience at North. Actually, I've heard that Torrance High is slightly more "ghetto" than North High. If you can afford it, West and South are excellent schools.

As for Lawndale high schools, I've had cousins attend Leuzinger and say it was terrible, with periodic fights and violence during school hours. I've driven by Leuzinger after hours and saw the funniest sight- wigs of all colors hanging on the fence flowing in the wind...LOL.