Irvine is an awesome place to live.. (Newport Beach, Dana Point: best cities, real estate)
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All the complainers on this board are just bitter. If you make good money,
Irvine is the best quality of life anywhere in the US.
I wish they would all stop posting or drive off a cliff... Either is fine with me..
Irvine was great for us, but the again we purchased our home in 1980. It was a small home, 2100 sq. ft. but we had 4 kids there, sent 2 through college. We did this never making much over 100,000 but were able to live okay. Woodbridge Village is a great place to bring up a family and we have many fond memories. When our oldest got married and started a family it was time for us to cash out and moved to Keller, TX. We love our new home but if OC is the place people our looking at Irvine is quite affordable with plenty of amenities.
Irvine is boring, i know i live here it has no soul, its all the same and yes you have to drive everywhere, costco and walmart are not that far by car. If it is saftey you want then it is s good place just all the same. Oh and yes we are moving shortly before anyone jumps on that one
All I hear is people say that Irvine is boring and has no real stores such as walmart. Did someone move Irvine to the middle of the desert, where the closest next city is hundred miles away? Seriously, I would bet there is a walmart within a 10-15 drive from Irvine and the same goes for the beach.
Irvine is boring, i know i live here it has no soul, its all the same and yes you have to drive everywhere, costco and walmart are not that far by car. If it is saftey you want then it is s good place just all the same. Oh and yes we are moving shortly before anyone jumps on that one
Irvine is very walkable. My Wife & I walk to Target or the Grocery store all the time. We can walk our kids over to the shopping center for some Chinese, mexican, pizza or sushi. As for Costco & Wal Mart, there are 4 Targets in Irvine or nearby in Tustin, so who needs Wal-Mart? And who the heck would walk to Costco anyway? Good luck lugging your 5 gal bucket of Mayo home on your walk.
You are confusing the well manicured landscaping and standardized architecture for "having no soul". Grit and achitectural diversity is not "a soul". Just go check out Oakland if you doubt that. As far as being "boring" Irvine is no more boring then any other suburb. Plus it has an excess of the amentities - Parks, pools, playing feilds, etc, that people look for in a suburb. It is centrally located for easy access to all the amenities of Orange County and So Cal. 20 minutes to the beach, Disneyland, shopping at Fashion Island or South Coast Plaza, the back roads into the Cleveland forest. In 90 minutes you can get to all of LA, San Diego and into the mountains for skiing, out to the desert, etc.
When I look at Irvine I see a family oriented upper middle class suburb full of people - and alot of imigrants - who are working hard to make a better life for themselves and their family while trying to raise their kids in a safe enviroment. It has a heck of alot more diversity then most other Upper Middle class burbs - Persians, Asians of all nationalities, Indians, one of the larger Jewish communities in So Cal, hispanics and whites. There is alot to this town. Maybe you should look a little harder before you write it off as "boring".
Another aspect of Irvine that needs to be looked into is the closed down marine base that has contaminated the water wells and the soil. I wonder how much of Irvine is contaminated?
Irvine generally isn't for me, but it apparently suits about 100,000 folks who live there just fine. Everyone has a different sensibility. Some want to live in a more rambunctious urban setting and others just want some peace and quiet as well as safety out in the suburbs. Whatever makes you happy. Kind of a waste of time to be sitting here going, "my city rocks and yours sucks!"
Lived in Irvine 2004-2008...it was boring, but safe~!
We lived on the far western edge of Irvine, sharing the border with Newport Beach...and here are the pros and cons we ran into (mind you, I've lived in OC my entire life...so there may be more that I just take for granted and don't list). We're in Laguna Niguel currently...but here is a bit about Irvine!
SAFETY:
Yes, it is safe...you can walk anywhere at anytime and feel safe...the thing you'll have to worry about most are coyotes at night. No biggie...they've just developed the lands they lived on and so now they roam the streets looking for rabbits, which there are PLENTY of eating your garden in Irvine!
SHOPPING:
Many people describe Irvine as boring, it really is a housing community with a few stores scattered here and there, a few restaurants, but mostly houses. Large stores are mainly outside the city borders. The closest malls are Fashion Island in Newport, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, The Marketplace in Tustin, and The District (newest) off Jamboree/Barranca. If you are into craft stores, you'll have to drive to the Joanns near the district, since the Tall Mouse on Alton closed down a few years back.
Walmart isn't allowed in Irvine, so you'll have to drive Santa Ana, Foothill Ranch, or Laguna Niguel. Also note, department/grocery store combos (super stores) are not allowed without membership (sams club or costco) in OC...so you won't find any Super Walmarts or Super Targets around these parts. Ikea is not far away in Costa Mesa near the LA Times building off Harbor/Sunflower.
CHILDREN:
There are a lot of parks in Irvine, and they are well maintained. The only park you need to pay to enter are Irvine Regional (which is more in Tustin) and Mason Regional (entry per car is $5). The downfall is that almost all families in Irvine are 2 parent earners...meaning all the kids from 6 weeks of age up are in daycare or school...so the only children you'll find at the parks on weekdays are going to be Chinese children with their grandparent caretakers (who normally do not speak english but are very friendly anyways), university student families, or those wealthy enough to stay at home with their kids.
TRAFFIC:
You don't want to be commuting between 4:30-6pm on University/Jeffrey or Alton! You will most likely be stuck in traffic for a long time just trying to get a couple of miles away. There are bike paths so if you can ride your bike to get from work to home, it would get you there faster most of the time. The 405 freeway has a carpool lane entrance at Culver, so if there are 2 ppl in your car, get on there...Jeffrey doesn't have an entrance so you have to go near Sand Canyon when going south to even get into the carpool, which means you have to cross 5 lanes and then wait for it to open...plus it coincides with the newly popular 133 route exit to Laguna Beach, which always backs up at rush hour.
RENT:
Apartments range pretty far...there are some low cost (waitlist) apartments around $500/month for 2 bedrooms and then there are regular apartments for $1500/month for 2 bedrooms. You can rent private condos, townhomes, houses, and other luxury apartments up into the $3000 range per month. Leasing a room is a good option if you have less than $1000/month for rent allotment.
FOOD:
There are only a few areas to get food within the city boundary, besides grocery stores (restaurants are all located next to grocery stores). There is an Albertsons off Campus near UCI and a Del Taco drive thru. There is a Trader Joe's and VEGGIE GRILL (which is SOOO good) at Campus/Peltason. There is also a Wild Oats Market next to a Carls Jr & Subway near Culver/Michelson (near 405 exit). Each of those centers has a gas station as well, a USA at the 1st, and Chevron at the 2nd. There is a Ralphs (kroger) grocery at Michelson/University, and IHOP and gas station there also. That just about covers all of western Irvine (to the west of the 405 area).
Hope that helps for those considering Irvine or who have recently relocated there!
All of OC has been cited by the EPA as constant violator of safety levels of all pollutants! However, the water reports have all come back just fine (their definition of fine doesn't meet everyone's). The soil I would be most concerned about, which can be easily tested, would be that of the newer houses surrounding the DISTRICT & JAMBOREE area next to the base where the hangers still stand. Note that the base was on the Lake Forest border and Tustin border (the LF border site has been taken over to develop housing, a great park with balloon - which is quite fun and free, and CSUF extension campus). Films are shot currently (the tv show "24" included) inside the hangers off Jamboree.
I was here when the base was still being utilitized and I have to say that we have many more smoggier days where we can't see Saddleback peak now than we EVER did back then. The real problem here is the overusage of one person per car...it just adds to the smog levels so much and since OC is in a costal valley with the marine layers morning and night, it traps so much bad stuff in. When I left OC for long periods of time and came back for a visit (I moved to SD for a couple of years), I would cough up brown stuff from my lungs when I left from the OC again...no doubt smog debris. Our particulate levels here are VERY bad - check out the report card on the www.epa.gov website!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Morphous01
Another aspect of Irvine that needs to be looked into is the closed down marine base that has contaminated the water wells and the soil. I wonder how much of Irvine is contaminated?
Different strokes for different folks! When my husband moved here...he said, "they grow concrete"...I'm not sure if he meant that there is so much it must grow or if he was referring to the excessive amount of water wasted by sprinklers not pointed at the plants but on the sidewalks! Either way...differing perspective by different people, I had never thought of it before since this was all I knew.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OC Investor2
Irvine is very walkable. My Wife & I walk to Target or the Grocery store all the time. We can walk our kids over to the shopping center for some Chinese, mexican, pizza or sushi. As for Costco & Wal Mart, there are 4 Targets in Irvine or nearby in Tustin, so who needs Wal-Mart? And who the heck would walk to Costco anyway? Good luck lugging your 5 gal bucket of Mayo home on your walk.
You are confusing the well manicured landscaping and standardized architecture for "having no soul". Grit and achitectural diversity is not "a soul". Just go check out Oakland if you doubt that. As far as being "boring" Irvine is no more boring then any other suburb. Plus it has an excess of the amentities - Parks, pools, playing feilds, etc, that people look for in a suburb. It is centrally located for easy access to all the amenities of Orange County and So Cal. 20 minutes to the beach, Disneyland, shopping at Fashion Island or South Coast Plaza, the back roads into the Cleveland forest. In 90 minutes you can get to all of LA, San Diego and into the mountains for skiing, out to the desert, etc.
When I look at Irvine I see a family oriented upper middle class suburb full of people - and alot of imigrants - who are working hard to make a better life for themselves and their family while trying to raise their kids in a safe enviroment. It has a heck of alot more diversity then most other Upper Middle class burbs - Persians, Asians of all nationalities, Indians, one of the larger Jewish communities in So Cal, hispanics and whites. There is alot to this town. Maybe you should look a little harder before you write it off as "boring".
All of OC has been cited by the EPA as constant violator of safety levels of all pollutants! However, the water reports have all come back just fine (their definition of fine doesn't meet everyone's). The soil I would be most concerned about, which can be easily tested, would be that of the newer houses surrounding the DISTRICT & JAMBOREE area next to the base where the hangers still stand. Note that the base was on the Lake Forest border and Tustin border (the LF border site has been taken over to develop housing, a great park with balloon - which is quite fun and free, and CSUF extension campus). Films are shot currently (the tv show "24" included) inside the hangers off Jamboree.
I was here when the base was still being utilitized and I have to say that we have many more smoggier days where we can't see Saddleback peak now than we EVER did back then. The real problem here is the overusage of one person per car...it just adds to the smog levels so much and since OC is in a costal valley with the marine layers morning and night, it traps so much bad stuff in. When I left OC for long periods of time and came back for a visit (I moved to SD for a couple of years), I would cough up brown stuff from my lungs when I left from the OC again...no doubt smog debris. Our particulate levels here are VERY bad - check out the report card on the www.epa.gov website!
Wow, you sure know your stuff. I'm going the look into the website you posted, thanks..
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Lived in Irvine 2004-2008...it was boring, but safe~!
I'm going the look into the website you posted, thanks..
