Can Orange County be subdivided into 3 distinct subregions? (Santa Ana, Anaheim: school, universities)

[Tex?Il?]

I figured with all these threads talking about how Orange County is compared to LA County, and with all the broad brush strokes, I thought I might propose a simple way to split the Orange County generalization into three parts:

East/North OC: Basically most of Orange County EAST of the 5 freeway. (going clockwise: Brea, Placentia, Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills, Orange, Tustin, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, etc.

This is the Orange County that everyone thinks about when they desribe it as "boring, whitebread, and conservative" Essentially in a way, the hillier it is to the north or east, the more it is characterized as this. Please note, I am in no way putting it down, merely identifying which areas that it characterized. An exception can possibly be made for CSU Fullerton area as universities would always be more youthful and liberal, but its really a commuter school so probably has little effect on local vibes.

Central OC:, mostly between the 5 and 405 freeways: (Buena Park, older part of Anaheim, Santa Ana, Westminster, Garden Grove, etc.)

Basically: Older, postwar, 50s/60s suburbia. More blue collared and ethnic (Hispanic and Asian). But also contains the one of a kind theme parks that draw people from all over (Disneyland, Knotts to a lesser extent) as well as the closest things to a urban cultural amenities: Performing arts center, zoo, Bower museum.


Coastal OC: The party and single scene for Orange County. Although not nearly as many singles, nightlife as LA County, this would be the place to go. Huntington Beach for example seems to be to be a lot like the South Bay in LA County (Hermosa/Redondo/Torrance). Huntington Beach is a little like the OCs Jersey Shore counterpart, Newport is the flashy and glitzy one, and Laguna is the more artsy and liberal beach town.

Although these are generalizations, they are better generalizations than trying to characterize ALL of Orange County in one sentence. Agree? Disagree?

[Cheektowaga_Chester]

Doesn't sound unreasonable.

Still the most common terms I seem to read or hear about are Orange County (not north Orange County), South Orange County, and coastal Orange County.

[bhcompy]

Coastal OC: The party and single scene for Orange County. Although not nearly as many singles, nightlife as LA County, this would be the place to go. Huntington Beach for example seems to be to be a lot like the South Bay in LA County (Hermosa/Redondo/Torrance). Huntington Beach is a little like the OCs Jersey Shore counterpart, Newport is the flashy and glitzy one, and Laguna is the more artsy and liberal beach town.

Seal Beach has about as much in common with Huntington Beach as LA and Irvine

[BRinSM]

having lived in the area, OC is solidly split into north and south. north is the older section, while south is mostly newer. the dividing line is mostly along the northwestern boundaries of newport beach and irvine. the only coastal section of north OC includes HB and seal beach. while these areas have their own unique personality, inland HB has more in common with other inland cities than it does with the beachy downtown or sunset beach areas. you are right though in that the nicer parts of north OC (outside of the coast) tend to further north and east. however, this isn't always the case as los alamitos, rossmoor, and fountain valley are also considered desirable. that latino population is also heavily concentrated in the norther portion of the county.

[BuckeyeAtHeart]

And then you still have Irvine, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, San Juan Cap, San Clemente, etc. What category do you put these in? Dana Point is right on the coast, but I do not see it falling in the Coastal OC category the way you described it.

[psichick]

Interesting, I would never break up OC like you did.

I don't think Mission Viejo is anything like Anaheim/Orange. Yes, anything south of Y is "boring, whitebread and conservative", but above that, forget it. Tustin, Orange, Anaheim, are definitely not that. The boring, white bread conservative to me, is the almost everything in the 949 area code.

Central, yeah, I'd probably agree with that.

Coastal, people have already pointed it out, but you described one part of HB, not all of NB is like that, LB is the artsy area, that's for sure, but not really a party town. Heck, not even all of HB is like that. But you skipped a LOT of coastal areas. Where are Seal Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente, etc? And strangely, I would never compare any OC coastal area with South Bay. Is it just me?

I'd probably say Coastal for all the cities along the coast to about 5 miles inland. Not that it's a party town, but more that people that live there, have more of an outdoorsy lifestyle (not all, but most people I know that live there are either well-off or outdoorsy).

The other area I'd clump is South OC, from about the 55 south (the 949 area code). To me, that's more of the cookie cutter area. Not all, but most of it. I love that the streets aren't gridded. However, it is more suburbia down there.

[mrsltd]

I would divide it up differently:

North Orange County--anything north of 22. (some would say north of 91 but Anaheim and Orange are both mixed birds as far as their "feel")

Central Orange County--between 22/405 interchange and El Toro "Y" (yes, I know that Irvine and Santa Ana are very different places but they are next to each other and I can tell the difference between Irvine and points south)., excluding Laguna Beach. On a map, one can see that Irvine is pretty much smack dead in the middle of the county.

South Orange County--Laguna Beach and anything south of the El Toro "Y".

For coastal areas, just draw lines from the inland areas so delineated above and you'll know where you are, more or less.

[pacific2]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

I would divide it up differently:

North Orange County--anything north of 22. (some would say north of 91 but Anaheim and Orange are both mixed birds as far as their "feel")

Central Orange County--between 22/405 interchange and El Toro "Y" (yes, I know that Irvine and Santa Ana are very different places but they are next to each other and I can tell the difference between Irvine and points south)., excluding Laguna Beach. On a map, one can see that Irvine is pretty much smack dead in the middle of the county.

South Orange County--Laguna Beach and anything south of the El Toro "Y".

For coastal areas, just draw lines from the inland areas so delineated above and you'll know where you are, more or less.

I agree that Irvine is definitely located in Central County, not South County. You just have to look at a map to see that this is true.

IMHO, Irvine also has a different look than South County in that it is mostly flat as pancake, while South County is hilly.

[Teckeeee]

I have always divided it in my mind South OC and the rest. People I know of in SJC/Dana Point are different than people living in Garden Grove. They have a different mindset. Even if you take MV these are people that are looking for master planned community, which doesn't exist in CM, SA, and even HB.

[harhar]

I always thought of Brea, Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills as the South OC of the North. Just older.

I look at OC in terms of "good areas" as a backwards "C". Starting from Brea, moving all the way down to Irvine.

It makes sense geographically, that the flatlands are the "meh" areas and the hilly areas, and the areas by the beach are more desirable.

If the Irvines didn't do what they did, I would assume that the "prestige" of Irvine and "south county" would be a bit diminished and just be another Tustin.

South County, is just geographically beautiful, and again benefits a bit from planning, however I was always a bit perplexed on where people that lived in south county worked. That is, until a lot of tech and other companies moved in.