Down to Earth parts of Orange County (Garden Grove, Irvine: live in, garden)

[mr_california]

Originally Posted by TimTheEnchanter

I don't know where ImmerLerner lives in "SoCal" since that is a rather ambiguous term.

Kids can and do play outside in neighborhoods and have neighborhood friends in parts of Newport Beach, Irvine, Lake Forest (Baker Ranch, Foothill Ranch, Portola Hills), Ladera and I would assume the newer neighborhoods of South County as well. I just don't spend enough time in those areas to say it definitively. Many of these neighborhoods were designed as family friendly areas where exposure to auto traffic would be minimized.

The area's that you mentioned are in South Orange County. Do you think that kids playing outside is something you would see more in Southern Orange County vs. Northern Orange County?

[mr_california]

Originally Posted by teqp

Villa Park Elementary is a good school, compared to Serrano Elementary in terms of rankings. My oldest is in 4th grade, but we moved him into Nohl Canyon Elementary since they have the GATE program. For junior high, there is Cerro Villa, but I have not heard that many good things about it. We plan to get our son into El Rancho middle school instead. Villa Park HS looks like it is an okay school. Since the VP schools are part of Orange Unified School District, you get students from lower income and some do not appear to test as well the not-low income. We still have some time, so not sure about HS for us.

As for kids making friends, I would say yes. If your kids are in sports, there will be a connection right there, but also if you are in a neighborhood that has kids around yours age, they should be fine. Also during Halloween, some neighborhoods go all at and have fun.

How are parents in Villa Park. Do they seems more on the liberal side? Or do they lean conservative?

[ImmerLernen]

Originally Posted by mr_california

How are parents in Villa Park. Do they seems more on the liberal side? Or do they lean conservative?

Hopefully someone who knows the current status of such things can help you.

I spent most of my growing up years in Villa Park (1976-1989). I could tell you a lot about my experiences (mostly good, like what you're hoping to find...but not all...plenty of snooty appearance-driven moms and daughters, which I can chuckle about now), but that was a long time ago so wouldn't really help you. It's definitely still a nice area (lovely homes, many on spacious lots for OC), but expensive.

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally Posted by mr_california

The area's that you mentioned are in South Orange County. Do you think that kids playing outside is something you would see more in Southern Orange County vs. Northern Orange County?

Yes in the sense that South OC has communities designed to be "family friendly"; meaning they have developments that are off major streets (pick a street, Irvine Blvd, Crown Valley, etc), but have limited ingress and egress. There are lots of streets that the only cars you ever see are residents from that street. You can look at Google Maps for the areas I mentioned earlier and see how the streets are laid out and parks and elementary schools are integrated.

That isn't to say there aren't similar tracts in Tustin, Placentcia, etc, but South County it is the norm, not the exception.

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally Posted by mr_california

How are parents in Villa Park. Do they seems more on the liberal side? Or do they lean conservative?

That section of Orange County (VP, Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda, etc) tends to be conservative. There are only 18 Republicans in the state Assembly out of 80 and Villa Party is represented by one of the 18.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by TimTheEnchanter

Yes in the sense that South OC has communities designed to be "family friendly"; meaning they have developments that are off major streets (pick a street, Irvine Blvd, Crown Valley, etc), but have limited ingress and egress. There are lots of streets that the only cars you ever see are residents from that street. You can look at Google Maps for the areas I mentioned earlier and see how the streets are laid out and parks and elementary schools are integrated.

That isn't to say there aren't similar tracts in Tustin, Placentcia, etc, but South County it is the norm, not the exception.

Also quite true along the northern coast. Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Las Alamitos, Huntington Harbor etc. are all that way. We lived next to the Los Alamitos High School and that whole area is mapped so there is no through traffic once you come off the arterial.

[mr_california]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

Also quite true along the northern coast. Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Las Alamitos, Huntington Harbor etc. are all that way. We lived next to the Los Alamitos High School and that whole area is mapped so there is no through traffic once you come off the arterial.

What about West Garden Grove. Does that seem to be a more family oriented area? It seems to be a little more reasonable in price vs. Los Alamitos.

[Jay100]

In my experience, having lived in LA for 35 years, I would say Newport Beach is where the plastic types are based. Then, the plasticity carries over into places like Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Costa Mesa, and Laguna Niguel. It isn't for everybody but they seem to enjoy each other's company. I can't judge or whatnot.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Jay100

In my experience, having lived in LA for 35 years, I would say Newport Beach is where the plastic types are based. Then, the plasticity carries over into places like Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Costa Mesa, and Laguna Niguel. It isn't for everybody but they seem to enjoy each other's company. I can't judge or whatnot.

Lake Forest? Mission Viejo? Nah. Those are mostly middle-of-the-road, down-to-earth types. Costa Mesa has plenty of average people too; you don't have to get too far from the Newport border to see that.

Laguna Niguel, sure, people there are pretty wealthy and there is quite a bit of plastic surgery going on. Irvine also has a lot of upwardly mobile types; I would say it's the closest to Newport Beach in this regard of all the cities you mentioned.

[mr_california]

Originally Posted by Jay100

In my experience, having lived in LA for 35 years, I would say Newport Beach is where the plastic types are based. Then, the plasticity carries over into places like Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Costa Mesa, and Laguna Niguel. It isn't for everybody but they seem to enjoy each other's company. I can't judge or whatnot.

Well Newport Beach would be a little over my budget anyway. I'd probably be looking at no more than $1,100,000 which would put me at the low range for Villa Park, but I think I would have good choices insome other area's. I don't need anything fancy.