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Old 08-07-2018, 08:29 PM
 
113 posts, read 254,704 times
Reputation: 93

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After a ton of help from you guys my family has finally made the choice to move to Huntington Beach. Thank you so much everyone.

Our new condo is between Beach and Newland, just south of Slater and north of Newman.

Safety

Are there particular parts of HB that's not safe to walk around at night?

I heard also there are some parks/schools that are built on toxic waste dumps. Where are they so I can avoid them.

Only for locals

Are there any cool tips and tricks or secret spots only locals know? I've seen videos of the Tuesday night market that's pretty cool. Not really a bar/club kind of guy, but more of a nature, taking long walks, antique/kitsch shops kind of family. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

And of course any tips of any kind is welcome! Howdy neighbors.
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Old 08-08-2018, 10:56 AM
 
Location: Gilbert, AZ.
46 posts, read 70,489 times
Reputation: 99
Quote:
Originally Posted by c2002 View Post

Our new condo is between Beach and Newland, just south of Slater and north of Newman.

Safety

Are there particular parts of HB that's not safe to walk around at night?

Yes, I would not walk around at night around the corner from your condo. Slater Ave, west of Beach Blvd. The area has been affectionately known as Slater Slums for 25+ years.
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Old 08-08-2018, 12:12 PM
 
1,856 posts, read 2,190,606 times
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I moved out of HB about 10 years ago, but my mom still has her house in the harbor. smksignals is right. Typically that area of Slater is know as the Slater Slums, but it's all relative. When I was growing up in HB during the 90s, I thought it was just hyperbole for an area visibly seen as lower income and less white. From my recollection, while petty crime tends to be higher near Slater, violent crime has been random throughout the city. Drunk drivers tend to pop up around downtown, south PCH, and streets east of Magnolia (wide lanes with little traffic makes for a lot of impaired speeders).

You can bookmark Huntington Beach crime blotter website if you'd like to make your own observations. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to look up the Megan's Law database either.

I've been told that the neighborhood around Edison High School was a form dump site that had hazardous materials. I've seen articles insinuating that the area has unusually higher than normal levels of rare diseases. I've also heard similar stories about some areas of Costa Mesa. I'm not sure how much of that is true, but my dad made sure to avoid the area and opted to buy in the harbor area instead.

As for neighborhood stuff, you've got the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, the beach (Sunset Beach up off PCH and Warner has free parking), you've also got Philz Coffee & Bear Flag (grab a taco and some poke on Tuesday...try their special sauce too) at Pacific City, and you've got the Donuttery right next to you. You might want to come down south and check out Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island down in Newport. Might as well keep on going and check out the stores and eats down in Laguna Beach while you're at it. You can ask hike around the Back Bay, Crystal Cove (try The Beachcomber), climb the 1,000 steps of Laguna, and check out Pirate Tower.

Welcome to the area and I hope you have a good deal of patience. Traffic and density has increased a lot over the last 20 years, because it's a great place to live.
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Old 08-08-2018, 01:50 PM
 
Location: Riverside Ca
22,146 posts, read 33,197,505 times
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Its all relative. Slater Slums isn’t South central by any means.
For Italian food try Mangia Mangia on GoldenWest . Right next to Phillys cheesesteak which is awesome sandwiches. I have driven from Corona to go eat there. Main Street if you wanna see the bros getting in fights over stupid crap. I would stay away from Main Street /pier area on weekends.too many tards out looking for trouble.
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Old 08-08-2018, 04:33 PM
 
113 posts, read 254,704 times
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I love you guys.

If you guys are representative of the type of people at HB I'm very excited to call this my new home!

So is this roughly a correct map of the Slater Slums?


(also link if you're on mobile)
General follow up questions about the slum:

1. Is it pretty safe east of Beach? I'd like to take daily walks to Lakeview Park in the morning. Is that ok?

2. What is the general trend of Slater Slums? Is it expanding, getting better?

Quote:
Originally Posted by smksignals View Post
The area has been affectionately known as Slater Slums for 25+ years.
Thank you very much for possibly saving my life ha ha. Are there like drug deals and drug busts going down all the time?

Quote:
Originally Posted by kwong7 View Post

Welcome to the area and I hope you have a good deal of patience. Traffic and density has increased a lot over the last 20 years, because it's a great place to live.
Thank you for the fantastic recommendations. I don't drive much and definitely not during rush hour. I promise not to make things worse.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrician4you View Post
Main Street if you wanna see the bros getting in fights over stupid crap. I would stay away from Main Street /pier area on weekends.too many tards out looking for trouble.
Is pier/main pretty chill in the morning, early afternoon? Corona is a beautiful city. If I wasn't so afraid of the heat, that would be one of my top choices. So much growth potential! Thank you for the insights!
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Old 08-10-2018, 07:33 PM
 
Location: Riverside Ca
22,146 posts, read 33,197,505 times
Reputation: 35433
Quote:
Originally Posted by c2002 View Post
I love you guys.

If you guys are representative of the type of people at HB I'm very excited to call this my new home!

So is this roughly a correct map of the Slater Slums?


(also link if you're on mobile)
General follow up questions about the slum:

1. Is it pretty safe east of Beach? I'd like to take daily walks to Lakeview Park in the morning. Is that ok?

2. What is the general trend of Slater Slums? Is it expanding, getting better?



Thank you very much for possibly saving my life ha ha. Are there like drug deals and drug busts going down all the time?



Thank you for the fantastic recommendations. I don't drive much and definitely not during rush hour. I promise not to make things worse.



Is pier/main pretty chill in the morning, early afternoon? Corona is a beautiful city. If I wasn't so afraid of the heat, that would be one of my top choices. So much growth potential! Thank you for the insights!
Yeah that’s pretty much Slater Slums. My shop was up the street off Gothard and Warner across from the HS. The pier is fine, lots of cops. Weekends gets a lot of visitors and douchebags but it’s fine. Just like anything else anywhere you’re gonna get drunks doing drunk things

As far as SKater Slums you’re really not gonna have drug deals out in the open or South Central style drug busts
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Old 08-12-2018, 09:03 AM
 
1,134 posts, read 400,067 times
Reputation: 912
I live fairly close to the pier and downtown. I'm usually out for a bike ride every day and almost always stop there at the pier either to walk out onto the pier or stop at Subway, Bomb Burger, Jack's Surfboards, Wahoo's, Baskin Robbins or some other place depending on the day. And yes it's very quiet in the mornings.

I've never felt unsafe around there. You'll usually see a few homeless people but they mostly keep to themselves unless they've been drinking a lot, then they might get loud and argue with each other over something stupid. But the police respond pretty quickly to those incidents. They patrol a lot and have a number of security cameras at the pier plaza and downtown areas. They increased the number of cameras after the trouble on the last day at the US Open of Surfing in 2013.

It does get very busy on Summer weekends and holidays. The rest of the time it's a fairly quiet area with some street fairs, farmers markets and car shows.

Other than some public intoxication and the US Open trouble in 2013, I've really only witnessed one other instance. Some guy tried to run off with a nice backpack from the beach. He picked the wrong guy because the owner was athletic and looked pretty buff. He saw it happening and caught up to the guy fast. The thief tried to fight him off at first but he quickly lost and took off running. Probably ended up with a black eye and a sore jaw.

Like any public place you do have to watch your stuff if you need to set it down for a little while.
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Old 08-13-2018, 03:13 PM
 
129 posts, read 149,471 times
Reputation: 201
C2002, you should have asked this question BEFORE buying the condo.
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Old 08-14-2018, 06:06 PM
 
Location: Dana Point, Ca
252 posts, read 416,764 times
Reputation: 677
Probably too late at this time, sounds like you are committed. But, should you at some later point decide to move, I might suggest or let you know where I moved to, and also where Erica moved to before we left the mainland for 10 yrs on kauai.

HUNTINGTON HARBOR. ( Think warner and the ocean area ) . ( 12 yrs ) My residence.

I really like it there for nearly 12 years. There are condos, apartments, dock side homes, and a nice shopping center .

Also, there is the Bolsa Chica Wetlands for daily walks or hikes, and long, long Bolsa Chica Beach that you can bike to Huntington Beach, and the pier area at main street, HB, You can also continue on down to Newport Area. The other direction we would bike to Seal Beach and then on up along Long Beach to Shore Line Village. Most of the time staying off PCH .

Between Huntington Harbor and Seal is Sunset Beach and Surf Side. And shops, etc , overlooking the harbor waters.

We had the beaches, and also renting Kayaks from kenny on PCH in sunset and would kayak all thru Huntington Harbor, and catch all of the beautiful homes and the yachts, and tie up and to into lunch at Pelican Island, sit outside on the docks..

SEAL BEACH:

Wow ! Also a great place to live. They have what they call OLD TOWN, the main street is from PCH to the pier and beach. Very nice quaint shops and restaurants and galleries, with loads of friendly people. And yes, it can be a bit crowded during the summer, but so is every beach city in southern california. Seal Beach itself is all sandy and pretty darned long with body surfing and boogie boarders on one side of the pier and surfing on the other.

Erica had moved there and I was driving down from near Disneyland to see her. She asked me down for the Seal Beach Christmas Parade. I am thinking Rose Parade, huge floats, etc. Nope, not even close. Small home town parade with a few floats, and town council folks in classic cars, moms and dad towing their kids in wagons and then running to the side to hug people they knew who were lined along main street. Some had their dog a lit up in lights..... I LOVED IT.

A few weeks later I moved to Huntington Harbor which was about a 5 or so minute drive to Erica's place in Seal .

Most times we kept our bikes are Erica's and if we wanted to change up from our beach trails we could ride inland along the flood control channel, concrete river all the up to a very nice park in long beach, and no PCH hassels .

Meeting people was easy, and we made friends and acquaintances in short order. SEAL BEACH is a special small jewel that thousands just whip on past roaring down Pacific Coast Highway.

Never had a problem with the beach crowd, and Erica lived about one minute from the beach on 7th street.

She could walk everywhere without having to drive.

Presently, we have moved off Kauai island back to the mainland, and live in what we call South County...in another beach town called Dana Point. ( 3 yrs now, and we love it here as well )

However every so often i have to go up to the VA Health Care System in Long Beach, and I drop Erica off in Seal. She has a coffee, and reads, and browses the shops, and when I am done with the VA, we meet for lunch and drinks at one of the very nice restaurants on main street. We make a positive party and fun time out of the long drive from Dana Point and back home.

We still are attracted to Seal, it is a special and friendly community, and you can drive there in about 15 to 20 minutes from where you live.

fI we had to move back up there, we would pick Seal Beach as # 1, and probably Huntington Harbor as # 2.

Obviously , we like the beach living style atmosphere and keep gravitating toward those areas.

Just FYI and maybe you all heading toward that direction for a days outing opposite direction as toward the huntington beach pier area. Where they have lots of concerts, and activities, and professional volley ball tournaments, etc, etc.

Welcome to Huntington Beach, have a grand ol time.

Denny and Erica
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Old 08-15-2018, 05:48 PM
 
823 posts, read 1,769,478 times
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I remember seeing an online map of Huntington Beach's old toxic dump sites. There were quite a bit and a few were turned into residential areas, not just parks. I've written several times about going to a bday party in Huntington Beach where the beautiful, newly purchased and renovated home was sinking (per the homeowner), because it is on a former dump site. Why they bought it knowing it's history is beyond me.

The Ascon dump site at Magnolia and Hamilton may be the worse site (I'm no expert) but is done, I think. Interesting article regarding this:

https://www.ocregister.com/2013/08/3...t-586-million/

Actually, this other article from last year indicates that clean up of the black sludge pools at Ascon may not be over yet. I think you are far enough from this SuperFund site to not experience the problems nearby residents are facing:

Neighbors blame smelly black dust on cleanup at former Ascon landfill in Huntington Beach

So you may want to avoid Edison park, which is across from Ascon. Ah, Edison Park is another former dump site that currently leaks methane gas. Methane leaks is normal from what I understand of dump sites, but eck.

I would also avoid sending my kids to Edison High. Residents have reported cancer and neurological diseases among children and adults living in the area and while no one can pinpoint it to Ascon, I wouldn't take the chance. No thank you.

Okay, I'm done looking up info on HB dump sites. This one just kills it for me.

Our local toxic waste dump…in Huntington Beach – 1X57

Sigh. But welcome to Orange County! Central Park and library is an awesome place to walk and hang out. I hope it's on safe grounds.
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