Big cities that feel most like Irvine?

H

Haowen Wong

New member
Please don't be nitpicky and say that big cities will never feel like suburban Irvine. Just name some big cities that feel more like Irvine.

What major cities are there around the world that feel most like Irvine? Masterplanned, sterile, efficient, family friendly, cookie cutter, green, high-tech, fast growing, a large Asian population (but still multicultural), safe, with a world-class university and a competitive educational system?

A metropolis with traffic, air quality, and weather almost, if not as good as, Irvine? Somewhere fairly, but not excessively, affluent?

Boring and ghetto-free?

To me, that city is Singapore. When I went there a couple months ago for the first time, it seemed very familiar to me, an Irvine native. It was simply a high-density version of "the bubble."


 


 
Singapore? Irvine?  I cannot relate them together.....  I had little experiences in both cities here are my observations:

Irvine- No one walks, skyline is pretty flat, weather is mild.

Singapore- Most everyone walks, lots of high rises with dense population, hot humid year round with thunder storm in every afternoon.

Similarity => Singapore government is like Irvine HOA.  Lots of planted trees in both cities. All the Singapore's trees are about 45 years old and they are 5 meter apart... Irvine has very boring trees around the planned communities.
 
I would have to choose the tri cities in the South Bay in the Silicon Valley. Milpitas, Fremont and Cupertino. The demographic is a direct resemblance of Irvine. The R&D industrial architecture came from the same mould. Trees are precisely planted and equally spaced. People are boring as hell. The cities are soulless after 9pm. Residents go to the fringe cities to get laid and get drunk. Pocket park and families pretend happy. Gridded streets out number curvilinear streets. Culdesacs centric where garage doors define your home identity. I don't understand the world class university when the schools take the dumb Asians who can't get into UCLA, UCSD, Berkeley and etc but I think I know what you meant so Stanford sort off world class. Southbay drivers are just as skillful as Irvine. Shoppers pick schools and safety and compromise on home character and yard size. Southbay loves fake stone and stucco opulence. German and Japanese cars are the only cars residents drive. Mediocre and expensive dim sum are yelp highly rated. Shall I say more?
 
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Johns Creek.

 
I guess parts of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale where the new developments are feel kinda like Irvine.  The Cupertino shopping center where Q-Cup/99 ranch are located is just like the Walnut shopping center with Tapioca Express and 99 Ranch (Drivers backing out without looking, female asian drivers with their big face visors, fobs with maseratis and ferraris outside the boba place).  Use to drive down from Palo Alto to visit my sister there and I swore it was like Irvine... Thank god she's in Woodside now and out of FCB land..
 
Limbay said:
Singapore? Irvine?  I cannot relate them together.....  I had little experiences in both cities here are my observations:
Irvine- No one walks, skyline is pretty flat, weather is mild.
Singapore- Most everyone walks, lots of high rises with dense population, hot humid year round with thunder storm in every afternoon.
Similarity => Singapore government is like Irvine HOA.  Lots of planted trees in both cities. All the Singapore's trees are about 45 years old and they are 5 meter apart... Irvine has very boring trees around the planned communities.
Click to expand...

SG has better food selection, light rail network, night life, casino, legal red light districts, and short flight to Thailand for even more red light districts.

My experience with Irvine folks who make fun of Irvine...  first time they move to a rougher neighborhood in LA and see a hobo sleeping in the cul-de-sac, and they scream "honey get the gun NOW NOW NOW!".


p.s.  Ruger 10/22 take-down on sale at Turners today, comes with the nifty carrying bag that'd make a great light bug-out pack.  Put a hello kitty sticker over the logo though.


Ruger-1022-TD-Backpack-413.jpeg
 
I'm not sure about what big cities feel like Irvine.. smaller cities..

Cupertino in regards to the schools.
San Ramon in regards to the schools as well as the master planning.
Naperville, IL
 
But Singapore is very cookie cutter--just look at how homogeneous the HDB flats are! Not to mention that at least 80% of the population lives in the HDB flats--all masterplanned by a single corporation, the HDB! Just like TIC and the "villages!"

Singapore is also the country with the highest number of millionaires per capita. In terms of education, in PISA 2012, Singapore ranked only behind Shanghai in Math, and 3rd in Sciences and Reading! And they have tons of tutoring centers (???)! Educationally competitive, just like Irvine! And don't the National University of Singapore, which ranked first in Asia in QS World University Rankings! A stellar research institution, just like UCI!

In both Irvine and Singapore, there is an elitist, rigid, structured K-12 education! Math streaming stigmatizes students in both cities! Just watch Jack Neo's "I Not Stupid" ??????!

In 2012, Mercer ranked Singapore as Asia's safest city. In 2014, Singapore was Asia's best city to live in according to Mercer. But the city next to it, Johor Bahru, in Malaysia, was rated 60 places behind Singapore in Mercer's 2012 liveability survey! Singaporeans always fear for their lives and their wallets when they go there! Just like how we residents of Irvine react when we go to Santa Ana!

Plus, check out Singapore's "My Waterway @ Punggol." Just like the Jeffery Open Space Trail--but with a canal!

And, Raffles Place~Jamboree Center! 

Singapore's drivers are also quite reckless, just like Irvine's! And ants, and forest fires (in the fall) are perennial problems both there and here!

Singapore was rated the world's most expensive city by the Economist this year. Irvine is expensive too!

Don't forget Irvine's ridiculously hard-to-navigate, cul-de-sac obsessed, street plan! Singapore's street plan is just as Byzantine, and looks nothing like a grid, either!

Singapore's streets are very well-paved, just like Irvine's. Almost all of them have landscaped medians and grass between the curb and the sidewalk.


 
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