Laguna Beach/Niguel. Schools? Culture? Will I hate it? Will my children grow up to be jerks?

[jefa_IHB]

This may not be a negative to you, but it was for me. Be prepared to cough up some cash so the kids can keep up with the rest of the LB teens. And drug test them secretly if you have to.

How do you secretly drug test a teen? (seriously)

You take hair from their hairbrush and send it to a lab. (My kids are toddlers, so no I have not done this but I know people who have).

McDonna, thanks for the asthma info. My sons asthma is 95% better up here in Seattle. I think he has an allergic component going on too, and I'd think marine air would be about the best I could do for him allergy-wise, (besides living in someplace that has no vegetation period.)

 

[FairEconomist_IHB]

If prices didn't matter I'd pick Laguna Beach since it's so varied, walkable, and pretty. If I were considering price I'd go for Huntington Beach; I like the lively beach atmosphere and the housing prices are less outrageous.

 

[frugalwithclass_IHB]

mcmansion, are the schools good in lb for the shore and heights area. i have been starting to look at the heights because my wife likes it there but i prefer seacliff in hb and was just curious if you knew about the schools for lb (shore and heights)

 

[IrvineRenter_IHB]

I didn't notice much discussion about San Clemente in this tread. It is a nice town with coastal air. I would live there if I don't end up in Irvine.

 

[usctrojanman29_IHB]

I didn't notice much discussion about San Clemente in this tread. It is a nice town with coastal air. I would live there if I don't end up in Irvine.

Why not Huntington Beach, Huntington Harbor, or Seal Beach?

 

[Mcdonna1980_IHB]

Sadly, I've been to every part of the OC except San Celemente. I would love to know more. What do you like about it Irvine Renter?

 

[hs_teacher_IHB]

I suggest you move to Fountain Valley - it has schools comparable to those in Irvine, yet it's not cookie-cutter suburbia. It's conveniently located near the beaches of Huntington and art centers in Costa Mesa. Although the Orange Circle would be a good place for you, the surrounding schools leave much to be desired.

 

[irvine_home_owner_IHB]

Just want to mention Irvine.

I know it's not on your list... but I still have to mention it.

Good luck.

 

[MightyAlweg_IHB]

I can't help but weigh in on the broader cultural issues you've mentioned jefa.

I live here in OC but spent 20 years living in the Pacific Northwest, in Seattle and Portland. My friends up in the NW are mostly all gay or lesbian and are all lilly white over-educated profesionals in the "right line of work" socially and culturally. (Landscape architect with two Harvard degrees, director of Pierce County AIDS Foundation, Intel mathmetician, etc.) They all consider themselves cutting-edge PC and socially progressive with loving hearts and expansive minds. But the dirty little secret is that they are all horrible snobs who look down their noses at the middle and working classes who dare drive the wrong car, or buy toothpaste at the wrong store, or order the wrong entree at the wrong restaurant, or wear the wrong jacket in the rain, or live in the wrong house in the wrong neighborhood that looks too planned. I love them dearly as friends from childhood, but honestly they can be boring snobs trapped in a sterile white box they created for themselves.

As I just got back from an 8 day trip to Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula visiting with many of these old friends, I think I can plug in to your quest for a social niche here in OC. The short answer is, you are going to hate it in most OC communities.

Personally, I love it here and have found fabulously hilarious locals to populate my life with. I do chuckle at the botoxed housewives gliding around Fashion Island, or the poseurs darting around the Irvine Spectrum parking lot in the leased BMW 3 Series that they couldn't afford to buy a new set of tires for. But I have embraced the local cultures found here in the varying communities, and can appreciate why millions of people of all races and creeds have moved here to find a quiet street in a planned community free from crime and violence and social strife.

But if you are looking for a neighborhood full of the right people living in the right houses to gain an approving nod from the Prius drivers of Queen Anne Hill or the U District, then I really think you are going to struggle here in OC. You should hear the snobby comments my Seattle friends make when they visit me in OC on occasion. Except for the day I take them to Disneyland, where everything really is fake, they have all decreed Orange County to be "fake" and can't understand why I don't live someplace "real". It all just keeps me chuckling! ;-)