Is Artesia a nice place to live? (Los Angeles, Anaheim: middle-class, crime)

[citizensadvocate]

I see this city has a good amount of Asian goods and keeps a low profile in the media, as in I haven't heard too much news whether its crime or politics from this city. I do wonder is it a good place to live in? Though I heard it is among the last cities in the state in such a populated area that doesn't engage in much knee jerk feel good policies or banning this and that. For example the city allows fireworks stands and is among the remaining few to not have a "curfew." Nor does it have blanket night parking restrictions unlike its neighbor Cerritos. And its still reasonably close to rail transit options. Correct me if I am wrong.
Though may I ask How are the schools? It appears the issue with this city I see is the infrastructure is pretty old in this city and schools are no exception.
So can anyone can shed some light?

[AnthonyJ34]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

I see this city has a good amount of Asian goods and keeps a low profile in the media.
I wonder is it a good place to live in? I see it appears the infrastructure is a bit old.
Though I heard it is among the last cities in the state in such a populated area that doesn't engage in much knee jerk feel good policies or banning this and that. For example the city allows fireworks stands and is among the remaining few to not have a "curfew." Nor does it have blanket night parking restrictions unlike its neighbor Cerritos. Correct me if I am wrong.
Though may I ask How are the schools, access to rail transit?
Can anyone can shed some light?

It is known as 'Little India'. Prior to that, it was mostly Dutch and Portuguese. Artesia is a solid middle-class city. It does have a few ghetto-ish areas, but nothing too bad. I live in neighboring Cerritos; I'm a little over a mile away from the start of where most of the Indian shops are on Pioneer Blvd. Recently, the entire length of Pioneer Blvd between South St and Artesia Blvd was revamped; they widened the street, added trees and more pedestrian areas, and overall beautified that main corridor. It's a popular street, so it's often times crowded. The weekends are insanely crowded, with heavy foot traffic all along where the ethnic shops line Pioneer Bklvd.

The city is close to the freeways, close to Cerritos Mall, and pretty centrally located to many other So. Cal areas.

Artesia is not as restrictive as Cerritos, which is both good and bad; good because residents have more freedoms, but bad because there are always residents who will abuse those freedoms. The parking curfew for instance: Artesia has more congested streets than does Cerritos, with more cars parked on the streets at all hours. Also, most of the residential areas in Artesia are not quite as immaculately maintained as they are in Cerritos. Not saying that the homes in Artesia are junky, because most are not. But Artesia is more lax with their code enforcements and residential regulations than is Cerritos.

As for schools, I believe all Artesia kids go to neighboring Lakewood and Cerritos schools, like Artesia High or Gahr High, or Tetzlaff or Haskell Junior Highs.

Mass transit is the Metro that you can catch in nearby Norwalk, 4 or so miles north.

Artesia has a few bullfights that they put on every year at the Portuguese Hall.

[quizzer25]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

I see this city has a good amount of Asian goods and keeps a low profile in the media, as in I haven't heard too much news whether its crime or politics from this city. I do wonder is it a good place to live in? Though I heard it is among the last cities in the state in such a populated area that doesn't engage in much knee jerk feel good policies or banning this and that. For example the city allows fireworks stands and is among the remaining few to not have a "curfew." Nor does it have blanket night parking restrictions unlike its neighbor Cerritos. And its still reasonably close to rail transit options. Correct me if I am wrong.
Though may I ask How are the schools? It appears the issue with this city I see is the infrastructure is pretty old in this city and schools are no exception.
So can anyone can shed some light?

Go with Cerritos, neighbouring city with better schools.

[citizensadvocate]

Glad to see its very convenient particularly for those who like Asian goods. And based on Antony's answer it is also pretty diverse as it there are also Dutch and Portuguese influence. And its not too far from rail transit in the event one needs to go into the city or elsewhere. And that there are nice areas and not overrun by ghetto areas. I see its equally close to destinations in both Los Angeles City and its metropolitan area as well as to Anaheim and much of Orange County and not too far from the beaches.
I do wonder what drawn Asians to Cerritos and Artesia? For some reason Asian stores just tend to concentrate in certain hotspots in SoCal i.e Chinatown/Little Tokyo, west San Gabriel Valley along i10, east san Gabriel Valley near Diamond Bar, Artesia Cerritos, Anaheim, Irvine, Westminster, and not evenly spread.

By curfew I actually meant youth curfew rather than parking curfew which Artesia also does not have. The parking curfew is far less common as youth curfews but do exist in some unique Socal cities such as Fullerton, San Gabriel, and a couple of others. I have a pet peeve on youth curfews as they are just a feel good ordinance that does not lower youth crime or crime in general and cost the cities a lot of money to enforce and leads to inappropriate profiling. Alas it still receives bipartisan council support in many cities. There are hardly any cities in other parts of the state i.e the Bay Area with such policy.

While you pointed out Artesia is weak on code enforcement. Though one concern is that I read on yelp that some people have pointed out how Artesia while it does not have its own police department it has a parking control department that sometimes get carried away writing parking tickets sometimes in areas they have no jurisdiction in i.e within private property such as in a church or 99 ranch market for parking with a wheel on a line or other non fire lane code violation. In CA the only "parking" tickets that can be written on private land is if the vehicle violates the fire code by parking in the aisles/accessways on private land, or violates the ADA access code, or if the property owner/manager calls to report the vehicle for parking on the property without patronizing the venues. There are also stories of people ticketed in their own driveways as well. I wonder are these posts actually true stories and does it happen often or are these just isolated incidents. I guess they take advantage of how most people don't bother to get these invalid parking tickets thrown out. Otherwise it appears Artesia seems to be a city that doesn't stick its nose in people's lives in every possible opportunity unlike many other cities nowadays. I like it as I find that paternalistic cities that ban fire works stands just won't stop the thousands of M80s or other super loud explosive fireworks from being fired throughout the nights during the week of the forth of July it just hurts the law abiding residents who want a safe yet fun fireworks celebration as well as the non profits the stands benefits.

Though advising me of that some neighborhoods that may be junky would make me consider only buying in the newer, better quality, and lower density neighborhoods by a house with a bigger garage and parking areas. While the advantage of having a general parking permit program keeps parking from getting taken over by others, I heard that cities with general parking permit restrictions have a lot of administrative issues when dealing with guest parking permit procedures or when a homeowner has its access-way repaved. I really do not want to incur this extra headache when visitors come over or needing to work that blocks the whole driveway for days. While parking congestion may be an issue in order more dense neighborhoods I lived in many less dense neighborhoods that does not have parking restrictions yet normally have plenty of parking available on the street.

Also I would like to ask do Artesia kids and cerritos go to the same schools? Do the schools have a/c? Even at this day and age when everything else is air conditioned there are still many older schools that still sweater in the heat.