Irvine or LA for a single mom?

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by mr_california

It all depends on what the original poster is looking for. Irvine is better by your standards, but Berkeley is better by some other peoples standards. The poster said that they liked the more liberal mindset in Berkeley, and the mentality between Irvine and Berkeley is very different. So is the lifestyle. The Bay Area is a much more walkable area and has a much more urban feel in general. Orange county, with a few exceptions, is a place where you drive everywhere and is mostly shopping centers, chain restaurants and endless housing subdivisions. For me, I prefer Orange County, but most liberal minded people prefer the Bay Area. I know that there are area's in the East Bay, close enough to Berkeley, that have clean neighborhoods, low crime and well-rated schools where the cost of living will be similar to Irvine, if not slightly cheaper.

These are very good points. Most of Berkeley's neighborhoods are walkable, and many are scenic, too--a pleasure to walk. It's funny; when you grow up in Berkeley, you take these things you mention for granted, but then when you move away, you discover, that much of the rest of the US isn't like that.

[InSearchofSomethingMore]

Wow! I am just realizing now people have continued to respond, this is amazing! I stopped getting email notifications and thought no one was writing anymore haha. Thank you everyone SO MUCH for all your answers! I have to tell you that I had to make a decision on my offers and chose Irvine. I know if it was just me, I would probably opt for Berkeley. But with such a young child and after much research (a lot of your posts confirmed that research too), we decided that Irvine would be a better place to raise a child. Although as someone mentioned above, it is totally possible that once the novelty of things wears off, I may be complaining about the same things I'm complaining about now (just not winter, and possibly not the antimaskers and/or trump flags. Not sure if anyone follows Canada's news but Calgary's number of active cases per capita is double that of India right now). Irvine's faculty housing is also cheaper, of much higher quality, and much more developed than in Berkeley. Just to clarify what faculty housing is - UC has an amazing program where the university owns some properties that are rented out (and in Irvine, are also sold to) staff and faculty at cheaper rates than other places in the area. Apparently they do that so that the cost of housing does not stay in the way of recruiting people. Berkeley's faculty housing was more expensive though and it still seemed run-down. I guess we can't have it all eh? And I know Canada is a good place to live and raise a child, but honestly, California is too (I hope :S) and it will be nice to have a change of pace and change of scenery.

Thank you all again so much!! By the way, feel free to keep this thread going, it is very interesting to read about people's different experiences in these different areas. I am a person who moves a lot (which I hope not to do now that I have a child).

[InSearchofSomethingMore]

[quote=InSearchofSomethingMore;60945589]

Originally Posted by NORTY FLATZ

This is the first time I've read a post, where the criteria is the "majority political leanings" for a city.

Why go to a location where the majority population has views other than yourself? Think you're going to change somebody? (Would they have a possibility of changing you?) See where I'm going with this?

Oh no, sorry, I meant that I wanted to move somewhere where the majority of the population would have views like mine. At the moment I live where the general views are different from mine and it's exhausting. So I wanted to compare the pros and cons of the areas where I have received job offers. And I wanted to hear more about Irvine's conservatism to see if it's something I could live with or if it's too close to Calgary's

[mr_california]

I wouldn't say that liberals are a majority of the population in Orange County. Especially the Berkeley types.

[Racer46]

[quote=InSearchofSomethingMore;60945594]

Originally Posted by InSearchofSomethingMore

Oh no, sorry, I meant that I wanted to move somewhere where the majority of the population would have views like mine. At the moment I live where the general views are different from mine and it's exhausting. So I wanted to compare the pros and cons of the areas where I have received job offers. And I wanted to hear more about Irvine's conservatism to see if it's something I could live with or if it's too close to Calgary's

I am curious, why are different views exhausting?


I lived for many years in OC. I never had any issues with anyone about politics. In fact have never had any problems with it anywhere I have lived in CA. Never discussed, etc. The only time I really heard of it was from people who were so active they pushed it into normal every day conversations.



Too many other things to do there to get irritated about politics in everyday life.