Hi guys, my girlfriend is looking to move to Orange County. Right now she commutes to work from Hermosa Beach to Santa Fe Springs, all in Los Angeles county. I'm curious if anyone has spent any time or lives in OC and would have any recommendations for cities to live in. We value lots of outdoor space, safety, and a fun community.

Hard to answer without knowing your ages, priorities, or where either of you has lived before. OC has plenty of safe, fun communities. Like other SoCal localities, taxes and rents are sky-high; freeway traffic and governmental institutions are ****ed. If you like to play pokerz, there's nothing wrong with life in Cypress which is very near Hawaiian Gardens.

Fountain Valley

You need to be a little more specific. When you say outdoor space, do you mean big yards or beach/parks nearby or both? What do you consider "safe"? How tight is budget and is length of commute a big/small/non-factor?

I don't know what you mean by a "fun community"? People spend their time in their cars and homes mostly, same as L.A. What sort of community events are you looking for?

If a safe bedroom community with a short commute and a decent price is what you're looking for, then many of the cities to the south and/or east of Santa Fe Springs should be okay. To the south, La Palma/Cerritos and Cypress/Los Alamitos areas are worth a look. To the east, Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills (more space in A.H., but probably pricier too). You might try La Mirada and La Habra, there's some nice parks and hills near there.

Sounds like your gf is used to beach and a long commute, so Fountain Valley is a good rec, would look in Huntington Beach too.

I would pick Huntington Beach as the best value for the monies. I've live in irvine, fullerton and La Habra. Irvine and Fullerton are very nice but can be expensive, La Habra is a lot cheaper but some parts are a bit run down.

Except for a few zipcodes in Santa Ana there are very few bad places in OC.

I agree, esp. given that OP's gf lives in beach community currently, that Huntington Beach would likely be a good fit and good value. Sunset Beach is worth a look too, but may be a bit expensive.

Otherwise, I agree mostly, but not completely. Most cities in north OC and south LA county have some nice parts and some (at least somewhat) sketchy areas. Most of Santa Ana isn't really "safe" and neither are much of Anaheim and Garden Grove. You can judge in part by price, but also need to do some research and drive around each area to get a feel for it. Could find some safe, affordable, spacious areas in Whittier, La Mirada, La Habra, and Fullerton, and would be short commute.

Irvine is very safe, but more expensive and a bit sterile for some tastes, but not far from beaches and regional/state parks. South OC is more spacious, but farther and costs more.

Generally, beach cities and cities edging into the hills are safer, and the closer to beach or hills you are within each city, the safer the area will be. These are also going to be more expensive cities/areas. It would help if OP can be more specific about which priorities are most important to his gf and reason(s) she most wants to move from current location.

I would say Irvine, and to a lesser degree all South Orange County, is great with respect to space and safety, and a big fat zero on fun community.

People with kids move there because it's safe and has good public schools. It's probably the last place on earth you would want to move as a young person, unless maybe you are Asian and going to UC Irvine.

Huntington Beach is a dumpy beach town, a big step down from Hermosa, and probably wouldn't even save you much commuting time to Santa Fe Springs.

Having lived in both LA and Orange County, I'd say stuff in OC is generally cleaner and newer, there is less traffic and more parking, definitely more boring and culturally bland.

I agree with you mostly, although I tried to be a bit more P.C. in saying so.

However, I wouldn't say Huntington Beach is a dumpy beach town. It's not exclusively rich white people like Newport Beach, but that's part of it's charm and why it's somewhat affordable. Any city in OC north of Irvine (aside from perhaps Anaheim Hills or maybe Yorba Linda) is going to be quite mixed. There's going to be some really nice, clean, safe areas and some sketchy, dirty areas, although the degree and proportion of each will vary.

LA/OC is mainly a continuous concrete jungle where people sit in traffic to/from work, then retire to their home or drive somewhere else. If you're looking for a city where people are sitting on their porches sipping lemonade and being friendly to their neighbors... well, good luck. I'm not sure such places exist in an urban environment, esp. these days, but am more certain that if they do, it's not in southern California.

Again, if OP knows what his gf doesn't like about Hermosa Beach (presumably safe and near the ocean, which is spacious), then that might help a lot. I'm guessing it has to do with either price or length of commute, unless she caught some reruns of "The OC" and thinks it's paradise. If so, OC was paradise a few decades ago when it was orange orchards. Breaking news: they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

To the poster who said the only unsafe areas in OC are in Santa Ana: utter hogwash. My grandparents met packing oranges after both moved to OC from the plains/midwest before WWII. They lived in the simple house my grandfather (and his father) built in Anaheim, when it was literally surrounded by orange orchards. Eventually, those orchards were all gone and the area steadily deteriorated. They ended up with a 7-11 next door, complete with barbed wire on top of the fence. They were host to cars crashing through their back fence and into their front yard, drunks stumbling over from 7-11 and passing out in their driveway and front yard, and a stray bullet embedded in their front door. In a nearby area of Anaheim, I parked on a major street outside an apartment complex of a friend, and had my window broken and radio stolen. I once walked between these two areas with a friend in the late evening, and if I hadn't been with a friend, probably would have felt like running. I've walked around alone late at night in downtowns of LA/SF/Seattle/Vancouver... took the El train alone from Old Comiskey on the southside of Chicago after a long night game... this one mile walk in Anaheim was scarier, and that was 20+ years ago. When I lived in Garden Grove, I lived in a smaller (~20 units) gated apt. complex, came out and found my car window broken and radio gone.

I'm not pretending that north OC is Fort Apache the Bronx, but it's not some paradise where the only really bad area is occupied by some banditos in Santa Ana. There's a street in Santa Ana that makes you think you're in Beverly Hills and that's basically how I see most parts of north/central OC: whether you're in a sparkling wonder bread community or among the roaches in the slums, you can probably walk a couple miles or so and find the exact opposite.