Safe city near LA, with places to walk to, family?

what city is within an hour from LA, pretty close to the ocean (also within an hour), safe location for kids, and local places to walk to (little stores, cafe, etc.) with bigger houses for families

or any cities in general near LA with places to walk to that are safe!?

help?

We see this a lot in this forum: Everyone is looking for the "cheap, clean, and safe". It's all about supply and demand: If it's in SoCal, then it's not going to be cheap to begin with. If it's clean and safe, then it's more expensive. If you need good schools, add a couple hundred bucks a month on top of it.

If you want to live here and enjoy the weather, then you have to pay for it. You put up with the smog and the traffic, enjoy the weather and pay your rent or mortgage. My advice is to start checking out craigslist, rent.com, and apartments.com if you are looking to rent. You鈥檒l quickly see that the minimum rent for a non-war zone is about $1,000-$1,200 per month for a studio or 1BR. Really nice areas (like the West LA area) easily run $3,000 or more.

"LA" is such a big place, there are so many neighborhoods/cities where you can live. Of course, even within a city or neighborhood, there are safer sections and less-safe sections.
In Los Angeles, some nice sections are West LA, Brentwood, Westwood, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Encino, Tarzana, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Granada Hills, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks, West Hills, Chatsworth.

To the east: South Pasadena, parts of Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Glendora, San Dimas, Laverne, Azusa, Rancho Cucamonga.

Along the beach: Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Rancho PV.

In Orange County aka "The OC": Seal Beach , Huntington Beach , Newport Beach , Corona Del Mar , Laguna Beach , Dana Point , Capistrano Beach , San Clemente , Brea, Yorba Linda, Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest

To the west: Agoura, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Simi Valley, Moorpark.

This is not an all-inclusive list, but it's a start.

The Conejo Valley is one of the safest in the region and covers areas of south Ventura and North Los Angeles counties along the coast. Many towns in the areas are known as "bedroom communities" for LA consisting mostly of family homes. Cities include Simi Valley (home of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library) , Moorkark, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, and Newbury Park just to name a few.

Simi Valley, Moorpark, and Thousand Oaks are consistently named some of the safest communities in the country for their size.

Two places come to mind, both next to each other and right in the middle between LA and the Beach towns.

Take a look at Downey CA or Cerritos CA. The only downside to Cerritos is the local ordinances get a bit strict for my taste.

Downey is where the Space Shuttle was born and the property now contains a new movie studio and shopping center. Downey is really on the move to make itself into a great place to live.

Well I recommed that you go to the beach. There are lot of things to do besides swimming which you don't want to do because it's cold. You can try Manhattan Beach which has a lot of great restaurants such as the KETTLE and it is open 24 hours. There are a lot of small mom and pop shops and its safe.

You can also try Redondo Beach it is a lot of fun. They have a whale watching boat, as well as an arcade area that is great for kids. On the board walk there are a lot of restaurants (El Torito, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chinese food, and Sea food) and a pub. The one thing that I really like is that there is a jewelry shop in which you can get a clam and open it and you get to keep what ever pearl is inside. I got two blue pearls in one clam.

Lastly you can try going to 3rd Street Promonade in Santa Monica there are a lot of things to do with a lot of shops and restaurants, a mall and a movie theatre.

Orange, CA in Orange County looks quaint, has sidewalks, old homes with porches and is family friendly.

Compton and Lynwood are nice places