Considering Long Beach

463,218

Population

Sunny Days: 287

95100 Affordability

95100 Schools

75100 Diversity

80100 Safety

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LookyLOO Review of Long Beach?

The Coast

What did you expect? Located along the beautiful SoCal coast, Long Beach’s beaches and public parks are the ideal settings for the city’s dependable highs of 85 and lows of 65. Warm, without the humidity of the Great Lakes or the stormy weather of the Southeast Coast, Long Beach might be the top destination for those looking for a long day at the beach (bad pun, I know). For those looking for more in a city than just the beach, being less than 30 miles from Los Angeles and Anaheim, the home of Disneyland, certainly doesn’t hurt.

Good luck finding a parking spot. The downside that comes from being somewhere everyone wants to be is that, well, everybody wants to be there. From droves of tourist crowds to sizable homeless populations, current Long Beach residents complain about the number of people consistently flooding into the city from all walks of life. If sharing is caring, then future Long Beach residents should be prepared to do a whole lot of caring for non-residents looking for the same lifestyle they are.

Lifestyle

Long Beach is one of if not the most affordable big cities in California. There are stunning neighborhoods with fabulous homes and plenty of affordable beach apartments and condos. Belmont Shore is a wonderful stretch of coffee shops, restaurants, boutique stores, and locals and tourists enjoying the beach and people-watching. Almost every weekend there is a festival or big-name concert and pretty much whatever you’re looking for: beach lifestyle, downtown party scene, or luxury living are all here.

If you want to see the happenings in Long Beach check out the calendar of events.

Worklife

Long Beach has an incredibly diverse employer base. Aviation and aerospace are huge here - ditto healthcare, hospitality, tourism and technology. The Port of Long Beach is a massive driver of the local economy but really a whole range of things make it all work. The SoCal location, warm weather, and quick trips to LA or San Diego via freeway or anywhere else via airports make it a great place to do business. The office structure is split between big suburban office parks and downtown financial and creative class office types. Pre-Covid there were plenty of people living in the burbs and driving to suburban office spaces or living downtown and walking to downtown spots. Everything feels pretty much up for grabs now.

Schools

Long Beach Unified School District is a highly rated district, rating an "A" on niche.com. It gets an "A+" for College Prep and A for Diversity.

LBUSD assigns schools based on geography/neighborhood but families can apply for an interdistrict transfer and they are frequently granted.

Part of what makes LBUSD special is the absolute pearls among the schools in the district. Some of these superstars include:

-California Academy of Mathematics & Science is the #1 rated public school in the entire state of California and receives an "A+" on niche.com. It's outside the border of Long Beach, in the city of Carson, but it's a magnet school so kiddos from all over can apply.
-Eunice Sato Academy of Math & Science is the #4 rated Public Magnet in California, focused on STEM, and receives an "A+" on niche.com.
-Polytechnic High School is another STEM-centric gem in LBUSD, receiving an "A+" on niche.com as well. High scores for Academics, Teachers, Diversity, and College Prep.

There is a theme to the high-performers in LBUSD, the district skews high for STEM/Tech-centric schools. If that interests you or your kiddos, you'll very much like it here.

Why You Should Move Here Now?

Work Hard, Play Hard

While most of the attention (understandably) goes to how beautiful this beach city is, the weather isn’t the only thing with a strong forecast. The job market in Long Beach is growing with employers (such as Boeing, Frontier Communications, and California State Long Beach) from diverse industries providing locals potential jobs if your WFH dream falls apart. If on the other hand, you maintain your WFH setup, then Long Beach is not a bad place to work from either.

Reviews of Long Beach from Locals

No Clouds, More Crowds

akathisiac
Living in Long Beach
2y ago
✭✭✭

Moved from the East Coast (NJ most recently) to LB in 2019. I love it here, but it's a very different place than West LA.

LB can be really fancy in some little pockets, but it's also super run down in many others. The air quality is pretty rough over much of the city. Rent is rapidly rising here to the point where many places you'd want to live are getting close to Santa Monica prices.

Also, it's not so much a "beach city" as it is a port town; the beach is kinda gross (the LA river empties here and the breakwater keeps the tide from turning over the water as effectively, lots of trash in the water). You can get to cleaner beaches in either LA or Orange County in a 20min drive though.

That said, in my experience it's a lot more lowkey than many other parts of LA. It's a super diverse, largely working class city. There's lots of cool niches to discover if you're persistent about exploring. People are a lot more relaxed and less career/image-focused, and there's a sense of informality that I really love about this city (even as it brings frustrations too.)

For more reviews of what living in Long Beach is like from locals check out: The Reviews.

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Long Beach, California

The LBC