Daily Archives: August 16, 2006

17 Recognized Historical Districts in Long Beach

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How would you like to live in a 1938 ranch-style house in the California Heights neighborhood?  Or a Spanish Colonial revival house near Cerritos Avenue near Longfellow Elementary School?

Scattered throughout Long Beach are 17 historic neighborhoods.  A high concentration of older original homes makes Long Beach a heaven for architecture lover. 

What do you do to preserve the rich historical significance of such homes, especially when they don’t belong to you?  Do you watch investor tear them down and plant modern homes? Most residents are very divided on the matter.  Our beautiful new home at Casa Grande is not part of the recognized historical landmark because it places too much burdens on the owners, whom are doing a good job as is.  However, some owners don’t always take good care of their historical building.  The last apartment we rented was built in the late 1020′s but hasn’t been properly maintained and is in dire need of a complete over haul.  Deferred maintenance is a pernicious problem and costs a lot more money when it catches up with you.

I’ll post more on the different districts again as we get settled in our new place.

Why Buy in Long Beach?

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I was asked that question as dear friends of ours are moving back to the West Coast.  It struck me as simple and obvious, and yet I realized how many things we overlook in Long Beach.

First of all, people who buy in Long Beach either work locally or are close to Newport Beach and LA.  That’s a given.  What’s important is anyone can take the Metro line downtown and be in LA Downtown conveniently.  Newport Beach or most other places in Orange County are easily accessible at certain times through Highway.  The real winners, however are the ones who work locally.  This is where Long Beach really excels.  It is the right mixture of a big city with small communities.  Business wise, Downtown, Signal Hill and the harbor offers many places to work.  We still have many people who commute five miles or less.  And yet, Long Beach is not to big as to lose its indentity.  In fact, it has 17 distinct cultural district whereas LA has 20.

Another point in favor of our city is that it never appreciated as much as other cities around us.  This would make it seem our price fluctuation won’t be as hard as other over-appreciated cities.

Though Long Beach is a quirky city with strange rules and communities spread out throughout, it is a great place to work and live locally.  That’s my take on it.