[vecinu]

Isn't Irvine full of strip malls, copy/paste corporate restaurants / chains and lack identity or urban planning (With public transit, lots of parks, walk-ability)?

I fail to see why we would hail Irvine as a great city when it's just a money maker for the Irvine company as a generic suburb.

They just happened to develop land that was in high demand due to its proximity to the coast, what else does it have going for it?

[VirusNewbie]

Irvine decided to put a 'strip mall' next to every major development so almost any house in irvine is a 10 minute walk from a grocery store and a handful of fast casual restaurants.

They've also created a very popular 'urban-esque' area by the Irvine Spectrum, where numerous automotive HQs are, Amazon has a large presence, all within walking distance of a huge number of mid rise apartments.

>I fail to see why we would hail Irvine as a great city

It's one of the most popular places right now to move to. It may not be your preference, but it seems it's popular enough to have prices go through the roof.

[vecinu]

> almost any house in irvine is a 10 minute walk from a grocery store and a handful of fast casual restaurants.

How many people actually walk in Irvine? Based on the number of highways and lanes through Irvine, you will have a very difficult time convincing me it's different from most suburbs where you leave your house and jump into a car to do anything.

Putting a "grocery store" or a "handful" of restaurants near a home is useless is they don't want to use that store or restaurant. I end up having to drive 15-30 minutes RT to get to a TJ's or ALDI because the Ralph's where I live is incredibly overpriced and has horrible selection of fresh fruits and veggies.

> It's one of the most popular places right now to move to Where is the data for this claim? The data I see doesn't list OC as growing. [1] The only articles saying Irvine is one of the fastest growing cities is usually local Irvine news sites and they don't even cite any data for the last year. [2]

[1] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-05/here-are... [2] https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/orange-county/inside-the-issues...

[VirusNewbie]

>Where is the data for this claim? The data I see doesn't list OC as growing.

Home prices are a good indicator. I'm talking Irvine specifically, home prices have skyrocketed in the last 15 years.

[vecinu]

You should look at home price growth for California in the last 15 years, Irvine isn't even in the top. The Bay Area, parts of LA and San Diego lead the pack in price increases.

You might not be aware because you haven't looked for a home in the last 10 years?

[VirusNewbie]

You can’t look at aggregate city trends, especially given that it is trendy for builders to focus on high end or luxury.

According to redfin the city I live in (adjacent to Irvine) is in the top 10 in California but that is only because there have been a rapid rise of new developments that are significantly more sq ft than the average house.

The right metric is to check YoY model matches in various neighborhoods to see, but that isn’t reported on.

[RestlessMind]

> full of strip malls, copy/paste corporate restaurants / chains and lack identity or urban planning (With public transit, lots of parks, walk-ability)?

That sounds like ideal American suburb which a lot of Americans seem to prefer. If not, by now we would have seen it getting decayed.

> as a generic suburb

What's wrong with generic suburbs?

> They just happened to develop land that was in high demand due to its proximity to the coast

Seems to fit description of this new place too (proximity to SV and SF)

[ProfessorLayton]

A lot of what's wrong with generic suburbs is that they're not paying enough to cover their expenses (Prop 13 in CA) and the infrastructure that supports them is indeed decaying.

Of course a lot of people prefer their expenses get subsidized.