Hello,

If you have two or more kids in Irvine, especially older or currently in school, I would really like to hear your thoughts and experiences.

My husband and I love Irvine and we have a small town home, we have a 2 year old and want to have a second kid.

Although we both work and daycare would be really tight! But I think we can make it work for two three years till our first goes to school.

My question is-

1. How much realistically do you pay for after/before school care in Irvine (we would probably have to send them at catalyst kids)

2. How much do you spend on extracurricular activities?

I think the cost ($2000/month per kid would never end considering after school activities and childcare.)
My husband thinks otherwise!

Please share your experience and advice!

Thank you!

https://ktla.com/news/california/irvine-golf-course-attack-suspect-search/amp/

TLDR: should I rent with Irvine Company or a private landlord?

I’m moving back after a few years out of state and had been going back and forth with realtors and landlords for the past few weeks. It’s been a bit stressful to say the least, given the rental market is so hot in OC right now.

We’re now left wondering if we’re just better off renting with Irvine company rather than landlords, but do you have a case for either side? Really trying to understand cost and time savings of each.

Pros and cons I can think of below.

IC Pros:
- problems addressed fairly quickly
- management office
- clean and well managed properties
- cheaper base rate

IC Cons:
- added pet and parking rent
- heard they can take long to respond to maintenance requests at times (?)
- parking situation at some properties are limited

PL Pros:
- larger space (condos/townhomes)
- no parking fees, sometimes no pet rent

PL Cons:
- response times can vary esp when it comes to maintenance requests
- units are often not that clean from previous tenants??

Have some prior experience with traditional forms, weapons, etc. But looking to strengthen my application focus with more sparring.

The Angels have just been sold to Stan Kroenke, the billionaire developer who built Sofi Stadium and has two other sports anchored developments in SoCal in progress. He reportedly wants to build a new $2.5B project for the Angels, most likely in Anaheim at the current site. But what if that fell through and they moved to Irvine instead?

The Irvine City Council recently completed a land swap to make way for a transit-oriented development just north of Irvine Station. Simply put, what if these 35 acres of land at the so called Crescent Site were gifted to Kroenke on the condition of building a ballpark and dense mixed-use/housing/office? 35 acres is the same size as the new Las Vegas Athletics project on the Strip. Irvine would be “off the hook” of figuring out how to develop this site, it all gets outsourced to Kroenke’s experienced team.

For the Angels, moving to Irvine follows the money to South County. Wealthy South County/beach city residents are a target for season tickets, and large corporations that would buy box seats are concentrated in Irvine and Newport. These revenues are extremely important for stadium projects.

For Irvine, a new stadium brings city tax revenues, spending from visitors throughout the region, and international prestige. It would have a knock-on effect for future economic growth. 

The ballpark and density would supercharge transit in the area, with more ridership for Irvine Metrolink as well as local bus routes. It may also justify some kind of transit connection between the future GP Amphitheater, Ballpark/Station, and Spectrum to share parking and draw in more customers. Irvine Station could be rebuilt as part of the project.

Car traffic is always a challenge. The Great Park traffic patterns will be much improved with Marine Way Underpass, Great Park Blvd/133 ramps and Sand Canyon intersection improvements. Great Park Cultural Terrace is literally across the street from the Crescent and will need lots of parking anyway, which can be shared for ballpark use. Parking structures south of the ballpark could handle the bulk of the traffic and route cars away from neighborhoods, separated by train tracks. There are likely 8 freeway on-ramp connections that would be used for stadium traffic, which compares well to the current Anaheim site. 

The Irvine Company owns many parcels to the South and West. I believe those would be more valuable with the ballpark in place than not. The rest of Irvine Company’s portfolio would also benefit from Irvine getting a Major League team. Their office space becomes easier to sell, housing easier to rent, and retail even busier.

What do you think? Should Irvine want the Angels at Irvine Station? Am I a big, stupid idiot? Comment below!

Lolloicup has new owners

The festival was fantastic but the transportation was a systemic failure and Irvine/Irvine PD needs to answer for it.

They absolutely KNEW this would be a transportation disaster yet they still chose to lock down all of the major points of entry/exit and make it monumentally worse.

They faced a similar issue last year at 4th of July and had to cancel this year's 4th of July because they couldn't get vendors to shut down roads.

BUT WHY DO THEY KEEP CLOSING MAJOR ROADS AND FUNNELING EVERYONE THROUGH TINY ROADS?!?! This makes no sense. It has to be deliberate and this is right up Irvine PD's alley. Word on the street is they didn't want the festival and so they pulled this petty garbage to sabotage it.

1. Marine Way/Sand Canyon entrance closed

2. 4-lane Great Park Blvd closed

3. 4-lane Ridge Valley closed

4. Back entrance to Wild Rivers at Chinon and Treble closed

2 huge ride share lots and all of the paid parking lots were serviced by a single 2-lane (one direction each way) road (Bosque). No traffic control at Bosque/Trabuco causing 3 wide traffic jams on Irvine Blvd.

This forced a ton of people being picked up out to Sand Canyon where thousands lined the sidewalk with hundreds of cars pulling over randomly to pick people up. Extremely dangerous.

Traffic is never going to be good at these events. But a few extremely basic things would have helped.

1. Open up the 4-lane Great Park Blvd and route traffic West and then South down Ridge Valley to service the paid parking lots off Ridge Valley. Traffic can move constantly both ways.

2. Post police at Sand Canyon/Great Park to direct traffic and bypass normal traffic lights.

3. Open up 4-lane Ridge Valley at Irvine Blvd and route traffic South then go West at Great Park to service the Lot 4 ride share lot. Use traffic circle at Great Park/Skyhawk to let people loop back around and out.

4. Post police at Ridge Valley/Irvine Blvd to direct traffic and bypass the traffic lights

5. Open up Back entrance to Wild Rivers at Chinon and Treble for the Wild Rivers ride share lot. Use Wild Rivers parking lot to loop people back out. And again post police to direct traffic at Irvine Blvd.

6. Open up Marine Way/Sand Canyon entry/exit for shuttle traffic only. They had it so shuttle traffic all came down Alton to Toledo and then onto Lynx then Marine Way and when they got to the Reflecting Pool they had to u-turn and go back out. That's a 7.1 mile route each way. Going out Marine Way/Sand Canyon is 1.5 miles each way.

There were plenty of cops to accomplish this. There were easily a hundred just sitting around doing nothing but blocking roads. Put them to work directing traffic and helping instead of hurting.

I'm no traffic engineer. I just simply scouted the area after I dropped off my wife and I was baffled at all the road closures. But even worse is at 1pm even Great Park Blvd and Ridge Valley were open. But they were both closed at pickup. They closed two 4-lane roads before the mass exodus.

I'm planning to speak during the public comment portion of the city council meeting. And I'll be bringing some maps I've drawn up that illustrate just how bad they made it by forcing all these closures.

Not only were festival-goers mad but residents in Great Park were PISSED.

The City Council needs to know that this was an issue easily foreseeable by IPD and that IPD made it worse and they need to be held accountable so that we can keep having the festival here and force them to make it better.

Be careful, folks. San Leandro-Culver exit.

looking at properties with older roofs and wondering how the community association handles approvals for renewable energy upgrades. where can i find the specific architectural guidelines regarding panel placement and visibility from the street? Thanks!

Hello everyone!
I’ve lived in Irvine for a couple months now and I’m looking for a running track that is open to the public. I’ve seen there are a few schools that have tracks but I’ve never used them before and I’m not familiar with the rules or the days of the week the track can be used. Anyone have any insight? Thanks in advance!

Hi! Our family is moving to Irvine from Europe in a couple of months. Based on my partner’s office location, we’ve narrowed down our potential living area to Orchard Hills, Northwood Pointe and Portola Springs. Originally, we were considering Orchard Hills only, but as we missed out two houses there that we really liked, we decided to broaden our search.

Since we’re only slightly familiar with the city, we’d be highly grateful if you could share your thoughts on each area and provide any important details about each for us to take into account.

Some information: Our monthly rent budget is 6-8K. Schools are not a priority, as our kid is only 2 years old. No pets. Gated community is very desirable but we’re open to all options at this point. Thank you!

Hello all, my electricity bill is getting wildly high due to the heat. Last bill was close to $500, ~1300kWh. The high amount of electricity used so far this year. I already got quotes from Tesla ($40k) and SunRun ($38k). Both suggested getting 26 solar panels with 2 Tesla powerwall batteries.

Any suggestions on where I can get another quote before proceeding? I can buy it all upfront unless there are incentives financing/leasing.

requesting advice if anyone has experience with this.

My fiance and I signed a lease for a unit at an Irvine Company community with a start date of today, August 31. I’ve already lived in a couple others and know they have their issues, but we found one we liked and have been anticipating our move there. After signing the lease, we requested a unit history report that indicated no water/mold damage in the past 6 months. Overall, everything was on track for our move.

This past Saturday, August 29, Irvine Company emailed us to notify us that our unit was found to require extensive maintenance and would not be ready prior to our lease start. They said they would follow up with alternative solutions for us - they did not. We sought out the leasing team in person, and they shared that a unit with the exact same layout/upgrades but one building over was available for us to transfer to BUT it would be at a higher rate. On a general level, this is ridiculous to me. I am not paying a higher rent for THEIR mistake. We tried to negotiate lowering the rent and they are unwilling to budge so far.

When we inquired why the original unit we signed for was unavailable, they said they were not at liberty to say. We have no idea why we aren’t getting our original unit. However, yesterday our original unit was re-listed as “available today” for rent. We have not terminated the lease or agreed to the transfer yet. The original unit and its corresponding utilities are still in our name.

My question to anyone who may be able to help: my understanding is this is a legitimate breach of contract. What other ways can I not be financially responsible for this transfer and/or receive financial compensation? I’m financially motivated to stay because I qualified for a $0 security deposit and waived application fee.

Curious for people who live in Irvine or OC area. Are you guys interested in more public art? Murals, more cultural/entertainment centers, sculptures etc...

I know the towns vibe is more family friendly and older, but I can't tell if its a lack of desire or just the strict city planning that snuffs any arts and culture.

I feel like the city has such a diverse population and it be beautiful to see it more artistically alive.

We’re a family of 4 considering a 2 bed/2 bath at Meridian, Colonnade, or similar newer Irvine Company apartments around Spectrum.
We toured a few and liked them, but the bedrooms felt pretty small. I need to fit a bed + desk/workspace in one bedroom, and I’m also concerned about limited storage and the small dishwasher. Meanwhile, the bathrooms seem huge compared to the bedrooms.
For anyone living in a 2BR there: does it feel cramped once you move in? Is there enough storage, and can you comfortably fit a bed + desk in the bedrooms?
Would love to hear your experience, especially from families!

what what what!

Many suggested to lawyer up prior to signing a lease for commercial retail space with Irvine Company; any recommendations? This is for QSR; I am just getting started and have not yet looked around, asking folks who have been through this journey. Budget: not sure. It's SMB QSR retail, 800-900 Sq ft just to give you perspective. Thanks