I’m glad you are enjoying raising your kids in OB, spdrun. Most people would not agree with you that it’s a great place to raise a family and the OB demographics support that, but to each his own.

Unfortunately you have taken to bashing people like me who have chosen to raise their family in one of many very nice north county coastal suburban areas. You present the typical boilerplate and frankly tired argument that we are “fraidy cats” as you say. To the contrary, many of us are former OBecians or emigrated from South Mish or PB to the quite idyllic north county coast where the schools are top notch and the family lifestyle is amazing.

We still visit the old neighborhoods, with our kids, and we also travel with them to points around the country and the globe with far more (ahem) ‘character’ than OB will ever have, so the kids are plenty exposed to all walks of life. We simply choose not to live in a cramped high-density somewhat run-down area with a considerable hodgepodge population of homeless, drug users, transients, 60’s relics and young singles where the properties and lots are small and the public schools are not very good. That’s it, and it’s really pretty simple.