Best town for bringing up young children in CA - San Diego, LA or San Francisco or other cities?

[thusha]

My partner and I are relocating to California (from UK). Combined salary of approx $280k and we want to be in a safe neighbourhood, near (within 30mins) of a beach and lively areas of CA - what would be your recommendations? How can we research into this smartly?

Not lived there, but my suggestions include La Jolla for San Diego and Manhattan Beach for LA. Both towns I really really liked, and had a safe feeling.

I'm from Southern California.
My choices would be my hometown of Rancho Palos Verdes or my parents' town of Ojai.
I grew up on the beaches of Southern California, specifically Manhattan Beach.
Manhattan Beach is beautiful and doable but the area is not entirely safe. It's ok. Attractive. Crowded though. Lots of my friends have very happily raised their children there and lead good lives.
Personally, if I were raising my children in California, I'd relocate back to Rancho Palos Verdes (beautiful, safe, amazing school district) or Rolling Hills (basically next door and same factors... lots of horse trails). Or I'd move up to Ojai- very artsy... a bit akin to Santa Fe New Mexico and extremely safe, though a bit hot in summer (you're near the lake and not far from the beaches of Ventura County, plus a quick and beautiful drive up the coast to Carpenteria and Santa Barbara gives living in Ojai an extra boost).

La Jolla is ace - I used to travel there a lot for work. I’d avoid San Francisco; I haven’t been since before the pandemic but even then it was very grim in places.

La Jolla is lovely but pricey - are you buying or renting OP?

For LA I’d say Manhattan/Hermosa Beach is the best because the schools are great, it’s safe and kids can ride their bikes, go downtown and hangout with their friends etc. at a pretty young age. Sure there has been a slight uptick in crime but it is mainly theft from cars (often unlocked!) and bike theft. I feel safer in this area than anywhere I have lived before. Of course the trade off is price, it is getting to be unaffordable to buy or rent here for young families. I also like Palos Verdes or Rolling Hills as the other poster suggested but it is a it more spread out and quiet and you have to drive everywhere which ruled it out for me when I was looking for houses. Still a great place to raise kids

Look at foreign office information. I know last year there were parts of California that British people were advised not to go near

I am not aware of any part of California being subject to a Foreign Office warning to avoid unless it was during a high spike in Covid cases when CA itself was restricting travel and UK citizens weren’t allowed to visit anyway.

Nonsensical post. We’ve travelled frequently to CA and never seen advice of this nature! As with any large city, there might be specific areas that you’d be best off night etc, but that is not what the OP was asking about.

That was because we were considered by the States to be a red list country (covid). You could only go to the States from Britain if you were American and/or making an emergency trip to the U.S. during that period. None of that exists now.

Port Hueneme is really lovely. Just north of LA. Pretty beaches.

I wouldn't raise kids in SF itself - I lived there for some time and am familiar with the schools. I moved away before having kids. But the wider Bay Area is good, had friends with kids in Orinda which seemed nice.
LA - wouldn't choose to live there (did have the choice, but decided against it). You really do have to drive everywhere.
Not been to San Diego so can't comment.

Great to hang out there. Great day trip. No to living there or nearby Oxnard. Swerve time!