<p>Hi everyone! I wanted to know any current student's opinion on Eagle Rock. I like that Oxy has access to LA's resources, but I wasn't wild about the area around the school...it was a little dicey and strange to me, but at the same time, I wasn't able to really explore it. Is there much to do in Eagle Rock? Does it influence your Oxy experience at all? Does anyone like Eagle Rock? :)</p>
<p>Would also like to hear what current Oxy students think of Eagle Rock. DS likes the school, and we thought the campus was very nice but not too sure about the surrounding area.</p>
<p>My D actually loves Eagle Rock. She’s finishing her sophomore year, been living off campus, right on Eagle Rock Blvd. next to Auntie Em’s, and likes that ER is a real community. She and her friends go to the farmers’ market on the weekend, walk the neighborhood (which she now feels a part of), go down to the stores at the intersection of Eagle Rock Blvd. & Colorado. Her housemate works at Spitz (on Colorado), another friend works at the video store.</p>
<p>She actually loves to wake up early on Saturdays and walk down to Starbucks, get her half iced tea/half lemonade, using this quiet “non college” time to think through things, mingling with the townies. I was pleased to hear that she was up at 8 am (you know how college kids are). At home, if we saw her up before 11 am, it was rare.</p>
<p>We’re from Coral Gables, FL - which is high end. She started growing up financially sheltered, let’s say. When we first visited Oxy, I too, couldn’t figure out the neighborhood. I’m not an urbanite, and it looked a bit rundown to me. Then I remembered my college years, with the basic dives on Marshall Street (Syracuse U.), which aren’t that different from ER shops/restaurants/services.</p>
<p>Soon after real life exposure to ER, she’s more of an appreciator of the eclectic and the organic, meaning homegrown. The vibe in ER is not chainstore, although they do exist, obviously. She likes the mixed ethnicity of ER, the quirkiness of it, the fact that you can eat reasonably in the neighborhood. Trader Joe’s is down the street, for shopping. There’s a great pizza joint nearby. There’s a CVS where she gets her stuff, within walking distance. She has no car, and doesn’t plan on one.</p>
<p>She likes hearing kids playing, seeing families. She likes the working class vibe, and as a parent who has basically done the normal upper-middle class, suburban parenting, I’m very impressed that she’s seeing such value in a community so different from that she has at home.</p>
<p>There was an article in the LA Times about how gentrification in ER has stalled, with the economic downturn, and that some of the cutie boutiques may go under, etc. I think a stall in gentrification is probably a good thing, actually. It gives a community a breather to regroup and decide what kind of place it wants to be.</p>
<p>Pasadena is just down the road when she wants her dose of uptown. But as a young student, I’d rather she experience the grittier, modest parts of LA, knowing that she can transport herself up and out BY HER OWN EFFORTS, rather than with mom/dad’s pursestrings. She’s now getting that message, is more frugal with her spending decisions and I can thank Eagle Rock for helping in more fully developing her worldview and for grounding her personal values.</p>
<p>Oh! I am offering to forward email addresses to my D, if anyone wanted to know more about Oxy. She owes me some favors! ;)</p>
<p>Private message me, if you want.</p>
<p>investor,
Thanks for the detailed respnse. Why did your daughter move off as a sophomore? Was it voluntary or necessary to find housing? Are there many upper classmen off? Does she walk to campus or drive? Are there safety issues at nigt in ER?</p>
<p>FWIW, I thought most kids lived on campus, and the area surrounding Oxy reminds me a little of north Denver where I went to undergrad. A blue-collar, mostly lower-income, Hispanic residential area that was fairly but not entirely safe for students. Am I way off base?</p>
<p>runmanstl: Some of the answers I know, and some are conjecture.</p>
<p>1.She moved off campus because she wanted less rules. She wanted to cook (her hobby), and a group formed to rent a house off campus. She’d been 3 years at a boarding high school so the charms of dormlife had worn off by the end of her frosh year. Strictly voluntary to move off campus, and I would say, could have been to the detriment of her gpa. Some of the stresses were the housemate choices/issues, but she made her decision and she has to live with the consequences. Our rule is if she gets a lower than 3.0 gpa, we’re “forcing” her back on campus, for senior year. Next year, she’s off campus again, with another group - all girls this time. On the upper part of the hill.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I think by far the vast majority of upperclassmen live on campus. It just sounded that way to me. I think lots of kids are happy on campus - just not my D! Also, there may be a new rule in force about on campus/off campus. I think if the school gives financial aid, that you have to live on campus. Something like that. I would check into it, if that’s a possibility with your circumstance.</p></li>
<li><p>She walks to campus, and the upside of the arrangement is that she plans her day better (according to her). So instead of flopping down in her dorm room, she goes to the library, or she goes to work out, or visit a friend, or meet at the Tiger Cooler. She has to organize herself better, living off campus, because she doesn’t want to walk back and forth a couple/few times a day. No car in the picture - she knows she’s asked for enough, financially, and a car is too much. I’ve offered a bike…</p></li>
<li><p>I will ask her about safety, as it’s paramount! Maybe she doesn’t share with me because she doesn’t want to worry me, but we’re pretty open with each other and she hasn’t given me info which is concerning. But I will ask, since her location, right on Eagle Rock, is just about as “urban” as any student probably has.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you again for all the info. I cross-posted with you earlier and will pm in the future with any further questions. </p>
<p>Now, just one more: how far away is Pasadena? We stayed in Claremont and left Oxy for USC when we visited in March. We did not see Pasadena which I understand is fairly nice.</p>
<p>You would have actually passed right by Pasadena, if you’d headed west on the 210. Pasadena is approximately 10 -15 minutes northeast of Eagle Rock. When my D has to go serious shopping, she goes to either the mall in Glendale (10 - 15 minutes west) or heads east on Colorado Blvd. to Pasadena. You may recall Colorado Blvd. as the main thoroughfare for the Tournament of Roses Parade. This street continues to Eagle Rock and is one if its main thoroughfares, also.</p>
<p>Pasadena is full of beautiful older Craftsman style homes, great tree canopies, a vibrant downtown (Lake Avenue is the main street) with lots of restaurants and mostly high end chain stores, a movie complex, etc. </p>
<p>Actually, last time I was visiting my D at Oxy, I actually stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast in Pasadena, it took us all of 10 minutes max to get to campus.</p>
<p>how was your daughter able to move off campus when living on campus is required for 2 years?</p>
<p>I believe she, along with others in the class of 2011 were grandfathered in, phasing the new housing rules for each successive class. The current Oxy website states that they’re requiring 3 years of on campus living, not the 2 that you mentioned. I’ll ask her for specifics, since it’s very confusing. I’m assuming that she knows, since this would affect her and her housemates, who will all be juniors next year.</p>
<p>ohh, i see. thanks!</p>
<p>(i meant 2 for her year. 
they’re changing it to 3 starting in fall 2009.)</p>
<p>Hey! So I don’t go to Oxy but I have a friend that does and she LOVES it there. I live in Pasadena and seriously it is about 5 mins away from oxy, but Pasadena is a huge city so depending on where you want to go it may take longer.</p>
<p>If you have any questions about Pasadena (such as the $2 movie theater, cheap eats, what to do) PM me! I also know stuff about Eagle Rock such as Galcos Soda Pop and Oinksters.</p>
<p>Would like to hear how is it going…anyone know about their physics program?</p>
<p>My D’s housemate is a junior physics major from Seattle, so I will ask for some input on this.</p>
<p>Grt, thanks so much.</p>
<p>Hmmmmm</p>
<p>Opinions vary I guess. Addressing the area around the school…</p>
<p>I am an OXY grad. I would not let my daughter live off campus. I suppose some young people like the “edge” of living in blighted Eagle Rock.</p>
<p>There is a bright side, there are plenty of body shops and crappy store fronts around to keep it interesting. And some down scale crappy greasy Spoons (Pat’s…Casa Bianca) There is not a nice area next to Oxy until you get to Pasadena, maybe Glendale. </p>
<p>I happened to work as a student security guard- there are *******s pretty regularly there and rapes that the school keeps very quiet- the campus is open to anyone to drive on to and lots of hills and bushy areas so I do not think it is terribly safe. While I was there a gal was raped walking from the Quad up that path with Thorne on the left on her way to Pauley (dorm).</p>
<p>We had a rape in Wiley- guy waitied din the bathroom for the first early morning arrival. I only know about these because I worked security for 2 years- again the school does not disclose them at all.
The kept it very quiet.</p>
<p>I had my car parked by Bell Young and someone ran into it and it was knocked all the way down the hill towards the art building and was totalled.</p>
<p>We had a peeper near Stewie residence hall for a long time, almost caught him a few times. When I lived in Braun we had a couple of full on hispanic gang bangers crash our Pit Party and went around and burglarized two rooms on the ground floor. Security came and stopped them, they had my friend’s high end bike, taken out of his room, in the back of their truck, the campus security guard chickened out and let me go.</p>
<p>The locals know the campus is easy pickings.</p>
<p>In sum Eagle Rock is an armpit, working class, shabby - it is patrolled by LAPD and they NEVER come around the campus, they are diverted to the gang bangers a mile away in Highland Park- which is a full on urban battle ground.</p>
<p>Please don’t tell me Eagle Rock is “quaint”. I grew up In South Pasadena and no one in their right mind chooses to go to Eagle Rock and the adjoining Highland Park.</p>
<p>I was stuck at Oxy because they offered me a full ride and my early decision school (Bennington) did not come through with any financial aid. Oh well.</p>
<p>Jeff, your profile says you were born in 1960. So the crimes and problems you mentioned were more than three decades ago. </p>
<p>I’m not saying it’s a perfect peaceful paradise there now, but I think it’s only fair to note how long ago the incidents you mentioned were.</p>
<p>FWIW-- When I was at Oxy-- and that was almost 30 years ago, the surrounding neighborhood was pretty rough. (I don’t remember it as being quite as bad as Jeff does, but I would not have walked around Eagle Rock, or off campus at all, by myself at night.) I did run by myself during the day in the surrounding area, and don’t recall being worried or uncomfortable. Oh, and at that time, Pasadena was just as bad-- Oldtown was a bunch of thrift stores and holes in the wall with a lot of winos hanging around.</p>
<p>We went on a campus tour at Oxy this summer, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the immediate neighborhood and Eagle Rock Blvd looked much nicer and well kept up than when I lived there. Have to admit, I didn’t see much of Highland Park on that trip, but what I saw was a definite step up.</p>
<p>Lunitari -</p>
<p>Hmmm…do you think things are better now? My classmate is on the Board of Trustees and they continue to have problems.</p>
<p>I was there last spring and yes the area immediately around the campus is better but Eagle Rock and Highland Park are still blighted.</p>
<p>Re the current state of affairs and crime:</p>
<p>I note in another threat Lunitari mentioned her daughter walks around the school without fear. I submit she she be afraid, and needs to know where she lives.</p>
<p>I got online with LAPD. The area has a high incidence f property crimes, burglaries, grand theft auto, auto burglaries, aggravated assaults, robbery from person and several violent- (weapons and injury) robberies</p>
<p>In the last month, the last #) DAYS, within 3/4 of a mile the following crimes were reported, these with a *** are on campus or within a few blocks</p>
<p>11-4 2200 blk Yosemite violent robbery
10-30 2600 Colorado robbery
10-31 4600 westdale grand theft auto
11-2 4400 york blvd theft from person</p>
<p>10-28 4300 Eagle rock Blvd violent robbery
10-27 4700 Eagle ROck Blvd Burglary
10-23 Eagle Rock & Colorado grand theft auto
<strong>10-22 4600 Alumni Auto burglary
10-23 5100 Almadon violent robbery
*<em>10-24 4700 Ellenwood aggravated assault
*</em>10-15 1500 Hazelwood auto burglary
*<em>10-17 4900 Stratford grand theft auto
10-22 1400 N Ave 47 grand theft auto
*</em>10-15 7500 Woodrow theft from person- robbery
10-17 5400 York Blvd burglary
10-21 5400 York Blvd grand theft auto
10-10 1600 N Ave 46 theft
10-9 5200 Stratford grand theft auto
10-13 5600 Fallston grand theft auto
10-12 1500 N Ave 46 auto burglary
10-13 2300 Merton burglary
*</strong><strong>on campus</strong> 1600 Campus Road Theft from person (robbery)
*<em>10-13 4500 Corliss grand theft auto
10-1 4600 York grand theft auto
</em> 10-5 Eagle ROck and York robbery- violent
** 10-7 4300 York auto burglary
10-2 1000 N Ave 51 Burglary
10-1 5500 York Aggravated assault
10-7 4100 York auto burglary
**<em>10-6 2600 Ridge Road grand theft auto
*</em>9-25 2000 Ridgeview auto burglary
10-1 4600 York grand theft auto
9-28 4400 Eagle ROck Blvd auto burglary
***9-30 5000 Coringa burglary
9-28 1700 Yosemitie burglary</p>