Liar Loan said:
I don't completely dislike Irvine. It just lost it's way sometime in the early 2000's with high-density designs that I personally don't like. The Irvine of the 1990's was a place that I had great admiration for and actually spent a lot of time hanging out in.
I can remember hanging out in the pool area at Turtle Rock with the high school group from South Coast Community Church (now Mariners). I can remember making out with my girlfriend in the dorms at UCI. I can remember going to the Metropolis night club and eating at the In n Out on Campus Dr. more times than I can count. I can remember my band playing live on KUCI several times. I even played music entertaining the kids at Woodbridge High during lunch time, and University High during graduation week. It was nice when you could actually drive 55 MPH on Irvine roads legally with very few stop lights to slow you down. Those days are gone and I personally just don't like the direction they've taken Irvine in. It seems like the master plan was betrayed at some point.
I don't remember InNOut and Metropolis night club existing at the same time. I think it was Twoheys during that time. And I forget, was the club before the clothing store or after (I think they were both named Metropolis)?
Bonus points to who knows what the Taco Bell used to be. And I think Chik-Fil-A was multiple things prior too.
Since I'm probably one of the few here that have been in Irvine the longest, I disagree. I think Irvine evolved into what it was master planned to... a large urban community with mixed housing for families, professionals, elders and college students. Combine that with 2 large business areas (IBC and Spectrum), shopping and dining... and you have one of the best (if not *the* best) cities in the OC that has almost every other one beat on location, safety and education. Close to major freeways, short drive to the beach or the snow, between LA and San Diego... next to Disneyland, not too far from Vegas... and weather that's not too inland hot or too beach-foggy.
Liar Loan probably won't fess up to where he lives maybe due to anonymity and the fact that if we did a comparison, most of us would find his city lacking... but this *is* TalkIrvine. It would be like Panda defending Johns Creek... there just is no comparison.