Westminster

Westminster, known for its diverse neighborhoods and shopping areas, experiences moderate traffic. Auto accidents frequently occur on major streets and intersections leading to commercial zones.

First founded as a Presbyterian temperance colony in 1870, Westminster has since grown to accommodate over 90,000 people and a thriving economy. Included in that number is the largest percentage of Vietnamese-Americans in any municipal area in the nation—ever since the influx of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, Westminster has affectionately been dubbed the “capital” of the Vietnamese-American community. After Anaheim, Westminster was the first colony to be deliberately settled in Orange County but the first to be founded without any particular ethnic group or economic product in mind. Over the course of the following decades, farmers helped develop and expand Westminster, though they refused to grow grapes, despite the advantageous climate, because of the association with alcohol.