So, I’ve been searching for the city with the perfect weather, and I think I’ve found it. According to www.worldclimate.com, the average high varies from 65 to 77 degrees F (18 to 25 C)! I currently live in New York City, which would be the world’s most perfect city if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s too damn cold half the year to have any outdoors fun.
So, the weather’s perfect, but how is the actual city? For example, is it easy to reach outdoorsy activities like biking, hiking, etc.? How’s the crime rate? Is it safe to live there? How are prices? What would you say the monthly cost to live there is for a studio apt? (NYC studios seem to cost about $2000/month in Manhattan, about $1000/month in Queens, etc.) Also, are there a lot of opportunities for software engineers?
Please tell me as much as you want; the more info I have the better.
Oh, and feel free to recommend other good places to live.
Well, I’ve never lived there but my good friend does and he HATES it. Hates the traffic, hates how long it take to get anywhere, etc. etc.
That being said, he was forced to move there for his job, from San Diego which he loves, so I’m sure that is contributing.
I helped him find an appartment - he’s in Redondo Beach which is a lovely neighbourhood - it’s a 1 bed room, about 600 square feet and he pays $1250, which I think is pretty par for the course.
Hermosa Beach and Torrence are also really nice, and comparably priced. I don’t know too much about other areas.
I know nothing about the job situation.
FWIW, San Diego seems to be prettywell universally loved by everyone I know who’s ever lived there (quite a few people) - I spent a bit of time there and it seemed pretty nice. Also, it’s right accross from Tijuana, so you can head down there for day trips singing the Wall of Voodoo song and buying cheap mexican silver.
My parents have been living there for almost 30 years, and I lived there myself for 7. So I know the city pretty well.
It’s a huge city, with the usual issues of a city that size. Some very nice neighborhoods, some very ugly neighborhoods.
There’s plenty of stuff to do, but you may have to look for it. The city is diverse enough that there is just about any activity or recreation you can think of – with the exception of those that require a cold climate. And even they can be found within a reasonable driving distance.
It has a reputation of being a city of superficial people in the entertainment industry, but it also has many scientists and engineers (my father is one), and millions of plain men and women just getting on with their lives.
However, I must say that many parts of the city get quite a bit hotter than 77 degrees in the summer!
Also, in most of the city there is not much public transportation, so you’ll almost certainly need a car. That’s starting to get a little better. My parents live pretty close to a subway station, and they can actually get to some desirable places via the subway now. Such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
I’ve only ever been in L. A. once, and the first thing I can tell you is, it stinks. Literally. There’s a sort of smell best characterized as “brown” that pervades absolutely everything. In Pasadena specifically, where I spent the most time, there’s also a pervasive smell of flowers, but it accompianies, not masks, the brown smell. Remember that old commercial for some air freshener or another? “Now it smells like dead fish and roses!”. Obviously, this is more important for some folks than others, and I assume you get used to it, or nobody would ever choose to live there.
“Los Angeles” is a big, diverse place. From the W-friendly enclaves down behind the Orange Curtain (Orange County) to the desert wellspring house developments of the Inland Empire (Riverside County) to “The Valley” and the vast suburban tract clones of Ventura County, to the diverse, hipster and old money neighborhoods in L.A. County, you can find pretty much any demographic you want.
Some specifics: the temps are pretty moderate and the climate is best described as Mediterranean. Today, here in Pasadana in early December, it went from about 45F to 80F. Occasionally it’ll nudge to the thirties, and in midsummer we might see a couple of weeks in triple digits, but overall its comfortable shirtsleeve weather all year round. It’s slightly cooler toward the ocean, thanks to the seabreeze, and hotter in the summer out in the “909” (Riverside County and beyond). You also have to pick up on the local venacular for places and highways; it’s not “Interstate 5” or “I-5” but just “the Five”. Nobody refers to Orange County as “The O.C.” except on that t.v. show, and while Hollywood is a place people talk about in terms of the entertainment industry, as a practical matter most of the industy is located outside of its domain.
Costs: $1000 should get you a studio pretty much anywhere; somewhere between $1200-$1500 is a one bedroom apartment, and it goes up from there. Coming from New York, you’ll actually enjoy a little rent relief, unlike everybody else that comes here (save from San Francisco) who starts gagging at apartment costs. Housing is out of sight and likely to remain so, even when house prices start falling. I will be accused of hyperbole, but virtually no one that lives here is a native; most of the people you meet will have come from somewhere else.
Activities: dude, this is why I live here. In L.A. county, you’re pretty much within an hour’s drive or less to mountains, ocean, desert, whathaveyou. Mountain biking, surfing (down toward San Diego), hiking, sailing, snowboarding, diving, rollerblading on the beach; you name it, it’s here. And (save for backpacking, diving, snowboarding/snowskiing, and surfing) there really isn’t a “season” for any of it; you can pretty much do any of it all the time. The Sierras are just a few hours to the north for hiking and backpacking fun, and Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is widely considered to be one of the best skiing and snowboarding areas in the United States. And while L.A. is frequently derided for being a “culture free zone” there is in fact a thriving underground/alternate music industry, theater, and other cultural activities. There are serveral good schools in the area for computer science and information, including UCLA, UCI, UCR, CalTech, and USC if you’re interested in grad school.
Safety and crime: People get scared about the earthquakes and mudslides, which are admittedly hazards, but honestly, I’d rather live here than the Midwest–where tornados are a seasonal event, sinkholes are a constant worry, and your house is built on a flood plain. I do miss thunderstorms (the natives get totally freaked out at even the smallest rainstorm), but there’s no slipping on ice or shoveling snow. Crime: depends on where you live, but nothing like what you expect by watching television. There’s a lot of homeless (it’s a good place for them, too) but most are harmless, and outside of a few isolated areas street crime is infrequent.
Jobs: I don’t know about the local software industry; L.A. obviously isn’t a technology hub, but there are jobs around. L.A. is a major area for the defense and aerospace industry, which does employ a lot of software people. I don’t know specifically what kind of background you have, but if you have some embedded systems experience shoot me a resume and I’ll forward it on to my organization.
To address one late-breaking comment:
I’m not quite sure what you mean by the smell (my own sense of smell is subpar at best) but things do tend to get dirty easily and when you’re up in the mountains you can see a cast of yellow-brown haze that hangs over the area. (I’m told it used to be much worse.) Coming from Milwaukee where the reek of Lake Michigan could often be overwhelming, it just doesn’t seem that bad to me; however, someone accustomed to Big Sky Country where the air is fresher than a player on the make in a Santa Monica bar, it might be significant. I think comparing with NYC it would be an improvement.
On the whole, I like Los Angeles way more than I thought I would, and while I don’t know that I’ll remain here indefinitely, I don’t have any big urges to move away. (If I did, it would probably be upcoast to the Pacific North West.) [thread=336967]Here[/thread]'s a not-too-old thread by someone asking advice about moving to L.A. I’d also recommend watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, not because it’ll give you great insight into Los Angeles, but just because it’s damn funny. Best line: “I swear to God, it’s like somebody took America by the East Coast, and shook it, and all the normal girls managed to hang on.”
LA apartment costs just depend on where you want to be. Vacancy in the area is low, about 3%. Rents are going up now pretty significantly. Investors are buying up complexes all over the area and handing out rent increase notices once they take over. But all in all, you’ll still be cheaper than Manhattan.
Well as usual, Stranger hit almost everything. Speaking as a native, I can tell you that if you can’t find an particular activity in So Cal, it is not worth doing. As far as culture goes, if you like live theater, this place is heaven. Small equity wavier theaters abound. We even have Cities producing Broadway musicals. (They do a damn fine job BTW)
Oh and if you are checking out movies to find out about LA rent LA Stories with Steve Martin. It has every LA joke and cliche you have ever heard.
Be careful. It’s like that by the coast, but when you get inland a bit, the summers get HOT. I spent a summer in Pasadena and a summer in Burbank, and the heat was unbearable: many days 95F and higher; >100F not uncommon. Going outdoors was pretty much out of the question.
Also, my studio apartment in Burbank was $1650/month.
If you like New York, you will probably want to live in West Hollywood…yes, it is a very Gay city, but it also has lots of restaurants, nightclubs, movie theaters, shops, grocery stores and non-Gay bars all within walking distance (a rarity in LA). Plus, lots of hetero single women move there because it is a friendly, Gay city - so no matter what your sexual persuasion is, as a male, you will have a good time there. Rents are a tad high, but in comparison to NYC, they are practically cheap.
You will still need a car to get to work and drive to the beach, etc. but at least in West Hollywood, if you want to, you can park your car all weekend and still go out and have a great time.
We truly loved living in West Hollywood - but to be honest, traffic is horrendous in all of LA and the rents just kept going up and up and now, we are quite happy in Las Vegas. But we met the nicest people in LA, met lots of celebrities, partied hearty, saw great shows and concerts, and don’t regret having moved there at all!
The weather fluctuates a lot more than you might think - got damned cold at night in the winter (well, we had to wear thick jackets and scurried home from the bars to get warm) and in the summer, there certainly were a few very toasty days with some humidity involved. Plus, when it rains in California, it really rains! But for the most part, you pretty much never needed a jacket by day.
So, yes - Los Angeles most certainly is a good place to live - but West Hollywood is certainly one of the better places to live in Los Angeles.
There is a huge difference between hot in LA and hot in NY.
Hot in LA is 95-100 and 20% humidity. Hot in NY is 95 and 95% humidity. When it is hot in NY, you grab a knife cut a chunk of air stuff it in your mouth and chew on it for a while.
This last summer it was over 100 most of the time. I live not far from Woodland Hills which hit a state record of 119, near us it was running about 110-115 for weeks on end. But this year was unusual.
We’re in Studio City/Sherman Oaks, about $1450 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath.
Yes, that is true. Given a choice between those two, I would take hot LA. But allowed to choose between all the places in the world, I’ll take one where the summers are in the 70s, even if it means the winters are 40 below.
