I disagree that Studio City as a whole is walkable. Perhaps if you live within a couple of blocks of Ventura Blvd.
If you live up in the hills then walking is not a very viable proposition. Studio City is generally bounded by Mulholland Dr on the south, the 101 freeway on the north and east, and Ethel Dr on the west (appx 1/2 mile west of Coldwater Cyn). The elevation change from top to bottom is about 800 feet.
Well, I was thinking of where my parents live – it is within a couple of blocks of Ventura Blvd, also within a couple of blocks of Laurel Canyon. In the flat part of Studio City. It’s easily walkable and plenty to do within walking distance. And the residential streets are very nice.
I think there must be 30 restaurants within walking distance of my parents’ house.
Ed
Watts and South Central are different. Watts is actually located in South Los Angeles, and South Central wanted to rebrand itself as South LA since the name sounded better than South Central. The problem is it’s inaccurate; South Central is in the southern part of Central LA, and South LA is in South LA.
For non-residents, renting a car is the best way to see the city, or surrounding suburbs if you’re interested. The bus/subway is also fine. Public transportation is good when you’re trying to get around in the city proper. Now getting from LA to, say, Norwalk is a bit more of a hassle. But what the hell is in Norwalk? I disagree with the statement that it’s fairly easy to park in LA. Hell, I got rid of my car because parking made my life hell. Not having a car was the best thing to happen to me. My neighborhood was completely walkable, and if I ever needed to leave, I could be wherever I wanted to go, sans car, in 15 minutes tops. But it is also worth adding that I lived in Los Angeles proper the entire time, and never bothered with the suburbs or the valley or any of that business.
Out of curiosity, where in LA did you live? I can only think of a handfull of neighborhoods where that would be possible, so I can probably guess, but always wonder what people mean when they say things like “Los Angeles proper.”
I’ve been to NYC, Boston, Syracuse, and Denver (and a few others), lived in Seattle and Austin, and visited in a few different areas of LA: Santa Monica, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, a couple places in the Valley, and whatever you’d call where the convention center is. In my limited experience, LA really is very unfriendly to pedestrians in ways I never would have thought of elsewhere: where there are sidewalks, they may not be located or maintained well. Crosswalks are a much bigger pain in the butt when there are eight or ten lanes to cross. Drivers don’t look out for you – they don’t expect to see pedestrians. Depending on the weather, it’s *hot *to walk. Everything is incredibly spread out, and the scale is simply different, especially compared to NYC or Boston. Doors are in the wrong place. Facades aren’t oriented to the sidewalks. There are huge parking lots everywhere. What looks like a “block” on a map turns out to be half a mile long.
Obviously there are areas with lots of small shops or restaurants that are designed for pedestrians, but they’re the exceptions.
My parents live in South Central, which is where I grew up, and is much easier to park in than the rest of the city (lots of houses, very few apartments), but is sort of far from everything but downtown. Still, it was easy enough to get around on public trans. After school, when I moved back home and got my first and only Los Angeles apartment, I lived in Hancock Park/K-Town. Man, I miss Korean BBQ and kimchi. A lot. By Los Angeles proper I mean the city itself, not a suburb. As in, my mail is sent to Los Angeles, CA and my zip code begins with 900 and my area code is 213. Although much of Los Angeles proper does not have the 213 area code (my parents’ house included), my apartment did.
I was figuring either K-Town, Westwood, Hollywood or Los Feliz. I used to hang out in K-Town a lot, and almost got an apartment there instead of the one we took in the Valley when we were moving out of our place in Hollywood. Of course now that we are in the Valley we never make it to K-Town anymore. No good reason for that either, it’s no further than the Westside.
Anyway, thanks. Like I said it was mostly curiosity.
I lived in Glendale for a few years and while I agree that it is not a happening place it is not particularly an "un"happening place either. It’s a place like most others, accept it has a huge Armenian community. And it is not a long drive from everywhere. Los Feliz, downtown, Pasadena are all fairly reasonable drives.
I could pretty much walk around Los Feliz when I lived there between Vermont and Hillhurst.
Yes, my bad, I meant prr, who is the person the subsequent posts are addressing. 
Which must be some corallary of Gaudere’s Law… :eek:
Well the confusion is obvious, but where did the detective hoofing it come from? And the implicit assertion that s/he is disingenuous about going to LA to interview some people?
I can get there in about ten to twenty minutes–then I spend half an hour trying to find a place to park.
This is true, but simply having a car is not enough to know the city. One could learn a lot about the place using public transit–but it’s not practical for many people who have limited time.
As I said above, if you have the time, you can see a lot of great places without a car. But the average visitor doesn’t really know where to go or how to get there.
Well, I use my car as little as possible. But for someone who’s in town for a short period of time, it might be advisable to use a car in order to get as much as possible for his/her visit.
Hah! That’s so correct! I think in some parts they don’t even have a sidewalk.
I’d like to know that, too.
It means within the city limits. But you can get by living in many neighborhoods without a car.
This is generally true, but in several parts of the city the sheer volume of pedestrians gives them ipso facto authority. Have you ever been to 7th and Alvarado?
While they’re still exceptions, generally all over LA County places are trying to change that. Whether they’ll succeed is another question.
I would too. It’s a lunch staple because of where I work.
Yeah. It’s either the 405 or the 101.
You mean the inference you took about coming to LA for interviews? You may be confused. A detective hoofing it around LA is what’s farcical.
This is an excellent thread! However, since I grew up in Glendale, I wanted to put in a good word for my home turf. It’s not a complete suburb and there are a few perks to living there. It’s a predominantly Armenian area, which means good cafes and great bakeries. The bookstores on the downtown strip are pretty nice and the local landmark is this ancient theater - more than 80 years old! There’s only one bar in Glendale that I’ve actually been in - a dive rock venue called The Scene - but there are fun places in the adjacent neighborhoods too.
The mall and the Americana have occupied a large section of downtown, but hopefully the area will retain its character despite that.
And the stretches that are inhabited are relatively remote, so that you’d never imagine you were in the middle of a huge city. On the other hand, there are certainly way more houses than you would see in a truly remote region. On the other hand, one of the several canyons that run through the mountain range was saved from tract development almost as the bulldozers were poised to roll, and became part of the National Park System. If you are planning a trip here be sure to check out Franklin Canyon Park, a shady and relatively verdant strip of road along a quiet slice of terrain. It’s not Yellowstone, don’t make a special trip just to see it, but it’s definitely worth a look if you are going to be here.
Unfortunately in many respects it isn’t. Nearly all the major cultural assets are on the basin side of the hill, but whether that’s due to disinterest and apathy on the part of the residents, or on the part of “IMBYism” (the opposite of NIMBYism) on the part of the patronage class isn’t clear. It may be a little of both. Had the SFV separation vote succeeded, it would have been just about the biggest city in America without an art museum. From the press I get the notion that the old-line Anglo population of the area are the ones who especially want to keep their area less dense and less urban, so the critical mass of population may not be reachable for things like museums.
The Valley was a bunch of farms that converted to real estate to make more money and get more water from Owens. I would never begrudge the Valley separate cityhood, but other than the friends I know who live there, I’d have little reason to go there.
Besides the movie industry (Disney, Warner Bros., porn, etc.) there’s no real reason to locate culture in the Valley other than the fact that the real estate is cheaper, or that you have a community at Sherman and Balboa, or NoHo.
If I were a millionaire who wanted to create a museum, the Valley wouldn’t be on the top of my list for locations.
Many people live in the Valley because of the cheaper rents, but work in the basin.
I know that. My comment was that the “hood” starts in South Central, continuing through Watts, all the way down to Long Beach. Not until you get to downtown LBC does it start to turn into a nice place.
You don’t have to get to downtown Long Beach for it to get nice. Just look south of the 405. Ranchos Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills Estates, Torrance are all nice places, and they’re closer to downtown LA than Long Beach is.
Well, they’re beach communities. Go straight south from L.A. to Long Beach and you’ll see what I mean.
These two addresses mail to the same place though.
XXXX Something Ave, Van Nuys, CA, 91405
XXXX Something Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 91405
But, yeah Van Nuys is a city in L.A. County.
And please don’t mention the hell that is the Van Nuys courthouse
Van Nuys is not a city in LA County. Van Nuys is a district or neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles. Van Nuys does not have its own police force, LAPD is just that, Los Angeles Police Department. If you call 911 and need an ambulance, guess who is going to show up? Los Angeles Fire Department. And the local utility? Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.
Sure, there is a police division in Van Nuys, which also happens to be the Valley Bureau headquarters, but by that logic we’d also have a City of Devonshire, City of Mission, City of West Valley, and so on.