I have to agree that greater LA is vast. I mean, I live in San Bernadino county for Christ’s sake and for all intents and purposes, I’m in a suburb of LA. As far as I know, prices for housing don’t start to fall until you get pretty far north and east. I’m talking Victorville–which is what? 80 miles from LA?
I’ve been looking into housing costs a lot recently, and let me tell you how disspiriting it is to say “Well I am paying $830 now…” and hear somebody respond “But that’s good! I’m up to $1000!”
Housing is definitely cheaper out in the burbs, but I’ve lived in L.A. almost my entire life, and I would never consider moving there. I simply could not take the driving; I’m beginning to dislike intensely even just the 20 miles RT that I drive every day. There are now commuter trains from the Orange County and inland suburbs to downtown L.A., but the catch is you have to have a job that’s downtown, or not too far along one of the rapid transit rail lines. If your job is, let’s suppose, in West L.A. or Culver City, you’re out of luck. There’s no rail transit anywhere near those places, so if you were to commute in from Palmdale on the train, you’d still have a hour’s bus trip from downtown L.A. out to the west side. I suppose the weather is a big benefit of being here, and you don’t have to go anywhere to enjoy that. But if you have to drive 20 or 30 miles in heavy traffic to work, or to enjoy all the other attractions of the area, I don’t think you’re going to be very happy.
Housing is more expensive in California. There is no question about it. I find life in the Midwest to be miserable. I’ve lived in Columbus, OH for the past 4 years and I hate it. I’m moving to Dallas next month and can’t wait.
I lived in Long Beach, CA for a few years from 1994-1998. Compared to OH, I’d take it in an instant. Yes, you’re going to drive. But, the quality of life is so much higher there. The weather is nice. I’ve met some of my best friends in Los Angeles. If I had a bit more money, I might consider moving there again.
I find LA to be a more interesting city than New York.
If you are thinking of starting a family, I would suggest looking into some of the suburbs that have school districts separate from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Off the top of my head, I know that Glendale, Burbank, and (probably) Pasadena have their own school districts. They’re not the cheapest of suburbs to live in, but my family has managed pretty well. Plus, the Metrolink goes through Glendale and Burbank (the downtown Burbank train station is easily-accessible and in a pretty safe neighborhood) and the Gold Line goes through Pasadena.
Or look for a LAUSD school that has a significant amount of parental control. When my wife and I moved to LA three years ago the main reason we picked the neighborhood we did was because of the school (Westwood Charter). Although it’s a public school it operates more or less independently of the LAUSD bureaucracy and the mediocrity that implies.
We love LA, BTW. Yes, the traffic is horrendous, but the drivers are the best of any place I’ve lived in the country.
The smog isn’t bad at all, at least on the West Side. The air quality is far better than it was in the Raleigh-Durham area that we left.
Since you’re childless you might want to pick a funkier part to live in. Take a look at Venice Beach or West Hollywood or Los Feliz. You’ll generally pay a premium to live in the more child-friendly parts of the metroplex like Westwood, Culver City or Santa Monica.
I’ll echo what other people have said – you really can’t live “outside” the city. It’s too big. And the further out you get the more you cut yourself off from all the cool amenities that make putting up with all the big city crap worth it in the first place.
Remember, going anywhere in LA requires a serious time commitment. You want to think very carefully about what neighborhood you live in because you’re not going to leave it very often. This will have a huge impact on your quality of life.
If you’ve lived in Chicago you shouldn’t have too much culture shock in LA. I grew up in the midwest and lived in Houston for ten years when I was younger and I haven’t had any trouble adapting to LA’s rhythm. LA works the way I expect a city to work. (Unlike New York or some other east coast cities that have always seemed confusing and disorienting to me.)
Come on out! The weather’s great! There’s the beach and Disneyland and the Getty! There’s lot of pretty girls and boys! Gas hasn’t hit $3 yet and you can still buy a 2 bedroom house on the West Side for under a million!
My mom’s a midwesterner who moved to LA, and now she refuses to leave.
About the time it takes to get places - I always found that as long as you’re not trying to get somewhere during rush times, it’s not too bad getting around. I lived on the west side and had good friends in Pasadena and at USC, and was able to see them frequently.
Santa Monica also has a good school district. I know you used to be able to send your kids if you worked in Santa Monica, even if you didn’t live there. It’s probably still the case.
And there is something to be said about the weather in Los Angeles. I moved to New England a few months ago and we just got our first snow - I think I am going to freeze.
I love LA, but as you will note on my location, I now live in Las Vegas, like LOTS of ex-Los Angeles folks.
LA is great if you are young and adventurous. I would highly recommend West Hollywood. Granted, I am Gay and it was Nirvana, but even for my straight friends who lived there, the convenience of being able to walk to great shops, restaurants and clubs was worth it. Plus, it is just a fun place to live with lots of annual events.
So, why did I leave LA?
The traffic…you really have to see it to believe it and as most posts have mentioned this problem, it is not trivial.
The price of apartments or buying a home is just obscene. Crappy apartments turned into condos for $300,000 that your friends will politely say is “nice”. To get something really good, start talking half a million or more. My last apartment was not rent-controlled. Moved in at $850 and, about 8 year later, moved out and to Las Vegas when it jumped to $1,350 a month. The guys who rented it after we moved were paying $1,500 and that was almost 6 years ago. Who knows what it costs today for that place (corner of Crescent Heights and Fountain in West Hollywood.)
But I still say go for it. And if you are interested in the film industry, there are quite a few temp agencies that specialize in the studios. Get registered at all of those agencies. It is a foot in the door, and that is how I wound up getting a very well paying job at a major studio. And until you get your feet in those doors, go ahead and sign up for some of those “extra” agencies that send you out to be extras in films/tv shows. They are fun, you get to meet some cool people and the food is great.
Have a great time. Having grown up in Illinois, the weather will be a major treat for you as well. I remember the joy of wearing just a T-shirt to go visit friends on Thanksgiving Day.
Which reminds me of the time I was shocked to see a guy hitching on Santa Monica Blvd wearing only a jeans jacket, jock strap and army boots. If there was any doubt, I knew I was living in California when I saw that.
If it makes any of you Midwesterners who hate the cold feel better, I’ve been wistfully thinking of my stepdaughter who moved to NYC this past fall to go to grad school. The museums, the culture, the ability to live without a car must just be awesome. I’m usually ready to point out the advantages of L.A.'s cultural scene, but don’t see how it could be more than a pale shadow of New York’s.
I’ve been to NYC a couple of times and culturally, there is no comparison with LA. In fact, I think the reason LA is the city people love to hate is that the two cities that invite the most comparison are NYC and San Francisco, both of which are almost impossible to compete with even on an international scale. If you look at LA as just another big industrial American city, which is fundametally what it is, it isn’t all that bad. You can make the argument that the weather offsets the outrageous cost of living.
Don’t get me wrong: I love SF, have visited many times, and probably would find it better suited to my lifestyle than L.A. if I lived there. But I can’t let this pass; there’s no way that San Francisco can hold a candle to Los Angeles in terms of the number and quality of its cultural institutions. This is 2004, not 1904, and San Francisco is not that major city of the western United States anymore.
If you have broadband 'Net access, try surfing over to www.kcrw.com, the website of our premiere local NPR radio outlet. They play mostly really good music in the mornings, and then news and current affairs usually from 12 to 8PM. Some of this programming, like Which Way L.A? is locally oriented, so it might help to give you a feel for news, politics, and culture around here.
As far as the cultural stuff, I can see your point, although I would argue that SF has enough culture to satisfy all but the most Chardonnay-sodden. But I think SF overall is regarded as one of the best places to live, period, except for the cost, which now has a run for its money from LA anyway.
From what I’ve seen I agree with you here. We do have a plethora of worthwhile museums in the LA area, but you certainly do need to drive to reach them easily. Why, two of our significant museums, the Getty Center and the Skirball Center, are perched atop mountains overlooking the Sepulveda Pass. Not exactly easy to reach by bus.
As a former San Diegan, I have to agree with most of these points. However, I’m not going to discourage you from living in LA. Honestly, there’s just not that much for a young person to do in San Diego. (I’m guessing by you having lived in the Midwest your entire life and only having experienced “25 winters” that you’re young.) Not to mention that everything is overpriced there. Everything.
But LA has plenty of downsides. Almost as expensive, much more crowded, terrible air, and the traffic—oh, man, it’s impossible to get anywhere. No, really. IME, if you get on a freeway in LA to go a few miles through town you’re not getting out for a few hours. Traffic in San Diego can be this bad, but usually isn’t except for rush hour and the holidays. (Not having been to LA that much, I may have had my perspective skewed by a couple particularly bad traffic times. YMMV.)
I’d say: go with your heart, but don’t break the bank. Good luck!
I lived in San Diego until I was 15. For some reason, San Diego depresses me. Maybe it’s because the last time I saw my friends (in my 20s), their idea of a good time was getting high. Maybe it’s because I wanted to be a Naval Aviator ever since I was three years old, and I spent a lot of time at NAS (now MCAS) Miramar when I was growing up; and snow skiing and car crash injuries put an end to that dream. Maybe it’s because ‘you can’t go home again’. There’s just… something.
But San Diego does have one great advantage over L.A. and Orange Counties: You can have fires on the beach. When I was little we’d go down to the bay and the adults would water ski while we kids roasted marshmallows or hot dogs in the fire ring.
And it has a nice zoo, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Sea World. My sister was a hippie, and I liked the Victorian architecture in certain parts of town.
I left before I could drive, so the only experience I have with the traffic is when I would visit. It seems that the traffic is nowhere near as bad as in L.A., except on the north side.
Make no mistake: L.A. traffic is bad. But once you get used to it, you can deal with it. You’ll learn when to avoid the freeways, and you’ll learn alternate routes. And if you ride a motorcycle, so much the better.
Really? As a lifelong resident, I always thought of it as a place that would seem bewildering, frustrating, and a bit drab to a visitor, but can be a lot of fun when you know live here and know the good places to go to.
