Relocating to LA: Questions

I am considering moving to LA in September with a few friends. I have several questions:

  1. Recently graduated, I have been unable to line up any work. Should I expect the long-distance job hunt to be difficult and just worry about finding a job when I get there?

  2. I have no car. Can I get by on public transportation without sacrificing too much time/flexibility?

This will most likely only be a year-long venture, so any advice?

  1. No. If you don’t have a job waiting, don’t bother coming.

  2. Hell, no!!! There is no such thing as “public transportation” out here. Oh, they say there is, but it’s really just a cruel joke perpetrated by evil people. You don’t say where you are coming from, but you have no idea how spread out everything is in LA.

Depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re hoping for a salaried position in your chosen field right out of the gate, you may be in for tough time. If you’re just looking for something to pay the bills, temp agencies etc. abound.

I’ve just ventured into public transportation myself, and it’s, well, doable. Bring a book. Service depends very much on where in LA you’ll be living and where you’ll be going, of course. The transit is operated by a dozen different entities who appear to hate each other, so figuring out a route can be a challenge. Took me almost a week to come up with the best combo of buses for my 30-mile commute…

The buses can take bicycles, which is a good thing.

Neighborhoods go from good to bad in half a mile, so pick where you live with some care. I’d suggest getting as close to the ocean as possible, but that can get pricey.

Don’t be bashful about checking about the cheesy LA stuff. It’s silly-but-fun to go see where Richard Gere “rescued” Julia Roberts or to check out the 90210 beach house.

If you’re into theatre at all, this can be a spot to see major names on the stage.

Avoid the 405 if you can.

There’s cheap lunch to be had at the taco trucks or at the Central Market.

  • looks like the esteemed Mr. silenus and I have canceled each other out. Anyone care to break the tie? :smiley:

Norman, why don’t you share with us how long it takes you to make that 30 mile commute on the bus. :wink:

Also, I’d tend to agree with Silenus on public transit.

Finding a job should be easy enough. Go to a temp agency and they’ll find something for you while you get a chance to shop your resume around and get a feel for the job market.

Looking for opinions, advice? Try IMHO.

Moved.

samclem Moderator, General Questions

He left to go do dishes :), but I can answer that. It takes about an hour and a half. That may seem long, and he can do the commute in a shorter amount of time, if he leaves the house at O’Dark Hundred. But even on the motorcycle, where lane-splitting is allowed, it can often take him that same hour and a half or longer, especially on the ride home.

This way he at least can make the time useful by studying for the next level of certification he’s going for, instead of taking “home” time out to do it. He can’t study while he rides the bike. :wink: And we aren’t spending as much on the bus passes as we were on gas (even with the motorcycle), and we’re reducing our carbon footprint.

Wait you are both right!
Public transit in LA can go from great to teh suxxs.
Example I live 2 blocks from a light rail station. My next door neighbor walks up there every day, catches the train, rides into beautiful downtown Burbank (20 minutes?) and walks 2 blocks to her office.
No muss, no fuss.
Now when I worked in Orange County, my office was about 3 blocks from the train station. I too could have walked the two block and caught the train. Between three and four hours and about $20 later I would have been at work. Color me underwhelmed.

If you live in the right place and work in the right place public transit can be awesome. However if the planets are not perfectly aligned, no so much.

My suggestion is that if you come out here, rent a place, and then find a job that is an easy commute on public transportation, you should then go buy a lottery ticket. You obviously have better than average luck.

I am curious. What general area is he coming from and going to? Unless the commute involves light rail, I have a hard time believing a bus is going to make comparable time.

Edit: Rick is spot on. If you’re close to where you get on and your destination is close to where you’ll get off, you might do OK. If you need to transfer then good luck. MTA has a terrible on-time rate. Something to the effect of 60%.

I’ve got to know – has the OP ever visited LA?

I go South Bay - Hollywood, and I do use light rail (well, subway) for a bit. I go from Redondo Beach (2 mins from my front door) on the LADOT 438 Commuter Express which drops me at a downtown Metro stop (Figueroa/7th) in 50 minutes flat. Purple or Red Line - whichever is first - to either Wilshire/Western or Normandie/Santa Monica. DASH shuttle from Wilshire Western or whichever-bus-comes-first-pointing-west on Santa Monica. The DASH shuttle drops me off at the studio gate, the Santa Monica bus involves a 5 min walk.

It has worked so far. Looking into getting a foldable bike for the last bit - connections can throw you. If it hadn’t been for the 438 being so close, it wouldn’t work.

And I’ll confess I wouldn’t be doing this if not for a very attractive enticement program offered up at work.

I recently got back from LA after a week long stay. It was mostly being driven around by friends, so I do understand the scope of LA sprawl, but I do not know much about MTA’s efficiency in dealing with it.

I walk to work now, but before my employer moved, I used to take the bus. My route was along Venice, starting in Mar Vista/Culver City, and ended near Miracle Mile. Buses came roughly every 15 minutes and ran until 3am or so. It took me 30 minutes to go the 5-6 miles.

It’s not the fastest thing in the world, but having been to places where there literally is no public transportation system, I’d say the system here as a whole does a good job, especially considering the area it has to service. I use the Metro as well the Culver City and Santa Monica Big Blue buses and all have decent service. Can’t speak to the reliability of the other regional services, though.

As for finding a job, it depends. If any office or retail job will do, you’ll be fine. As has been said, temp agencies abound, and there are millions of businesses here. The city supports millions of people, and not all of them have the best education or skillsets, so while you may not land the job of your dreams, you definitely can find work.

phlgrlnd, I’m curious, where are you now and why do you want to move to L.A. for about a year?

I moved to LA in 04 and didn’t have a job lined up first. I lived on savings for a few months while working on getting a job through a temp service. That landed me the job I’ve had since. It’s hard to really advise you on the job thing since you don’t say what you’re looking for.

Public transit can be really great or really bad. It depends on where you are and where you want to go. I take the bus from Van Nuys to Pasadena every day. It’s about a 75 minute commute home. I don’t mind though cause I really hate driving and the traffic through there is a real bitch. (My office is moving to Burbank in August…that is so gonna rock!) if you live and work near a major bus/rail line it’ll be fine. My roommate on the other hand works nights and his commute from here to Glendale is 2 hours. Nearly twice as long as mine with a much shorter trip mileage wise.

A lot of these things just depend on where in LA you’re looking at, keep in mind that the LA area is nearly 500 square miles and the ‘greater LA area’ is almost 5000.

First, you need a car. Period.
There is an old joke that LA is 27 suburbs in search of a city. It is sadly true.

Secondly, LA is a hard nut to crack job-wise, unless you know somebody who knows somebody. Granted, you can always find a job as a waiter or stock person in a supermarket, but other than that, you need either a bolt of lightning good luck, or you need to fuck the right person at the right time, or you need to know someone who can open a door. Unless you have some amazing talent, getting a job BEFORE your arrive is almost unheard of…trust me when I say there are lots of people looking for good jobs who already have connections there. And when opportunity knocks, you better get your ass over there ASAP - which brings me back to having a car in LA.

That said, I loved LA…I went through a temp agency and, being the type of guy everybody likes to hire, I had many great jobs and never went unemployed for any great length of time.

But living in LA without a car?
That would be like living in Chicago without a winter coat.

In some circumstances I agree, but it is quite possible to do just fine without a car here. We are a one car household with the car belonging to my SO and me using public transit primarily, but even if it wasn’t for the car I would be fine.

I did the exact same thing 10 years before that. :slight_smile: And in fact, have gotten every job I’ve held here (3 of them) either through temping there first, or being sent for an interview by the temp agency for a permanent position (this job, which I’ve held for 8 1/2 years now).

I also take public transportation quite often, and the time difference compared to taking my own car is quite negligible. But then I only live 3 blocks from the bus stop, and only have a 4.5 mile commute, then 4 more blocks to walk to my office. So, depending on traffic, a 15-20 minute drive vs a 25-30 minute bus commute. Not bad.