Moving to Santa Monica / West LA / WestWood - Please Suggest Safe & Affordable Areas For Rent

[obscure reference]

Uni is in the Sawtelle area we've been talking about. I'm actually across the street from it. If you ever want an antidote to getting nostalgic about adolescence, live near a high school!

Originally Posted by majoun

If location of LAUSD schools made those schools good, than Fairfax and Marshall would still be good schools.

Can't speak to Fairfax, but this past academic year, Marshall came in second in the California Academic Decathlon, behind the eventual national champions - Granada Hills, another LAUSD school - and won the large schools division of the national online championship for the second consecutive year. Not too shabby...

[msdmoney]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Your budget should get you a nice place in West LA (the neighborhood), or sometimes called Sawtelle. It's about 5-10 min from Santa Monica, safe, quiet, and affordable. Think around Santa Monica Blvd just west of the 405 but east of Bundy, up to Ohio, down to Olympic.

That's where I have lived for the past 7 years or so, between Santa Monica and Olympic, and Bundy and Barrington. It's very close to Santa Monica, and still very affordable, right in the price range you quoted. We rented a nice 1 bedroom in our complex for about $1300 for a while before we moved to a 2 bedroom. My wife and I walk to the nearby Sawtelle area all the time, up to Santa Monica Blvd, or the nearby park, etc. at night.

I don't know anything about the schools though.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by obscure reference

Uni is in the Sawtelle area we've been talking about. I'm actually across the street from it. If you ever want an antidote to getting nostalgic about adolescence, live near a high school!

Went there many years ago, when it was a great school. Grew up in WLA.

If Uni gets charter status it can be a good school again.

Except for the schools issue Sawtelle's a pretty good area. Safe, cultured, and walkable.

[greggd1]

Originally Posted by majoun

It had charter status for some time, but just had its charter status revoked. Uni may wind up becoming a charter instead. Which means the status of those two schools will be reversed ; Uni will be a good school again and Pali would be like what Uni or Venice are like now. That might have interesting effects on West LA demographics...

Remember that where LAUSD comprehensive schools are located does not matter. LAUSD schools resemble each other more than they resemble their neighborhoods. If location of LAUSD schools made those schools good, than Fairfax and Marshall would still be good schools.

Pali already had more problems than Samo 20-30 years ago, and probably always will have more problems than Samo. For example Samo not being in LAUSD avoided the busing issue....

I'll have to check palisades next time I go by during a school day. I really doubt anything has changed much since I was there. Especially based on what i've seen at paul revere jr high over many years since graduating.

20-30 years ago pali had Zero problems. I was there along with brothers and sisters older and younger than myself. Samo had the problems from the neighboring areas to the south & east.... The bused in kids at pali were from parents who wanted their kids out of the problem LAUSD neighborhoods they lived in. There were a few forced to the school due to overcrowing, but that was it and they were in the extreme minority.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by greggd1

I'll have to check palisades next time I go by during a school day. I really doubt anything has changed much since I was there. Especially based on what i've seen at paul revere jr high over many years since graduating.

20-30 years ago pali had Zero problems. I was there along with brothers and sisters older and younger than myself. Samo had the problems from the neighboring areas to the south & east.... The bused in kids at pali were from parents who wanted their kids out of the problem LAUSD neighborhoods they lived in. There were a few forced to the school due to overcrowing, but that was it and they were in the extreme minority.

Samo not being part of LAUSD didn't have busing and those "neighboring areas" would have been part of the Uni area, like where I grew up. Samo, due to the lack of busing, had fewer problems than Pali or even Uni. It does not please me to say that Samo has fewer problems than those other schools today, including my own alma mater Uni, but such is the case. Those of us who grew up on the westside who are parents of teenagers would not hesitate to send our kids to Samo. The main thing keeping us from doing that is that most of us can't afford to live in Santa Monica. In general, Pali while under charter status would be acceptable, but with charter status ending it's a whole different story. Nobody wants to send their kids to an LAUSD comprehensive. Some of us westside natives have kids going to Culver but we would not think of sending our kids to LAUSD schools we went to like Uni, Venice, or a non-charter Pali. My understanding regarding the busing is that if not for the busing Pali would have to close as it wouldn't have enough kids to keep going on its own. I wonder if the sharp tumble in Palisades real estate values has to do with the changing status of the school. Palisades property values are declining faster than any other westside area, although I don't think it's related so much to schools as it is to the values being too high to begin with. According to the Westside Bubble blog the only westside area retaining its property values is Mar Vista (and to a lesser extent Culver City).

I had one friend whose daughter went to Pali under charter status. Because people who live in the areas zoned for Fairfax and Hollywood High Schools had just as much preference to get into Pali as people living in the Palisades he was able to get his daughter in while living in Guitar Row. He said if she hadn't gone there than he'd have been forced to move out of a neighborhood he loves except for the schools issue (familiar LAUSD story). She graduated. With Pali no longer a charter school however things will be very different. I have some sources within the district who inform me on what's happening and what they have told me about what's planned for Pali should not cause anyone optimism. OTOH what they say about Uni - that it could get charter status - make me think that school might have a decent future at least for awhile.

[pwright1]

I live in the Santa Monica Blvd/Sawtelle Blvd area. I like it because it's so convenient to everything from restaurants, grocery stores, the post office, the library, the Sunday farmers market. Plus the tons of Japanese restaurants on Sawtelle. There's even a LAPD station in the neighborhood. When I worked in SM I would simply walk out to SM Blvd and catch the #1 Big Blue Bus to SM. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get there on the bus. And it runs every 15 minutes. Take the 405 and get off at SM Blvd. Make a right on SM and make the first left on Sawtelle.....better yet go to the second light and make a left on Corinth and go down Corinth. You will see lots of apts. When you get off of the 405 and make a right on SM Blvd you will in fact have tons of choices of apts from Sawtelle Blvd all the way to Bundy. Hope this helps.

[taydigga]

Peep the 90034 area code too, particularly Mar Vista. There really isn't a commute if you hop on the 10 and head west. My wife works in Santa Monica and it takes her 5-10 mins with a little traffic. You can live in Santa Monica or Westwood I guess but it's expensive. Better to just live in the Sawtelle, Mar Vista, Culver City or Palms area. Cheaper and more central, the thing about living in Santa Monica that I hesitate to move there is how your far west and it gets crazy trafficky during rush hour and you'll get stuck in some really bad traffic before you even can get to the freeway which can be really bad too.

[Marv101]

The 405 is pretty hideous to begin with, and especially during rainy season. You really can't go wrong living anywhere near Sawtelle Blvd. from Santa Monica Blvd. southward all the way down to Culver City.

I worked at the Hamburger Hamlet on Sepulveda Bl. just north of National in 1977-78, and there's no shortage of apartments within a 10-minute walk of what is still a very nice area 35+ years later.

The Santa Monica bus system (http:Big Blue Bus) is a very well respected bus system, and probably the best in the greater LA area; their #8 bus runs down National Blvd. from UCLA to Santa Monica every 15-20 minutes.