Top 10 Best Places to Live in LA (Los Angeles, Long Beach: real estate, apartment)

[Queenie818]

1. Pasadena/South Pasadena
2. Santa Monica
3. Hollywood Hills East (including Hollywood Dell, Beachwood Cyn, etc)
4. Hancock Park
5. Los Feliz/Silverlake
6. Burbank/Toluca Lake
7. Studio City
8. Malibu
9. (South) Redondo Beach
10. West Hollywood/Sunset Strip
Great minds think alike El Vampiro. I absolutely agree with this list. With kids or without these are the best places in LA. I'm a life long valley girl, growing up in Burbank. I moved to Calabasas,(which is on the original list) and have not really liked it. Moved for the schools, and they're completely over rated. Calabasas High School is a cesspool. Don't be fooled by test scores! Diversity economically, culturally and racial is not something you find out here in calabasas. I would move back to Burbank in a heart beat if I could talk my hubby into it. It's beautiful out here, but looks aren't everything.
That being said I would also include Santa Clarita. It's affordable and the schools are very good. It's beautiful and well tended to.
Lastly, I love Long Beach. It's got everything. City, beach, airport, aquarium, fun downtown, it's a great little town.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Queenie818

Calabasas High School is a cesspool.

The Japanese did not bomb Pearl Harbor.

[TheRealAngelion]

Originally Posted by Queenie818

Calabasas High School is a cesspool.

That's a rather scathing critique. What's wrong with this high school?

[ness]

Any list that puts Calabasas above Malibu seems fishy in my opinion. Having lived both places, by the beach is the place to be if you can afford it.

[dennismpat]

Originally Posted by Queenie818

<snipped>
Lastly, I love Long Beach. It's got everything. City, beach, airport, aquarium, fun downtown, it's a great little town.

I'm glad you saved the best for last. A reputation point for you!

[tired of being inside]

Glad to see so many folks sticking up for the LBC. It's definitely got its rough and ugly parts but I'd take them over living out in the sticks anyday. But that's personal opinion, I guess. I have two kids here in downtown LB and, for the most part, we love it. The kids are very young, not yet school age, granted and who knows if things will change once they are older. But it's got the best city-feel of anywhere I've seen in SoCal (including downtown LA), beautiful harbor attractions, funky areas (4th btwn Cherry and Junipero and the same blocks on Broadway, especially), nice parks, Pine Ave, Belmont Shores, a train right to downtwon LA, proximity to LAX and John Wayne airports in addition to its own cute airport...That being said, plenty of bad municipal decisions have crippled LB and could still kill it (the breakwater that's supposed to protect against Cold War torpedos, Wal-Mart as an anchor to the potentially awesome City Place, no real vision for the Pike, dirty beaches - attributable to the breakwater). But it beats almost everywhere else I've seen in the area. So here are the areas I would list (I can't list ten, I haven't been here long enough), in alphabetical order:

1. Belmont Shores
2. Downtown LB (4th and below)
3. Hollywood
4. Miracle Mile
5. Pasadena
6. Santa Monica (would be #1 easily except for cost)
7. Venice

[TheRealAngelion]

Originally Posted by tired of being inside

Glad to see so many folks sticking up for the LBC. It's definitely got its rough and ugly parts but I'd take them over living out in the sticks anyday. But that's personal opinion, I guess. I have two kids here in downtown LB and, for the most part, we love it.

Glad to hear that you and your family are adjusting well to life in Socal, and that you are enjoying LB. It's a great little town and if you do decide to stay there to raise your children, at least you'll have some decent public school options k-12 and won't have to dish out thousands of dollars on private school.

[cottonwood2420]

Originally Posted by TheRealAngelion

In your opinion, what are the top 10 best communities overall in which to live in LA County, including neighborhoods within the city of LA, smaller cities, and unincorporated areas of LA County.

The criteria I used for my list included the following: Family oriented, good public/private schools (the area had to have at least one high school with a rating of 8 or better on the “Great Schools” Web site), good recreation areas, sense of community, shopping conveniences and amenities, cleanliness, safety, quality of housing stock, etc.

In Alpha Order:

1. Beverly Hills
2. Brentwood
3. Calabasas
4. Manhattan Beach
5. La Canada/Flintridge
6. Pacific Palisades
7. Palos Verdes Estates/Rolling Hills Estates
8. San Marino
9. Santa Monica
10. South Pasadena

The Rest: I tried to do a top 25 but had a hard time excluding someone so I came up with 16 additional communities for a total of 26:

Agoura Hills
Arcadia
Burbank
Cerritos
Claremont
El Segundo
Glendale
Granda Hills/Porter Ranch
Long Beach
Malibu
Redondo Beach
Santa Clarita
Torrance
Woodland Hills
Whittier
Westlake Village

What about Laurel Canyon and Mount Olympus?

[TheRealAngelion]

Originally Posted by cottonwood2420

What about Laurel Canyon and Mount Olympus?

There are a lot of great neighborhoods in LA. However, I only listed the ones I felt were BEST and well rounded in offering a good quality and standard of living for a family with kids, including access to good public schools, K-12. I could have listed more, but stopped at 26. There are really so many options. Perhaps more than people realized.

[ColoradoBlvd]

Interesting thread - I'm facing similar issues. I'm a first time reader and poster and found this while searching for information about Chapman Woods in Pasadena.

I've lived in LA most of my life (except for the four years of college in Baltimore). My wife and I have lived in Ventura, Camarillo, Calabasas, Glendale, Highland Park, Monterey Park, Koreatown, Long Beach, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, and now Pasadena.

In my opinion, LA is a great city because of its diversity. I've enjoyed living in each community, but I've chosen Pasadena because of it's community feel, safety, and walkability. I rarely get in my car again after work.

With regards to education, I'm a product of the LAUSD (Porter Jr High in Granada Hills and Van Nuys Math/Science Magnet). The best thing about the magnet program at that time was that it attracted bright minds from all over the city. I had friends from every part of LA, and I visited them. It was a fantastic multicultural experience. I don't have the same mixing of the socioeconomic "strata" now at work.

In short, there are a lot of great communities in LA and some good schools. However, the best experiences of my youth came from finding out how other people lived - those far richer and those far poorer. My 2 cents. Thanks.