Leaving La / California - Asap (Los Angeles, Glendale: home, rent, vacation)

[ComfortablyNumb]

I'm glad you like Appleton, Wisconsin. Right now I'm the opposite. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Appleton, and I don't hate it, but I want to move to California. I've never been to LA before, but I really want to move there. We in Appleton are indeed very proud of our town, moreso than the other fox cities like Oshkosh or even Green Bay. Appleton is indeed much more of a conservative "family values" city, and it really doesn't have many of the ultra-provincial hick types either. If you don't like "Liberal Angeles" though, I'm telling you to stay as far away from Madison, Wisconsin as possible. I'll also just assume you visited in the Spring or Summer, because during the winter Appleton is

Sadly however, your post is less of an LA problem than you think, and much more of an American problem. Decades (still continuing, too) of treating African-Americans poorly lead to much of what is now the AWFUL problem of Urban Violence. Literally every Urban Center in America is full of violence. Milwaukee, a city of 600,000, had twice as many murders last year as Toronto, which has almost 3 million people. Cities like Detroit, Memphis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Louisville, and others have absolutely no light on the horizon. Unfortunately, what LA does represent is the very darkness inside of every human being, to a certain extent. The disregard for others, pretending they aren't there. The selfish materialism, the shallow self-indulgence. The hummer. Botox. Advertising. LA's problem has much more to do with American Culture than LA itself. Paris Hilton epitomizes and clearly personifies everything that is wrong with American culture. This post is awfully discursive, I apologize for it.

[fastfilm]

Besides liking Pink Floyd songs, what else do you want in life? There are many other places in California that have the weather improvement you seek. I think every single poster here, no matter what the clashes, agrees in suggesting that people visit L.A. first before a relocation. A lot of people hold onto an image promoted by the movies and tv, and are a little shocked at the reality here.

Dig through a few pages of the threads here. Some of the earlier ones suggesting to Europeans where to sightsee are a good overview for a visit. Some of the threads about the realities and costs of living here might be beneficial, and you'll get different points of view.

Make sure you can afford Los Angeles, if you still like it after visiting: if you can't it might be like changing your environment from Wisconsin to, say, Baghdad in terms of personal safety.

[ComfortablyNumb]

I've spent a lot of time in Chicago, and although most of Chicago is safe and the violence is VERY contained, there are still problems, like with any big city. My sister lives in a fairly rich neighborhood (more or less a recently heavily gentrified neighborhood) called Wicker Park, and she's had her car broken into 3 times. One time the car was full of blood.

I'm graduating college in less than a year, and I should be able to afford LA. I've never been to LA, so again... I just don't know. I hate suburbanity, I hate the midwest, and I love the sun. From that, you can obviously tell calling my plans "tentative" would be giving them far too much certainty. My friend recently moved to Huntington Beach, so I would think about locating somewhere in Orange County. Would you recommend it?

[fastfilm]

Yes, yes, and also yes. Phew! (wiping brow) You've made a very sensible decision. Orange County has more of what you want, and far less of the problems that afflict L.A. Your degree will serve you well in their job market. I'm hoping other posters who live right there will jump in now, and that you've been perusing the O.C. threads here. Good luck, and use a sun block at least some of the time!

[ComfortablyNumb]

Isn't Orange County like more "insane prefab cookie cutter sprawl" than Silicon Valley?

[Madonna Inn]

We've lived all over the US as a military family for the past 16 yrs that I've been married. We began in our respective places, Sunnyvale and Southern Cali. We've lived in the upper crust and the ghetto, and everywhere in between.

I can honestly say the weather is by far the hardest thing to say goodbye to, or to acclimate to in a new environment. BUT... I wouldn't have changed our experiences for anything either.
If the original poster is interested, you should look up salaries of the Nassau County and Suffolk County police officers on Long Island, NY. You'd be absolutely amazed. It's almost sickening. C'mon, in Eastern Suffolk, you'd be working in the posh Hamptons dealing with the L.A. crowd (a known fact, they consider it Beverly Hills there) in relative paradise, for that outrageous salary.
Just wanted to chime in with my bit of nonsense.

[puffle]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

I'm glad you like Appleton, Wisconsin. Right now I'm the opposite. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Appleton, and I don't hate it, but I want to move to California. I've never been to LA before, but I really want to move there. We in Appleton are indeed very proud of our town, moreso than the other fox cities like Oshkosh or even Green Bay. Appleton is indeed much more of a conservative "family values" city, and it really doesn't have many of the ultra-provincial hick types either. If you don't like "Liberal Angeles" though, I'm telling you to stay as far away from Madison, Wisconsin as possible. I'll also just assume you visited in the Spring or Summer, because during the winter Appleton is

Sadly however, your post is less of an LA problem than you think, and much more of an American problem. Decades (still continuing, too) of treating African-Americans poorly lead to much of what is now the AWFUL problem of Urban Violence. Literally every Urban Center in America is full of violence. Milwaukee, a city of 600,000, had twice as many murders last year as Toronto, which has almost 3 million people. Cities like Detroit, Memphis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Louisville, and others have absolutely no light on the horizon. Unfortunately, what LA does represent is the very darkness inside of every human being, to a certain extent. The disregard for others, pretending they aren't there. The selfish materialism, the shallow self-indulgence. The hummer. Botox. Advertising. LA's problem has much more to do with American Culture than LA itself. Paris Hilton epitomizes and clearly personifies everything that is wrong with American culture. This post is awfully discursive, I apologize for it.

I so agree with what you have said. The grass isn't necessarily greener elsewhere, just different grass. If you took the time to inquire about every city on this site, you would hear more of the same as Los Angeles with possibly less of an illegal immigration problem. Orange County or any other County with money with homes less than 20 years old will have the cookie cutter Stepford wives look and feel, but what you do with the inside of your home to make it yours counts more and shows who you are and just laugh at the rest of the "Jones" thing that suburbia is. I have a young teenager and suburbian living is best for him, especially where we are which is in Ventura County. We are 15 minutes to Malibu and close to Santa Barbara and probably less expensive than the O.C.

[dutchie]

Well Fastfilm, I have lived all over the world... so I like to challenge you. I have lived in Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Urugay, Chile, London and more places... LA is where I live now and is it really that different from any major city elsewhere in the world ? No, it's not.
It is definitely not.

Count your blessings.
Yes, graffiti, yes surveillance (thank god they DO have this where would you otherwise be ??), yes crime.. which you will find in any other big city, I have lived in place where I could not walk after dark, not even to take a letter to the mailbox, I have lived in places where I would keep my cellphone in my pocket and the emergency number on speed dial.... compared to those places LA is not that bad, I feel free enough to go to downtown LA and buy my fabric, there are places where you better not go after a certain time but such is life in a big city.

[fastfilm]

I'm not going to challenge your worldly experience dutchie, and I certainly respect that, but I stand by the assessment that if one is not well to do in Los Angeles, there are more problems in more widespread areas than other American cities. Read the first post in this thread: those other urban areas have isolated spots within the centralized zones, not area after area after area after area wherein gangs terrorize middle class citizens as well as the hapless poor. This is supposed to be a major American City, not the slums of a third world country. Twenty years ago, I don't think anyone reading this forum would even entertain comparing Los Angeles to a third world city, but now? (this is not meant as a racial slur in the slightest: my comparison is to the sheer majority volume of poor residents and accompanying crime, versus the usual American urban mix of larger middle class, with some rich and some poor.)

My husband is an elementary school teacher, I'm a freelancer, and our combined incomes (which in other parts of our country might have put us in a safe, middle class domicile) here put us in a place where yesterday there was a shooting from a car at police officers, right in the middle of a busy pedestrian block. 4 weeks ago an 82-year-old woman was raped inside her house a block away from us, and today a neighbor told me she was scared to schedule a needed operation which would temporarily disable her because she felt unsafe in her own home since all the criminality escalated here within, say, the last six years. Our area is a well known magnet for illegals, and hence the escalating gang problems and overall lawlessness.

I'm a short, blonde, middle-aged woman, and the only reason I walk around here unbothered is that I walk with a gigantic dog. When I was talking to the neighbor this morning who told me she was afraid to be disabled in her own home here, a foreign national sped by in his car, stopped, looked at the two caucasian women talking, and gave us the middle finger. This, sadly, is fairly typical. I have been spat at by foreign nationals while walking, and one even threw flaming newspapers at me from his car.

Isn't it ironic that those who are comfortable with lowered standards of living abroad and in those third world countries are the most adamant defenders of the present day Los Angeles predicaments, as opposed to naturalized and born American citizens?

[dutchie]

what "third world countries" are you exactly referring to ?