moving to LA from Wisconsin (Los Angeles, Glendale: lease, high crime, safe area)

[samich1984]

I am moving from Wisconsin to Los Angeles next summer (Aug 07). I will be 23 at the time. I just graduated to work in public accounting downtown along Grand Ave.. Reading about how diverse LA is, I was hoping to live somewhere near young people my age that are in a similar situation (downtown commuters, young). I was also hoping to find somewher safe hoping to pay about 2200ish max for a two bedroom place. Some places I heard were good are Manhattan, Redondo, and Venice Beach. Also, I was curious about Santa Monica. Finally, are there nice places around the downtown area for my situation? Or is it unsafe and undesirable around the downtown area? Plus is the UCLA campus area nice/liveable for my situation? I am just trying to paint a picture of all the addresses and maps I am finding.... Any information would be greatly appreciated... Thank you in advance!

[Perdu]

You hqave good counsel, all the places you've mentioned are fine, if a little expensive, but then again you're paying more for safety and desirable neighborhoods (all but near UCLA are beach communities, which guarantees your fellow youth.) Around UCLA, despite its students, is actually a pretty expensive place to live, as the community around it, Westwood, grew into a toney area like Beverly Hills. All those students tend to rent in large groups to afford it.

[Need_affordable_home]

LA has very high crime except in the wealthy areas. If you choose to live in LA, the rent is going to be a huge chunk of what you make. You can give it a go for a year and if you dont like it, relocate once your lease is up. Hope this helps.

[UB50]

Those are all good areas but you are going to be in for a long commute during rush hour, particularly the further away from downtown you get.

You might also want to look at the area around Cal Tech in Pasadena. Lots of young people there and there are back roads that go into downtown so you don't have to sit in traffic as much.

[samich1984]

So, as a very rough estimate, what would you expect a commute downtown to be from santa monica versus manhattan beach versus pasadena? Also, do you think I am overlooking any areas I haven't considered. And also, I keep hearing how screwed up the public transportation is- is that exaggerated, or is it actually terrible? You guys have been a big help!

[solarsun]

I think South Pasadena is better. He can commute to Downtown either by 110 or Huntington Drive. It's not very slow to go by streets and you feel less stressful. I once saw a padestrian walked thru Pasadena freeway.

[solarsun]

Don't live in Santa Monica, although it's a nice area. The 10 freeway clogs before 6am. Traffic is so bad in the 10 freeway almost all day long. Thursday and Friday evening traffic is like hell. If you live Santa Monica, I think you have to spend like more than 4 hours on traffic.

Pasadena or South Pasadena is your only choice. South 110 clogs very early, and commute by streets is almost faster. I think you need an hour if you go by streets during rush hour.

[UB50]

Metrolink (the local train) has a route from Pasadena to downtown. I think it is called the Gold Line. You might want to check that out if you are looking for public transportation. Also, there are little local buses that just run around downtown (like from the train station to some of the business areas). I think they are called Dash or something like that. I've never taken them but I know others who worked downtown who took them all the time instead of taking their cars when they had to run errands.

I've never driven from Santa Monica to downtown at rush hour but I've heard traffic is bad. Manhattan Beach or Redondo to downtown would be even worse.

The Silverlake area is also a decent commute into downtown but I think it might be better suited for older people. Ditto with Glendale and Burbank -- although now that I think about it, Glendale does have quite a few places to go out -- and Hollywood is really close to all three of them.

Since you can afford $2200, you really have a lot of options. There are a lot of safe areas in that price range.

[solarsun]

Glendale and Burbank are bad too, cuz commuting thru the 5 freeway are much worser than the 10. A lot of trucks on the 5. You know it's dangerous. Sometimes you need 2 hours just from Burbank to Downtown, which is a 15 minutes route if the 5 doesn't clog.

[solarsun]

I wonder which part of Silverlake is nice? I always drive thru Sunset Blvd, Silverlake looks like Echo Park.