Problem In Moving Plan... (Los Angeles, Long Beach: lease, hotel, school)

[KnoxTown]

Hey everyone. As many of you probably know, I've been here planning my move to Los Angeles in May after school. After all of my research, I had settled on the Los Feliz area. It is relatively close to Burbank (where I will most likely be working), and is safe while being relatively affordable.

Anyways, a friend of mine will most likely be living with me now. On the plus side, I will obviously save a little bit on rent. However, he will most likely be working in the South Bay (Palos Verdes, Long Beach, etc...). On top of that, he comes from a fairly wealthy family, so his parents want him to be somewhere "better then average" if you know what I mean. They really want him to be somewhere safe, but by LA standards its probably all relative.

What communities or areas might suggest for me now? I'm not really aware of any good areas that might be somewhere in the middle(we want to equalize driving.) Honestly, he says that he doesn't mind driving a little extra, so that might give more options...

Let me know what you think, and thanks in advance, everyones been lots of help!

[DawnW]

My immediate concern: He may say he doesn't mind the commute, but after a month or two, he may change his mind and want to move out and leave you with a hefty rent. I would be very careful. The areas you are talking about are really NOT a good commute to anywhere south at all!

A few years ago, traveling the 710 (from say South Pasadena) was not nearly as bad and traveling through LA down the 110. So, maybe those living there now can add their opinions, but I would look around the South Pasadena area for better commutes for him and really not bad at all for you.

Dawn

[KnoxTown]

+1 Dawn

Thank you for your input. Although your concern is warranted, I know he won't screw me out of anything. He wants to be there just as much as I do.

So you think that South Pasadena is a good place to stick in between? Maybe I just don't know better, but won't that commute through downtown be terrible?

[dereistic01]

it took me almost 2 hours to get from el segundo to burbank, and thats not as far as going from los feliz to long beach. the commute is going to be horrible. you definantly need to take that into consideration.

[DawnW]

If you head down Fair Oaks and cut across (oh shoot, forgot the name of the street now but look on the map) you get to the northern most point of the 710 and can just get on there and not go through downtown. You go through the East of downtown. It isn't as bad but it is where semis travel.

I lived in Pasadena and working in Huntington Park for a little while. It was 16 miles and took me about 40 minutes at 7am. I would imagine 8am or so would be worse and he needs to travel further but I was also all the way up at the North end of Pasadena. It took me about 20 of those minutes to get to the South Pasadena 710 entrance.

Suggestion: When you move out, I would find a hotel/suite that rents by the week and just give it a couple of weeks to commute and find out. Even if he isn't working yet, just make yourself get up and do the commute a few times and really get a feel for it before signing a lease you will regret.

Dawn

Originally Posted by KnoxTown

+1 Dawn

Thank you for your input. Although your concern is warranted, I know he won't screw me out of anything. He wants to be there just as much as I do.

So you think that South Pasadena is a good place to stick in between? Maybe I just don't know better, but won't that commute through downtown be terrible?

[KnoxTown]

Originally Posted by DawnW

If you head down Fair Oaks and cut across (oh shoot, forgot the name of the street now but look on the map) you get to the northern most point of the 710 and can just get on there and not go through downtown. You go through the East of downtown. It isn't as bad but it is where semis travel.

I lived in Pasadena and working in Huntington Park for a little while. It was 16 miles and took me about 40 minutes at 7am. I would imagine 8am or so would be worse and he needs to travel further but I was also all the way up at the North end of Pasadena. It took me about 20 of those minutes to get to the South Pasadena 710 entrance.

Suggestion: When you move out, I would find a hotel/suite that rents by the week and just give it a couple of weeks to commute and find out. Even if he isn't working yet, just make yourself get up and do the commute a few times and really get a feel for it before signing a lease you will regret.

Dawn

Thank you soo much, ill keep that in mind. We both want to get out of TN soo bad that we are pretty much willing to suffer for a year.

[bhcompy]

I'm not familiar too much, but there may be light rail solutions. The LA area rail system goes into downtown long beach(not sure about san pedro or palos verdes). There could be solutions in the burbank area that would benefit the commute greatly