Work in Pasadena and LAX, where shell we live? (Los Angeles: apartments, renting)

[ackerfraeuken]

A big hello from South Africa!
We are happy to have found jobs in LA so quickly, but unfortunately they are quite far away from each other. He is gonna work at JPL in Pasadena and I found a trainee position at a company situtated on the W. Century Blvd, close to the airport.
My question is where shell we look for an appartment? On the map West Hollywood, Melrose and Silver Lake area seems to be on half way, but what about the traffic?
Or is it be better to live in North Hollywood for commuting?
Every comment will be helpful,
thanks a lot
Kathrin

[fastfilm]

Hello ackerfraeuken, you seem to be good and methodical about such a giant move. I'm suggesting the West Hollywood/Melrose area for a few reasons. Firstly it is a lovely place full of Mission-revival )quasi-Spanish) homes and apartments where there are still many nice gardens full of all sorts of plants with which you'll be familiar. Only in L.A.'s rare areas that have both older zoning and well-kept up houses will you see this. And in the 1920's here, quite a lot of exotic plants from South Africa were imported.

It's a very, very nice area with two cautionary aspects. It's really not near the freeways you'll need to commute. But in Los Angeles, it's the freeways themselves that bog down and keep you rooted in standstill traffic: most streets are a slow but steady drive to those freeways. Traffic is a biggie here, and you're just going to have to get used to it. But you might as well live in a nicer area once you're home. Secondly, you should know that the West Hollywood area has a visible majority of non-heterosexual people:it's the main center for their upscale citizenry in L.A. This means you'll see a lot of store and restaurants that cater to this clientele. But it also means that's one of the underlying reasons that this area is nice, clean, friendly and well kept up. I don't care about the private lives of my fellow humans, but many do, particularly if they're thinking about having a family and need a more kid-friendly place.

The Silver Lake area is trendy and nearer the freeways, but there's a great range of nice large homes to not so nice, and I hope others who live there can counsel you better here.

[ackerfraeuken]

Thanks for your help, fastfilm.
When living in West Hollywood, how long will it take, for both of us, to commute to work? Can you guess? Or can you recommend public transport from West Hollywood to W. Century Blvd?
Sonny greetings from the Cape
Kathrin

[dusesean1986]

Word Of Advice; Stay Away From The 405 Freeway Until December 2008 Many New Lanes Will Be Added On Both Sides...the Freeway Is So Congested It Can Even Be Bad On Sunday Morning!!! I Love My L.A.

[fastfilm]

Kathrin, I am only recommending taking the following bus route because it would be such a comparatively short jaunt from West Hollywood to Century City. Santa Monica Blvd. divides W. Hllywd diagonally and goes directly to Century City. Therefore you could indeed take the bus for "Big" Santa Monica Blvd. (not "little" Santa Monica Blvd- the two are parallel and an understandable source of confusion to out of towners.)

Bus rides occasionally can be full of unpleasant characters here, but your ride will be short because this route is direct. I always double the car time to calculate the bus time because of the latter's stops, so I'm guesstimating the bus ride to be between 20 and 35 minutes, depending on the time of day. Our buses don't necessarily run all night, you should know.

[TheRealAngelion]

The most convenient location to accomodate both of you is probably downtown. Downtown is very underrated in my view, particularly on this thread. But there is a ton of new development going on there (more than anywhere else in the city) with new high rise and low rise apartments, condos and lofts. Also, a lot of the old historic office buildings are being converted to very spacious and modern loft spaces. The freeways that you both would need to take to get to work are right at your doorstep and you both would be going against traffic depending on the route you take. In fact you could take Metrolink (light rail) to the airport area. So you wouldn't even need to drive to work technically. Downtown lacks night life and many of the amenities of neighborhoods like West Hollywood and Santa Monica, but Hollywood and Pasadena are not far away and you can take the subway or Metrolink to both places from downtown. All of the high culture performing art venues like the Music Center and Disney Concert Hall are down there and there's the Museum of Contemporary Art. You also have Staples Center where the Lakers, Clippers and Kings play their home games. Staples also hosts most of the major concerts in LA. The Central library is beautiful and excellent--truly one of LA's greatest gems. Some of the best restaurants in LA are downtown too like Patina and Water Grill. The Standard Hotel has one of the hippest bar scenes in the city and the newest and biggest entertainment and sports district "LA Live" is currently being built downtown. I would encourage you to visit the following web sites to get more info about downtown living. Since you are renting and are not looking to buy a home just yet, you should seriously consider it.

blogdowntown
http://www.blogdowntown.com/

Los Angeles Downtown News
http://www.downtownnews.com/

Downtown Center Business Improvement District
http://www.downtownla.com/

Curbed LA
http://la.curbed.com/

[Perdu]

I would add downtown L.A. lacks the nightlife (except for private clubs) because it is tawdry, grim, and scary after hours. It's raison d'etre is financial/corporate center for daylight hours, and all other destinations like those mentioned above have onsite parking, or life may be endangered. Given a choice of domicile, I'd rather come home to a neighborhood of pleasant gay people enjoying great restaurants and trendy shopping, all pedestrian-friendly in nice-looking West Hollywood, than screaming winos and threatening gangbangers in grimy downtown L.A.

[Stormcrow73]

Hey ackerfraeuken

We are planning on moving to Simi Valley early next year. I'll be working in Pasadena for a JPL contractor. The area comes extremely highly recommended from several sources including one of the directors for the office I'll be in. A commute from there to LAX might well be hellish during typical commuting hours but you might want to consider it, especially if you plan on starting a family. We currently live a bit NW of Baltimore on the east coast. We've done a LOT of research and found we can actually afford to buy a home in Simi and the schools there just put the one my son is currently in to shame.

Locals please chime in, my advice is barely passable since we don't actually live there yet.

BTW, when you get to LA, maybe you guys should look us up, we're Currie Cup Rugby fans! Go Blue Bulls!

[LA_NativeGirl]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

Hey ackerfraeuken

We are planning on moving to Simi Valley early next year. I'll be working in Pasadena for a JPL contractor. The area comes extremely highly recommended from several sources including one of the directors for the office I'll be in. A commute from there to LAX might well be hellish during typical commuting hours but you might want to consider it, especially if you plan on starting a family. We currently live a bit NW of Baltimore on the east coast. We've done a LOT of research and found we can actually afford to buy a home in Simi and the schools there just put the one my son is currently in to shame.

Locals please chime in, my advice is barely passable since we don't actually live there yet.

BTW, when you get to LA, maybe you guys should look us up, we're Currie Cup Rugby fans! Go Blue Bulls!

Hey there!

Calif. native here! I work in Simi Valley, but live 30 minutes away. Simi is great to start a family there but not for anyone under 30, kinda dead at night!

I have a friend who lives in Simi and works for JPL, not a bad commute at all! So I would recommend Simi for someone settling down or for working in Pasadena.

For Ackerfraeuken - Stay away from North Hollywood! Terrible area with alot of crime, my girlfriend had an apartment there, I heard many stories. Rapists and gangs.

WeHo (West Hollywood), although, clean and trendy, I personally don't like lving there. A bit conservative about having to raise a child there, I would not recommend it for the family oriented, but ok for a hip single young person/professional.

Also, Pasadena is a great place to live, also Burbank and Glendale.

Wish u the best!

[UB50]

If you live in Simi but work near LAX, you can also take the Van Nuys Fly-Away bus. It's a nonstop bus that goes from a huge parking lot in Van Nuys directly to LAX. It's just another transportation option.