Why do You Live in L.A.

[montevista1]

Robert 123 Alamo Heights & King William are nice why do not you live there?

[montevista1]

L.A. is a great place, but only if you live in the westside or hollywood if you live in the valley its as dull as San Antonio!

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by montevista1

I live in L.A. because of my job and family, but if my family did not live here I would leave.

You realize, of course, the putative cause and consequence are reversible: if you left, your family would not live there.

[montevista1]

I disagree Steve, my family members are doing well here and would have to be nuts to leave since they bought their house more than 10 yrs ago!

[jlrobe]

what brought me here was a good job inside of CA. I wanted to stay in CA because I have lived here all my life and like it, so this is where I am starting out.

I will be looking for other cities to live in, but there are 3 conditions on my next home

1) reasonable weather year round (not much hotter than 100 and not much humidity in the summer, and not much colder than 45 degrees at night in winter)
2) central location (I want to be able to take lots of weekend getaways or day trips, about 20 a year, and I need to be within a 2 hour drive of LOTS of different places
3) Cosmopolitan. (Small quaint towns are VERY nice, but I have always been around Indians, Hispanics, Easter Europeans, Asians, etc. etc. I need to have people around me with an international mindset.)

After finding a city that has these 3 things and a suitable job, I will definitely consider moving, but for now, those things will keep me in LA for awhile. In addition, my family and friends are in CA so that is also a factor.

If weather and centrally located was less of a factor, I would most likely leave LA. Not only are there tons of cities, beaches, mountains etc. in a 2 hour radius, but, my family leaves in Norcal, and so I feel like I have access to the whole state of CA. When I visit family up north, I hang out all over up there and I feel like it is a stone's throw away from many NorCal places, and when I am down here, I feel like everything is also a stone's throw away from me. I like that feeling. Also, I am a renter, and it is fun to see LA change so much. I have no idea how things are going to end up, but it is sorta fun (for now at least) to see LA change and shift around.

Places like Austin, Atlanta, and scottsdale seem to sorta meet these conditions the best. I am still searching for more cities that nail down these 3 things.

[greggd]

On topic:
I live in Los Angeles because I grew up here and have a business here.

If I wasnt money motivated, I'd choose a renters life and move around quite a bit to various seaside communities of the world to surf.

[wildgift]

I grew up here. I'd leave, but, when I actually bother to work, I'm work-oriented, and LA is a good city for that. The fact is, if you want to do any kind of intellectual work, or even creative work, you have to live in a big, busy city like LA, NY, SF, Chi, etc.

Otherwise, you're stuck in a small city, either being a manager or business operator, or working for peanuts.

[Amavel]

I live where I live because there is an ocean breeze about 325 days a year. There are decent schools, people are welcoming and hardworking, and the overall community is laid back and has a go-with-the-flow mindset. I can't really imagine raising a family in many other places in the country. In fact, I feel like I would be doing my future kids a disservice to have lived here and not allow them the same opportunity.

Not to forget a central location to shopping, tourist attractions, and business districts.

[Lars]

I've lived in Venice since February 1992, and I moved here from Culver City, where I lived for exactly 5 years. When I moved to L.A. I couldn't decide whether I liked Venice or WeHo better, and Venice won out. I moved here because I'm a furniture designer, and about the only other place I could get as much of the work I do would be NYC, and I really could not handle that climate, although I mildly like Manhattan - it's great for visiting, but the weather would kill me in the long run. I lived in San Francisco when I first got out of college the first time, and that was great when I was there, but I don't want to move back. When I lived there, I had to go to Mexico for two months every winter to avoid getting sinus infections. I also had to go to Vancouver in August to avoid the August chill.

It took me about five years to get used to L.A. so that I felt like I knew where I was most of the time and could get around without spending a huge amount of time looking at maps. However, I truly enjoy the diversity here and the proximity to so many wonderful and beautiful places. It's very easy for me to get out of the city also - I just get on PCH, go north, and I'm in very beautiful scenery instantly. It was harder to get out of SF, and I usually left the country when I left town.

I lived in Austin after SF and before CC, and I have to say that moving to Austin from SF was a tremendous culture shock - it was like going back in time 10 years. I had been doing fashion design in SF, and the people in Austin were not at all ready for my style. I got lots of funny looks on the street, but people were nevertheless friendly - when they were able to look at me without laughing. Often I would say "Hi" to people on the street there as I passed them (on campus at UT, where I went back to college), and some would completely lose it. In my first art class at UT, the instructor eventually decided to begin each class with a critique of what I was wearing, which I guess was art, since I had made many of my own clothes, or else I had bought them in SF or Vancouver, and many of them were from London. There were plenty of wonderful people in Austin, but there were also plenty of not so progressive people as well. I did like going to Lake Travis, but that's the only thing I miss about Austin. I wish we had lakes like that here, but for now I can't think of anywhere I would rather live than Venice.

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by Lars

I've lived in Venice since February 1992, and I moved here from Culver City, where I lived for exactly 5 years. When I moved to L.A. I couldn't decide whether I liked Venice or WeHo better, and Venice won out. I moved here because I'm a furniture designer, and about the only other place I could get as much of the work I do would be NYC, and I really could not handle that climate, although I mildly like Manhattan - it's great for visiting, but the weather would kill me in the long run. I lived in San Francisco when I first got out of college the first time, and that was great when I was there, but I don't want to move back. When I lived there, I had to go to Mexico for two months every winter to avoid getting sinus infections. I also had to go to Vancouver in August to avoid the August chill.

It took me about five years to get used to L.A. so that I felt like I knew where I was most of the time and could get around without spending a huge amount of time looking at maps. However, I truly enjoy the diversity here and the proximity to so many wonderful and beautiful places. It's very easy for me to get out of the city also - I just get on PCH, go north, and I'm in very beautiful scenery instantly. It was harder to get out of SF, and I usually left the country when I left town.

I lived in Austin after SF and before CC, and I have to say that moving to Austin from SF was a tremendous culture shock - it was like going back in time 10 years. I had been doing fashion design in SF, and the people in Austin were not at all ready for my style. I got lots of funny looks on the street, but people were nevertheless friendly - when they were able to look at me without laughing. Often I would say "Hi" to people on the street there as I passed them (on campus at UT, where I went back to college), and some would completely lose it. In my first art class at UT, the instructor eventually decided to begin each class with a critique of what I was wearing, which I guess was art, since I had made many of my own clothes, or else I had bought them in SF or Vancouver, and many of them were from London. There were plenty of wonderful people in Austin, but there were also plenty of not so progressive people as well. I did like going to Lake Travis, but that's the only thing I miss about Austin. I wish we had lakes like that here, but for now I can't think of anywhere I would rather live than Venice.

I lived in SF until I moved down here about 6 months ago. I really like it here alot. I love the small downtown areas, the huge choices for EVERYTHING (culture, shows, restaurants, art, people, recreation, climate, etc). I love the weather as well. the only reason I want to move out of CA is the cost of living. For me personally, LA is a nice city, and CA is an awesome state.