Is L.A. really that bad? (Los Angeles, San Diego: housing, condo, rent)

[puffle]

Originally Posted by browsingatwork

Well, one more opinion couldn't hurt. :-)

I used to live in LA, and moved to San Diego about 1 & 1/2 years ago to live with my fiance. One thing I know about LA people is that they all hate it! But on the other hand, there is the not so well-known truth that it is all part of a weird pride and love of the place. Man, I miss LA soooo much. Besides friends & family.. the BEST restaurants anywhere on this side of the continent (food, ambience, variety), the activist organizations & meetings and pet rescues, the night clubs you can go to at any time of the night from BDSM to listening to a famous jazz musician play amazing music anonymously 10 feet away from you, the new age community where you can get free Reiki healings or participate in past life regression sessions, to wonderful bookstores, spas, sporting events, hiking, skiing, beaches, shopping.. you name it, and it's yours!

Yes, you may easily be doing a 1 hour commute each way to work, but it sure beats a 15 minute commute with nothing to look forward to but maybe a little grocery shopping before going home to make dinner. :-P Boring! I have quite a few friends in LA who are originally from back east wherever, and they say they would never move back even though we all gripe about that top 10 list (traffic, gangs, graffiti, housing costs, etc.)

As for all this talk about gangs.. yeah, the graffiti and annoying cars loaded with subwoofers playing ghetto music gets on your nerves, but if you choose a tiny apt in a good part of town over larger in the bad areas, then you could really come to love it. The bad elements are not THAT difficult to avoid.

You have to keep the attitude though for survival and success though which means always dress professional and look good, and be confident. Do whatever it takes to get the highest paying job you can. Another good thing about LA is that it's one of the few places you can have only a high school diploma and still make $80K+ a year doing almost anything if you get in with a good company and work the system.

I was very happy to read your post and hear a positive attitude about Los Angeles for a change. We were all set to move to Boston, again, this summer but decided to stay for our son's sake. After months of concentrating on all of the reasons for leaving California and looking forward to moving back east, I had to adjust my outlook since we will now be here for another four years and would not mentally survive it if I dwelled on the negative, constantly longing for getting out of here in the future. It is a choice we can make....look at the glass half empy or half full, as corny as that sounds. Since I have to make the best of it and my outlook on living here affects everything else in my life, I choose to look at the positives, which isn't that difficult to do.

[Need_affordable_home]

Originally Posted by miracle

LA maybe one of the most expensive urban areas in the world, but not the OC, in terma of economy development and wages and house land, a house in Laguna Beach or Mission Viejo is quite cheaper than an apartment in many major european or asian cities. An apartment of two bedrooms, two baths, and a parking in a centrally location of Barcelona in Spain is around 750.000 USD. OC is expensive if you compare with other suburban areas.

Los Angeles itself is different, is the second city in the world with more number of billionaries living, NYC the first.

According to CNNMoney the most expensive cities in the world are,

1 Tokyo, Japan
2 Osaka, Japan
3 London, United Kingdom
4 Moscow, Russia
5 Seoul, South Korea
6 Geneva, Switzerland
7 Zurich, Switzerland
8 Copenhagen, Denmark
9 Hong Kong, Hong Kong
10 Oslo, Norway
********
43 Barcelona, Spain
44 Los Angeles, United States
45 White Plains, United States
46 Madrid, Spain

Nyc 13.

So for a person in Spanish cities of Barcelona or Madrid according to income, is equally expensive living there than to a person in LA city. The problem with Los Angeles is that is a city very polarized, but thats a politic thread....

I thought central London was the most expensive in the world. The edge and suburbs of London isnt too bad actually. LA ranks 43rd because alot of other cities are far more expensive.

[midnightbirdgirl]

LA is dirty, it is not a great place to live, some outlying areas are okay. Most hospitals even Cedars have go the way of illegals and Medicare.
Remember any place is only as good as its citizens, and LA is lacking in actual citizens. Fewer and fewer people in LA speak English, the development can only happen if there are buyers, and the clientele to support the new development. I just do not see that happening!
MBG

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Lastly, this unbelievably famous Art Deco building, the Pan Pacific Auditorium, pictured in every architecture book extant on the subject, was not deemed worthy enough to be saved by the powers that be in Los Angeles. It was subsequently demolished. Everything older than two minutes here is considered a tear-down.

Actually, the auditorium was lost in a fire - See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Panpacific_fire.gif

[junkman18]

Originally Posted by midnightbirdgirl

LA is dirty, it is not a great place to live, some outlying areas are okay. Most hospitals even Cedars have go the way of illegals and Medicare.
Remember any place is only as good as its citizens, and LA is lacking in actual citizens. Fewer and fewer people in LA speak English, the development can only happen if there are buyers, and the clientele to support the new development. I just do not see that happening!
MBG

After growing up in the Los Angeles area I know what you say is all true.
La is getting worse all the time almost like it's own little drity country.
Iam so glad to be retired
and moved away from the pits of SoCal and to the mid west.

[whinton]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Actually, the auditorium was lost in a fire - See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Panpacific_fire.gif

That is true, but the fire was due to many years of neglect.

[midnightbirdgirl]

Originally Posted by junkman18

After growing up in the Los Angeles area I know what you say is all true.
La is getting worse all the time almost like it's own little drity country.
Iam so glad to be retired
and moved away from the pits of SoCal and to the mid west.

We are transferring in the next couple of months out of state!! I cannot wait, especially for hubby not having to commute 2+ hours each way to work!!
MBG

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by whinton

That is true, but the fire was due to many years of neglect.

Yeah - It's that his post at first made me think that the city bulldozed it..

[Sorcerer68]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

I too was shocked to learn that L.A. was more expensivie than Honolulu and London under these very real guidelines.

Tweak numbers and you can get them to show you anything. A decent house within Honolulu is a million bucks, consumable and durable goods are outrageous. Regarding London, take a trip there and report back and tell me it's cheaper than L.A.

[Keithns]

Originally Posted by JJG

Hey, I was just randomlly looking at other forums and I decided to stop here at the L.A. forum to try to understand something.
I was just wondering if Los Angeles was really as bad as most Americans say, so I thought of maybe getting that info from Angelinos themselves. My family and I passed through L.A, going to the Bay area, so I don't really know how the city is.
Oh, and if I were to move to Cali, what would be the best place to live?

Stay along the beach, it isn't like L.A. Difficult to really point and say that's L.A. It stretches from San Pedro to Van Nuys, quite a bit of diversity and fringe areas.
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