Roll Call! What LA neighborhood do you live in? name a few pros/cons about it.... (Los Angeles: fit in, 2010)

[King0fthehill]

I'll start off:

Wilshire Vista (falls under greater Miracle Mile)

Pros: LOCATION! (5 minutes to Beverly Hills, 7 minutes to Grove,10 minutes to Melrose,15 minutes to Downtown, 15 minutes to Hollywood), Architecture; a preponderance of lovely restored 1920's Spanish Revival homes, Diversity; a smorgasbord of Whites (European whites, too), Blacks and a handful of Asians living in harmony-lots of interracial couples,too, the lush foliage (tree-lined streets are in abundance), very tranquil in nature (one of the quietest hoods I know of), cleanliness (none of the vermin that is graffiti or rubbish in the streets), the profound interest in the neighborhood taken up by thecitizens (lots of carnivals, fundraisers, meetings, etc), lots of cute boutiques and eateries (a rather "natural" revitalization is going on; tons of little cafes and clothing stores are springing everywhere).

Cons: No good mass transit (although, for one lacking a car, the Rapid Lines 720/728 do a decent job), no stop signs at several intersections (people run right through them; poses a great hazard!), too many people walking their dogs now lol, Pico serves as a border between the good and the bad (it's really skeevy south of Pico), some nasty autobody shops on Pico (brings down the beauty), rich people are moving in from richer locales and destroying the fragile upper middle class balance (as well as other residents, such as long-time Blacks, etc) + opening up some places that totally do not fit in the neighborhood

Here are some photos of my neighborhood (if possible, please post several pictures of your 'hood-no more than 5):

(all taken by me)








Please keep this one alive! This thread will be a great resource for anybody looking to move here! Everyone is encouraged to post

[puffle]

Great pictures! Reminds me of old Hollywood. So many great pockets that have been preserved. One of my favorites are the properties near the Hollywood sign above Barham. I have a friend who is my daughter's Soccer coach and she and her family live in an old Hollywood home that was owned once by I think Gloria Swanson. The architecture is amazing as well as the views.

[SandyCo]

I live in Sherman Oaks, which is close to Burbank, Studio City, and Beverly Hills (it's just over the Santa Monica Mountains). I live just off the 101, only two exits away from the 405.

Pros: It's close enough to everything to feel sort of "in the middle" in terms of city vs. beaches vs. mountains, etc. Streets are nice and wide in the Valley, too. Close to shopping; I can walk to the Westfield Mall at Riverside and Hazeltine. The Rite Aid near me is open 24 hours. Lots of restaurants on Ventura Blvd. Close to the 101 and 405.

Cons: It's hot here in the summer, though not as bad as Woodland Hills. Rents here are pretty high; my apartment building rents two-bedroom apartments for $1,295, and there's no elevator, no central air, and no secured parking. The 101 is to be avoided most weekdays, as traffic is horrendous. I'm also seeing more and more graffiti everywhere, and although the neighborhood is nice, the block that includes my apartment building and several others, is not so nice. Property crime seems to be an issue (people's cars getting broken into, that kind of thing).

My existing camera just died; the LCD screen is completely white. I just bought a new camera, which I should be receiving Wednesday. Then I'll take some photos of my neighborhood and share them here.

[ebuch]

Great thread started. Maybe include average home and apartment prices in your area. I know that will help me out tremendously considering I am planning to make the move to LA.

[Smallville]

Well, I used to live in the neighborhood Ladera Heights and Inglewood is about a 5 to 10 minute walk from there.

Pros: Highway and stores are really close by and so is the mall. I was able to take a bus to the Fox Hills Mall from where I was at.

Cons: Ridiculously expensive, crime-ridden area, bug infestations everywhere.

[vegaspilgrim]

Live right around USC. I don't know whether it's technically considered "North University Park" or "West Adams."

Pros:
*It's walking distance to USC. That's the only reason I live here.
*It's centrally located, since it's practically right next to downtown (2 miles away) I can jump on the 10, 110, or (just past downtown) the 101 fairly easily and get to west LA, the south Bay, Studio City, or Pasadena.

Cons:
*While the immediate area I live in is all college students and normal people, just literally one block away it starts turning bad. By about 3 blocks away it's a complete ghetto. There have been a lot of crime alerts and robberies in this neighborhood. A lot of the trash passes right through and blends within the student area, so you can never be sure of your surroundings.
*Constant noise of police holicopters and ambulance sirens.
*Frequent events at the Colliseum bring heavy traffic and people scavenging for parking spots.
*Once you're out of the immediate University Park campus area, it's bad in all four directions. There's not really any "safe" area where you can just bicycle through to get to a nicer area of town; you really have to jump in your car (or in theory, the bus) any time you want to get out.
*Even though this place sucks, because it's walking distance to USC the rents are absolutely price gouging. The building I live in SUCKS, but this studio apartment still runs $1200 a month. And this is considered a bargain for this area! Plus, there are about 2 or 3 property management companies that own pretty much all of the private housing around USC, so you don't have a choice.

Pictures:

USC campus:


Leaving the campus heading out to Figueroa St. This is where the "University of Spoiled Children" name comes from:


Just east of the 110:


Right across the street from campus, looking towards downtown:


Various eateries, strip malls around campus:




Fraternity Row:


Some of the better looking homes in the area off Hoover:

[majoun]

I'm no longer in L.A. but let me talk about where I used to live before moving to the City by the Bay:

Culver City

Pros: Extremely safe. Plenty of longtime residents. Ethnic diversity combined with a rather uniformly middle class economic level (although there are some lower income Latino and Asian areas in the west and southwest, and some very affluent mostly African-American areas in the south.) Centrally located to most West Side communities and to LAX. Family friendly - the public schools aren't what they used to be but they're still considerably better than LAUSD if not up to the level of Santa Monica or Beverly Hills. A thriving, revived downtown area with movie theatres, shops, and restaurants. Less expensive than many parts of the West Side. It also preserves the feel of the West Side I grew up in which is gone from areas like Westwood, Brentwood, West L.A., Beverly Hills, WeHo, etc. The Metro's coming with the arrival of the Expo Line in 2010. Studio jobs are right there and other major areas where jobs concentrate on the West Side and nearby are close. Neighborhood bars still exist. There's a sense of stability ; many families are multi-generational residents.

Negatives: Smoking ban in outdoor eating areas. Lack of independent bookstores. (The closest that sells new books would be Book Soup on the Sunset Strip or Small World in Venice ; the closest used bookstore is in Mar Vista.) Lack of newsstands (although there are newsstands a short drive away in South Robertson, Rancho Park and West L.A.) Culver City buses stop running early. No rent control. Increasingly expensive. Gang activity in the southwest by the projects adjacent to the Del Rey/Southwest Mar Vista area (not an issue elsewhere in Culver City though. Helms 13 in eastern Culver City is like the joke of the gang world and at worst a minor annoyance, and has very little affect on safety in eastern Culver City if any.)

Positives/negatives: The Culver City Police Department. Has both good and bad factors. Good: crime is lower than Pacific Palisades despite close proximity to some nasty areas to the east (where Mid City West meets South Central, and to the north South Robertson's nasty Cadillac/Corning mini-ghetto)and an area that by west side standards would be nasty to the southwest (with a caveat: the "bad" parts of the West Side, excepting the much shrunken Oakwood and the tiny pocket of Cadillac/Corning, would not be considered nasty elsewhere in L.A.). Bad: every law on the books is enforced vigorously, which may not always be a good thing - particularly known for strict noise enforcement.

[BRinSM]

I live in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica

Pros
-walking distance to the ocean
-Main St. has multiple bars, restaurants, and shops
-close to the pier and 3rd St. Promenade
-close to Venice (both the boardwalk and abbot kinney)
-close to Marina Del Rey
-nearby all westside job centers
-my address got a walkscore of 94 from walkscore.com
-i have never had any safety concerns in the 2+ years I have lived here
-you can ride your bike just about anywhere, especially with the nearby beach path
-good mix of people. there isn't much diversity in terms of skin color, but there is someone from almost every walk of life in the area.
-public transit is pretty good. there are rapid busses to just about everywhere in the city from the promenade area as well as an express bus to downtown. there are also 2 or 3 busses that I can walk to if i need to get to ucla.
-great weather!!

cons
-parking is easily the biggest con. much of the neighborhood is permit parking and even though there are a lot of metered spots, they seem to be full much of the time. my block isn't permit, but the street sweeper comes twice a week so its easy to rack up multiple $50 tickets.
-Lincoln Blvd. is a terrible street and can be jammed at nearly any hour of the day. luckily i know my way around and can avoid it, but it is the main thoroughfare for my 'hood so it is an inconvenience that I can rarely use it.
-there is a pretty good sized homeless population in the area. most are up at palisades park or down in venice, but i'm right in the middle of those places so i do see them often.
-its very expensive to live here. although i believe i pay a fair price that my wife and i live in, its not unusual to see studios going for $1500. i'd say an average 1br is probably around $1850, but it is small and old and you may not get assigned parking (see above). 2br apartments are going to be well over $2000. Nicer, newer apartments are even more expensive. there is a new archstone building on main st and i believe 1br start at $2800.

bottom line, you'll have to put up with paying a lot for not much space, but you do get all the items i mentioned in the 'pro' section of my post. i think its worth it, but i'm still trying to convince my wife 2 years later, she has been ready to move for a long time now. i know we will move somday, but when that day comes, I will be very sad. i really, really love where we live and it will be tough to leave, no doubt about that.

[LASam]

I live in the Sawtelle neighborhood, which is part of the greater West LA neighborhood.

Pros:
-Safe, police station located in neighborhood.
-Excellent selection of ethnic eateries (Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Chinese) along Santa Monica Blvd and Sawtelle Blvd.
-Walkable... library, grocery stores, art house theatres, restaurants, post office, farmer's market, Stoner Park etc all within neighborhood
-Good access to public transportation... Rapid 702 and Blue Bus 1 service Santa Monica Blvd.
-Location... short drive to beach (Santa Monica), downtown, westwood village/UCLA, brentwood, Century city, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Hollywood)

Cons:
-Expensive (~$1,400 for 1 bd apt)
-Parking (Street parking can get a bit tight at times)
-Traffic (Gets super congested during rush hour)
-Aesthetics (Not "pretty" in a lot of areas due to dated commerical/residential architecture)

[Fleet]

Northridge/Porter Ranch (I can use either address when mailing.)

Pros:
- Mountains nearby/good scenery
- Out of the smog belt
- Out of the fog belt
- Santa Ana winds produce many 75+ degree days during winter
- Many nice homes & neighborhoods (See photo #3)
- Still some open (non-developed) areas (See photo #1)
- A weekly, year-'round car show
- Low crime rate
- Traffic nowhere near as bad as in the eastern and southern parts of the valley
- Nice shopping areas; good variety (See photo #2)
- No bars/saloons in the area
- Underground powerlines, don't cause a problem in high wind condtions (winds can reach or exceed 70 mph during a Santa Ana event).
- Wide streets; plenty of parking at the major shopping areas

Cons:
- Expensive
- Santa Ana winds cause fire danger
- As in many areas in the Los Angeles area, not much rain
- A lot more population compared to the '70s and earlier
- Earthquake threat
- Not much of a nightlife