Is Los Angeles Magical? (San Diego, Redondo Beach: extended stay, sales, rent)

[goodbyehollywood]

Maybe it's the cost. When a premium car wash costs only $7.95 and you can sit in the warm sun, enjoy the beach breeze, a cup of coffee and the Times while waiting for your car to be ready, it's not a bad deal.

I think the weather in L.A. is underrated. You can keep the four seasons-- 72 degrees and sunny is just how I like it.

[cowman809]

To many people from here, California (synonymous with LA/Hollywood) is indeed the most "magical" place in the world.

Here, anybody can be anything. It still holds the "endless frontier" image it did back in the day.

[Userdavey]

I can't help it. I just can't.

I went to LA with family for 10 days in July of 1981. I was 12. We stayed at the KOA in the San Fernando Valley. It was off of Roscoe somewhere (I remember the street name so well because it made me think of Rosco P. Coltrane) and it was across from railroad tracks and warehouses. Don't laugh. It was a beautiful KOA with a pool and snack bar and video games. I saw EVERYTHING on that trip. California Alligator Farm, Marineland, San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Manhattan and Hermosa Beaches, Universal Studios, Beach Bum Burt's, Knott's, Queen Mary and who knows what else. I remember we all got sunburned on the beach under cloudy skies. I did bodysurfing and we ate at the Kettle.

Fast forward to 1999.

I went there for a wedding. This time I stayed at the Cairrage Inn in Sherman Oaks. We ate at great restaurants, saw Venice Beach, and I visited a friend in Belmont Shore. I drove all around the concrete jungle in a rented Oldsmobile Alero. I was pretty blown away. The coolest part was the area where the father of the groom lived. I think it was Studio City. At night the streets were all decorated with Christmas lights...this was in July. The wedding was in a Jewish Temple and it was beautiful.

Next is April 2007

I take my kids and wife for ten days in LA. We stay near Disneyland in a very nice hotel. We do Disneyland, the Getty Center, the beach, San Diego, Venice Beach, and we eat plenty of Mexican food and the weather is never above 70 and never below 60. I start to notice all the diverse plant life and all the Korean BBQ's and the beach cities with all their shopping and walking and fresh air.

Then on to June 2008

I take my wife there and we go to the beach a lot. I get a free hotel stay in Buena Park this time. I actually like Buena Park and Beach Blvd. It's perhaps the smoothest, straightest road I have seen. We go to Descanso Gardens where we witness Eddie Murphy filming "1000 Words", we eat at Gladstone's, and tons of other places. This time I'm in my BMW and I can feel the increase in power from the oxygen rich air. It's 20% more powerful at sea level than at 6,000 feet in Colo Spgs. We are in love with the place again. We experience wicked bad traffic. It takes us 2 hours to get from the hotel to Sony Pictures. At Trade Joe's, I see the biggest and cheapest basil plants I have ever seen. The highlight might have been riding beach bikes along the Strand and at Huntington Beach. We went to the Hollywood Bowl, drove up and around Beachwood Canyon, Laurel Canyon, and Mullholland Drive. I must admit, driving all the way down Sunset made me a little ill. The first 3,000 mansions were impressive, but after a while I was nauseous. I thought we'd pull into the Beverly Hills Hotel, since after all, I was in a BMW...but I was outshined by all the Bentley's, Aston Martin's, and Rolls's. Ehh.

This is all the experience I have had first hand with LA...I hope to have more. I hope to live there someday. It's just too beautiful.

[x-hello-kitty-x]

los angeles is not magical its a very dirty city soem parts are not bad but most of it is.

[goodbyehollywood]

Some people see the forest; others see the trees.

Life, and cities, are what you make them.

[vegaspilgrim]

Hey Userdavey, I remember you asking about Palmdale, as an affordable outlying area near LA earlier in this thread. You might want to look at my photo tour: Palmdale, Acton, Vasquez Rocks photo tour.

[Userdavey]

Nice info on Palmdale, thanks! I looked at the avg weather there...it's a cooker! I'm just going to save and save for 3 more years and then I'll move to LA. Thanks for pointing out the pics.

[Suburbanite08]

Originally Posted by Userdavey

So far this is what I have learned: the cost of living and traffic and size of LA can be sickening. I was particularly scared about the whole "Get all set up and moved in and then get laid off and have to find work that is a 2 hr commute." That is scary.

I guess the weather is really the thing I like most about out there. And it's not really the temps and humidity. It is the effect of the weather. It affects everything from your mood to the streets to your car staying clean to the types of plant life that can exist.


Where else can I move to (and work) in Calif. that has the great weather, but not the traffic and insane cost of living?

We lived in Los Angeles for 27 years and my wife and I, along with our very young children, left California for the reasons you mentioned.

We wouldn't move back to L.A.; specially now. Unemployment is over 10% and the problems have not disappeared.

We moved to Austin, TX and I recommend it. Austin offered a solution to most of our problems. Low cost of living, most online cost of living calculators state that Austin is 30% to 35% cheaper than L.A., also there's light traffic compared to L.A., clean air and water, great music, film and art scene. Forbes.com just ranked Austin as the 2nd most popular city for relocation.
This is what Forbes said of Austin:
No. 2: Austin, Texas

(Austin-Round Rock metro area)
2008 Population: 1,652,602
2007-2008 Change: 3.77%
With one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country--6.4% in January 2009--Austin's popularity streak continues. This has quite a bit to do with the metro area's thriving music, film and fine arts scenes, but it's also about the employers, which include University of Texas, Advanced Micro Devices and Dell.


We sold our tiny 1350 sq. ft. L.A. home, which was in a mediocre neighborhood, for an unbelievable $565k two years ago and we had a 1 hour commute to downtown L.A. with bad traffic which was the norm. In Austin we were able to buy a 3,400 sq. ft. home in a very nice area with excellent schools for our kids for just $300k. Our drive to downtown Austin is only 15 minutes. The city is small so commutes are nothing like L.A. county.


Finally, we like the weather. It not L.A. but we don't freeze in the winter. The lowest temperatures we have experienced were in the mid 20's and the highest in the mid 90's. Spring is beautiful and the average temperature is in the low 70's.

At any rate you read can all about Austin, including climate information, on Wikipedia at the link below.
Austin, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Depth: 10 Cities Where Americans Are Relocating - Forbes.com

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Suburbanite08

The lowest temperatures we have experienced were in the mid 20's and the highest in the mid 90's. Spring is beautiful and the average temperature is in the low 70's.

Then why is it between 98 and 104 every day that I've been there between May and August?

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Then why is it between 98 and 104 every day that I've been there between May and August?

You were in a hot part of town or standing too close to the BBQ...