NY to LA (Long Beach, Thousand Oaks, Burbank: housing, rent, travel)

[c-notes]

LA rocks. I've lived in Chicago and Portland as well. Chicago's nightlife is really good and has all the cool neighborhoods, sports teams and city spirit, and architecture. I just love my hometown of chicago. Portland is cool because of all the great scenery and coffee.

I'll take LA for the weather, hands down. You can do outdoor things virtually all year long. There are just unlimited things to do on weekends here, trips to little beach towns, San Diego is close, Santa Barbara, all the mountains, both locally and a little drive away.

I hike or bike in the mountains and beaches almost every weekend.
I see great music with world class artists in tiny cool little clubs all the time.

Just live close to work, I can't understand these idiots who base their opinion on a city on their poor choice to live 2 hours from work!!

People are very friendly and accessible at every job I've had. I've made great friends here, mostly through my jobs. Isn't it that way almost everywhere anyway?

The money thing, I think its a little cheaper but not by much.

Go for it!

[acalilove2007]

Hey, you know something, LA is alot like NY in many ways. The night spots, the fashion, prices. Although LA may be slitely cheaper than NYC for rent and food. Not that much of a difference.

Weather in LA is great though, and the people, well, the're not as stoned face hardcore looking as New Yorkers.

I made the move in 04 from NY to LA and have been loving it ever since.

I love LA and you will too.

[marilyn220]

Originally Posted by c-notes

Just live close to work, I can't understand these idiots who base their opinion on a city on their poor choice to live 2 hours from work!!

You act like people actually have a choice!! Many times people work two hours or more away, because there aren't any jobs that pay decently in their neighborhoods.

I live in the Valley and I'm constantly getting calls for positions in West LA/Santa Monica. TWO or more hours away no matter how you cut it and there ARE NO SHORTCUTS in getting there. Very few calls come in for something that's an hour away. The valley is mostly mom and pop shops, garages, and minimum wage, so working here is a no-no.

The OP should be aware of the JOB SITUATION before coming out here. If you can't get work, then you can't enjoy the hiking, biking, beaches, clubs, etc.

[TheRealAngelion]

Originally Posted by marilyn220

I live in the Valley and I'm constantly getting calls for positions in West LA/Santa Monica. TWO or more hours away no matter how you cut it and there ARE NO SHORTCUTS in getting there. Very few calls come in for something that's an hour away. The valley is mostly mom and pop shops, garages, and minimum wage, so working here is a no-no.

The Valley is actually home to several large corporations and many other small and midsize offices and firms that employ hundreds of thousands of people. Disney, Warner Brothers, ABC, NBC Universal, Blue Cross, Sunkist, Countrywide, and Cal State Northridge are just a few of the big employers. There are others.....

[Zeepogee]

No no no no, not LA. You will spend most of your life on freeways and inhale smog all day. Go to Santa Rosa Ca. north of SF.. THe best all around weather in the USA. Lived there 20 years, I know!

[shellinca]

Originally Posted by mf123

So, I've been reading this forum, and maybe too much at times. I have been researching the possibility of a move from NYC to LA (I love the westside!), but I am starting to get concerned with some of the posts I've encountered. I'm a professional woman in my 30s and have had enough of NYC living and thought LA would provide me with some of the things I am frustrated about NYC, ie. LA can provide more laid back lifestyle, mountains and beaches, mobility via a car which NY doesn't afford, and nicer weather. NYC is a tough and expensive place to live and I feel its time for a change. Are these posts true? I've been fortunate to spend a lot of time in LA in the past year and I've enjoyed it, but reading this forum is beginning to freak me out.
Any thoughts out there?

I've found this thread to be quite interesting since I am also a professional woman in my 30s who actually made the move from NYC to LA just a few months ago in January 07. I grew up in Brooklyn, lived in the DC area for a while for grad school/work, moved back to NY, then finally decided that I'd had enough and was ready for the laidback lifestyle of the West Coast.

I don't want to participate in the LA bashing because honestly, there are some things I really like about living here - the beach, the mountains, hiking trails, bike paths, warm weather year-round. But at the same time, I feel like I've traded one set of headaches for another.

In NY, I was tired of the dirt and the noise, my tiny apartment with no amenities, the high cost of living, not being able to have a car, to name just a few... In LA, my place is much bigger and has features unheard of in NY - washer/dryer, dishwasher, free gym, swimming pool - but it's not exactly cheap. Granted, its a good $550 less than I was paying in NY, but my car payments, insurance and gas more than make up the difference.

My biggest issue with LA so far has been the traffic, which is absolutely horrendous. NY has traffic too, but in my opinion, if you're stupid enough to drive into the city on a weekday, then you deserve to get stuck in traffic. In LA, you don't have a choice. Public transportation is woefully inadequate and so you will be completely dependent on your car. I avoid the freeways whenever possible and rely on surface roads, but those are clogged as well. It's extremely frustrating when it takes 30 minutes to drive just a couple of miles. Perhaps more annoying are the traffic jams I've encountered at 9:30 on a Saturday morning. A lot of people view the traffic as a trade-off and are perfectly willing to deal with it in exchange for a living in a place that's warm and sunny all the time. But as a New Yorker who's used to being able to walk or take the subway, the traffic can be unbearable.

I've also found it difficult to meet people here, but not because there's anything wrong with the people here. True, I've met some really shallow and pretentious people, but let's be honest - NY has its fair share of those too. The bigger problem I find is that LA is so large and spread out and there isn't really a center. People here work in a variety of different areas throughout the metropolitan area and if you work on the West Side and have a friend who works in Burbank or Hollywood, it can be difficult to try and meet up. In NY, where nearly everyone works in Manhattan, I find it much easier to meet up with friends after work for dinner and drinks. Whereas here, I find myself not wanting to stray too far from home or work because I don't want to deal with traffic and looking for parking.

So, my point is, there's really no right or wrong answer. One city is not better than the other. NY & LA both have a lot of good and a lot of bad. Ultimately, you need to decide for yourself what's most important to you and which of the bad things you're most willing to tolerate.

[Sorcerer68]

I absolutely love NYC. L.A. and NYC are polar opposites. I love both places but am an Angeleno at heart. I was just speaking to a friend of mine who is a native New Yorker who moved back 5 years ago and he tells me how much he loved it here and how much he misses it. Both places have their own positive attributes and I never thought one could compete with another. They are completely different.

As for the people who pop up and suggest the boonies to someone asking about moving from a major city to a major city, you really don't get it.

[NYmama]

Excellent post, Shell.

To the original poster: If you can get a job in Santa Monica and live there, that to me would be the ideal world. I lived in Santa Monica and worked in the valley; I drove up PCH and through Topanga Canyon every day. Took me about 45 minutes but what a drive--much cheaper than therapy. We left California and went back to NY for a variety of reasons (one is we had a kid), but Santa Monica is an amazing walking neighborhood. If I hadn't worked in the Valley (very suburban and freaking hooooot, by the way), I could have got by for a long time without a car in Santa Monica at all. I walked to all my shopping (food, clothes, etc.), the outdoor farmer's market (there are two in SM, a total of three times a weel), restaurants (many good ones), the beach, and even all my doc and dental appointments and ALMOST even walked to the hospital to give birth, not because I was being a stud but because it was that close. I've lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Hoboken and none even came close to the convenience I found walking in Santa Monica.

To rent wasn't too terrible. To buy, forget it. (Another big reason we left.) But anyway, in four years of living in LA, I can count on one hand how many times I sat in horrendous traffic--all very memorable times--but never in Santa Monica. I loved my car-free weekends there. Good luck!

[tired of being inside]

Originally Posted by NYmama

I've lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Hoboken and none even came close to the convenience I found walking in Santa Monica.

Now for me, THAT is an amazing statement! I lived in Hoboken for 11 years, loved every second of it - the walking, the parks, the bars and restaurants, the easy trek to NYC - until my first son started walking (condo became way too small), so we moved to Red Bank on the north Jersey coast. Now we're moving to LA. My company transferred me to downtown LA and we are going to give Long Beach a try, renting a loft style condo. But again I hear about Santa Monica and I have to bring my wife and kids there soon after we move and check it out. LBC may be temporary...Oh, but is SM to downtown LA a horrendous commute (I'd only make it 2-3 days per week, working from home and seeing clients the other days).

LA, here I come!

[Tinkertea]

Don't let other posts scare you. LA has all the things you mentioned wanting. I am a native/Californian who is considering to move out of California. Not because I don't love it out here, but because it is hard to get ahead financially. And I really don't care for the entertainment industry/fakeness. But who can beat our weather and the availability of beaches, desert, mountains, etc all within just miles! I would never suggest anyone to NOT move out here. All I would say is be prepared financially. Although, compared to NY, we're cheap!