public transportation and Parking in LA (Los Angeles, Pasadena: apartment complexes, lofts, house)

[LexSteel]

Hello everyone, I'm a 24 year old New Yorker who plans on moving to LA when i'm done with school in a year and a half so far I've been looking into Silverlake, Wilshire, Hollywood and Pasadena as places to live...I'm not expecting NYC mass transit when I move out there but I'd like to take public transportation to commute to work ( I know that depends if my job is my a Metro or major bus). How good are the Metro's for morning and afternoon rush hour? I also chose those neighborhoods because I Read on these forums that they are urban and good for people my age.

My next question is how hard is it to find parking in the neighborhoods that I mentioned? and do they have alternate side parking like they do in ny and other crazy parking rules? thats a real pain in the neck over here .

Thank you for your time

[uptown_urbanist]

Parking: easy in Pasadena, difficult in Hollywood. (will let others answer for the other neighborhoods; I don't drive so don't have to worry about that!)

IF your work is on a bus or train line then public transportation works great at rush hour. They'll be busy and potentially really crowded, but that's no different from any city.

[BRinSM]

parking is easy if your apartment comes with a spot. except for areas of hollywood, venice and koreatown, most buildings in LA offer off one street parking parking spot for each bedroom in your apartment. as for public transit, if you are relying on the bus, i've found that it's about 45 minutes for every 5 miles you have to travel when you factor in waiting for late buses and a single transfer to another bus line.

[stuffavail]

Originally Posted by LexSteel

Hello everyone, I'm a 24 year old New Yorker who plans on moving to LA when i'm done with school in a year and a half so far I've been looking into Silverlake, Wilshire, Hollywood and Pasadena as places to live...I'm not expecting NYC mass transit when I move out there but I'd like to take public transportation to commute to work ( I know that depends if my job is my a Metro or major bus). How good are the Metro's for morning and afternoon rush hour? I also chose those neighborhoods because I Read on these forums that they are urban and good for people my age.

My next question is how hard is it to find parking in the neighborhoods that I mentioned? and do they have alternate side parking like they do in ny and other crazy parking rules? thats a real pain in the neck over here .

Thank you for your time

---------------------------------------
Welcome to LA!

The Metro subway is good, comfy, and on time. Soon they will actually make you buy a ticket to ride.

As for your commute, if ALL depends on where you work and where you live.

There are busses all over town, of course but they are slower but you know this coming from NYC.

The 2 aggravating parking issues are: street cleaning days (we shouldnt complain) and permt parking (I am way happy to complain). Some hoods have installed parking permits in their neighborhoods and it is the dumbest thing on earth. You have to pay to have people come visit. Why have a house if you can't have friends over? The irritating thing is that neighborhoods asked for this. Now they are stuck with it.

But hey, cities across America need dough and parking fees, tickets, etc and red light cameras provide lots of money for the cities.

When you get a job location log back in and ask for suggestions; then is the time to scan the horizon for a fun neighborhood in which to live.
There are many good places.
:-)

[Island_OnThe_Land]

Originally Posted by LexSteel

Hello everyone, I'm a 24 year old New Yorker who plans on moving to LA when i'm done with school in a year and a half so far I've been looking into Silverlake, Wilshire, Hollywood and Pasadena as places to live.. Thank you for your time

LexSteel: When I was just a little older than you are now I made the opposite move....from Los Angeles to the East Coast for a few years.

You've certainly picked some interesting and fun areas to live.

You'll find STREET parking to be much LESS of a hassle in LA than in NYC. That said, there are PARTS of Hollywood where it can be a challenge. That said, MOST of the NEWER buildings include 1 underground parking spot in the rent.

For example, the sunset and vine apartments, one of the more pricey buildings in Hollywood was built in 2004 and INCLUDES 1 off-street parking spot in the rent:
Welcome_to_SunsetAndVine.com

And even older buildings say built in the 1980's will include off-street parking.

[cmcgill]

You might also consider living Downtown. My husband and I moved here from the East Coast last summer, and we love it. Downtown is the only LA neighborhood that has the same urban feel as cities on the east coast.(You're going to find that Silverlake, Hollywood, and especially Pasadena, feel very "suburban" compared to back east.) Lots of young people live downtown, and it's a great, central location to pick up public transportation. (We choose not to own a car, and we get around just fine.) Some lofts come with a parking spot, but many will charge $100-150/month extra for spot in a garage downtown.

[uptown_urbanist]

I would agree that Pasadena and Silverlake feel rather suburban, but would never in a million years say that Hollywood, or at least central Hollywood (say, Yucca Corridor area) feels in the least suburban; among other things, it's one of the areas in LA where density levels start to approach NYC levels, and where there is activity on the street at all hours of the day.

I would agree that downtown is worth investigating as a place to live, though.

[LexSteel]

THank you very much for your advice and input, Right now in NY it is becoming impossible to find parking and i'm not even talking about manhattan, the outer boruoghs- brooklyn queens the bronx forget about it, My price range would be 1700-1800 for a 2 br, I heard good things about silver lake and hollywood being young and urban thats why i inquired about those neighborhoods...thanks for the input from everyone the more the better, God Bless

[cmcgill]

Uptown Urbanist makes a good point -- there are lots of people on the streets in Central Hollywood. But my impression is that many of them are tourists. There are huge apartment complexes along Yucca, but where can you go on foot from those complexes? Hollywood and Highland? All the major tourist attractions? I agree that "suburban" probably isn't the right word for it. But I'd liken that area of Hollywood to Times Square, and let you draw your own conclusions about how desirable it would be as a place to live.

[uptown_urbanist]

There's actually quite a bit within walking distance, although there are certainly comparisons to be made to Times Square. Hollywood and Highland is pretty boring and more in line with the cleaned-up Times Square, and we seldom went there. Hollywood heading towards Vine gets more "real", and there are also smaller businesses on the streets branching off of Hollywood, and along Sunset (and some stuff on Franklin, Cahuenga, etc.). I lived on Whitley without a car, and was able to walk to do all my shopping, go to the library, go to the farmer's market, access tons of restaurants, etc. I haven't lived there for a couple of years, but Hollywood has an odd mix of tourists and residents. A lot of the people on Hollywood Blvd are tourists, but there's also a lot of locals mixed in, too (including a lot of "colorful" locals; it kept things interesting). It's a place with many layers. It is very walkable, and has great public transportation access (including two subway stops). I spent a lot of time in both downtown and Hollywood, and loved them both for different reasons. Hollywood is loud, though, so if you don't want to deal with drunk people yelling at the top of their lungs at 2:30 am then you're not going to like it. Luckily I can generally sleep through almost everything.