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Old 05-15-2010, 12:04 AM
 
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 22,985,474 times
Reputation: 36027

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I'm not that familiar with Whittier but was there the other day and the architecture and trees gave me an East Coast vibe. There is a liberal arts private college within the vicinity (Whittier College) so maybe it is a liberal-leaning area?
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Old 06-29-2010, 02:32 PM
 
3 posts, read 5,932 times
Reputation: 10
I lived near Pasadena and I loved it. There are really nice neighborhoods with houses of all different prices. The traffic is nothing like if you go more west in the city. The people are all nice and travel isn't too bad if you need to go into Hollywood or Santa Monica, or wherever it is you need to go.
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Old 06-29-2010, 04:00 PM
 
897 posts, read 1,588,467 times
Reputation: 1007
Based on your criteria, I'd say you want to live near Crenshaw.
I know, I know, that sounds scarry already but what a lot of people don't know is that Crenshaw has very posh neighborhoods in their hills and those neighborhoods are full of well to do black folks.

There is also Culver City.
There are some hills off of La Brea (I think it's called Northride-not to be confused with the Norhridge in the Sand Fernando Valley) that are also full of well to do black folks, mostly in the music industry, and it is near the major black communities (which will mean black churches) of what I call "old LA".

I wouldn't want to live in those areas because of the congestion and the closeness to "questionable" neighborhoods and would have suggested Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley but you made it clear you want your children to go to a black church without having to take a freeway.

I'm not an east coaster but, contrary to popular belief, some of us here in LA do make good neighbors.
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Old 06-29-2010, 05:41 PM
 
Location: San Diego
21 posts, read 48,145 times
Reputation: 46
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catherine Sinclair View Post
Hi all,

I am a New Yorker...
1) DEMOGRAPHY: SEGREGATION VERSUS SEPARATE UNIVERSES.
2) VIBE: POLITICALLY ACTIVE VERSUS JUICY COUTURE AND JAMBA JUICE.
3) LOOK: OAK TREES VERSUS PALM TREES.

These are high demands for Los Angeles, but we're aiming high and we'll bargain from there! All suggestions appreciated!

Thanks,
Catherine
Dear Catherine,
I don't know if you are truly naive about Los Angeles or if your comments are as backhanded as I suspect them to be as you feel the need to CAPITALIZE all of your stereotypes of Los Angeles and have your "high demands" about a neighborhood you'd live in, which Los Angeles cannot possibly satisfy as opposed to New Yawk.

But to answer your question, ther are plenty of neighborhoods in Los Angeles that may fit your "criteria" if you are willing to leave that New Yawk mentality in the subway.
1) LA is probably the most diverse city in the nation. Maybe in the "Upper East Side" there are only three shades of color: Black, White, Brown. But in LA, there are many shades of Brown, and Black, and White. Oh yea, lets not forget our few Persian, Phillipine, Korean, Armenian, etc. friends. No need to separate them by highway. I know thats nothing compared to the different shades of pasty white your used to.
2) A couple of us Angelinos are a little more "politically interested" than your snob New Yawk "blacksuitwhitetie" mentality may be. You may want to give a second glance at your neighbors who may look like they're on their way to "Jamba Juice."
3) If you find LA's image so "depressing", I suggest maybe moving back to New Yawk since it is blatantly obvious that you are choosing to pick out any of the typical LA stereotypes and dwell on them, rather than accepting the area you will be living in and seeing that LA has alot more to offer than your willing to give it credit for. Either that, or maybe you should check out the local pharmacy for Zoloft, Prozac or "kush"! But maybe you just might want to go back to New Yawk since it is obvious that you will snicker every time you realize that you are living here instead of the eastcoast.

I'm sorry, I'm just a stereotypically "politically uninspired" Los Angelino that drinks Jamba Juice and am very undiverse. But at least if I ever move to New York and don't see the sun often, smell everyones stank in the subway, and see that the women are tier 2, I won't be complaining on a forum about it.

Last edited by latinovelvet; 06-29-2010 at 06:02 PM.. Reason: Left something out.
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Old 06-30-2010, 01:11 PM
 
6,459 posts, read 12,006,000 times
Reputation: 6395
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catherine Sinclair View Post
Hi all,

I am a New Yorker (born, half-raised, have lived here as an adult) and I am facing having to move to Los Angeles in the near future for work. I lived in Los Angeles, Brentwood specifically, for a long time as a kid......and I absolutely hated. (Sorry Angelenos, it's nothing personal!)

I am looking for a neighborhood that is as un-"LA" as possible -- in look, vibe, and demography. My fiance and I can afford up to $3.5 mil on our house (he's a lawyer, I work in film production), but if LA's most desirable neighborhoods are, say, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, we don't want the best money can buy. I'll try to explain what I mean by un-"LA."


1) DEMOGRAPHY: SEGREGATION VERSUS SEPARATE UNIVERSES. Every city in America is segregated. In New York, however, we at least have proximity. The Upper East Side borders Harlem, for example, so you're never separated from other cultures and ethnicities by more than a few blocks. In Los Angeles, you're separate by miles and highways and, really, worlds. My fiance is black, and our children will be half-black, so we need to live in a neighborhood that -- if not diverse in and of itself -- is at least close to black neighborhoods. For example, Hancock Park is I believe relatively near Crenshaw, Pasadena has a sizable black community that I know of. Brentwood, on the other hand, is surrounded by white, wealthy neighborhoods for miles on end. We want to live somewhere where our kids can go to a black church or be immersed in the black community without having to jump on the 405.

2) VIBE: POLITICALLY ACTIVE VERSUS JUICY COUTURE AND JAMBA JUICE. My fiance and I are both passionate about political issues and try to be as politically involved as possible (mostly through volunteering). I was always astounded by the lack of political interest, involvement, and activism in Los Angeles. There almost seemed to be an attitude that "other people's problems" were worlds away, and that to be concerned about these problems almost disrupts the easy-going lifestyle people move there for. I don't need to live a neighborhood where everyone has a bumper sticker on the back of their car, but it would be nice to live in a neighborhood that has a higher population of, I don't know, professors or more serious-minded types than, say, jamba juices and juicy couture sweatpants. (We live on the Upper West Side right now, if that helps.)

3) LOOK: OAK TREES VERSUS PALM TREES. I find the classic palm-tree-lined streets and Spanish-style houses of LA beautiful -- but that image would be so starkly different from the East Coast, and such a strong daily reminder that I'm living in Los Angeles, that I would find it depressing. I would love to live in a neighborhood that has a lot of trees and shade, that has homes that could be mistaken for the East Coast, and that doesn't look as shiny and new as so much of LA.


These are high demands for Los Angeles, but we're aiming high and we'll bargain from there! All suggestions appreciated!

Thanks,
Catherine
I know this is an old thread, but I'm from NYC too. Los Angeles doesn't trip about inter-racial relationships here AT ALL. There are so many bi-racial kids from diverse backgrounds here. It doesn't matter where you move to.

I'm a black woman and never had a problem with anyone of any race here. It's very unlike NYC where whites will STILL ask black people stupid questions that they should know the answer too if they had black friends (which they obviously don't - by choice).
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Old 06-30-2010, 01:21 PM
 
6,459 posts, read 12,006,000 times
Reputation: 6395
Quote:
Originally Posted by latinovelvet View Post
Dear Catherine,
I don't know if you are truly naive about Los Angeles or if your comments are as backhanded as I suspect them to be as you feel the need to CAPITALIZE all of your stereotypes of Los Angeles and have your "high demands" about a neighborhood you'd live in, which Los Angeles cannot possibly satisfy as opposed to New Yawk.

But to answer your question, ther are plenty of neighborhoods in Los Angeles that may fit your "criteria" if you are willing to leave that New Yawk mentality in the subway.
1) LA is probably the most diverse city in the nation. Maybe in the "Upper East Side" there are only three shades of color: Black, White, Brown. But in LA, there are many shades of Brown, and Black, and White. Oh yea, lets not forget our few Persian, Phillipine, Korean, Armenian, etc. friends. No need to separate them by highway. I know thats nothing compared to the different shades of pasty white your used to.
2) A couple of us Angelinos are a little more "politically interested" than your snob New Yawk "blacksuitwhitetie" mentality may be. You may want to give a second glance at your neighbors who may look like they're on their way to "Jamba Juice."
3) If you find LA's image so "depressing", I suggest maybe moving back to New Yawk since it is blatantly obvious that you are choosing to pick out any of the typical LA stereotypes and dwell on them, rather than accepting the area you will be living in and seeing that LA has alot more to offer than your willing to give it credit for. Either that, or maybe you should check out the local pharmacy for Zoloft, Prozac or "kush"! But maybe you just might want to go back to New Yawk since it is obvious that you will snicker every time you realize that you are living here instead of the eastcoast.

I'm sorry, I'm just a stereotypically "politically uninspired" Los Angelino that drinks Jamba Juice and am very undiverse. But at least if I ever move to New York and don't see the sun often, smell everyones stank in the subway, and see that the women are tier 2, I won't be complaining on a forum about it.
Hi latinovelvet,

The OP wasn't trying to be insulting or naive. If you lived in NYC you'd know where was coming from like I do.

I grew up in NYC, lived in LA for 7 years and I don't find this place racist at all. Black/white relationships aren't as common in NYC as it is here. No one cares and that's a good thing. Many white men in NYC are AFRAID to approach black women and when they do they have no idea what to say to us. They treat us like we're some alien species that just arrived on a space ship and need to be treated with kid gloves.

Contrast that to LA. White men HERE are very enlightened and approach us the same way they do everyone else and do not ask you STUPID QUESTIONS (about race that is). They are way more enlightened on that issue. Thank goodness.

So, this is what she's basing her questions from. It's not a personal dig against LA.
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Old 06-30-2010, 02:23 PM
 
Location: Beacon, NY
60 posts, read 123,201 times
Reputation: 16
I was also thinking about Moving to Los Angeles (or San Diego). Partially because of the Weather, Partially because of an attempt at Acting. Though my criteria is different. Should I ask in here or post in a separate Thread?
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Old 06-30-2010, 02:28 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,871,119 times
Reputation: 32530
Default Pasadena

Pasadena would fit your bill of particulars extremely well except for one thing: proximity to your likely places of employment (which you didn't specify). There is a Gold Line light rail connection to downtown which runs right through Pasadena which has only existed for four or five years and that could make a difference.

I am not an east coaster but I am answering anyway because I know Los Angeles pretty well, having lived here from 1958-62 and from 1966 to the present in several different locations. Did you really mean you didn't want to get information from non-east coasters? If so you are cutting yourself off from some very knowledgable people who are intelligent enough to read your criteria and understand them.

I for one had to get past your superior tone to answer objectively. I am sure you are intelligent enough to know that once you arrive here, your relationships with your neighbors, colleagues, etc. will be so much better if you can go lightly on expressing the anti-L.A. feelings. Nobody, anywhere, likes to hear from someone who just moved how it was better where they came from, even if it was actually better from an objective and logical point of view.

One thing I predict you will enjoy here (if you are at all inclined in that direction) is the world class cultural opportunities which - dare I say it? - rival those of New York. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the world class art musuems such as the Getty, Getty Villa, and Norton Simon, foreign films galore: these are just a few quick highlights and not at all the entirety of it.
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Old 06-30-2010, 02:39 PM
 
Location: Beacon, NY
60 posts, read 123,201 times
Reputation: 16
Escort Rider. Can I pique your brain? I am coming from NY and I actually like the LA/SD Vibe so to speak. Though I know the water is not something you can walk into on the beach like in florida. I am looking for something (rental) with a 1350/month cap. A Nice Neighborhood away from gangs. Girlfriend and Possible Dog in tow (though maybe a caged pet if dog's are an issue like in a lot of areas in SD). Somewhere Near Northern LA without the congestion of LA Traffic (though I don't mind a drive up to an hour if necessary).

Basically I am looking to get into acting. My Background is IT/Computer Networking and I will of course look for these types of jobs as well. Though I want to pursue my dream. I like the Pool/Hot Tub and nice type of living style. I know I can use Rent.com etc...but I would like to know from an expert about the places to go and not to go, neighborhoods, close to fun things to do without being "Above the Bar" and etc.
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Old 06-30-2010, 08:14 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,871,119 times
Reputation: 32530
To Raxian: I don't mind if you "pick" my brain, which is not at all "piqued" by your request. First, you can walk into the water at the beaches, if you don't mind that it's so damn cold. Some people get used to the water temperature, but I never did. Not sure what you mean by "northern LA" as LA stretches about 70 miles from north to south. Even outside of the city limits to the north, in the Santa Clarita Valley, it is very congested. There is no place "without the congestion of LA traffic" unless you go way north, and even then as soon as you get close to LA again the traffic is there. The northern portion of LA (still within the city limits) would be the northern part of the San Fernando Valley (Granada Hills and adjacent areas), but to avoid gangs avoid Sylmar, San Fernando, and Pacoima. You should be able to find something fairly nice in a one-bedroom (one bath) apartment for $1350 per month, but I have not kept abreast of rental prices in recent years. I must warn you that there are many, many people here who are "looking to get into acting", so there is a lot of competition, but I know nothing about how one goes about such a thing. By "fun things to do" I'm not sure if you mean the nightclub scene. If so, that's something I know nothing about. In fact, I cannot call myself an "expert" really, because LA is so vast and multi-faceted. I have lived in North Hollywood (a long time ago), Van Nuys, Reseda, Glendale, and Alhambra, and have worked in Pasadena since 1971.
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