Rossmoor, Los Alamitos, Cypress or La Palma??? (Glendale, Fullerton: apartments, rentals)

[madforsun]

Hi -

My husband and I will be moving to California this Fall. He recently graduated from a 3D computer animation school and will be looking for a job at an animation studio. We currently live in Madison, WI. Or rather - a small suburb of Madison. We love living someplace with a small town feel, but still being close enough to take advantage of everything Madison has to offer.

After much research, and trying to balance safety, small town feel, proximity to the beach, proximity to Disney, driving distance to his work, air quality, weather and price, we have come up with these four cities as our best choices to live.

Most of the animation studios are scattered throughout LA, but some are as far north as Glendale and Burbank. My husband plans to ride his motorcycle to work most days and hopes that lane splitting will save him some time if the traffic is gridlocked. Most studios have flexible hours, so he's hoping to avoid some of the traffic by going in a little later as well.

Ideally we would like to rent a house or condo (someplace with a yard for our 20lb dog) for up to one year. Living in an apartment wouldn't kill us, but we'd be looking to rent for more like 3-6 months if that was the case. Just long enough so we can get a feel for the area before purchasing a house. Our budget for renting will be maximum $1500/mo and could be as small as a 1br/1bath apartment.

Hopefully we aren't way off base with the things we're looking for and the four cities we've narrowed down to. Feel free to let me know if any of the above sounds ludicrous.

We would also like to be close to a dog park, a grocery store with organic food options, a library and possibly even a farmer's market. (I realize that in this situation, close might be 2 or 3 towns away.)

Any help you could give me in regards to which of these cities best fits our criteria would be greatly appreciated. We will be taking a scouting trip out to Cali in the next weeks and definitely plan to drive through these areas and see them for ourselves.

Thanks.

[ferretkona]

Originally Posted by madforsun

,,,, My husband plans to ride his motorcycle to work most days and hopes that lane splitting will save him some time if the traffic is gridlocked. ,,,,,.

Lane splitting will only save a few minutes, the bike will save on fuel costs. A reason lane splitting saves so few minutes, the law only allows you to exceed the speed of others by 15 mph. There are a lot of drivers who will swerve toward bike riders, it gets very tedious. He will see some relief using car pool lanes with the bike. Make sure he has a organ donor card in his wallet.

[bhcompy]

1500 will get you a 2bd2bath in Los Alamitos, Cypress, and La Palma. Rossmoor has no apartments, and the condos that border Rossmoor(technically Seal Beach/90740 zip) are highly unlikely to be at 1500 or below.

Cypress will be a quicker commute to Disney, La Palma has a few more ratty areas, and Los Alamitos is the most walkable(at least in Apartment Row). It's hard to go wrong in any of those areas, so it really depends on the amenities you want outside of what you mentioned. If you want a yard, there are a good deal of older rentals in Los Alamitos that offer yards, though I'm unsure of the prices on these.

The local dog park is in Seal Beach on the back side of the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base(off Lampson near Seal Beach Blvd behind the WestEd building).

Organic/fresh produce grocers are all around. Notably, most Ralph's have a solid organic section for a regular grocery store and Sprouts(Rossmoor Center) has a large selection of fresh produce.

Cypress and Los Alamitos/Rossmoor both have libraries. I'm not sure if La Palma does.

[J1ndo]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

I'm not sure if La Palma does.

It does. I haven't been inside since the 1980s, so I can't say what it's like now, but it's there.

To the OP, I'm biased, but I would include Fullerton into your list of potential towns. It has walkable neighborhoods, a wonderful farmers market every Thursday evening (with live music and a beer garden to boot), organic grocery stores, a fine public library and superb University library open to the public.

The main reason I think Fullerton might be a good option for you, though, is that it has a Metrolink station with a line going downtown. Using transfers, you could get to Disney studios, for example, in about two hours. That's a long time, but the bike commute will likely get really old really quickly (or it will kill him before he tires of it), and it's always good to have options.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by madforsun

trying to balance safety...My husband plans to ride his motorcycle to work most days and hopes that lane splitting will save him some time if the traffic is gridlocked.

Why not live in Compton to save money if your safety standards include lane splitting?

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by madforsun

We love living someplace with a small town feel

None of those four have a small town feel. They're just part of the massive Greater L.A. area sprawl.

Originally Posted by madforsun

My husband plans to ride his motorcycle to work most days and hopes that lane splitting will save him some time...

Does he have a death wish?

Originally Posted by madforsun

if the traffic is gridlocked.

It will be.

[NewToCA]

closed, per OP request