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Old 03-19-2010, 10:53 AM
 
36 posts, read 58,778 times
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Also, I probably wont be a 9-5 person, so I don't know if that would lessen the blow of commuter traffic for me? It's usually gigs, going to clients, and working from home. We would live close to wherever my spouse got an education job, and I would freelance from there.
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Old 03-19-2010, 10:56 AM
 
9,523 posts, read 30,385,945 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cabombina View Post
Also, I probably wont be a 9-5 person, so I don't know if that would lessen the blow of commuter traffic for me? It's usually gigs, going to clients, and working from home. We would live close to wherever my spouse got an education job, and I would freelance from there.
You're gonna live in a major CA city you are going to deal with traffic. It's just part of life here. You'll have to accept it on some level, especially in LA.
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Old 03-19-2010, 11:07 AM
 
36 posts, read 58,778 times
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Thanks again for the informative and blunt answers.
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Old 03-19-2010, 11:28 AM
 
1,858 posts, read 3,085,918 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sassberto View Post
Widespread confusion about the difference between an arts industry vs. arts patronage. A city has a high cultural awareness does not automatically equate to the business infrastructure that can support a professional arts industry. A couple of onesey-twosey post production facilities and indie music labels does not make an arts industry.

All this talk about vibe and feel....

You need to ask yourself what's more important: vibe and feel or work. Do you want to live in a pretty place and accept a starving artist lifestyle or do you want to go work on the next Avatar?

LA is not a pretty place like SF is. It's got sprawl and crime and traffic. But the entertainment industry alone generates more work for artists of all types (from painters to digital to musicians) than exists in all of the Bay Area. Add into that the fact that you have Pasadena Art Center, the west coast's major fine arts market, and the center for all performing arts all in one place... SF cannot touch it.

If you are a working artist, you want to not only put food on your table but grow a career, working with the best people on the best projects, you will need to move to LA. San Francisco has an art scene, but a lot of it is typical starving artist / hobbyist stuff that you could find in any other city in the country. There is nothing about San Francisco's art and music business that differentiates it from Chicago's or Seattle's or Minneapolis'. They all have varied, relatively rich cultural scenes but that does not make them a good place to have a career as an artist. Artists in those cities are usually there because they love their city, because or they don't want to have to compete in a major market... a wannabe actor in SF doesn't wannabe an actor that badly! It's the difference between having a full-time job doing post-production and hanging your work in a gallery at night, vs. scraping by at a retail job.

As for the person who inquired about being a writer.... Chicago or NYC, LA would be a third choice if you are looking at scriptwriting or something like that. Again... SF is not relevant.

I can't tell you how many posts we get from people saying "I am interested in film and video and I want to move to San Diego". It's like saying "I want to be an investment banker so I will move to Seattle". People who make decisions like this are consciously trading away their career to live in a "nice" place. While there is nothing wrong with that, make sure you are honest with yourself about the tradeoff.
Good post!
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Old 03-19-2010, 11:32 AM
 
1,858 posts, read 3,085,918 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cabombina View Post
Also, I probably wont be a 9-5 person, so I don't know if that would lessen the blow of commuter traffic for me? It's usually gigs, going to clients, and working from home. We would live close to wherever my spouse got an education job, and I would freelance from there.
Certainly, this information makes L.A. an even better situation for you. If you can travel at off times, L.A. isn't that bad. You will be amazed at how much traffic there is at odd times, but, it's still not too terrible if you aren't going in the same direction as the largest quantity of drivers are.
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Old 03-19-2010, 01:34 PM
 
Location: Pasadena
7,411 posts, read 10,337,855 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rjca View Post
Bottom line is it's expensive to live in a "City" that everyone else likes too. If you can't afford that, you live in a burb. The advantage the Bay Area has is public transportation to get you from your burb to the City where stuff happens. If you want to live in any of the desirable parts of Los Angeles where things are "happening", it's going to be the same thing: either come up with a lot of $$$ (Santa Monica ain't cheap) or live in the more "indie" places that are made up of young people who have no money but a lot of heart. Out here it's SilverLake, Echo park, lots of art but dirty as hell and scary as hell, up north it's the Mission and Tenderloin, same thing. Not to diss either, because every place has its bright spots. But the reality is starving artists gravitate to other starving artists, and established artists gravitate to the more $$ places where their contemporaries live. The people in between do a lot of traveling.

Basically, if you can't afford to live in SF proper, don't expect LA to be that much different. You'll still be far away from where you want to be. Advantage: Bay Area--public transportation---UNLESS you are fine with spending many hours in congested freeway traffic. If that does not bother you, you could be made for LA.
I think where you lose credibility is over-stating\ dramatizing what doesn't exist. Your Los Angeles is seen thru a narrow lens. I don't have a car & am not old enough to drive anyway but I do take the Gold Line from Pasadena to downtown LA in less than 30 minutes & then the Red Line into Hollywood\ Universal City in another 30 minutes. We could drive it in less time except during hush hour. The Exposition Line will open next year & according to today's LA Times, Villaraigosa is likely going to get the Wilshire subway to Santa Monica constructed in less than 10 yrs [if Obama lends LA the $$].

Silver Lake & Echo Park are not ghettos like you suggest. Crime is likely less than San Francisco in general. You might want to consult crime data for Los Angeles and compare it to S.F.

Clearly you are down on LA which is cool since it is your opinion. But the reader needs to know your degree of cynicism as well. No offense meant btw.
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Old 03-19-2010, 01:51 PM
 
Location: Pasadena
7,411 posts, read 10,337,855 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist View Post
I agree to this, but only to a point. LA is not like NYC. It has a very different feel. It's also not like SF, but then again, I don't really think SF feels all that much like NYC. LA definitely doesn't feel like one cohesive whole and you don't have that central core with radiating and generally increasingly less dense communities. But within those smaller sub-cities or communities there can be a great deal of big city feel. It really depends on where you are. It's just a totally different type of city. I think people who like NYC can also like LA (I love both), but you've got to accept it for what it is. If you visit make sure to spend time in a variety of locations; I think one of the best things going for LA is the sheer variety of what it offers. So often when people say LA they mean only one little part of it (usually the west side) but there's a lot of other options out there as well. It's a great city, and definitely has a sense of things happening, but don't expect a west coast version of New York. (and unfortunately the busiest, most bustling neighborhoods also often are the ones that don't have very good schools.)
You make good points. Part of the reason Los Angeles is crippled by car traffic is that every house has a front & back yard. The ideal living situation as seen in the 1950-1980's was to allow people to live outdoors much of the year. Even if you don't have a pool [most people don't] you have a garden with fruit trees, palms & flowering trees that smell great at night [i.e orange blossoms on a calm warm night like we've had recently]. LA was the suburban model of living when San Francisco never was due to lack of space. This is impractical now & why Los Angeles is bringing back light rail [like it use to be before the car & house mentality].
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Old 03-19-2010, 05:18 PM
 
377 posts, read 587,799 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skyway31 View Post
All of your comments need to be prefaced with : "I've decided that I personally think I would like living in San Francisco more than the parts of L.A. I've lived in and am providing my own biased and possibly misinformed opinion of the cities".
Actually, how about I just express myself the way I see fit, and you either like it or don't. That works better for me, than you telling me how to post. Thanks.
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Old 03-19-2010, 05:27 PM
 
377 posts, read 587,799 times
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Cabombina-- have you tried the L.A. forum? Some of these posts are accurate. If you're concerned about money, and getting a job in the industry, L.A. probably has more opportunities (although our economy is crap right now). SF is more if you just want a really beautiful, inspiring place to live and a real, legitimate city to experience.
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Old 03-19-2010, 05:31 PM
 
377 posts, read 587,799 times
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Originally Posted by californio sur View Post
I don't have a car & am not old enough to drive anyway
With all due respect, once you get your license you can actually have something to say about driving in Los Angeles.
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