Choice to live/work in LA or OC

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by jwilke55

LOL missionhome - yep, see that is my complete lack of understanding of LA's size coming through!! I believe it is right downtown - 350 S. Grand Street is the address.

bhcompy - do you mean that the Santa Ana area is unsafe? Or difficult to navigate? Just curious.

Thanks Escape - A townhouse definitely sounds like a viable option, considering our budget.

Some consider it a terrible area, but that's in context with the high profile affluent cities nearby. It's nothing compared to the worst areas of LA though. It's not an area you want to move into fresh though without first exploring the neighborhoods thoroughly. There is gang activity, but it's mostly just a large lower class/working class city(and also the county seat for Orange County and one of the oldest cities in the region) with a few bad parts and a few good parts thrown in.

[5Lakes]

Originally Posted by jwilke55

LOL missionhome - yep, see that is my complete lack of understanding of LA's size coming through!! I believe it is right downtown - 350 S. Grand Street is the address.

I'm originally from the Cleveland area and have lived in Southern California. The first thing I will tell you is that planning on where to live based on your commute is something you defiantly want to take into consideration. Cleveland has very little traffic as far as cities go, and the LA area has the worst traffic in the country. Plan on living relatively close to where you work to avoid a miserable commute.

As far as LA vs OC, I would definitely go with the LA option. It is much more interesting and has far more entertainment options. If you are going to move you might as well be in the most interesting place you can while you are young and without kids. Since you would be working right in downtown LA, I would look into Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Pasadena as places to live. These are all interesting areas that attract a lot of younger people and have plenty of shopping, bars, and restaurants. I would say Pasadena is more down to earth and less hipster of those options, with the other two more on the progressive side. Also, Los Feliz and Pasadena have transit (like Cleveland's RTA trains) that can take you downtown for work so you can avoid driving.

As far as Costa Mesa goes, it is rather suburban and unremarkable. It would be like living in Beachwood or North Olmsted, except with no winter and higher rents. Most of Orange County is nothing special really, unless you are right near the beach. The main advantage that Costa Mesa would have over downtown LA is that it would allow for shorter trips to the beach. If you do go that route also look into Huntington Beach or Newport Beach as places to live.

[uptown_urbanist]

I agree that Pasadena, or possibly South Pasadena, is a good option. You could take the Gold Line, otherwise the drive in isn't too bad. Paying for parking can add up, though.

I don't live in LA currently, but we lived in a great apartment in Hollywood (an easy commute by Red Line, but probably not as convenient for the animals), and then rented a house in South Pasadena. South Pasadena isn't surburban, but it's not really "big city" either. It feels more like a smaller town, just one that happens to be an easy commute from downtown. Pasadena has some more affordable neighborhoods (plus plenty of very expensive ones) and it also might be a nice fit. It gives you a lot of traditional urban amenities -- walkability, decent public transportation, lots of shops and restaurants, etc. -- but at the same time is more green (lots of trees, and South Pasadena even has wild parrots in the trees) than some of the more dense, gritty, traditionally urban LA neighborhoods to the east of downtown.

Costa Mesa is much closer to the beach, but I'd take the more interesting option for daily life and commute to the beach if you want to on the weekends. It all comes down to personal preference, of course, but in our case even though my husband liked his company's Costa Mesa office better, we found it much preferable to live and be based in LA (he worked downtown, too, a couple of blocks from your work).

[jwilke55]

Thanks so much for all the responses!! There are clearly pros and cons for both areas. I will definitely have to take into consideration how close to work I can comfortably live, although it sounds like we could make it work in both places. South Padadena sounds like a good option if we do end up going with Los Angeles.