Are these apts in safe areas?

[lemonberry]

Thanks for your input. Northridge is too far out from Downtown, Silverlake, Noho. I guess Google hasn't street mapped all of SFV because the best I could get was a close overhead shot. Bing was more helpful but you can't get down to street level and up close. I can't see much of a difference between the Justin and Cypress locations, even though Cypress is below Colorado. I did a crime map search and there is more crime down in Cypress but the area looks decent from the sat map. I'm not looking for fancy just decent. Frankly we want out of Chicago. We've been here 3 years and I refuse to take another Midwest winter. When it's 30 below the day before Christmas and your car is stuck on a patch of ice because your only option is street parking, enough is enough.

[Lovehound]

You should visit L.A. and see for yourself. There's plenty of nice areas to live in even east of the 405 San Diego Freeway, an easy commute to Glendale or Burbank.

If you came out here you would be able to see for yourself that Glendale and Burbank are better than the other places you named for potential workplace, and you'd see that both Glendale and Burbank have areas that would be nice enough to live in.

I'm just saying that my street-by-street familiarity is not good enough for me to help unless I drove over there and looked. Maybe you should come out when it's 30 below and day before Christmas, and you might enjoy walking in the surf and maybe get a bit of sun tan. Most of our winter you don't even need to wear long sleeves, let alone any jacket.

[PeppermintChapstick]

imo, you would benefit from staying somewhere temporarily and looking around Burbank. There are nice areas, but you need to see for yourself.

If you don't like Burbank and can afford it, Toluca Lake is gorgeous and certainly not as far from Burbank as Sherman Oaks (which is a nice area, don't get me wrong). Studio City is also nice and, in my experience, a little cheaper than Toluca Lake. North Hollywood is even cheaper, but it's hit and miss in regards to a good place to live.

[Lovehound]

Indeed, Toluca Lake is nice! And Studio City. And parts of NH are okay. (We locals DO NOT call it NoHo!)

Or even what is now called "Valley Village" (previously AKA Van Nuys when I grew up nearby).

The Valley is very complex, with nice neighborhoods, so-so neighborhoods and "don't go there at night unless you're buying drugs" neighborhoods, mixed sometimes a mile at a time and other times a block or street at a time. You need to be here, on the ground, and check it out for yourself.