Is Los Angeles a safe place to Move? Where is the best part of LA to Move? (San Diego: apartment, hairstylist)

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Lmasters

now we are heading to Virginia.

You'll love the weather in Virginia after living in California.
And if you're in NOVA, you'll find it is basically Los Angeles (expensive, lots of traffic) with crappy weather.

[Lmasters]

Originally Posted by Charles

You'll love the weather in Virginia after living in California.
And if you're in NOVA, you'll find it is basically Los Angeles (expensive, lots of traffic) with crappy weather.

Moving to Shenoadoah Valley, Population 30,000.

[1200RT]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

Santa Monica is hardly an elite area.

LOL.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by 1200RT

LOL.

Grandview Gloria is yet another poster who's never been in Los Angeles.
For one thing, claiming that "Santa Monica is not an elite area" and recommending the Antelope Valley shows that whoever said poster is knows NOTHING about L.A.

[disgruntled la native]

There is some truth to what Grandview Gloria said but mostly not. I doubt she's ever lived in LA and is relying on movies and magazines.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

There is some truth to what Grandview Gloria said but mostly not. I doubt she's ever lived in LA and is relying on movies and magazines.

Only the part about the terrible drivers is true (although there's no argument from me about LAUSD being awful, but she doesn't know enough about LA to distinguish LAUSD from non-LAUSD). The rest is fiction. The recommendation of the AV to "escape from LA's problems" was the most ridiculous thing of all....

And the terrible drivers aren't by any means all immigrants ; soccer moms driving SUVs are the worst, and they're mostly white and overwhelmingly American.

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by majoun

Grandview Gloria is yet another poster who's never been in Los Angeles.
For one thing, claiming that "Santa Monica is not an elite area" and recommending the Antelope Valley shows that whoever said poster is knows NOTHING about L.A.

If you think Santa Monica is 'elite', then either YOU have never been to LA, or you have no idea what 'elite' is. Reminds me of when my Decorator, fresh out of school, was in New York, talking to some little yuppie lawyer at a gaybar. He mentioned fabrics for upholstered walls. This creature started telling him about how "nobody in New York has upholstered walls" in tones of horror. "I know all the elite people...totally Top Drawer... and it just isn't done." It was so absurd (considering this was the late Eighties, when such things were standard fare), and so telling of people who have no idea who the upper strata are, and how they live. We all had a good laugh about that. Some people can see no farther than their own personal aspirations. And I'm sure this person was aspiring to something loftish and minimalist (you know, the white walls/track lighting/overpriced Italian accessories look all Gay professionals from working class backgrounds seem to consider mandatory), and couldn't survive knowing that there were vast apartments fitted with hand-chased Ormolu hardware, with Parquet de Versailles floors and silk-covered walls.... to which he would never be invited, because he was neither a de Menil nor a de Fortabat...so he blotted out their very obvious existence, as, apparently, you are blotting out the existence of Beverly Park.

Yes, Santa Monica is very nice, and relatively expensive, with a sublime microclimate. A nice place for high-earning singles. But elite? No, dear.

And no, I haven't been to Antelope Valley since my group sold our interest in a development out there. So it may have gone third-world, like Orange County is going (everything is changing so fast). But I think it's a nice, affordable place for a family of moderate means to move and get their bearings, before moving closer-in. Summers there are not cooled by ocean zephyrs, as they are on the Coast (okay, they're brutal), but home prices are so much lower.

[1200RT]

Maybe you should define you idea of elite, since everyone here seems to be on different pages.....

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

If you think Santa Monica is 'elite', then either YOU have never been to LA, or you have no idea what 'elite' is. Reminds me of when my Decorator, fresh out of school, was in New York, talking to some little yuppie lawyer at a gaybar. He mentioned fabrics for upholstered walls. This creature started telling him about how "nobody in New York has upholstered walls" in tones of horror. "I know all the elite people...totally Top Drawer... and it just isn't done." It was so absurd (considering this was the late Eighties, when such things were standard fare), and so telling of people who have no idea who the upper strata are, and how they live. We all had a good laugh about that. Some people can see no farther than their own personal aspirations. And I'm sure this person was aspiring to something loftish and minimalist (you know, the white walls/track lighting/overpriced Italian accessories look all Gay professionals from working class backgrounds seem to consider mandatory), and couldn't survive knowing that there were vast apartments fitted with hand-chased Ormolu hardware, with Parquet de Versailles floors and silk-covered walls.... to which he would never be invited, because he was neither a de Menil nor a de Fortabat...so he blotted out their very obvious existence, as, apparently, you are blotting out the existence of Beverly Park.

Yes, Santa Monica is very nice, and relatively expensive, with a sublime microclimate. A nice place for high-earning singles. But elite? No, dear.

And no, I haven't been to Antelope Valley since my group sold our interest in a development out there. So it may have gone third-world, like Orange County is going (everything is changing so fast). But I think it's a nice, affordable place for a family of moderate means to move and get their bearings, before moving closer-in. Summers there are not cooled by ocean zephyrs, as they are on the Coast (okay, they're brutal), but home prices are so much lower.

Your posts make absolutely no sense.

What is your definition of elite anyway? Santa Monica is a fairly large, diverse city. The 90402 zip code in north Santa Monica is the second most expensive in LA county after 90210 (and for years was the most expensive). Yeah, 90402 is not as flashy as Bel Air, Malibu, north Beverly Hills, or the Hollywood Hills, but the residents tend to be older with families rather than young bullish entertainment types (or excessive image oriented Persians). Whatever you call Santa Monica it's still among the priciest real state in southern California.

Why do you keep bringing up gays?

Finally, to be a little snobby since you're playing that game, what does someone in the tiny town of Lake Oswego know about the workings of LA, much less elite society? I think you've read too much vanity fair.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

If you think Santa Monica is 'elite', then either YOU have never been to LA, or you have no idea what 'elite' is.

Northern Santa Monica is as expensive as anywhere in California. Parts of southern SM have gotten very expensive. SM is definitely elite.

I was born in and lived most of my life on the Westside (although never living in SM itself) and grew up in two neighborhoods that border SM (Mar Vista and West L.A.) and I know more about SM than you do. I went to Santa Monica College and have many friends in SM.

Reminds me of when my Decorator, fresh out of school, was in New York, talking to some little yuppie lawyer at a gaybar. He mentioned fabrics for upholstered walls. This creature started telling him about how "nobody in New York has upholstered walls" in tones of horror. "I know all the elite people...totally Top Drawer... and it just isn't done." It was so absurd (considering this was the late Eighties, when such things were standard fare), and so telling of people who have no idea who the upper strata are, and how they live. We all had a good laugh about that. Some people can see no farther than their own personal aspirations. And I'm sure this person was aspiring to something loftish and minimalist (you know, the white walls/track lighting/overpriced Italian accessories look all Gay professionals from working class backgrounds seem to consider mandatory), and couldn't survive knowing that there were vast apartments fitted with hand-chased Ormolu hardware, with Parquet de Versailles floors and silk-covered walls.... to which he would never be invited, because he was neither a de Menil nor a de Fortabat...so he blotted out their very obvious existence, as, apparently, you are blotting out the existence of Beverly Park.

I know very well about Beverly Park, which no longer exists (and has not existed since the 1970s - the Beverly Center was built where it used to be located). I used to go there A LOT as a kid.

You're clearly trying to evaluate L.A. from East Coast standards - they are not the same thing. To give you an idea about SM - I knew someone in northern SM who said his place was actually more expensive than his previous place in the West Village in NYC. One can't say that about too many places. What you're describing as "elite" doesn't really exist anywhere in L.A., not even in Beverly Hills, Sunset Strip, Bel Air etc. because in L.A. wealth does not preclude trashiness. And even what's left of the old "WASP elite" of Pasadena, South Pas, and San Marino aren't that culturally elitist, they're more middlebrow.San Francisco's wealthiest hoods and the wealthiest Bay Area burbs come closer to your idea of "elite" - but L.A.'s a whole different ballgame. There are individuals who fit your category of "elite" but not neighborhoods.

L.A. is the weirdest city on the planet, and it's hard to apply standards from the East Coast to L.A. One could do that easier when talking about the Bay Area, but when talking about L.A. keep in mind that it's extremely different. No matter how many NY, NJ, Boston etc. people are in L.A. (and there are many), it's not the same.

Yes, Santa Monica is very nice, and relatively expensive, with a sublime microclimate. A nice place for high-earning singles.

The only part of the westside that's avoided family flight. (Even BH and Culver City have experienced family flight despite being non-LAUSD)

But elite? No, dear.

All the film stars, other high level entertainment people, wealthy attorneys, etc. living there would beg to differ.

And no, I haven't been to Antelope Valley since my group sold our interest in a development out there. So it may have gone third-world, like Orange County is going [i](everything is changing so fast)

It's where L.A. sends its poor who are priced out of L.A. proper or got uprooted by gentrification. It's very ghetto and gangland. Very few cultural amenities to speak of. Very high racial and ethnic tensions. It got hit very hard by the real estate crash and there are plenty of abandoned buildings.

But I think it's a nice, affordable place for a family of moderate means to move and get their bearings, before moving closer-in. Summers there are not cooled by ocean zephyrs, as they are on the Coast (okay, they're brutal), but home prices are so much lower.

They're lower for very good reasons. I would not advise any family to move there, or anyone who wasn't working there to move there. Obviously not everyone who lives there is a bad person, some live there because they can't afford anywhere else or because they work in the area. I don't know what the East Coast equivalents would be - the Bay Area equivalent is Fairfield.