What's Tarzana like? (Los Angeles, San Diego, Pasadena: salons, brokers, homes)

[winterblue]

Anyone who lives there...can you tell me what the atmosphere is like?
I am researching places to move to in CA and would like a more laid back atmosphere sort of off beat, but with good schools. Is this a place I should consider?

[nowincal11]

What is your budget, commute distance, and age of your kids. All 3 of those will play a huge factor in whether Tarzana is right for you.

Tarzana is fairly wealthy, located in the west San Fernando Valley. Commute times to downtown and the west side Century City "downtown" are about an hour each way. It is family oriented. Lots of typical suburban shopping centers with chain restaurants, upscale chain restaurants, salons, spas, etc.

The demographics are mostly white and within that "white" designation are a lot of Persians and Jews (and combined Persian Jews). North of the 101 Freeway becomes a lot more Hispanic.

Tarzana has had some redevelopment of its shopping centers lately; more drug stores and more big box stores.

[BlankVerse]

Tarzana is pretty much a family oriented suburban neighborhood located in the west San Fernando Valley (and is part of the City of Los Angeles).

Generally, a very nice area, esp. south of Ventura Blvd where the homes are very expensive (even relatively small ones). The public schools are part of the L.A. Unified School District. There are SOME good public schools in that area like Welby Way; however, the LAUSD schools are not the greatest. So plenty of parents in the area send their kids to private schools.

I would not call Tarzana off beat, except that it was founded/named after Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is a nice area with nice homes and nice shopping district on Ventura Blvd.

[winterblue]

Thanks for the replies. We would have one child in the school district who is now in 6th grade. Our budget runs between 900K-1.3K or so. We were also looking at Calabasas and Agoura Hills as possibilities and as far south as San Diego, but not sure where the best place for us is. As I said, looking for a more down to earth community and I'm not sure I am headed in the right direction. I am from NY and we have some off beat communities here that tend to be artsy/funky and would like something like that with good weather. Could anyone push me in the right direction? We are open to anywhere in SoCal.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by winterblue

We are open to anywhere in SoCal.

So commuting, work location isn't a concern (you work from home in your jammies)?

Laguna Beach
Carpinteria
Ojai
Santa Barbara
Pasadena
San Clemente

[nowincal11]

Artsy/funky will be hard to find meshed with family oriented. Pasadena, but the schools are not good. Look into the city of South Pasadena, which has a lot better schools. South Pasadena is pretty walkable.

Calabasas is really cool. It is also 15 minutes from Woodland Hills and Canoga Park with major shopping malls and restaurants. Calabasas has a lot of LA power brokers, but they don't flaunt like the Beverly Hills crowd. FYI, in the summertime Calabasas is can get well over 100. It is near Agoura Hills, but I think AH is a bit cheaper. Neither of these cities are really walkable.

[winterblue]

Ok, thanks! I was under the impression there were more artsy/off-beat areas in LA that would cater to families as well. We have so many areas like that here....Sea Cliff, Huntington and Bayville on Long Island, Nyack in Westchester, New Paltz and Woodstock upstate. I just figured there would be some close to LA too. Am I thinking more of Northern California or am I just misinformed altogether?

[BRinSM]

good elementary schools can be found throughout LA. Silver Lake has a good elemetary school (Ivanhoe), so does Venice (Couer d'Alene) and Santa Monica has really good schools. Jr. high in LAUSD is a totally different story, but I've heard good things about Portola in Tarzana (maybe why you're looking that area). You may also check out some of the canyon communities, Topanga, Calabasas, etc... These are all very expensive neighborhoods though, so I'm not sure how far your 1.3M budget will take you. I'm sure you can get something nice, but it won't be huge and new by any means. However, pretty much all of LA has some sort of entertainment industry influence, so there will be artsy types just about everywhere and amenities that cater to them.

[nowincal11]

Originally Posted by winterblue

Ok, thanks! I was under the impression there were more artsy/off-beat areas in LA that would cater to families as well. We have so many areas like that here....Sea Cliff, Huntington and Bayville on Long Island, Nyack in Westchester, New Paltz and Woodstock upstate. I just figured there would be some close to LA too. Am I thinking more of Northern California or am I just misinformed altogether?

I'm not too familiar with Norcal, but I think what you are describing is more indicative of there. Monterey on the coast, Berkeley, Palo Alto, etc.

Silverlake and Los Feliz are in LA both east of Hollywood, which are artsy and wealthy. I don't know about schools though. It is completely across the city from Calabasas so if you are working out in Woodland Hills, the commute from Silverlake will be a nightmare.

[ambermerci]

Hi, I've been in california almost a year and have explored everywhere around the los angeles area.
Artsy/funky And family oriented..I think of Pasadena.
Also some areas in down town la. But its not neccesarily family friendly. Some parts of the valley feel like the middle east. There's a huge persian/russian/Jewish influence in areas such as tarzana/encino/. There's north hollywood which is really artsy/but it caters to a young crowd and some parts are sketchy. Just my 2 cents.