Where's the grass, trees, and suburbs in LA? (Los Angeles, Pasadena: rentals, neighborhoods)

[blueslily]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the responses from people who have helpful information to share! Also, thanks for all the well wishes.

I've settled on Burbank. I think that I'm happy with the decision. Hopefully it will work out well!!

[Miss Pip]

Originally Posted by blueslily

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the responses from people who have helpful information to share! Also, thanks for all the well wishes.

I've settled on Burbank. I think that I'm happy with the decision. Hopefully it will work out well!!

Yay

[Smokey the Bear]

Bel Air

LOL

[pwright1]

Why do some think we live in some brown dusty wasteland? I see green, trees and lots of lush landscaping in most neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles and beyond!

[readymade]

Originally Posted by blueslily

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the responses from people who have helpful information to share! Also, thanks for all the well wishes.

I've settled on Burbank. I think that I'm happy with the decision. Hopefully it will work out well!!

Congratulations! I live in Burbank too. I love it! WAY less traffic and a lot more green than, say, West Hollywood (where I have also lived).

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by blueslily

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the responses from people who have helpful information to share! Also, thanks for all the well wishes.

I've settled on Burbank. I think that I'm happy with the decision. Hopefully it will work out well!!

Not bad. A decent place.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by pwright1

Why do some think we live in some brown dusty wasteland? I see green, trees and lots of lush landscaping in most neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles and beyond!

I think it's the non native seasonal grasses turning brown in the Summer in the wild areas. People may assume it's that way all the time if they've never seen the neon green in Winter.

Even in such areas, the stands of Coast Live Oak and swathes of chaparral stay green year round.

Compare that with pretty much anywhere East of the Rockies in the winter - nothing but brown (or white).

[the city]

In LA proper I'd look at the San Fernando Valley neighborhoods like Porter Ranch, Tarzana, and Woodland Hills. In the Metro I'd look at Calabasas, Westlake Village, Altadena, and areas in the San Gabriel Valley. East LA and West LA are very developed. And near downtown is very developed. Also near Hollywood is developed.

[LA Fan]

Pretty much any suburban city along the 210 Freeway in the San Gabriel Valley. Upland, Claremont are also very green with lots of mature trees. Take a drive down Euclid Avenue north of the 10 Freeway in Upland, or even south of it in Ontario.

Claremont is really beautiful and reminds me a lot of a quaint northeastern suburban community. Monrovia is another, I love their downtown area.

Check it out, I think this link will work.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=euclid+and+arrow+highway+upland+ca&hl=en&ll =34.09306,-117.649477&spn=0.008405,0.013797&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.939885,56.513672&t=h&z=16&layer= c&cbll=34.091177,-117.650974&panoid=qFUezbtc6OpGh2XFQtwLog&cbp=12,15 2.37,,0,0

[Why LA]

Hi, I know this is a late response, but someone may find this useful prior to transitioning to LA. I’m originally from the Midwest, where a typical neighborhood is tree-lined filled with plush yards, bushes and grassy sidewalks - very “green” per se, high oxygen, and fresh clean air. I also used to be a very positive, vibrant, extremely loving, good-hearted, uplifting person with a great sense of humor before arriving here. After relocating to LA, it was a culture shock to me as well, such a shock that even after trying to settle 5 years later, I have not been able to adapt to this environment and have developed a severe longing to be in an area that has greenery and to be around “normal” behaving people.

Places like Pasadena is nothing compared to your typical suburban neighborhood in the Midwest that has the natural beauty of Mother Earth. You will spend at least $2,100 per month for a 1 bedroom with dirty smelly streets where homeless pee, vomit or **** on the sidewalks or walls of buildings, dry dust blowing around coming from the ground and mountains, lack of oxygen from lack of trees and greenery, lack of rain and a horrid stench everytime you go outside. But people that were born here or have lived here for 20 or 30 years are used it, either they don’t notice it or don’t care. Most liberals who enjoy the “free life” to walk around high smoking pot, don’t care if they wake up in the morning to seeing a homeless or junkie using the restroom on their sidewalk or seeing junkies pushing their belongings in grocery shopping carts outside. You won’t see a normal family or parent pushing their baby in a stroller going for a walk, instead you’ll see a junkie or a homeless person pushing infested items down the street, with severe mental issues who are typically dangerous to be around. You’ll pay easily $2,100 per month to live in an environment like this and if you’re a conservative white woman, you’ll either get harassed by Mexican men shouting vulgar comments out their window as they drive by, or you’ll have a junkie white male aggressively seek after you while your walking to ask you for money, or a junkie white female on drugs aka a “hippie” who will give you dirty looks and a rude attitude if you’re getting something to eat because she can’t afford it, and she’s just sitting in a restaurant to cool off from the sun buying an overpriced beverage, you’ll be a target for this persons hate and jealousy ruining your dining experience.

If you want “green” and a normal environment, you’d have to move to certain parts of Beverly Hills, maybe certain parts of Santa Monica, some parts of Bel Air or maybe areas like Thousand Oaks or in more woody areas, but you’re always going to have 3 issues here you can’t get away from - Aggressive Homeless/Junkies, Dirty Air/Dusty Debree, Overpriced Housing. Even if you move to Brentwood or Westwood, the aggressive homeless or junkies infiltrate what used to be a prestigious grocery store Whole Foods, they stand outside and ask you for money and use the restrooms inside and touch food items spreading all kinds of disease and infection from lack of hygiene. Imagine you’re supposed to have a pleasurable shopping experience at an expensive place to buy food to bring home and eat, and you walk down an aisle and it smells like rotten vomit and putrid urine, and now your skin and clothes smell like it, and then you’re supposed to want to bring your items home. You will see people bringing their dirty disgusting dogs into the grocery store and into Target, and putting them in shopping carts, where these animals walk on feces and gunk from the streets, and people put them inside a shopping cart where then you’re supposed to use the same cart to put your toiletries in and then bring them home inside your clean place. Many times homeless and junkies will use shopping carts from grocery stores, Target or other stores to put their filthy gross disgusting rotten urine smelling clothes and items into these carts, and then drop them off or are found later by a store employee somewhere outside, and then they just bring them back inside for people to use. Nobody cares, everyone is living in la la land thinking that because this is LA with imported palm trees, that aren’t even native to this land, that they’re living the life here.

The only reason why a sane normal person would move here and then stay in this disgusting environment is 2 reasons - a Career Change/High Job Offer or Spouse/Future Spouse. Other than that this is heaven for liberals, hippies, junkies, people with bad hygiene, and Mexicans with bad attitudes who live free off the government. It’s a nightmare for a clean, conservative, educated person with strong values, morals and etiquette who has standards and who has a low tolerance for dysfunctional people. Everything you see on TV about this place is a facade. Everything and everyone is typically plastic, usually has an ulterior motive, and are not family oriented.

This is a place where people only think about themselves - there is no sense of community here. If you come here alone, prepare to suffer the consequences of isolation if you are a conservative type, it will be very difficult to enjoy your surroundings, and will most often be disgusted by people’s behavior and the environment, unless you are making a 6-figure income living away from the city life in a suburban neighborhood out in West LA somewhere, and then you’ll be paying easily $3,700 per month for a 1 bedroom “living the life”, and still when you wake up and walk to the nearest Starbucks, even there you’ll be welcomed by a junkie or homeless person asking you for money and remind you, don’t walk into the restroom otherwise you’ll come out smelling like rotten urine and garbage - this happens no matter what neighborhood you move to, it may be less of an issue in “prestigious” neighborhoods, but their is no law here in the state of California to stop this. It’s not like other parts of the US, where if you pay to live in an expensive neighborhood, you’re getting quality architecture, a very safe and clean environment, and you can go for a walk at 11pm feeling safe. If you want quality housing here you’re going to pay millions. Otherwise you’ll get low-grade overpriced shacks, dumps and poorly designed apartments and homes built by Mexicans who don’t care about quality nor have the skills to create anything with precision.

Oh, and forget about customer service - there’s no such thing here. You abide by people’s way of thinking and service according to their standards, which most often the liberals that run the state, don’t have any. So as long as you’re ok with a server flirting with your partner to get an extra tip, or someone having a bad attitude because “it’s LA”, you’ll be fine, otherwise if you ask someone to fix an order they screwed up, you’ll most likely have someone spit in your food because you asked them to do their job. Most men here are uneducated and have no sense of style or class and lack business etiquette. Most women here are gold-diggers, uneducated, manipulative, deceitful and untrustworthy. People will take what they can from you, or keep you around for their benefit. People in general have nothing to offer in character nor have the desire to create lasting and meaningful relationships. There is no art, culture, class, taste, mannerism, history, architecture or etiquette here.

My advice - if you’re coming out here and have no family to help support you and don’t have a spouse, and are coming here without a 6-figure income in place, or to pursue a dream - don’t take the risk. Otherwise you’ll most likely lose everything - your place, your car, your life, your sanity, and most importantly, if you fall in love with someone when you come here, you’ll lose that person and that part of yourself too.