Torn between Mar Vista and Culver City

[taydigga]

Originally Posted by jm1982

I agree that it is good to stay near your job, traffic gets really bad here .

Yes getting in car and driving 2 miles is the norm here. It seems people that have a car don't really take the bus much or possibly the subway.

Being in Culver City area is nice now because the subway is there now, a culver city station was just added . You can take the subway to downtown, hollywood and lots of other locations.

Culver City or Mar Vista are going to be a lot cheaper than Santa Monica/Venice for rent and they are not very far from those areas as well..so I'm not sure it would be a big deal.

I would stick to the place close to your work as that is going to remain in the same location. You might find out that you don't like the Venice/Santa Monica "scene" and prefer going to Hollywood area or something to hangout later on.

L.A doesn't really have a central place like some cities, which makes this a bit difficult..especially with traffic added to the mix. Not everyone that lives in L.A goes to Venice or Santa Monica to hangout at night for example. Some go to Hollywood or West Hollywood, some go to downtown, some go to the Los Feliz area. Actually I would say Santa Monica/Venice are more daytime places to hangout versus the area mentioned above. There are definitely bars and places but Santa Monica/Venice isn't really known for it's nightlife compared to many other areas of the city.

I think that it's pretty rare that people just live and hangout in one area. I could see it being convenient because you don't have to drive all around, but I think that might get a little old after a while.

Hope that is helpful..

I'd say West LA Around Culver City, Palms, Mar Vista and WestWood and maybe even the western parts of Beverly Hills are pretty central. That's why I've stayed in Palms so long. This is relative to the "hotspots" though. The Valley, Hollywood, Venice, Santa Monica and the South bay are all within 20 minutes away (no traffic). But to be honest there's a slight difference between Mar Vista and Culver city as far as location goes, not enough to complain about. The closer to your job the better. I personally find Culver City to be boring other than it's downtown area and Mar Vista prob the same except I'm a little partial since I lived there for a few years but it's all the same. Some parts of Culver are a little shysty and some parts of Mar Vista are too. Overall, not much difference unless you work in DTCC and are planning on living in the most western part of Mar Vista, which still isn't more than a couple miles give or take but for some that might be a big deal.

[bakerc13]

Great info.

Thank you for all of your replies!

[basamdamdu]

Hello bakerc13,
I tried to PM you but do not know how.

I am in a similar situation. Moving to the same area (Jefferson Av/Beethoven st) and looking for a month-to-month rental initially.

My questions:
-Could you recommend a decent or nice month-to-month rental in the area?

-Where did you eventually settled? We lived in Wicker Park (Division & Paulina) and Lincoln park in Chicago and very much enjoyed it and I guess would be looking for the same sort of surroundings (in terms of safety especially).

We are heading west this week and could really use some insider knowledge.

Thanks in advance.
Fred

[HaemophilusAphrophilus]

Assuming you mean the high school on venice blvd, the metro 33/733 can get you to downtown culver city, abbot kinney blvd, the venice boardwalk, and main st/downtown santa monica in not too much time, and the 33 is 24 hours. Also you have the expo line to DTLA from downtown culver city. So if you wanted to avoid using the car at times you could utilize that.

[jaypee]

Originally Posted by basamdamdu

Hello bakerc13,
I tried to PM you but do not know how.

I am in a similar situation. Moving to the same area (Jefferson Av/Beethoven st) and looking for a month-to-month rental initially.

My questions:
-Could you recommend a decent or nice month-to-month rental in the area?

-Where did you eventually settled? We lived in Wicker Park (Division & Paulina) and Lincoln park in Chicago and very much enjoyed it and I guess would be looking for the same sort of surroundings (in terms of safety especially).

We are heading west this week and could really use some insider knowledge.

Thanks in advance.
Fred

1) You might be better off posting your own thread instead of trying to rehash someone else's
2) the more specific you can be, the better the advise/suggestion ... "decent or nice" means little and depends greatly on the amount you want to spend.

[basamdamdu]

Originally Posted by jaypee

1) You might be better off posting your own thread instead of trying to rehash someone else's
2) the more specific you can be, the better the advise/suggestion ... "decent or nice" means little and depends greatly on the amount you want to spend.

Will do.