Safe areas in San Fernando Valley (live in, kids)

[jm1982]

Northridge is pretty safe. There's actually more stuff opening there as well in terms of restaurants.

It's not really hip though.

If you are looking for hip parts of the valley..it's Sherman Oaks, Studio City or NoHo Arts District.
NoHo is the edgiest of the 3 of those.

I'd probably just live near campus though in Northridge , focus on studying and being near campus and then driving to those areas or other parts of L.A when you have free time.

To those that don't think Studio City is hip...when was the last time you went there? Studio City is not some boring old suburb that is full of chains and only family oriented. That's a gross misconception of Studio City today. Tons of young people there and lot's of independent businesses , a ton of restaurants/bars recently opened and many more coming soon.
I walked down Ventura yesterday and saw about 3 or 4 new restaurants opening within a few blocks or so.
Neapolitan Pizza place, a new bar (where Mad Bulls Tavern was) , a Persian place and some other places.

There's definitely a momentum going on in the area, likely long overdue. Hopefully it spreads to other parts of the Valley .

[coltoncity]

Originally Posted by Big-Bucks

Is there anything wrong with Northridge? I haven't seen a whole lot of Northridge but there little I've seen in that area seems nice. How about just living right in Northridge close to campus? I mean USC is in the middle of a war zone but there are areas where students live close to campus that are generally safe.

middle of a war zone?

[student97]

Which parts of Northridge are considered safe because I saw a lot of mixed reviews about it.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by coltoncity

middle of a war zone?

Yeah , I don't think that's really fair. It doesn't make sense also to say there are areas close to campus that are safe where students live. If the campus is in a war zone that doesn't make any sense.

I went to USC and there was always private security around near the campus, of course there were still some incidents unfortunately. But I don't think it's fair to call it a war zone.

[StreetLegal]

Originally Posted by student97

Which parts of Northridge are considered safe because I saw a lot of mixed reviews about it.

Pretty much all of Northridge is safe from a "big city" perspective. That said, the further north you go it generally gets nicer. Pretty much anywhere near campus is a good area. As a general rule, areas north of Roscoe/Parthenia are nicer than the areas to the south. This includes CSUN which is north of both of these streets.

[texasdreamin]

Apartments on Prairie Street and Dearborn Street (next street over) are in safe areas and walkable to CSUN, grocery stores, fast food, post office and everything.

[Echo916]

Anything close to Ventura Blvd. is relatively safe. Ventura Blvd. also has lots of restaurants and bars to check out, as well as shopping. Chatsworth is much nicer than it used to be, so there are good areas there, as well, and a little less expensive. Northridge is decent.

Depending on what you'll want to do for "fun", you would need to provide a little more information. Studio City is very near Burbank, Universal City, Hollywood, West Hollywood/Sunset Strip, so it's pretty central to everything "entertainment" related -- unless you're more into the beach scene. Burbank/Toluca Lake/Studio City/Valley Village/Sherman Oaks are all pretty central. North Hollywood fits into that scenario, too, but it's a much larger area.

[Sunflowr]

Be careful of North Hollywood. Some parts are great and other parts, like where I am, are pretty grungy. NoHo arts district is pretty nice, but try and avoid north of Burbank Bl.

And how about the Winnetka area? I need to move soon, so this information is pretty valuable to me as well, even though I'm a local.

[vincent from norcal]

Northridge is nice if you're around the college but it's not that nice. A lot in California goes by school district and the nicest areas are the ones that feed into Taft or El Camino HS. That would be the southern or western fringes either south of Ventura or west of Topanga Canyon. Right over the line is Simi Valley or Thousand Oaks which is technically in the "Conejo Valley" in Ventura county but for all intents and purposes its contiguous with the Valley.

[JohnG72]

It doesn't make any sense to live anywhere but Northridge. Not sure why people indicate it's unsafe. It's plenty safe.