Seeking Safe, Affordable Neighborhood Within 45 Minute Commute of Downtown Los Angeles (Glendale: real estate, apartments)

[LASingleMom]

Hi,

I am a single Mom of a nine year old son, work in the downtown Los Angeles area, and live in Santa Clarita. I am considering moving closer to downtown to eliminate the long commute, but need to find a neighborhood that is as safe and nice as possible; without being ridiculously expensive. My main concern is the safety of my son, the quality of schools, and overall quality of life. I would be leasing as opposed to purchasing a home; and could afford anything up to approximately $2,000 per month. For the last three years I have been renting a 2 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse in Santa Clarita for almost $1,700 per month, and the landlord is just horrible. I am fed up with the long commute and rotten property management, and wonder if anyone can recommend good, family oriented neighborhoods, or perhaps specific homes or apartments available for lease?

Thanks so much for any feedback anyone could provide.

[Charles]

My friend is a single mom in Santa Clarita and she works in downtown too. She uses the train (not sure of the route/station)...but that isn't what you're asking. What about Burbank? You can grab the train from there. Not sure of the schools though.

Is getting another job in a different place/city/state an option? (probably not if dad is local and/or your parents are helping out...)

[jzt83]

West San Gabriel valley has some safe semi-affordable areas. Check out Alhambra and San Gabriel. I think the school districts of those cities rank decently.

[marimari123]

Since you're renting, you may be able to find a place in La Crescenta (off the 210 freeway but close to the 2 freeway) which has the best schools in Glendale. There are quite a few apartment buildings near Verdugo Hills Hospital and I think those areas are in the La Crescenta district.

La Canada, just the next town over from La Crescenta, has really wonderful schools, but being such an expensive neighborhood, I'm not sure about rent.

Another option close to downtown is South Pasadena. Right off the 110 freeway, South Pasadena has really great schools. Traffic is pretty bad on the 110 but at least it's a short distance to downtown.

As a previous poster stated, I think Metrolink is a great idea from SC to downtown. Plus, if you have a Metrolink train pass, then you can use other public transportation in downtown for free. So you can transfer to Metro trains (red line, blue line, etc.) for free as well as Metro buses for free.

If your landlord is really bad, you can move to another location in SC. We used to rent a house in Canyon Country through SCREM (Southern California Real Estate). They are a property management company so we never actually dealt with the real landlord. They were pretty good, very fair to the landlord as well as the tenant.

Hope that helps.

mari