LA versus Irvine (Los Angeles, Riverside: house, transfer to, neighborhoods)

[LeahJohnson]

I live in the Riverside area and the company I work for is shutting down their office location here. I can transfer to another office and have narrowed my choices down to Irvine or downtown LA. I will be commuting at least for the first few months if not permanently and was planning to take the Metrolink train. There are many job-related factors to consider, but I was just wondering purely based on location which is better? I have been to Irvine plenty of times but have only been to LA a couple. Most people I ask say that LA is the gang capital of the world, but is downtown really that bad? Any advice/comments are much appreciated!

[missionhome]

If it is only going to be your work place and you will live in Riverside still, pick the office closest to your home with the best commute. Downtown L.A. is closer to its Metrolink station and you can walk or catch a bus to work from there, while Irvine can have jobs spread far away from its Metrolink station. For example if you are working near John Wayne Airport in Irvine, you are over 1.5 miles from a Metrolink station.

Also, we need to know specific info if you are going to be moving near your job eventually. Questions arise if you are moving like: Do you have kids or needs great schools? Are you young and looking for nightlife? What is your housing budget? Is the beach important? Do you like masterplanned communities or want a more unique city? etc......

Los Angeles has a lot of gangs in certain neighborhoods, not so much in others, but if you are just working in downtown there is nothing to really be concerned about, thousands work there. You may be working in a sky scraper in downtown L.A. verses a low rise office building in Irvine.

-I recommend you consider moving, because Metrolink looks like it will be about 1 horu and 20 minutes to either Irvine or L.A. from Riverside. Driving might actually be a little faster, but still bad.

[LeahJohnson]

Thanks for the prompt response. The commute time-wise is about the same either way on the train. For Irvine, the train ride is shorter but there is a 20 minute shuttle ride to where the office is. For LA, the train connects to a subway station a few blocks from the LA office. Either way I go, it will take me about an hour and a half to commute each way. The plus about going to Irvine is if I ever had to drive, it's feasible to do and actually a little faster than the train because I can take the toll roads. With traffic, I would never try to drive to LA. I work in public accounting and there are some times of year where I work crazy hours and would have difficulty taking the train. On the other hand, there are more trains that go to and from LA and I think the people in that office might be more accomodating of my train schedule than people in Irvine would be. So that's why it's not an easy decision! If I go to Irvine, I could drive if I had to and it wouldn't be bad, but the whole idea is to minimize driving, which is why LA might be better because I have more train options and more of the people I'd work with there will probably be train commuters too and would accomodate my train schedule.

As far as moving goes, I am going to try commuting for a while at least. I can always transfer from one office to another if moving ever becomes an option, so at this point I am not really concerned about where to live near either office. We just bought a house here and my husband's job is in the area, so moving isn't an option for a while.

So I guess what you are saying is the location is inconsequential, it really depends more on the commute? It is hard to say which commute would be easier for the reasons I mentioned...

[missionhome]

^^^^
Then it gets down to personal things in my opinion if the commute is the same. Which office has nicer coworkers, is one building nicer than the other, is one boss more laid back than another, etc....

Maybe you could flip a coin! (Just kidding)

I would maybe lean towards Irvine because it is slightly better on days you drive.