So tell me...Is Los Angeles all what it is lived up to be? (South Gate: apartments, crime rate)

[Future Trooper]

Just curious.

I have no intentions of going to Los Angeles anytime soon but was wondering if what the media portrays Los Angeles is correct?

Would you say Los Angeles is like a country? I mean you have the elite on the West/North and the poor in the South/East and a mix in the middle. Los Angeles has mountains, beaches and deserts all within the city limits.

Is traffic and crime REALLY that bad?

Is Los Angeles really the city where dreams come true?

[bhcompy]

Traffic is THAT bad. Crime not really(but it's there). California chews you up and spits you out if you don't have the cash to afford it, and you need lots of cash, even more now than ever with fees and taxes going up left and right.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by gdude

Just curious.

I have no intentions of going to Los Angeles anytime soon but was wondering if what the media portrays Los Angeles is correct?

No.

Originally Posted by gdude

Would you say Los Angeles is like a country? I mean you have the elite on the West/North and the poor in the South/East and a mix in the middle.

No, not exactly at all. There are poor and wealthy areas. There is also a HUGE middle class of all ranges(single person ~$35-200K, family ~$50-250k annual income). By this I mean people that can afford a decent place to stay, a car, lifes basic expenses, and maybe a few luxuries/entertainment). This means that places people consider bad like parts of East LA, Pico Rivera, Covina, Van Nuys, etc...are actually very middle class neighborhoods...just a lot of mental and emotional elitest in LA. You basically have most of the SF Valley, most of the SG Valley, almost all of OC that are middle class areas for the most part. The area of south Los Angeles is mostly bad...like the area bounded by the 710 on the east, the 10 on the North, and the 405 on the west and south. The exceptions are Badlwin Hills and Liemert Park area(which are the wealthy African American neighborhoods) and parts of Culver City. Parts of Huntington Park, South Gate, Hawthorne, Gardena and Carson are not bad either, and in some cases very nice. But that area also contains the very worst parts of LA, particularly around the 110/105 interchange for at least 3 miles in all directions. There are 5 huge bloods and crips gangs that control those neighborhoods starting with Grape Street and Bounty Hunters. Also large parts of Hollywood are bad and so is some of the area closer to downtown.

Originally Posted by gdude

Los Angeles has mountains, beaches and deserts all within the city limits.

Yes....BUT.....city of LA is freaking huge. To go from San Pedro to Sylmar is about a 45 minute drive without traffic...with traffic it can be 2 hours plus at times. All of these places are a long drive and its basically one giant suburb. For instance, Big Bear is the biggest/snowiest mountain resort in So Cal. To drive there from the beach in Santa Monica with no traffic is about a 2 1/2 hour drive. So yes, all this stuffs in reach, but most people who have never visited LA have no concept whatsoever of how this area is layed out. LOL at tourists that want to walk or bus to all the sights. That idea really doesn't exist and in LA IMO a car is mandatory.

Originally Posted by gdude

Is traffic and crime REALLY that bad?

Yes. Traffic is miserable and timing is everything. Some of the worst drivers ever and people with suspended licenses keep driving. Also drunk driving in certain areas is really horribly bad.

Crime is less than it was, but the sensational stories really are true. For instance, in the late 90's a family really did turn up the wrong dead end alley in Highland Park and gang members there really did kill a 2 year old girl in the car. Certain neighborhoods really are controlled by gangs. A man in Venice who stood up against the gangs in his neighborhood really was murdered. And everything you have heard about LAPD being corrupt is also true. The Rampart scandal is not sensationalized and you can look it up. Former LAPD officers Ruben Palomares and William Ferguson really did get sentenced to decades in prison for conducting home invasion robberies, and an LAPD officer probably really did kill Biggie Smalls. Needless to say, that while fictional, Training Day and the Shield have a very heavy basis in reality. Also shows like Boomtown and the new Southland are not too far off the mark, though they tend to compress the timeline on things giving a false sense of this sort of thing constantly occuring.

Originally Posted by gdude

Is Los Angeles really the city where dreams come true?

This image is just retarded. It takes years of really hard work for very positive sucesses to happen. Stars aren't born overnight(with the exception of some 15 minutes of fame types) and that is just a bs notion. All the people you see successful in entertainment worked their rear ends off for a very long time, many of them at menial jobs while they concentrated on acting in their spare time.

[femmefleur]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that goes for any metropolitan city. No, I wouldn't say that what the media portrays of L.A. is completely correct. There are so many different aspects and variables to consider when determining what makes a city good or bad. A lot of the good and bad is sensationalized and not too much in between. Crime is never good, and Los Angeles does have it, but not the highest crime rate in the nation.

When some people say Los Angeles, they are usually speaking of L.A. and the other cities that surround it, or Southern California in general. So I assume that's what you meant? Yes, Los Angeles has all those different terrains within the County limits, not the city. There are "non-elite" living in the North and West of the city itself. It's not quite that cut and dry.
Traffic is definitely a problem!

Dreams coming true? Well, if you mean becoming rich and famous, I think you know the answer to that. But, there are opportunities that aren't available any where else. You should make a trip out here to see what it's really like!

[landoflatte]

My son will either be going to the L.A. Film Institute or the L.A. Film Academy...does anyone know what county that is in and where I can look for decent apartments in that area? Thanks!

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by gdude

Is Los Angeles really the city where dreams come true?

Only if you have serious money... or oddly, if you have no money at all (think "illegal alien") in which case I presume LA is a great place to be poor, even homeless.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by landoflatte

My son will either be going to the L.A. Film Institute or the L.A. Film Academy...does anyone know what county that is in and where I can look for decent apartments in that area? Thanks!

I could not find a listing for those exact names so address would be helpful.

I found stuff similiar near campus of USC. The immediate area around the campus is nice. A few blocks away is one of the worst areas of LA. It is near to downtown Los Angeles.

Most of the USC students live either on campus dorms, in fraternity or sorority houses, or in apartments near downtown called Medici and I forget the other ones. Those are nice buildings in a mix gritty urban/gentrified location. What it means is that the area is safe, but the people cannot be dum dums either because there is still the potential and opportunity for very bad crimes to occur....more so than a nice suburb. I see kids sloppy drunk from the clubs and they are just ripe for the pickings if some bad people wanted to do something. They have no sense at all and don't consider where they are and who is around there.

Anyway, its expensive also.

[JabbaJabba]

Originally Posted by gdude

Just curious.

I have no intentions of going to Los Angeles anytime soon but was wondering if what the media portrays Los Angeles is correct?
no
Would you say Los Angeles is like a country? I mean you have the elite on the West/North and the poor in the South/East and a mix in the middle. Los Angeles has mountains, beaches and deserts all within the city limits.
yes
Is traffic and crime REALLY that bad?
yes
Is Los Angeles really the city where dreams come true?

no. there are thousands of out of work actors/singers/dancers

[helloheather28]

traffic is bad ..crime is high...but life is good...enjoy the beach ..snowboarding on the mountains..so many great things to do

[the one]

for me trtaffic is not bad. it can be bad. LA is a place that anytime of the day (or night) you are succeptible to traffic jams and accidents.

crime is concentrated in areas. and its not bad like it once was.

it can be expensive, but many many poor, struggling people live here. it depedns on what you are looking for in life.

can dreams come true? yes, but only realistic ones...