Has anyone on the New York board lived in California? Your experiences?

[NyWriterdude]

Originally Posted by livingsinglenyc

LA is a huge area, you can't just say walk. They areas you listed santa monica, venice, culver city, etc would be like saying chelsea, park slope, upper east side or whatever in new york city. So just cause you live in santa monica doesn't mean your whole life will be there and you won't need to leave that area. maybe you will get lucky and find a job and apartment in the same area but you still will have other things that involve you leaving your area. Transportation will only get you by so far there, you need a car. And if you don't get one you very much limit yourself on what you can do and where you can go.

It amazes me how people like to give out grand advice without KNOWING anything about the person's finances or how the person lives.

Yes if I moved to Santa Monica it would be because my whole life is there. I very rarely leave my local area wherever I live (and I have lived in other places besides LA and NYC). I don't do long commutes either.

If I lived in Santa Monica, let's see they have grocery stores nearby, they have a post office there, Wells Fargo is there, medical services I would use are there. All basic needs that I would need to use for a weekly or on a monthly basis are there. Anything else which would be RARE I could take a bus or use a cab or rent a car in an extreme case. In short I would not need a car.

I did not use a car fall and winters 2003-2006 and I was in Los Angeles in those years. I always found jobs that were reasonably close to where I was staying as I would never do a long commute under any circumstances.

I was also only interested only in a few Westside cities (Venice, Santa Monica) and West Hollywood. So if I couldn't walk it I took the bus. I carried groceries in BAGS just like I did in NY. When occasionally desperate I used a cab.