What is Warner Center? (Los Angeles, Orange: apartment complexes, insurance, crime)

[dockfam]

Can someone shed light on what the "Warner Center" is exactly? Doing an apartment search in Woodland Hills returns several with "Warner Center" in the name. Is this a fairly walkable and safe area - with shopping and dining etc... ?

Sorry for the cluelessness, I'm a Northern CA resident with an opportunity to move south.

TIA!

[wac_432]

Warner Center is in Los Angeles County, not Ventura. It is on the Western edge of the San Fernando Valley, which is mostly a soulless sprawl of 2-3 story apartments, strip malls, townhouses, and houses.

Warner Center is one of the bright spots of the Valley. It is a collection of office towers with 3 large nearby malls. 2 are 1990's/2000's vintage and one is a hipper 2010's-era development. There's a big movie theater (with free movie pre-screenings weekday nights if you fit the right demographic), some more strip malls, a big empty lot where Rocketdyne (made the F1 Moon Rocket Engine) used to be, easy access to the Orange Line (a busway installed in lieu of a real subway--after all, it's the Valley, not really a city) that connects to the LA metro, easy access to the uber-clogged 101 freeway. It is extremely walkable if you like walking to giant malls or small strip malls/shops/pool halls, etc. The area is pretty bike-friendly if you don't mind sharing wide road with tons of cars. I don't know how safe it is. Check the crime stats on city-data.

Having lived there for 5 years, I know the SFV is not for me. Maybe you're different. Unless you are working walking distance from Warner Center, I would not live there (or in The Valley at all). Either go over the hill and live in the LA insanity proper, go up in the surrounding hills with all the soccer moms, or move out to Ventura and live somewhere with more outdoor soul.

Plus side, it is close to everything. You can party in LA with ease, as long as you get a designated or Uber. 30 minutes to good surf in Malibu. 45 minutes to hiking/biking/surfing in Ventura.

[nightlysparrow]

wac_432 summed it up well. Just adding, since you're coming from NorCal, that Woodland Hills typically get the highest temperatures in the LA Metro---easily triple digits in summer and fall. This significantly cuts down on the walkability or bike-ability.

[BRinSM]

To add to the existing comments, Warner Center is essentially an attempt by LA city to create a downtown for the valley. It's a perfectly fine area by valley standards and is surrounded by a number of nice enough neighborhoods filled with mid-century ranch homes. Because of this, even with the healthy amount of fairly dense apartment complexes in the area, it doesn't feel too crowded, certainly not when compared to much of LA on the 'other side of the hill'.

[Csonka]

a planned office and retail district with some apartments

Very 1970s

Biggest companies are insurance

big Kaiser hospital there too