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Best Areas to Live in Los Angeles

Manfred Lopez

Manfred Lopez

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I'm finally moving to L.A.!!! :matrix: ... So I was wondering if anyone can recommend some good areas / neighborhoods to live in... somewhere centrally located and hopefully in the middle of all the action for someone involved in our trade. I know that in L.A. there in no there there... but I still figure that there have to be better places than others. So if any of you have good tips / strong opinions on the subject, please don't be afraid to share.
 
Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach. Take a map of LA, put your thumb over the Palos Verdes peninsula and draw an imaginary circle with your finger.

Can't beat that. Close enough, yet worlds away from LA's bad craziness. I know people who have lived there for over 30 years and never been to LA proper.

True story.
 
Always heard great things about Compton, South Central and Watts so maybe take a sniff, watch out for the DEA, around those areas.....

Seriously, I have friends who live in Culver City and they love the place. I personally couldn't entertain the idea of living stateside, I'm an island bound kinda bloke.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
Tico said:
Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach. Take a map of LA, put your thumb over the Palos Verdes peninsula and draw an imaginary circle with your finger.

Can't beat that.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestions. I once stayed in Manhattan beach (like 10 years ago). I remember really liking it, but I also remember that the commute up the 405 took a while... How bad is it nowadays? And how bad would it be from Palos Verdes?




CamDiver said:
Always heard great things about Compton, South Central and Watts so maybe take a sniff...
Click to expand...

Maybe I can ask the friendly neighbors there to help me unload my gear from the truck... I'll say you sent me. :innocent:
 
Oh man... ask a million people, get a million answers. :) The beaches are great, absolutely no doubt there.

But, except for Sony and FOX, the Studios are all either in Hollywood or Burbank. It's a hell of a hike from the South Bay beaches to Burbank.

I live in Culver City, which I love and my family loves. It is a 10-minute drive from the beach and a 15-minute drive from Hollywood. Sony is in Culver City, and FOX is in West LA, so all the Studios are an easy drive. It is also its own municipality. That means its own fire department, police department, and school system. You call Culver City PD with a problem and they are there in 5 minutes. You call LAPD, and unless someone is actually breaking into your house and you see their face, response time is awful. Culver City schools are on the whole, much better than LAUSD. And downtown Culver City is awesome... tons of cool restaurants, cafes, shops, movie theatres, etc.

But, if you can afford a really nice place close to the beach in Santa Monica or the Palisades, that doesn't suck either. :)

Lots of good places to live. A lot of it depends on your personality, too. I've always found it amazing how different the cultures of the different neighborhoods are, yet they are close together. Hollywood is muuuuuuch different than Santa Monica, which is totally different than Burbank. Yet they are all within 15 miles of each other.

My best advice - rent a place for a month or two. Spend that month or two spending time in all the different neighborhoods. Then settle down somewhere you like.

Cheers,

Lucas
 
when i was in LA, i lived near fairfax and santa monica blvd crossing - right in between hollywood and west hollywood - loved being central - you can walk to restaurants and cafes etc - then moved out to the valley and couldn't take the distance from the city - moved back to NY and walk or bike everywhere - i do miss the wonderful road trips you can do around LA
 
luki said:
Oh man...

Cheers,

Lucas
Click to expand...

Thank you so much, Lucas. This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping for: Full of details and opinions based on personal experiences. I especially found the commute information very useful. Now if i could ask you one more question... What would you say is the personality/vibe of Burbank?
 
agwah said:
when i was in LA, i lived near fairfax and santa monica blvd crossing - right in between hollywood and west hollywood - loved being central - you can walk to restaurants and cafes etc - then moved out to the valley and couldn't take the distance from the city - moved back to NY and walk or bike everywhere - i do miss the wonderful road trips you can do around LA
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Thanks for the tip. Interesting that you are in NY. I went from living in NY to moving to Mexico, to now moving to L.A. I would love to go back to NY but I have too much gear and stuff to bring back and still too many loose ends in Mexico (including a feature film) that L.A. is just way more practical at this point.
 
Oh, well... Luki is right. If your aim is to work in Hollywood, Studio City, Glendale, or Burbank, then the South Bay is definitely not for you. You may want to look further North instead. I once lived in Sherman Oaks and liked it. Also lived in Pacific Palisades and loved it there, too. Beautiful and quiet. Beautiful.

But, of all the places I've lived in LA since the late 70s (Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, USC area, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Sherman Oaks, Playa del Rey, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes), the beaches rank at the very top.
 
TheThe said:
Thank you so much, Lucas. This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping for: Full of details and opinions based on personal experiences. I especially found the commute information very useful. Now if i could ask you one more question... What would you say is the personality/vibe of Burbank?
Click to expand...

Hot. (seriously)

Typically fairly conservative and very family-oriented. And depending on where in Burbank, heavily Armenian.

But no matter where in the valley - hot as hell.

If you've never lived in LA, one thing that can really shock you is the temperature variations from the different neighborhoods. On a nice summer day, it can be 75 degrees and pleasant and beautiful in Santa Monica, and 100 degrees and friggin roasting in Burbank.

If you live anywhere over the mountain passes in any of the valleys, your life will be, on average, 15 to 20 degrees hotter most of the year then on the Westside. Living without air conditioning in Burbank/Glendale is suicide. But I lived in Santa Monica for 4 years, never had A/C, and never really needed it except for maybe 1 or 2 weeks in summer.

Makes a big difference in quality of life.

If you're going to be renting, sign up for www.westsiderentals.com. That's how I found my first several places in LA. It's an incredible resource.

Lucas
 
luki said:
But no matter where in the valley - hot as hell.

Lucas
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Thanks again, Lucas. I had never thought about the temperature differences. That is a great tip. By the way, when you mentioned the valley I couldn't help but remember the scene from L.A. Story where Steve Martin mentions he lives in the valley and some people laugh behind his back... That was a funny movie. I think I'll have to re-watch it for some, er, research on my living arrangements.
 
TheThe -

What can you afford? Do you have reliable transportation?

If all you want is central location - H'wood, West H'wood, K-Town, maybe west LA (around Pico/LaCienaga) GOSH! I miss LA from time to time... Sorry, back to you -

What do you do exactly? Do you have work lined up already?
If you're gonna be in production (ie, PA), you'd be situated nicely living close to H'wood. Galpin is right there and usually your starting/ending point of a work day. Line204 is also there - along with many other reasons.... If you're post, you might like Culver City or hell, try the valley.... I don't know... so many variables...
 
So are you thinking an apartment? Is it only you?
How much does a (something like a 600 sq ft apt)
go for?
 
luki said:
If you live anywhere over the mountain passes in any of the valleys, your life will be, on average, 15 to 20 degrees hotter most of the year then on the Westside.
Click to expand...

It will also likely be quite a few hundred dollars a month cheaper.

Besides, it's dry heat :bleh:
 
If you want try and stay centrally located I'd say live near Olympic Blvd (it's east/west) between La Brea and Beverly Glen Blvd (both north/south). I recommend Olympic 'cause it's probably the best, big east/west road to utilize. It goes from the beach to downtown and doesn't get nearly as snarled up as Wilshire, Santa Monica, Sunset, or Hollywood Blvd.

As has been previously stated Culver City is nice and their 'downtown' area has a nice pedestrian/small town type vibe to it. I used to live in Hollywood and probably never would again. The traffic is always bad and if you have a gig in Santa Monica the commute can suck, IMO. I'd also stay away from the valley for reasons already mentioned.


-A
 
mmost said:
It will also likely be quite a few hundred dollars a month cheaper.

Besides, it's dry heat :bleh:
Click to expand...

Good point on the "cheaper." The the - he's right about that.

But don't listen seriously to *anyone* who gives you the "dry heat" line. :) 110 is 110, man.

And yes - the valley has several days in summer where it's around 105 - 110. My personal record is one of my friends' digital readouts in their car that said it was 121 outside on a black parking lot in the sun on a particularly warm way.

People tend to forget that if there weren't any people in LA, it would revert back to what it was before we got there - a desert. Hot as hell in the day, cold at night.

Lucas
 
i live in orange county (as south as you get before san diego).. i make a terrrrrrrible commute to work everyday.. just awefull..
im gunna buy a place in huntington beach soon.. which is still oc, just closer to work than where i am now...
i just hate LA like no other.
 
Well you should really live near your work I'll tell you that. I went from the valley commuting to Santa Monica for a year and that sucked! Now I can walk to work and I save about 2 hours out of my day from being in my car.

I think Culver City is a good compromise, it's not too expensive and near some studios. The valley is pretty cheap too, but like others have said there is a world of difference, sometime as much as 30 degrees, and it's hard to get around from up in the valley if you are going to the west side at all.
 
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