Moving To and Living In Los Angeles

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yeah, downtown LA is slowly overcoming urban decay. skid rowe isn't as bad as it was in the 90s; pershing square only faintly smells of urine; businesses, both big and small, are sprouting up all over the place. don't be a pussy; downtown LA isn't scary at all. there's a bunch of USC students walking around 7th and fig for chrissakes.

macarthur park isn't as big of a dump as it was back then either. you'll see more people enjoying the park with sports than junkies using it as their base of operations. echo park is riddled with hipsters, yeah, but the overhauled park is a nice place for a jog.
 
I've been living in LA for 19 years now and I can honestly say I don't want to live in any other major cities in the world, and I've been to Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco and New York.

for El Segundo work, I would agree with Marina Del Rey, Playa Vista or Torrance for your living quarter. or if you don't mind a little more driver, Korea Town is nice too. and yes, traffic here really depend on the time of day, the direction you're going and if you'll be able to car pool or not. it can be hell or it can be no big deal, just like anywhere else (ok, maybe a little worse then most... lol).

the ease of travel to places like San Diego, Santa Barbara or even Las Vegas, along with all the other fun stuff like Six Flag Magic Mountain, Universal Studio or even Diseny is well worth it. great beaches from Malibu to Santa Monica and even Manhattan Beach would be great too. and the food selection is just unparalleled anywhere in the US (maybe other then SF or NYC, but they're more expensive thou). you'll need to drive around for stuff but once you've been here long enough you'll know the shortcuts and faster routes so it won't be that bad. my work would sometimes require me to go from El Monte to LAX then to Anaheim then back again 2~3 times a day and I can tell you from experience it's not completely shit.

congrats on getting the job and welcome to LA. be sure to join in on the next LA-GAF meet up and PM me if you need some advice on some fun/cool places to check out here.
 
Clipjoint said:
Downtown LA is great, don't listen to this man.

Yeah there are some shady areas, but that just adds to the character. There are some great bars, restaurants, and theaters down there.
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He didn't have to listen to me. He saw it for himself. Look a few posts above.

Seth C said:
Bull fucking shit. I've been visiting LA since 1999 and if you can't see how much it has changed, you're blind. Frankly there is nowhere in LA I'd rather be than downtown.

I've been to, LITERALLY, every metropolitan area in the entire country. I love DTLA.
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LOL. You're acting like no one else here has gone to LA for E3 every year or something. It hasn't changed a whole lot.

Change is what NYC went from the 80s, to the 90s, to today. That's change. The minute incremental change Downtown LA has seen over the past 10 years is precisely that...incremental.
 
Grimløck;141734104 said:
there's a bunch of USC students walking around 7th and fig for chrissakes.
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And theyre fucking frightened. I walked home from work one night and when i got home, my roommate asked me "isnt it dangerous?" As if every corner had dangerous gangs and the sky was on fire.

Its a pretty cool place except if youre introverted and have no friends in the area(like me). Also, dont believe people that say the mexican food is good. San Diego mexican food master race reporting in.
 
DJ Jazzy J said:
You gotta get on that Waze game! Download the app and use it instead of Google Maps. It's so much better.
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You know, I've tried waze but I just don't like it compared to GM. I find the routes it give me are not as versatile and the turn by turn directions in GM are much more detailed, especially with recent updates. But I haven't used Waze in almost a year now.
 
What LA does have is burgers. Good lord so many burgers. What Chicago is to hot dogs, LA is to burgers. Sometimes I wish Chicago and LA were right next to each other so I could mix and match at will.
 
Figured I'd post here since it's kind of the same situation. I'm looking to move to the Glendale area in March. Haven't started hunting for a place yet, but we're trying to find a two bedroom for like $1650 a month. Anyone familiar with the area think this is doable without going to some shady area? Or does anyone have any tips or sites for finding a place?
 
Ajemsuhgao said:
Figured I'd post here since it's kind of the same situation. I'm looking to move to the Glendale area in March. Haven't started hunting for a place yet, but we're trying to find a two bedroom for like $1650 a month. Anyone familiar with the area think this is doable without going to some shady area? Or does anyone have any tips or sites for finding a place?
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I remember doing research in Glendale but for a one bedroom. I think $1650 for a two bedroom might be too low.

You'd be near the Disney campus so apartments are going to be a bit more expensive.
 
Robot Carnival said:
for El Segundo work, I would agree with Marina Del Rey, Playa Vista or Torrance for your living quarter.
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Don't forget Playa Del Rey (it usually gets confused with Playa Vista and Marina Del Rey, but it is its own little beach community)...like El Segundo you might have issues with occasional noise from the jets at LAX but it's really not that bad.
 
GamePnoy74 said:
Don't forget Playa Del Rey (it usually gets confused with Playa Vista and Marina Del Rey, but it is its own little beach community)...like El Segundo you might have issues with occasional noise from the jets at LAX but it's really not that bad.
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I heard about this. I also heard that it smells like jet fuel all the time around there.
 
Don't take the bus, get a car, and learn the side streets. I barely go through traffic here because I know which roads to take were there will always be less cars.


Hollywood is only good for comedy shows.
 
Ajemsuhgao said:
Figured I'd post here since it's kind of the same situation. I'm looking to move to the Glendale area in March. Haven't started hunting for a place yet, but we're trying to find a two bedroom for like $1650 a month. Anyone familiar with the area think this is doable without going to some shady area? Or does anyone have any tips or sites for finding a place?
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Learn how to speak Armenian.

Then learn how to deal with Armenians in your new language.
 
I haven't spent a ton of time in LA, just a couple weeks, but I loved downtown. We stayed down there for AX the last couple years, walked around quite a bit, and really really loved it.
 
Ajemsuhgao said:
Figured I'd post here since it's kind of the same situation. I'm looking to move to the Glendale area in March. Haven't started hunting for a place yet, but we're trying to find a two bedroom for like $1650 a month. Anyone familiar with the area think this is doable without going to some shady area? Or does anyone have any tips or sites for finding a place?
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I think it depends. I have close friends who live there (and another in Burbank) that pay less than that for that size and the place they is nice (it's clean, comes with parking, only thing they don't get is in unit laundry). There's LOTS of new "luxury" apartments/condos going up in Glendale but they're going to cost more ("Eleve" and "Lex on Orange" is what two are called). I'd suggest trying the Westside Rentals website. That's how I and most of my friends found their apartments. It's a paid service but they get good listings:

http://www.westsiderentals.com/


Also I don't think any neighborhood in Glendale is "bad". South toward Atwater Village is very trendy, north above the 134 along Glenoaks Blvd can be more green and quiet granted if you're not right on the blvd. I'd just avoid getting too close to the Galleria and Americana Malls just for sanity's sake since the traffic to/from it is always busy.

Hope that helps!
 
Anjelus_ said:
What LA does have is burgers. Good lord so many burgers. What Chicago is to hot dogs, LA is to burgers. Sometimes I wish Chicago and LA were right next to each other so I could mix and match at will.
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Have you tried going to Dog Haus? I am not familiar with Chicago hot dogs but they have really excellent dogs AND burgers. Maybe it's a dream come true?
 
Got a nice little studio apartment in El Segundo that is 2 miles away from work. Not too bad for my first attempt?

Side note; What the hell is it with refrigerators being a luxury in most apartments?
 
Chiggs said:
Got a nice little studio apartment in El Segundo that is 2 miles away from work. Not too bad for my first attempt?

Side note; What the hell is it with refrigerators being a luxury in most apartments?
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State law means landlords don't have to provide one. There should be a decent used market though. In LA I ended up just buying the previous tenant's fridge.

Weirdly, while the same law applies in SF, most but not all landlords in SF provide one. Go figure. (Mine didn't, so I bought a nice one for $250)
 
Chiggs said:
Got a nice little studio apartment in El Segundo that is 2 miles away from work. Not too bad for my first attempt?

Side note; What the hell is it with refrigerators being a luxury in most apartments?
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Weird I never ran into that when looking at places... You have a girlfriend or wife at all?

On a side note I ventured to Venice area for drinking for the first time last night which is a lot of fun for young bars and music. I think you are probably relatively close to getting to Venice too which should be cool.
 
Dr. Feel Good said:
Weird I never ran into that when looking at places... You have a girlfriend or wife at all?
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Nope. Not yet. Single and loving it, well, except for holidays. It's going to sound like an excuse, but I've been so career-minded that my personal life has just disappeared over the last three years.
 
Chiggs said:
Nope. Not yet. Single and loving it, well, except for holidays. It's going to sound like an excuse, but I've been so career-minded that my personal life has just disappeared over the last three years.
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Nothing wrong with that, it's just another worry to deal with when moving of finding new employment for your significant other. We had that but my girlfriend luckily got two job offers within first week or so. There's definitely lot of job opprotunities around here.

Good luck at DirecTV that should be a cool place to work at.
 
Chickadee said:
Have you tried going to Dog Haus? I am not familiar with Chicago hot dogs but they have really excellent dogs AND burgers. Maybe it's a dream come true?
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No, but I just yelped the hell out of it. There's a location in Pasadena pretty damn close to where I go grocery shopping, and I am -sooooo- going to go now. Thanks for the tip!
 
MattKeil said:
Only if he has 2 1/2 hours to get everywhere he wants to go.



LA doesn't come to you, you have to go to it. Do some research into the subjects/hobbies you enjoy and find out what's happening related to them in the LA area. You'll never run out of things to do.

Related, LA is only as good as your social support network. Make some friends ASAP. This generally isn't too hard to do, as most people here are from out of town and are also looking for people to hang out with.

If you're working in El Segundo, I wouldn't live much further north than Culver City.

You'll need a car if you don't already have one. Ignore the "take the bus" people, they're crazy. If you can afford a car, it's by far the best option. Note that "best" does not necessarily mean "good."

Learn side streets and alternate routes. Knowing which parallel local streets have lights at major cross streets can mean the difference between it taking 30 minutes to get somewhere versus 10 minutes. Only suckers sit in Fairfax traffic.

The pizza here sucks, on the whole. Just be ready for that. The Korean and Mexican food is fantastic, however.

Enjoy yourself and get outside when you can. As someone told me when I first moved to LA, "This is a ridiculous city, but it's not a bad place to live." If you can roll with the absurdities of the place, it's a surprisingly good time.
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Fucking nailed it. I loved living there when I first moved from the UK precisely because I adhered to this, more or less.
 
Just thought I'd post some thoughts on the advice I received in this thread: spot on in so many ways. I'm in El Segundo right now, in my 600 square foot mansion, and so far so good. Love the town. People seem really friendly too.

Thanks for your help, GAF.
 
1) Traffic can be okay with good hours. I work with east coast folks and have a 20 minute commute. Pasadena to Sherman Oaks.


2) The freeways here are really well laid out IMO.


3) It is expensive.


Come say hi!
 
Chiggs said:
People seem really friendly too.
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ezgif-resize-9.gif


Doesn't sound like my LA.
 
Chiggs said:
. People seem really friendly too.
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In el segundo well of course they're quite friendly...since you're in the area..check out Fry's Electronics by Rosecrans and Sepulveda. Also, there's a Apple store nearby there. There's Plaza El Segundo. You should go there. There's Whole Foods market, Best Buy, Pinkberry and Cost Plus World Market. Cost Plus has imported stuff from europe, asia, etc like furniture, candy, cookies, beer, etc
 
OP. How much is rent (Sorry if you already stated but I didn't catch it). If you're paying under $700 for a studio in LA county then you're probably living in a drug den.

Back in the early 2000s, I living in Long Beach and was paying $450 for 600 sq/ft studio... half of my neighbors were "functional" addicts so you would always get weird smells seeping into the hallway and into your apartment. Because the walls were thin, you would always hear shaking the whole building when someone decided to bang. Addicts love sex apparently. The buildings were too close to each other so you would never get sun light or a good cross breeze which made summers bitter hot and winters bitter cold. Pray you have a gas heater because if you have electric heaters and appliance you may be screwed like I was. I also had roaches :(

It was alright though OP. Place really only got to me when I was out of school and unemployed for 8 months. It's one thing to live in a crappy place but its utterly depressing to realize you're to poor to afford crap.

I car is a must OP. I didn't find one and while it was easy to map out bus routes and schedule to the point their efficient, you really can only do about two round-trips on a day using public transportation and be efficient. A car is good but you may find parking sucks but it far outweighs the alternatives of losing friends because you had one too many emergencies where you had to beg them for a ride... yeah, that sucked. The cool thing about LA though is that there are some awesome places to just hang out at almost any time of day especially if you aren't a big fan of sleep... just be careful being a pedestrian in between points in certain neighborhoods... ask people if some places are cool and get a feel for them during the day.
 
Hey OP, I've been living in Colorado Springs/Fountain for about 15 years and I'd like to move, and I was thinking Denver. Would you recommend it?
 
Boombloxer said:
Whoever said the pizza here sucks, head to Valentinos, Villege Pizza or Fresh Bros.
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Had 'em all, and they're not bad, but they're only good pizza on the LA spectrum. There's not much you can't find in LA, but if there's seriously top notch pizza to be found, it has eluded me for over a decade.

Best city in the world.
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Not for pizza it ain't. :)
 
MattKeil said:
Had 'em all, and they're not bad, but they're only good pizza on the LA spectrum. There's not much you can't find in LA, but if there's seriously top notch pizza to be found, it has eluded me for over a decade.



Not for pizza it ain't. :)
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i can't believe people recommend Fresh Bros., I wouldn't even consider that good in any city scale. I'm looking for decent pizza too.
 
TheBryanJZX90 said:
Like the only area in DTLA that isn't absolute shit is Little Tokyo, and even then it's just the main plaza. Everywhere else is horrible. Do people from LA not realize that other major metropolitan areas aren't this shitty?
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Nobody goes to DTLA except for the Staples Center.
 
BoboBrazil said:
Will be going to San Diego and LA next week. What cool stuff should I do in LA? Where's the good food?
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how much time you have? head up Griffith Observatory in the morning to get a great view of the city and the Hollywood sign. then off to Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills for a rather nice and hidden park that give you a good idea of how the rich and famous lived back then. after that, go to Getty Center and check out all the cool artwork there, then head over to Santa Monica near by and get some sun tan while rest of the country is getting bury in snow. all that can be done within a day and for close to free. go to Korea Town or Little Tokyo for some dinner (if you're heading there from Santa Monica thou, expect traffic starting 4pm to 8pm).
 
Kevtones said:
Reasonable food in LA: Father's Office, Tsujita, Cactus
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Also Chego, Kogi, Leo's taco trucks (mostly for the al pastor, it's their specialty), Umami Burger. The San Gabriel Valley has a lot of well-regarded Chinese places but I have next to no experience with the SGV, aside from liking Beijing Pie.
 
Welcome to LA, enjoy your life here and you will be fine. Ready for culture crash as there are alooot of different people here like NY....
 
beat said:
Also Chego, Kogi, Leo's taco trucks (mostly for the al pastor, it's their specialty), Umami Burger. The San Gabriel Valley has a lot of well-regarded Chinese places but I have next to no experience with the SGV, aside from liking Beijing Pie.
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yeah, if you want Chinese food, SGV is THE place to go. you'll be able to find a huge variety of Chinese food from different regions of the country there.
 
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