I have a friend who bought a house there about 2 years ago. I haven't heard anything negative about it from her, but I'll specifically ask.

I like San Pedro. There are a ton of "mom and pop" shops, and I've never been concerned with my visits through there.

I all know about it is that the locals pronounce it wrong. Really, could you California natives get together and decide whether you're going to pronounce all the Spanish place names as if they were English or if they were Spanish. This hit and miss guessing is a pain in the neck.

Loss Fee-lace, for instance.

You know, I don't think "us locals" use lalife.com. This is the first metion of it I've heard. Now, we can talk about the Weekly or the Grunion and I'm on board.

I've always heard it "los FEE-liz". I agree on San Pedro, though.

When my mom moved out here, it took her forever to connect the city/street name that everyone pronounced "Al-ham-bra" with the city/street "Alhambra" that she saw on the map and pronounced correctly in her head.

And then you all go and pronounce La Jolla correctly.

I like San Pedro. It's very isolated (although a major freeway runs to it making it MUCH more accessable than the South Bay) and on the coast, which is a big plus. There are some really great areas and some really bad areas (as with most urban environments). It is definately a "working class" town with the commercial and budy industrial Port of Los Angeles & Long Beach/Alamedia Corridor/Oil Refineries all surrounding it (as well as the tony Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills to the North West). There is an arts scene present since they converted Ft. MacArthur to house artist studios and an art "colony". There is no mass transit to the area. It would be worth looking into at least.

Which, ironically, is probably a misspelling of "La Joya".