Headin' South - a plea for advice/help
 

So here's the scoop:
After more than 10 years in San Francisco, Heather and I are planning on packing up and heading out. The only two real destination candidates are NYC and LA, and at this point, LA is winning with an estimated 80% lead.

The reasons for the move are myriad. Among them are: the company that Heather worked for out here no longer exists, I'm sick of working in a jail and yearn to return to the evils of the entertainment biz, we realized that we've paid close to a quarter million dollars in rent and have no equity to show for it, and the owners of our house want to do structural repair to the foundation in the Spring.

At this point, we know that though Heather and I could both probably get decent jobs in NY, we'd have to live in the 'burbs or in a shoebox. We're not ready for that yet.

So it's the greater LA area.

The majority of our experience has been centered around the Hollywood area (I used to work in a satellite office on Sunset) and, of course, Disneyland.

We've purchased The Newcomer's Handbook for Los Angeles, but really haven't done much else yet (we were waiting until after the holidays).

We're looking for work and a place to live. And we're asking you, our potential neighbors, for advice and help.

And so it begins.

No advice- but I wish you the best in your big move!

No help since you couldn't pay me to live there (well you could, but it would be a hell of a lot more than anybody would) but almost everybody I know down there either lives in the 'burbs or a shoebox (and most both).

My vote would be to go back to New York (and giving that vote its due consideration LA should now be winning by 79.9999999999999999999999%).


Ok, one piece of advice. Look for work and then a place to live. The second is easier to find in convenience to the first than the other way around.

Points well taken. I think the big difference between the LA 'burbs and the NYC 'burbs is that all of the action in NY is concentrated in Manhattan (and a little bit in Brooklyn), and the commute to there from the 'burbs can be a real PITA, while the things that interest me in the greater LA area are more spread out (Oh yeah, and there's less snow to shovel and fewer leaves to rake in LA).

I'm sure you've already got the plug for Long Beach, but LA is huge and the entertainment industry seems mostly on the West Side which may be a big minus for my fair city. So I think Alex may at least be right in the job first home second suggestion.

In any case, it'll be great having you in the neighborhood

The bad news is, you're looking at at least $700K, maybe pushing $1 million to purchase something of similar size to what you're in now, unless you're willing to do a commute of a couple hours.

The good news is, if you can reach that level, there are lots of options to choose from.

For the entertainment biz, Burbank's your town. The east valley IS Hollywood, and what isn't in the valley is easily accessible via Laurel Canyon or the 101. For that matter, the center of the fashion industry is also an easy ride over the hill from the Burbank vicinity. Anything further west in the valley, while still convenient, will likely be way too boring and suburbish for your tastes.

If Burbank isn't quite metropolitan enough, there's West Hollywood/West L.A. It would take careful consideration of neighborhood as things can get sketchy, but there are some great places (don't know much about the housing market there, though). If you're willing to put up with a cross-city commute, Santa Monica's a great town.

Of course, I'll put in the self-serving plug for Orange County (the City of Orange is a great town, and very affordable relatively speaking). It's got the obvious ties to the entertainment industry, definitely fashion-minded, less traffic, and a mere hour from all the goodies that L.A. has to offer. Also, and I'm not sure if this is your bag or not, there's this nifty little amusement park. I hear they have nightly fireworks shows...

OH... Southern California

Never mind

There definitely are urban, fashion/music industry involved areas of Orange County, but I just don't know enough about them. As much as I'd love having the 'pod family as neighbors, I must admit that the City of Orange doesn't seem to be one of these communities. But there's Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and other myriad places.

I'd stick with Alex's advice - jobs first, then get a place to live. You don't want to have to say no to a dream job because the commute would break your spirit.

Yeah, here I was thinking 'Bama, even though I knew you might be heading down to L.A. What in the world was I thinking?

Well, I have no advice that wasn't already given. It frightens me to consider buying a house in Southern California, though it would be awfully nice to have two such wonderful individuals down in our neck of the woods! Long Beach is pretty swell, I might add, so is - say - South Bay.... just south of the Westside, so you're closer than Long Beach and not quite paying Westside prices.

I second everyone - find a job then find a place.

And for all things holy stay away from south Orange County. It's enough to suck any creativity out of anyone.

I lived in Culver City for about 10 years. It's easy to get around from there. I'm with everyone else, jobs first rentals second.

Plus you'll be neighbors with ISM and there's a Metro expansion heading that way expected to open late 2010.

It might be wise to rent for a while to get your bearings, and figure out where you really want to live. LB and HB are great, but I agree with the advice of the wise sages on this board, follow the job, then fine tune.

I have to plug Lakewood. It's pretty affordable (in SoCal terms), very close to swanky Long Beach, is surrounded by 4 freeways, and there is tons of shopping nearby.

As you already know, I'm a big fan of the "greater Long Beach area". Easy access to most areas in So Cal, close to the beach (for better air quality) and a very diverse environment. Houses are reasonably affordable - houses, not condos, and the Blue Line goes straight through the city. Getting East or South is relatively easy and manageable (a commute is probably inevitable wherever you choose to live). Downtown LA is 20 mins, Hollywood is 1/2 hour-45 mins (both accessable by train). And, it's not a very conservative area (which I LOVE). LAX is 15 mins away and we have our own lovely airport.

However, getting North on the 405 is a giant PITA. SInce they've been doing construction, it has been taking us an hour + to get to UCLA (it stops right after the airport and crawls through the Pass). Getting in and out of Santa Monica is a royal pain. And, there's no train option.

But, you have to watch where you choose to live in Long Beach. Fortunantely, I know the neighborhoods VERY well.


Besides, you need to be close enough to come over for dinner and a show at a moment's notice. ;)

Burbank's the best for largest number of studios. Now, I live near Universal, Warner Bros, CBS, NBC, ABC and Disney, but I work at Sony Pictures -- the studio that's the farthest away -- in Culver City, and that's an hour-and-a-half commute each way most days. But I love our little cool pocket of the Valley and have no desire to move over to the West Side.

On a completely unrelated note -- someone is walking through the studio right now singing "Happy New Year" in a beautiful booming contralto. She is getting applause from every passer-by. I love working here. You say you want an industry job?

IF I had to live inland, I would choose Studio City, Glendale, Eagle Rock area. It's a nice pocket.

I nominate Seattle.

Well, I nominate Paris

Where are we buying up land for the swank commune again?

Tarzana

Guyana

Exactly. Everytime someone else we love moves here ... not only does an Angel get its wings .... the commune idea becomes that much more palatable.


Culver City is NOT a swanky place ... but it's centrally located to EVERYTHING, and houses are more affordable here than in other Westside locations. I don't know why that would be, since the school system is really good compared to surrounding L.A., but it's a wee bit more affordable.

Let's face it, a wee bit more affordable on the West Side of L.A. is still a king's ransom, but if you want to be in the entertainment biz and you like to breathe clean air, the West Side is IT.


FVCK NEW YORK. It may be cosmopolitan, but it's got a chip on its very cold shoulder.

If you want to work in porn, you can come live here in Chatsworth. :)

Simi Valley is a great place!!!

Commune.

It's not hard to travel from Hollywood. I love me some public transportation. This you can also get from Long Beach, though. And I'm very glad to hear you're considering LA. LA wants you, too.

Do you locals find the info on lalife.com to be reliable? One of my friends suggested we look at homes in San Pedro, and though the prices seem good, the "safety rating" is only 3.5/10.

San Pedro is the busiest harbor on the west coast I believe. It's......a colorful city.

ETA Fact Check: The port is called The Port of Los Angeles and it is in fact the busiest port in all of the US.

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".

Cahuenga Tujunga

Washington is MUCH worse - Humptulips et all.

Sequim!

Except Humptulips and Sequim are pronounced exactly as they should be. Now, how they're supposed to pronounced isn't exactly clear to outsiders but at least we don't just randomly change whether we're going to pronounce the Indian word or some English perversion if it. (Of course, almost in Washington is Aloha, Oregon, which is pronounced completely wrong.)

Puyallup.

Egads, that is just the tip of the iceberg around here. Jamacha? Jamul? San Ysidro?

I can always tell when telemarketers attack- they pronounce Spokane 'Spo-cane', instead of 'Spo-can'. I also love the yearly garbling of Gonzaga by th sportscasters, although they are getting better.

And in quite a few places in the U.S. no one can spell 'Chula Vista'. Or say it. Is it that difficult? Isn't 'vista' a word?

Also, when the telemarketers call they can't pronounce our last name and I just 'Nope, not here'.

No one can pronounce our street name, either. :(

Cost-ah Mesa instead of Coast-ah Mesa always got to me.

Otay Mesa. I think they say 'O-tie Mesa'. But that isn't how it looks, is it?

Ack - I'm trying to figure out the English pronunciations in England - Thames, Leicester Square, etc.

And, pray tell, what is a "Mews"?

Then our Gov can't say California.

Anyway,...

That is the sound of more than one cat talking.

I live in Santa Monica and have no complaints.
It is pricey...but we have Yahoo, Sony Music, UMG, MTV/VH1, and Revolution. We are very close to the Sony lot in Culver City and the Fox lot in Century City.

And there's a beach right nearby. and the Aero theater.

That's my two cents.

And that's why I pitch Culver City. It's close to Santa Monica (and hence all that stuff), but way less expensive. And still very nice. With the same clean air.





Pfft, you'd think she'd know that.

"Tems", "Lie-ster",

Macnehster is "Manchester" (the "e" syllable is there, but very very short.

Good luck with Worcestershire. It's approximately Worshester

Another vote for Culver City - we lived there for about 10 years. Close enough to everything but for a better price.

San Diego street names are impossible to pronounce. I've lived on Caminito Cantelina and Avenida Alcachofa - both of which I have no idea how to pronounce.

Well, as somebody who is about to leave Los Angeles for San Francisco, I say, Welcome and Goodbye. I would choose NYC myself, but if I had to do Los Angeles all over again I would live someplace between Los Feliz and Pasadena. (Silverlake, Glendale, etc.)

Good luck.

Cool.

Our B&B is in Belgravia on a Mews (or one street over, I don't remember).

I'd like to cast my vote for job first, home second.

Although I would be remiss in my shameless self-promotion if I didn't put in a plug for good ol' OC. If you guys decide there's work you wanna do here, I can't help plugging Lake Forest. It's right next to Irvine w/out the Nazi HOA, and also right next to Mission Viejo (and both Lake Forest and Mission Viejo rank very highly on the annual "safest cities" rankings). And you can get a 2-br, 1190 sq ft. townhome for under $400K (in fact, some jerk in my neighborhood has theirs listed for $355K right now, seriously undercutting our refi prospects...)

Now, remember that New York City is Mousepod's first choice.........

South County is EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!

New York City should not be anybody's first choice.


Perhaps if you're a billionaire ... but even then, you could do much better.



(The excitement of the big city and the plethora of cultural wonders pale in comparison to the filth everywhere, the Dickension class structure, the general rudeness of attitudes, the needless constant hurriedness in every facet of life, and the crumbling infrastructure of a place too many centuries old ... and, oh yes, the frigid winters and humid summers. Did I mention the filth?)

Well, welcome to SF when you get here.

iSm - Don't worry... you'll get us in SoCal - but you don't have to slam my hometown to do it.

I've found the "general rudeness of attitudes" to be more prevalent here in SF than in New York.

Among the music business folk I dealt with on both coasts, I found the New Yorkers were tough but predictable, while the LA folk tended to be "friendly" while stabbing you in the back.

As far as filth... did I mention the smog?

"LA's fine, but it ain't home, NY's home but it ain't mine no more..."

Didn't mean to offend. NYC is my hometown, so I feel perfectly free to slam it.



(Oh, and a word of advice ... don't judge the population of anyplace by the people in its entertainment industries.)



Fortunately, there are good people to be found everywhere ... and you're the type of person, mousepod, to whom good people will be drawn. You could find good friends in Somalia .... but we're real glad you'll likely be doing it in L.A. instead.

Point taken.

And as long as we're doing the Mutual Admiration Society thing... the sociality here at the LoT was a big reason for us to finally move to LA.

...now back to resumé polishing...

Well, thank you.

Haha... you won't hear me argue THAT point. I lived in the bay area twice, and left it just as often!

I'm reviving this thread because H has a start date and we'd appreciate some advice on finding a house to rent for a year or so.

Here's the scoop: job is in Burbank/Glendale area.

We want a 2 or 3-bedroom house in a nice/safe area with a not unreasonable commute.

We'll be coming down next weekend (Aug 3-5), armed with way too many listings from several different websites/newspapers.

What we really need is some advance help from some locals who can weed out some of the places that are truly not worthwhile or can recommend places that we might be missing. I know that NA and €uro are the Long Beach experts/ambassadors - please PM me if you can help.

Thanks in advance - we're really excited about our move.

In the past, in similar searches, we have had success outside of these sources. In your travels, keep your eyes open for signs tacked on telephone poles, in front yards, etc. Our last two domiciles (a three bedroom house and a VERY economical two bedroom condo - our residence of the last eight years).

And we are excited to have you and H moving down!

Welcome to SoCal! I think Kevy's advice is the best - that is how I found my two great beach places. Drive around and look for signs. Just get some advice from locals on where the neighborhood turns. Come on boys, I know there are a lot of you up there in the Burbank area.

I also like to drive the area in the AM, evening and later in the night to get a feel for it.

I sent you a PM.

For renting, especially up in the valley Westside Rentals seems to be a great resource. Yeah, you have to pay to use it (it's popular with landlords because advertising there is free for them), but the people I've known who have used it have come up with better choices than through other means.

And I know from searching the MLS for someone else who moved to the valley that it's not a great resource for rentals in the Valley.

I didn't get it - please resend.

Interesting.. Everything I've heard about Westside Rentals is that negative. That they have a ton of properties that are no longer available.

I got your PM...

I hadn't heard that, but that would certainly be a problem.

I think everybody on LoT should buy a mobile home in our park and takeover the place - we could tear out a bunch of them and build the commune (the pool and clubhouse are already built) :) - Easy access to trains, and an endless supply of porn production facilities; this is a GREAT place to live! :D

We found both our places on Craigslist.

I've got a regular posse out in Long Beach keeping their eyes open. ;)

So far, it seems that craigslist is the most promising of the listing sites. So many dog-friendly homes - we're finding a bunch in Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Eagle Rock... (I'm thinking these are going to be realistic places for us).

It is somewhat ironic to read a post about keeping your eyes open and then watch the accompanying emoticon close one eye.

Make sure you get AC!

That's a given: I don't know of any household appliances designed to run on DC.

People in our nation's capital can't use household appliances? Is this some new Homeland Security rule?!?

When DC is involved, nothing works.

This is exciting news.
:)