Am I Crazy For Considering Moving to Los Angeles?

I’ve lived in Pasadena for many years now. Pasadena is amazing. We (had? before the Rona) have great restaurants, lots of access to services and shopping, lots of entertainment options, and the outdoor recreation options are huge. If you like the outdoors it’s one of the best places to be in LA by far. Maybe even the best period. It’s also very proximate to job centers and freeways that can take you to the beach, desert etc. There are a couple of road tracks and motocross tracks in reasonable proximity, as well as tons of options for riding canyons. You can also get to OHV areas in about 30 minutes.

If you also work in Pasadena it’s completely possible to not leave for a month or more at a time. If you work downtown or somewhere else accessible by train it’s also possible to skip the car entirely

Downsides are that housing is extremely expensive, and even with a great freeway system areas that are close distance wise can take forever in traffic. There are occasional drivebys, other shootings, robberies, car chases etc., but it’s relatively very safe. The scum usually keep it between themselves. Homeless will sometimes harass you at 7-11, but they’re otherwise kept in line. These are all just general LA issues to a degree as well.

The #1 factor driving where you base yourself should be how long you’re willing to commute to work each way. Where is the main office exactly? Getting to Hollywood from Pasadena or vice versa during rush hour can easily take 90 minutes even though it’s only a few miles. If your limit is 30 minutes, you’re going to have to live as close to your office as possible. More reasonable is 45. Use the Google Maps feature that has arrive by and depart at times and see how long it projects on weekdays. LA does have a decent rail system now, if I had the freedom to live anywhere in LA I’d definitely try to give myself that option rather than drive.

Right now the traffic is zilch compared to normal, but don’t let that fool you. The normal traffic is fucking brutal. It’s usually “I should probably just leave LA” brutal. Situate yourself to avoid or minimize it as much as possible.

 

^^^true^^^

I occasionally have to drive to LA for work and I cannot stress enough how screwed up traffic can get if I’m not on the road back to San Diego before 2pm during the weekday...
San Diego is a walk in the park compared to LA traffic...
Choose where you want to live carefully....unless you don’t mind sitting in your car going nowhere when traffic gets bad....

 

accurate to both counts on traffic. i was doing a project in culver city, (i live in north san diego county) and i would only need an hour to get there in the mornings pre-traffic. afternoons... well if the day ran long i would just a hotel. no sense in sitting for 3 hours to get home at 8pm and turn around and leave at 4am the next morning.

 

I stayed in Pasadena when I was out there in January, seemed pretty quiet, safe, clean, and not too bad of a drive to work. My 250K home here is only 1.2 mill in Pasadena!

 

I was there in January, left Indy -2 windchill, landed in Chicago -12 windchill, landed in LA and it was 70.
Your info didn't include where to find the GILFs.... Pasadena?!

 

I should be there all of September, hell I might go out there and never go back.

 

Pasadena is pretty nice. When my employer had me stationed in LA for a year+, I stayed with friends on the west side of Pasadena, right near the LA city border. Beautiful, quiet, green up in those hills. It was an easy commute to the office in Northridge, and if I took the bike, I could be in Santa Monica reasonably quick, even in traffic (lane sharing).

it was pretty easy to get to anywhere in LA county from Pasadena.

 

Their office is on El Centro, Hollywood and Vine.

 

There’s a subway stop at Hollywood and Vine. Driving to Hollywood from anywhere other than Hollywood is going to take you 45 minutes. Maybe 45 minutes then too. Are you going to be in the office daily or are you expected to drive around? If you’ll mostly be at the office, that’s a big benefit because you can just use the subway.

Pasadena to Hollywood/Vine will take about 45 minutes on the train (with a transfer).

With that office location though, I’d definitely look at living in North Hollywood. It’s only a 15 minute subway ride to the office, and if you need your car you can just take the 101. Easy proximity to every area of LA, rent is a bit cheaper, lots of services, and plenty of outdoor recreation opportunities. Plenty of social issues, but not like Hollywood or other parts of central LA.

Traffic is better right now than I’ve ever seen, so if you check some places out just multiply whatever you see by 10x.

 

You bring up a good point and one I forgot to mention: I wouldn't move back to LA without a motorcycle. A bike can cut 50%-75% off your commute time and I'd consider that a necessity.

 

If Pasadena is too pricey, look into Eagle Rock / Highland Park areas of LA or the cheaper parts of Glendale, just east of Pasadena. A bit cheaper and still real nice.

 

Yes, but keep in mind that LA drivers are super aggressive. Commutes are warfare.

 

My experience was the opposite of that to be honest. Congestion definitely keeps you on your toes and you have to be very alert due to the shear number of vehicles, but I found that drivers were pretty laid back. I felt like people were so accustomed to sitting in traffic that their aggressiveness was broken.

I do agree that it is a risk though, but one that I found was necessary.

 

I think beac means just west of Pasadena.

I am a NorCal (and Oregon) guy (despite 5 years in San Diego, which were great) but I got to spend some time in Pasadena and really liked it. It has a long history and its own identity. Lucky Baldwin's for the beer drinking win.

 

Yes, I do mean west. East is the San Gabriel valley, not LA or Glendale. My bad.

 

I found the LA drivers were more likely to let you change lanes or merge than drivers in other major cities (NYC, Chicago, Philly, DC, Boston, Cleveland, St Louis, Houston, Dallas, Denver, etc.)

 

You'se guys can keep your city driving. I routinely will wait for a car a 1/4 mile up the road to pass just so as to not "crowd" him....We usually wave "hi" to the neighbors as we pass by. Of course it's 20 miles to town so there's that. I find that I can relax during any driving, if someone is tailgating it's usually got NJ plates.....

 

I might go to their office daily, but I'll be out on sales. I didn't realize LA had a subway system. Most of my area will be North and West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills.

 

L.A. is the last place Id be looking to move right now. Zero accountability for criminals and huge budget cuts coming to most law enforcement agencies in the area. Gonna make the crime rates of the 80s and 90s look like a joke.

 

.....lol