It is what it is. She's doing her masters at UCLA, so we're going to do what it takes to make it happen. I'm supporting her, I want her to do this. It's all temporary, we're just trying to make it as good as it can be for the next 2+ years. If we can get a 30 minute commute each way (except for Irvine), then I think we'll be okay. Like I said, my current commute is 30 each way minimum.

Once I'm out there I've got to meet up with my new LA Pelican neighbors.

Then stay away from Gardena. It's a little too much like South Central and as for Torrance, it depends on what area of Torrance. Torrance has two nice parts of town and to bad parts of town. The areas near the freeway are bad. The areas nearer the beach are better. And for $1400 you are looking at a crack house in East Torrance fpr that price range.


SmileWavy

Ooooo crack house... extra income!

I won't ride a motorcycle in L.A. for fear of my life... however if you must commute up the 405 it might be an option, if you like riding a bike.

Yes, some of those (not me of course) nut cased meet up once a month up in La Canada. Lot of fun and a great group of guys.

Gardena is Torrance's buffer. There are some nice part of Gardena but its no Torrance. he just has to fine them or just ask locals like you.

Many of us who grew up around these parts know the pockets and will never go into those areas. Simply, because we know better.

Forget the 405. do it part way and get out of the fwy near the congested areas and drive the streets, then get back on at some point. My wife use to do that when she worked near the airport. She avoided all of the fwy interchange. Her drive was 45 minutes during rush hour. We are in the northern part.

That's what this thread is all about. It's definitely sped up my learning curve. I went into this thinking Burbank or Glendale would be great ideas, now I know better in terms of location.

We'll end up driving around some neighborhoods before we move. We're going to be out of town for almost all of July then we'll move maybe at the end of August, so it's a little early to find our place. I've been scouting out Craigslist to see locations and prices, knowing I need to go see them of course. I'm thinking $1,800 is where we'll end up at based on what I've seen. The wife wants to spend less but based on my understanding of what she wants those places won't do it for her, or they'll be too far away. Culver City keeps coming back to the top of the list.

See, this thread is what I need. I always thought Gardena was one of the nice places. Goes to show what I know.

Well Gardena used to be nice. Parts of it still are but you need to live away from the freeway for that. My grandmother, who just turned 90, still lives there. Her street is just off the freeway and has mostly renters now. It used to be all homeowners that lived on the street but as they die off the children or grandchildren refuse to live there and so they sale or they rent out the houses. Gardena has become multi-cultural similar to Torrance. The parts that connect to Gardena East and North are not as good as the parts that do not like South and West Torrance.

I used to be a photojournalist, in the late 80's, for the Gazette when the Blowitz's owned it. We called it the Grunting Gazette-affectionately.

You might look around in El Segundo. Little pockets of residences and apts amongst some commercial. Pelican Parts started there and stayed there for almost 15 years. The weather is cool, the beach is close and there are parks, restaurants and shopping. If I wanted to be near LAX and needed to travel the 405 both ways, I'd be there or Marina Del Rey.

Long Beach has great pockets too. I live in a neighborhood that just received an award for the best neighborhood in the nation. I don't know if it's that great, but some of the streets here are spectacular. Some less so like mine since my lot backs up to an alley and ghetto bangers that live behind.

30 years ago, behind was solid blue collar whites. But so was most of SoCal with the exception of the wealthy enclaves which remain the same.

Yeah, go look at El Segundo or come on down to LB. I'll show you around.

How long do you think it would take you to get to UCLA in the morning?

Armed with all the above location suggestions, I suggest you look at the available apts, houses, condos, lofts, trailer parks, etc. that fit your budget using the links below. Then let that decide your proximity-to-budget quotient/threshold.

Los Angeles Apartments, Orange County Apartments, and San Diego Apartments
SearchTempest craigslist Search - All of craigslist. One Search.

Sherwood

This is great advice. The apartments are nice, they're in your price range and it's very close to UCLA. Traffic is no better or worse than anywhere else and you're in the fun part of town on weekends and evenings. :)

Same with Koreatown. Plenty of apartments for $1400 a month and easy to get anywhere from here, including UCLA. You can jump on an express bus on Wilshire and be there in 20 minutes while you read the paper or surf the web on smart phone. Beats the hell out of driving, not to mention parking around UCLA. You can forget about that.

I'm sorry but some of the advice on this thread is just whack. Long Beach?? And drive on the 405 from LB to UCLA everyday?? Then go home to LB? Just shoot me now... :eek:

You can hit your rent target and live in a fun part of town reasonably close to UCLA w/o dealing with the west side. Santa Monica and Brentwood are nice but crowded and WAY overpriced to rent an apt.

Drop me a PM and I'll show you around sometime. Some of these people mean well but really don't know the town. :cool:

Traveling out of LB isn't any different than traveling from north of here. Couple of bottlenecks on the way, but the real traffic always starts before Imperial Hiwy. It doesn't let up from there on in to anywhere on the Westside.

I could go from LB all the way to the old Pelican location in 20 minutes, and that was several miles off the fwy.

Coming back is not as easy, but that's just a matter of being able to pick the time for doing the afternoon rush. If Head's wife is a student, she will hopefully be leaving before 3pm which makes LB a 45 minute run going south in the afternoon.

$1400/month for an apt? I hope that's a large 2 bed because you can rent a house here for that kind of money. You can rent a house in a really, really nice area in LB for slightly more. The closer you can come to 2K, the more luxury you get. 4-bed multi million dollar homes lease for 3K and up. Hell, you can live right on the sand at the bay or beach for 2500 in a modest dwelling. Multi unit housing at the beach for less than that. Some for a lot less.

So the disadvantages can be overlooked for places like LB when you can spend the weekends in nice cool beach weather and play in or at the water. Can't forget the week day evenings too.

Over in the South Bay, it's more expensive and the trip to UCLA is still a bear. Miles do = $, in both senses. IOW, it all works out to the same. That's why 100,000 trade their time for money and commute in from godforbidden Corona or beyond every friggen' day.

I couldn't pull that.

Her schedule will be pretty much M-F 8-5. The whole reason we're moving is to lower the commute, so I'm going to try pretty hard to get her at 30 min or less. She'll have homework/reading/papers - unless Milt you want to pitch in on the papers ;) - so her commute time is more important than mine. This is all temporary (2-5 years) so our situation doesn't need to be perfect.

Looking for 10 minutes in the La Brea / Miracle Mile area it seems like 2 bathrooms and in-unit washer/dryer hookups are a lot harder to find without getting above $1,800. I've pretty much given up on finding a unit we'll like for $1,400 without driving further.

The 30 minute goal is a tough one to reach. People report that kind of time just trying to move about on the Westside or getting to the 405 from their home. Well, make that 20 minutes for what I just said. So add only 10 more minutes and you can't get far down the fwy.

I'm sure that's why Santa Monica is so hugely popular. But as I said, they have their own problems just trying to reach of cross the 405.

Let's face it, UCLA is in a rotten place for commuters. And if 8-5 are the hours, Long Beach is going to be 2.5 hours a day on the fwy.

Like Denis said, shoot him. ;) :D

Sounds like Jeff (look171) has one of the best answers if you don't want to live near mid Wilshire where Denis seems to be.

One word:


Helicopter

Bang for the buck, I say Echo Park, Los Feliz, Atwater are areas that are no more then an hour (45 min really) street driving to UCLA. Now getting within a mile to UCLA may still take you 10 minutes just to get onto the campus parking. You can have some peace and quiet when you get back home. Nothing like stepping out of your place and come across a sea of bumper to bumper traffic. That's too stressful for me. Its a lot Cheaper too. Another 15 minutes is worth it IMO just for the fact that there aren't too many cars and people like the West side. That freaking people are nasty out that way. They think they own the word.

Korean town or a little ways north of there is really another option. If you are going to do that, I would spend another 10 minutes and go to Los Feliz. Driving time to UCLA from K town and Los Feliz is about the same. Check these places out, you might just like the sea of people and cars 24/7 out in the west side. Another thing is parking. Watch out for that and factor it in. Because it will be a b#tch on the west side. You pay when you park, you pay dearly if you are not careful because that meter maid works too damn hard. Ask me how I know. There is a lot of waiting beside the daily parking lot that you will be driving through. The wait time for normally things ( beside the traffic) like restaurants, markets, even the Starbucks are much longer then usual due to the mass amount of people out there.