April 06, 2005

• Might I suggest anywhere other than LA?
• It's nowhere near free, but I think that most LA-ites would agree with me that Westside Rentals is the established online standard for apartment hunting, all over the city of LA, and especially closer to the water. For general advice, if you're close to the water, there are mostly decent neighborhoods (from Westwood down to Torrance), but there are some places to definitely stay away from (such as some parts of Venice, etc.) The real kicker, especially because around Venice the good parts and bad parts are sometimes practically block-specific, is that whatever you find, you should go there and visit the place both in the daytime and evening to decide whether you think it would be a good place to stay.
• The Hotel California is nice, but be advised of this: Pros: warm smell of colitas could be heaven lovely place plenty of room dancing in the courtyard sweet summer sweat mirrors on the ceiling pink champagne on ice you can check out any time you like Cons: on a dark desert highway could be hell some dance to forget wake you up in the middle of the night are all just prisoners of our own device steely knives you can never leave
• Also, where will you be working/schooling? That is ABSOLUTELY VITAL for finding a place to live, as some parts of LA are incredibly commuter-unfriendly. For example, I used to live in West LA and commute (3 miles) to Santa Monica. At the wrong time of day, everyone leaving Santa Monica would cause me to literally drive home slower than I could walk. Your commute should be nearly on par with cost as a factor, if like me you see time and gas spent on the road as unrecoverable.
• squidranch's!
• I'd consider steely knives to be a pro, but that's me.
• Not to mention dancing to forget. Which is what I need to do every time I get back from LA.
• I feel unusual: ha. It's not so much the knives you need to worry about, as the unkillable beast! I would reccomend you look into what I call "generic West LA." There is a vast grid of fairly affordable and very nice and un-ghetto neighborhoods with no particular name. Steer clear of Brentwood at all costs: overpriced and tacky with no upside. I have also seen some suprisingly affordable places in Santa Monica, close to the beach. And SM has rent control, so there are VERY cheap places in old buildings which are of course impossible to find.
• If you are "Going to California"... Pros: New start Girl out there with love in eyes and flowers in hair Cons: Sea red, sky grey Mountain rumble, canyons shake Nose flow Sinking Said woman above has never, never, never been born Now once you are here, you may find "California Love": Pros: Knows how to party Bomb ass hemp beat Ya never find a dance floor empty Hoochies screamin Bumpin and grindin like a slow jam Cause you and I know it's tha best side Cons: Slug to ya chest Clock me and watch me Robbed Liberace Cowards die We riot not rally to live and die We collide with other crews Inglewood always up to no good
• 'cuz we all know it's California Uber Alles! Pros: Your kids will meditate in school Always wear the happy face Cons: Zen fascists will control you You will jog for the master race Suede denim secret police
• f8x - I work for an apartment management company, with some properties in the LA market. email's in the profile Oh, and for the sake of all that is holy, stay away from this place: http://www.theheightsapts.com Space Kitty can testify. TESTIFY!
• If you're looking for neighborhoods/areas, look into Culver City (moderately expensive, and the police are notorious for being assholes, but a clean part of town), Mar Vista (less expensive, nicer police, clean part of town), some areas in El Segundo (gotta get it, gotta get it). Unfortunately, the further east you move (east of downtown LA), the less expensive and nicer it becomes. However, you end up living on the surface of the sun during the summer.
• ah, California Dreamin' of LA: pros: safe warm Leaves aren't brown Sky isn't grey no temptation to go in church cons: strong temptation to leave S.O. behind flute interlude crippling drug addiction
• You're goin' back to Cali? I don't think so.
• L.A. in general: PROS look at those mountains look at those trees kneeling bums! look at these women, ain't nothing like 'em nowhere
• those aren't women ...
• You might find Craigslist handy; I haven't used the LA listings myself but it looks like they get several hundred posts/day, many with pictures.
• pros - cardboard cut outs of a man - someone groovy - starring in the movies - cinematic trick cons - top forty cast offs - lame joggers - freeway stranglers - smog playing tricks on my eyes
• No better place for Transvestites than LA either.
• Don't go to LA and become a screenwriter. pros - It is a beautiful night out there - teenagers with boundless love - who are aesthetically pleasing - in other words, fly - Los Angeles loves love - see my own name on a screen five feet high and luminous cons - gone savage - teenagers with automatic weapons - the smoke over our heads an imperial violet - It is 5am. What about the canyons? A friend lived in Temescula (I think) Canyon for a while. Cheap, ten minutes from Santa Monica, decent houses for the price from the little I know.
• I second westside rentals. They have pretty much cornered the rental market in LA for better or worse. Also, I lived in south LA (Adams and Crenshaw) for about a year and a half. Most would consider it a pretty "ghetto" area, but my roommates and I, all white females, never had any problems. We did have dogs, though. It was the most interesting neighborhood I've ever lived in.
• Don't go to LA and become a screenwriter. Oh? What happens? Or is that the name of a song I dont know?
• South Bay: PRO: everybody's very happy, cause the sun is shining all the time Valley: PRO: everybody's very happy, cause the sun is shining all the time West Side: PRO: everybody's very happy, cause the sun is shining all the time East Side: PRO: everybody's very happy, cause the sun is shining all the time Century Blvd.: PRO: We love it! Victory Blvd.: PRO: We love it! Santa Monica Blvd.: PRO: We love it! Imperial hwy: CON: Big nasty redhead
• I love LA!
• This thread is informative and entertaining. Can we do New York next?
• Sounds like you are already have people that you will be sharing the apartment with, but a friend of mine rents two apartments in my building (ask any of the LA monkeys, it's really very nice) and she will sublet one from time to time to people who need a temporary (two to three months at a time) furnished place to live. Currently I have set her up with a friend of a friend who is an actress from North Carolina who needed a place while they shoot the series that she is a regular on. It will be vacant pretty soon, so if you need a place for a month while you scout for somewhere else to live, it might well be a perfect fit. Let me know via the email address on my profile page.
• drjimmy11: It's Soul Coughing's "Screenwriter's Blues" off of the Ruby Vroom album.
• And here I thought it was a reference to Barton Fink. f8x, more info is needed before we can give real advice. I will say that craig's list was a waste of time and westside rentals made life a lot easier.
• Hmmm, more info... Well, I won't be going to school, and I'll be working from home, so commuting isn't as much of an issue for me, though all three of my roommates will be working. One's got a Starbuck's job already, another wants to work in film (but not sure where or how yet), and the other I'm totally in the dark about (as far as job aspirations go). I'm looking at a total rent cost of $2000 or less with parking, decent utilities like AC and broadband capable, doesn't need to be furnished (though might be nice), four bedroom if possible, but two or three bedroom is probably more realistic for our price range. Hmmm. Santa Monica, Culver City, and parts of Westwood are attractive (from what I saw in my week-long visit in early March)--less interested in the West Hollywood area (though not entirely opposed if price and location are right). I'll check out westside rentals and craig's list to see what I can see.
• West LA is cheaper than Westwood, but not as desolate (to me at least) as Culver City (which can be a little too far from everything for me). But I think Culver City is way cheaper. When I looked last fall, prices went something like Westwood>Santa Monica>West LA>Culver City. Westwood is nice, but it's boring as all hell. I only live here because I can walk to school. Sexyrobot lives for cheap in Koreatown, but that's a grittier setting. Studio City is cheap, if you don't mind being in the valley.
• There's got to be a better way to spend 24,000 dollars. You get nothing in return for your investment.
• Hey! Here's how we make money for that Squidranch Monkey Project ™ . 1. Each invest a small amount for down payment on a house and buy said house. 2. Rent it to F8X and friends 3. Profit
• And we could install cameras ala Big brother. (no more coffee for me)
• Actually, I'd love to buy a house--indeed, once I get settled out there, it's my first big "plan" to start saving and checking possibilities for buying within a year and a half.
• I hate Los Angeles. I hate it more than any other city on earth. It has some nice areas, but the magnitude of what is wrong with it, and what it symbolizes, is so huge, so great, that it makes me uncomfortable when I visit.
• Trace... you forgot, "Fucks a model too" under Pros (or cons, depending on how familiar you are with models)
• And I've got friends that live in Brentwood, Long Beach, Beverly Hills and Altadena. Nice place to visit, but I go all sorts of homicidal if I had to live there.
• They say when the housing bubble bursts, it's gonna be a big old crash.
• I didn't know where to put it, surlyboi, being as how she's from Ohio and all. ;)
• I found my house on Craigslist. It worked out really well for me...We pay $1625 for a 2 bedroom house in the Valley. I know it sounds pricey, but we have a yard and a garage, and SPACE, which equals sanity. Good luck with everything!
• You guys are truly frightening; Altadena? Beverly Hills? Culver City?!? Ew. Talk about your cultural sterility. Why not try something in the Silver Lake / Los Feliz / Echo Park area? LF has gentrified greatly, unfortunately, but SL and EP both have thriving art communities. If art's your thing, you can also try the real art lofts just east of Little Tokyo (not the pricey traps downtown). If art is not your thing and you're into quiet areas, you can try the Sherman Oaks - Studio City corridor that runs along Ventura Blvd at the foothills. Further out, you have Glendale and Pasadena, though that may be far. Hollywood itself has much to offer, especially near the west end. West Hollywood has some gorgeous yet affordable blocks. Having someone check it out for you is key. One thing that makes all the above stand out from some other options is that they all have a thriving central area where you can congregate with others. Being able to walk to your grocery store, post office and restaurants is a hidden joy most people who have been here have never learned. Don't move to a sprawling gridlocked monstrosity like L.A. just to live in a downgraded suburbia. That's the worst of all worlds, I'd say. There is much beauty to be found here, especially among the older neighborhoods; don't sell your time here short by overlooking it. There are reasons most great places in this town are hidden. My $0.02...
• Dude, chill with the artfuck 'tude. Not everyone wants to/can live in hipster heaven.
• Yes, you'll notice I addressed that possibility.
• I love hipster heavens. And artbabes.
• Moving to LA, want a nice place to live? May I suggest the Southern part of the state of Washington? That's almost far enough away.
• Memo From: City of Los Angeles To: Detractors Suck it. Really, I can go on all night about the moronic "cultural wasteland/phonies" cliches and how old they are and how stupid they make you sound but I dont feel like it. Really, truly, from all of us to all of you, kiss our beautiful weather every day, 30 times more culture than quaint little San Fransisco, passed New York as America's premiere city sometime in the late 70s, best city in the world ass. Thank you.
• Multiple reviews by "real people" of LA apts over here. Probably best to confirm stuff with real "real people" (The Heights, mentioned above, is given low ratings and negative reviews), but another starting point anyway. I can't recall if you said you'd have a car or not, but proximity to gold/red metro lines is a plus either way, or in the alternative SM's Blue Bus. Good luck. I lived in San Francisco for a short while and NYC for a longer while and wouldn't mind living in either one again. If you're not already enthusiastic about it, then LA can take a while, maybe over a year, to love, but once you dig it, the culture/food/education/nature possibilities are endless. Wikipedia has a listing of many neighborhoods that haven't yet been mentioned in this thread. Some are more heavily notated than others.
• *votes I feel unusual for funniest comment ever*
• Memo: From: The detractors To: LA Get over yourselves. Seriously. The put upon act is wearing thin. The "cutlural wasteland/phonies" cliche is seriously only brought up with any sincerity anymore by you yourselves. The ribbing you get these days is, for the most part, good natured. Enjoy your floods, mud, fires and earthquakes while the rest of us have real weather. Enjoy the fucking 405 at rush hour. I could go on, but I'll spare you like you so graciously spared us. Because when it comes right down to it, we like you. We really do. We just wish you'd grow the fuck up already and get over the teenage inferiority complex. It's old.
• Chuck it all and move to Salt Lake City. That shit's happening!
• Memo: To: the detractors from: Salt Lake City HA HA HA LUSERS WE GOT ALL THE SALT AND YOU GOT NONE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR PEPPER MORANS
• Detractors - You are perfectly aware, then, that there are vast hordes of us here who are ecstatic about the promulgation of any manner of negative remark about this fair city, yes? You can appreciate how that fits the plan, certainly? What we're saying is, "please continue"! We're running out of tofurkey and yurts. Please disseminate.
• oh, and thanks, quidnunc, for some great links.
• ? sarcasmo?
• I'm tired of those smug, multicultural Salt Lake bastards rubbing their worldliness in my face.
• I'm still confused. Have I unwittingly insulted SLC? I had half a chance to go there last year, I'm sorry I didn't (try harder to) take it: I've heard they have great weed in Utah.
• Oh, right - now I get it. Memo: To: quidnunc From: everyone Just read the fucking thread before you comment, dipshit.
• Oh, and Quid, IFU's comment is from "Kalifornia Uber Alles" ny the ever popular Dead Kennedys.
• Sorry, I only accept comments in memo form now.
• Focus, people, focus. He said he wants to live cheap and maybe get 4 bedrooms and parking for 2000. F8x: Do you want urban density? Do you want a lawn? Do you want to be able to walk to everything? Does being near the ocean matter? A freeway? How do you feel about homeless people on your lawn? Do you want a neighborhood bar or two or ten?
• I don't mind living in the city, though suburbs seem slightly more comfortable. I liked Culver City when I visited, as well as Santa Monica. A lawn would be nice, but isn't necessary. Walking to things=good. Don't need to be near the ocean. I wouldn't want to live within a half mile of any major freeway (like the 405 or 110). Not a huge fan of homeless folk on my lawn, though I suppose it's inevitable in certain places, and could be tolerated. Neighbourhood bar is fine. Ten would be too much.
• If you liked Culver City, definitely check it out. My classmates who live their pay half of what I pay for rent.