SOMA-ish Town in Los Angeles or San Diego Area?
Redondo Beach has good schools. Cute downtown area, diverse housing stock and the beach!
just back from there visiting friends who live in Pacific Beach, had a maplewood vibe to the community we saw. Although admittedly limited to the easter egg hunt at the rec center. La Jolla was also nice.
A lot of places come to mind, but its really about what is realistic from location of job...I know some sections in Santa Monica and Venice can fit the bill. Going North its hilly but laurel canyon is throwback hippie. Pasadena love the houses, its all sidewalks. Even long beach is a great small town with fun independent shops. Its also about affordability...if can share location of job, people can give more realistic ideas.
Apr 9, 2015 at 4:57pm Edited
i would figure out where the job is and move not too far from there if he is going to need to drive into an office each day. Having lived in la many years, I can tell you that driving even just 10 miles can take 50 minutes.. houses can also be much pricier than what you get here depending on the area. But taxes less!
The weather is awesome!
The weather is awesome!
Thanks for the ideas so far! I'm checking them all out. When not traveling, my husband will be working from home. So we just need to live close to an airport. (I'm home with the kids for now.)
Under 20 mins from LAX to Venice -preferably using backstreets. Its the closest to LAX; Redondo beach mentioned above and Santa Monica also mentioned above, are at least 30 mins. All these can be done without getting on a freeway...
Orange County Airport - I loved Balboa Island by Newport Beach - its a small community. Long Beach essentially is between the 2 airports, 45 mins -1 hour each way depending on traffic.
Long Beach has its own airport, albeit with more limited selection of flights- very JetBlue heavy.
Definitely consider whether your kids will be attending public or private schools. Santa Monica and Venice Beach are terrific areas but depending on exactly where you are the schools could be weaker in general than SOMa. I believe @amie is in Burbank and might be able to chime in on their experience. Glendale, Burbank or Pasadena might fit the bill school wise but would have a different feel than here. I have also heard good things about Sherman oaks but can be pricey.
Apr 10, 2015 at 8:11am Edited
Nephew with 2 small boys (maybe 6 and 8) lives in Silver Lake area near downtown LA/Griffith Park, and is very happy with their (LA public) school and nearby families. Artsy, to a degree. Google says it's half an hour to LAX, but that would be with ideal conditions. There is local shopping, and a strong community among the school parents, but obviously not a small municipality as with SOMA.
Culver City has its own school system, separate from the LA Unified. I hear that's a selling point. It's also close to the airport. My son lives there but as a single almost 23 year old with a roommate in a small apartment complex. I've been out there and the area seems to have diverse housing stock. His girlfriend lives in Los Feliz, another cool town but not on the West side which can be a problem for commuting to LAX. Not sure about schools. I am very familiar with Pasadena since a close relative lives there and that's where I usually stay. Important to consider what cupoftea said about whether your kids will be attending public or private schools. Taxes are lower there but the public schools are in general worse. There's a definite correlation of course - called Proposition 13. @amie will likely help a lot once she chimes in.
Your budget is also important as some places are much less affordable than others.
We just went through this although our net was much narrower than yours since my husband has to commute to Burbank. We also didn't need to worry about schools. The places we narrowed our search to - sort of in order of preference - Studio City (great walkability if you are near Ventura), Sherman Oaks (same), Burbank, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Los Feliz/Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Atwater Village.
Venice is REALLY expensive since Silicon Beach. Santa Monica is even more expensive and it's become so crowded and clogged that I don't even really enjoy visiting - used to be my favorite place in LA.
I really like Pasadena and it's definitely attracting a lot of young families plus you have Caltech. South Pas has a cute little village. Burbank is also this cool town and @Amie can definitely fill you in more. She's very involved in the schools there.
What I've discovered is that there are a LOT of great neighborhoods with really interesting and eclectic shops, cafes and restaurants. You should like where you are living if in the greater LA area as you are likely not to stray too far once settled in just because of, yes, TRAFFIC.
We ended up in Glendale because we found a house we love in our budget.
If I didn't have to worry about budget or location I'd be in Del Mar!
We just went through this although our net was much narrower than yours since my husband has to commute to Burbank. We also didn't need to worry about schools. The places we narrowed our search to - sort of in order of preference - Studio City (great walkability if you are near Ventura), Sherman Oaks (same), Burbank, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Los Feliz/Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Atwater Village.
Venice is REALLY expensive since Silicon Beach. Santa Monica is even more expensive and it's become so crowded and clogged that I don't even really enjoy visiting - used to be my favorite place in LA.
I really like Pasadena and it's definitely attracting a lot of young families plus you have Caltech. South Pas has a cute little village. Burbank is also this cool town and @Amie can definitely fill you in more. She's very involved in the schools there.
What I've discovered is that there are a LOT of great neighborhoods with really interesting and eclectic shops, cafes and restaurants. You should like where you are living if in the greater LA area as you are likely not to stray too far once settled in just because of, yes, TRAFFIC.
We ended up in Glendale because we found a house we love in our budget.
If I didn't have to worry about budget or location I'd be in Del Mar!
Apr 10, 2015 at 9:53am Edited
If it is important to you to be in a municipality (defined as having its own legal government) independent from a major city, or in a school district that is independent from a major city, you need to do due diligence in that regard. For instance, La Jolla has never been an independent municipality; it has from day one always been part of the City of San Diego and, I'm assuming, part of San Diego's school district. Likewise, I'm under the impression that the Los Angeles Unified School District covers more than just the City of Los Angeles.
Several of the above posts, while obviously enlightening, conflate neighborhoods within the city boundaries of L.A. and S.D. with smaller, independent, suburbs, and possibly with unincorporated areas. There is basically no such thing as unincorporated area in the Northeast U.S., but such areas (whose only government is the county) is ubiquitous in most of the rest of the nation, as I found out when I moved to St. Louis.
On the other hand, South Pasadena is not a neighborhood of Pasadena; it is an independent municipality (I don't know about the school district). When I passed through on the excellent light rail line, it seemed very, very SOMAish, at least physically. Check it out. It may be exactly what you are looking for, unless you are fine with a larger city like Pasadena itself, or Glendale, or Burbank, which are all about 100,000 in population.
Other cities (or at least zip codes like unincorporated Altadena) bordering Pasadena in the northwestern and western areas of the San Gabriel Valley may also fit your bill.
Several of the above posts, while obviously enlightening, conflate neighborhoods within the city boundaries of L.A. and S.D. with smaller, independent, suburbs, and possibly with unincorporated areas. There is basically no such thing as unincorporated area in the Northeast U.S., but such areas (whose only government is the county) is ubiquitous in most of the rest of the nation, as I found out when I moved to St. Louis.
On the other hand, South Pasadena is not a neighborhood of Pasadena; it is an independent municipality (I don't know about the school district). When I passed through on the excellent light rail line, it seemed very, very SOMAish, at least physically. Check it out. It may be exactly what you are looking for, unless you are fine with a larger city like Pasadena itself, or Glendale, or Burbank, which are all about 100,000 in population.
Other cities (or at least zip codes like unincorporated Altadena) bordering Pasadena in the northwestern and western areas of the San Gabriel Valley may also fit your bill.
I spent a week in Glendale last year leading up to a wedding. I liked it a lot. Not close to LAX, but it is close to Bob Hope Airport. But it's very walkable, has a good mix of local and chain businesses.
I just looked up homes for sale in Pacific Beach. If you look there, you'd better have several million to spend. Whew. There was a 1600 and change sqft house for over 700,000!
I know very little about Los Angeles, but I've always been entranced with the Jane's Village area of Altadena.
http://www.janesvillage.net/
http://www.janesvillage.net/
LA real estate prices are INsane! My friend lives in Studio City, and nearly any Maplewood home would go for $1MM plus if you could pick it up and drop it in Studio City or Sherman Oaks. My former boss lives in Pasadena, and his description of the town sounds like Maplewood.
Culver City looks nice as well, but I've only seen it from my car.
But any East Coast person moving there needs to talk to an Angeleno about commuting. If you have to drive "over the hill" to get to work, you probably want to reconsider your choice. Driving over the hill during rush hour is if I'm not mistaken, the 6th (or is it the 7th) circle of Hell.
If you need a realtor in SoCal, I can give you a name of a guy at Keller Williams in Burbank.
Culver City looks nice as well, but I've only seen it from my car.
But any East Coast person moving there needs to talk to an Angeleno about commuting. If you have to drive "over the hill" to get to work, you probably want to reconsider your choice. Driving over the hill during rush hour is if I'm not mistaken, the 6th (or is it the 7th) circle of Hell.
If you need a realtor in SoCal, I can give you a name of a guy at Keller Williams in Burbank.
shoshannah said:
I know very little about Los Angeles, but I've always been entranced with the Jane's Village area of Altadena.
http://www.janesvillage.net/
There are a lot of these little "villages" - I live near one called Kenneth Village. Yesterday I drove through another cute one called Montrose.
Apr 10, 2015 at 3:00pm Edited
I grew up in California at a time when it had some of the best public schools in the country. Those days are long past. Public schools throughout the state compare very poorly to schools in our area (with a few exceptions).
Also, with impending water restrictions and the possibility of MUCH more stringent restrictions in the future (particularly in Southern California), I would look closely at the local water system and water prices when considering an area.
Also, with impending water restrictions and the possibility of MUCH more stringent restrictions in the future (particularly in Southern California), I would look closely at the local water system and water prices when considering an area.
I grew up there. I wouldn't move there for less than millions. Traffic was a fustercluck then, and is exponentially worse now. Need to be to work by 8, and take a freeway to get there? Even when I was there, you were leaving by 6 or 630, because traffic would literally inch along. I hate traffic. Was just in Chicago, and that has gotten awful as well. Why is it that NJ is so great, traffic wise, when we are so densely populated??? And if you don't think NJ is great in terms of traffic, do NOT move to Cali!!!!
callista said:
Why is it that NJ is so great, traffic wise, when we are so densely populated???
I too have wondered about this. Would be interesting to see a study done. I have my suspicions...
eliz said:
Meh my husband shortened his commute by 45 minutes moving to LA.
He must either work very close to home or in the middle of nowhere.
Apr 10, 2015 at 4:16pm Edited
Santa Barbara, Solvang, San Luis Obispo
Edited to say that these are all well north of LA, and in the case of SLO, probably out of commuting range to the airport on a regular basis, but I've been to all of them and they are all lovely. SLO does have a decent sized airport, but you will be doing a lot of connecting flights from the bigger west coast airports.
Edited to say that these are all well north of LA, and in the case of SLO, probably out of commuting range to the airport on a regular basis, but I've been to all of them and they are all lovely. SLO does have a decent sized airport, but you will be doing a lot of connecting flights from the bigger west coast airports.
Rob_Sandow said:
Santa Barbara, Solvang, San Luis Obispo
Edited to say that these are all well north of LA, and in the case of SLO, probably out of commuting range to the airport on a regular basis, but I've been to all of them and they are all lovely. SLO does have a decent sized airport, but you will be doing a lot of connecting flights from the bigger west coast airports.
Yeah, if somebody stuck a gun to my head and said I had to live below the Monterey/Fresno/Yosemite Line, SLO would be FAR AND AWAY my first choice.
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