LA A-Z recommendations

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I've decided that it's no use having friends in 818 if you don't know where 818 is, which I don't, other than that it's a bit northeast of Culver City up towards the hill with the planetarium, which only covers, oh, an area about the size of London.

 

Getting to the point, I have only a very basic map of LA, which is frustrating in its vagueness. Any particular recommendations?

 

Phil

[Elhanan Matos]

The 818 area code is the san fernando valley... Burbank, North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, etc... All cities within Los Angeles County.

 

Getting to the point, I have only a very basic map of LA, which is frustrating in its vagueness. Any particular recommendations?

 

What kind of recommendations are you looking for?

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

A decent map. In London you just buy an A-Z, but I've seen variations there.

 

Phil

[John Ealer]

Phil -

 

The "standard" map guide to Los Angeles is the Thomas Guide. It's updated every year, pretty much you'll find at least one old and battered copy in every car here.

 

http://www.thomas.com/

 

Personally, the most useful edition is the one that includes both Los Angeles and Orange County. If you're keeping track of area codes, that's 213, 310, 323, 562, 626, 714, parts of 805, and 818. A happy little hamlet of 20 million or so...

 

John

[Annie Wengenroth]

I'm glad someone else asked this, I have a lot of LA questions myself. I guess I'm wondering who lives there and if so, how you like it, what you would tell someone planning to move there after school, and so on. And yes, I already know how bad the smog is and that you have to either drive everywhere or take public transportation!

 

Oddly enough, I've been told that LA is a trashy wasteland of vapid shallow people and that if I live there I will go nowhere. (Yes, I rolled my eyes too!) Anyway, I refuse to believe this and don't think I have any particularly naive expectations of the area. I'm not expecting to get out there and "make it big". I'm not expecting to find work immediately, and I'm certainly not expecting to find anywhere decent to live right off the bat.

 

In fact, I don't know *what* to expect, short of what my friend told me about being so poor that he had to resort to stealing a light bulb from a gas station bathroom. I just know that I'd like to move out there, even if it means stealing light bulbs, living in a crappy apartment, and dare I say it, waiting tables until I find a better job!

 

EDIT: By the way, I grew up in New Jersey and then moved to the suburbs just outside of Boston when I was 14. So between New York City and Boston, I'm used to cities and find that I actually prefer them. I've lived in Savannah since '01 but by no means do I consider myself a Southerner or some kind of backwoods hick or something. However, the only area of California I've ever visited was the San Francisco area when I was about 7 years old. Needless to say, all I remember is that the waves at the beach were gigantic and it was always nice and sunny out. Ah, childhood!

Edited January 31, 2005 by SpikeyAnnie

[Elhanan Matos]

Oddly enough, I've been told that LA is a trashy wasteland of vapid shallow people and that if I live there I will go nowhere.

 

And we wouldn't have it any other way! ;)

 

I think that all depends on where in LA you plan on living in. I live in Woodland Hills, the very edge of the San Fernando Valley, and right on the border of Los Angeles County, and I think it's the last thing from wasteland. And if you're trying to get away from shallow people your in the wrong industry.

[Alessandro Machi]

And we wouldn't have it any other way!  ;)

 

I think that all depends on where in LA you plan on living in.  I live in Woodland Hills, the very edge of the San Fernando Valley, and right on the border of Los Angeles County, and I think it's the last thing from wasteland.  And if you're trying to get away from shallow people your in the wrong industry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Im also in the valley near Woodland hills.

 

Save at least $10,000 before you come to LA so when you come here you don't have to feel like you have to take the first job that comes along. Pick up a dramalogue and hook up on a production and see where that takes you. I recommend going for the shorter shoots, you meet the same number of people and may be able to hook up with them for other jobs in the future.

 

Um, don't tell anyone you have $10,000.

[Annie Wengenroth]

Ha ha. $10,000. I've got a ways to go... :sigh: For the record, I don't have a problem with shallow people. I can deal with pretty much anyone and not get too bothered. Case in point, today at work someone brought in an Anton Bauer Trimpak battery with a suspicious semi-circular mark on it. From a light? Nope, better! From the burner of a stove! Yep...some genius set the battery down on the stove while shooting, didn't realize the stove was on. Granted, it could have been worse and burned all the way through the battery, not just the casing. Then they had the courtesy to inform us that, "Well, the battery still works." :headdesk:

 

Okay, so I still ducked in the back room and first thought, "Oh poop what if the entire apartment had blown up, if it had been a gas stove?" Then I laughed for a little while. Then I came back out and told the student that he could talk to the manager on Monday and that was that.

ANYWAY (steering the topic back on track), back to LA. What are some affordable areas to live in (as in, less than $900/month for a 1-bedroom)? I was told Los Feliz isn't bad but like Phil, I'd need to look at a decent map because I don't know where that is.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I stayed with someone in that area (At least, the road was called Los Feliz Blvd - what does that mean, "the friendly?"), and if I remember correctly it's slightly west of Hollywood, south of Griffth Park and I believe in about 2002 he was paying that sort of money for an outrageously huge (by London standards) apartment in a fairly reasonable block. I certainly wouldn't mind living there (in fact, I'd be deleriously happy to live there), but then I've only ever done so for ten days in a row.

 

As for getting around... yes. Well. My very inadequate map caused me to utterly underestimate the scale of the place by a factor of about 10:1, being as they only showed city blocks as very greyed-out outlines with every tenth or fifteenth street named. The moral of the story: do not attempt to walk from Culver City to Hollywood, or at least take a map, a compass, and three days' supplies. Annoyingly, unlike New York, there seems to be little availability of flag-downable cabs, so get the number of a few companies if you're there without transport. I found the buses to be pretty good, actually, although they're a bit slow. They demand exact change but on the couple of occasions I didn't have it, they tended to let me ride for free!

 

Sunshine makes anywhere look nice, it's true. It even does a lot for the seemingly-endless numbers of thirties-to-sixties apartment blocks that everyone in LA seems to occupy - buildings that, in London, would be damp and moss-stained with leaky flat roofs and sagging porticos, bleak under a depthless grey sky. Things actually get a chance to dry out properly in California and it makes everything look younger than it is.

 

> I just know that I'd like to move out there, even if it means stealing light bulbs, living in a crappy

> apartment, and dare I say it, waiting tables until I find a better job!

 

My feelings precisely, but I can't even do that!

 

Phil

[Brad Grimmett]

What are some affordable areas to live in (as in, less than $900/month for a 1-bedroom)? I was told Los Feliz isn't bad but like Phil, I'd need to look at a decent map because I don't know where that is.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Less than $900/month for a one bedroom? Um, at the very least you'll be living at least 45 minutes out of town (not in Los Feliz), or you'll be living in an area that you probably don't want to live in. I just helped a friend of mine move today and he is paying $935/month for a 400 sq ft. (at the most) studio apt in Silver Lake. Silver Lake is east of Hollywood and not a bad area, but the apt is obviously VERY small. If you want a decent one bedroom in a decent area you should think more like $1200/month as a minimum. One bedroom's tend to be very expensive here since most people live alone. If you can find a roommate or two you can get a MUCH better place. I have a few friends who share a nice three bedroom house in Silver Lake that is just under $3000/month.

Anyway, the suggestion to save up $10,000 is a good one. Don't come out here with a couple of months rent and expect to get by.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Assuming you're going to live for six months on that ten grand, what're you going to actually do with that time?

 

Phil

[Bob Hayes]

Born and raised in Los Angeles and currently living in Culver City. Living in LA is like living in a giant space port in a Sci Fi movie. It?s huge and impersonal but everyone and everything from every corner of the galaxy is here. You want to find a head hunter from New Guinea? LA probably has a support group full of them.

 

Some downsides of Los Angeles are; Nobody lives where they work so they drive 1 hour or 1 ½ hours to work every day. As opposed to living in City?s like London or New York where you can actually go home after work take a shower change and meet your pals at the pub. The effect of spending so much time in your car makes LA folks pretty unsocial. They just don?t know how to interact and smile at people. There is no mass transit in the LA. None. Don?t be fooled by talk of a metro line. If you plan on using mass transit be prepared to spend 30 minutes of walking time getting to it. And spending 30 minutes waiting time doing connections. It is embarrassing. Also, Los Angeles has always had an obsession with money which creates an unrealistic view of where happiness is to be found.

 

The upsides of Los Angels are; You can ski in the morning and surfing in the afternoon. I?ve done it. There is a great ethnic mix, great weather, beautiful beaches, a healthy athletic lifestyle, and decent cultural activities. And some of the best traffic in the world. Not crazy random congestion like Rome or Mexico. But, millions of nice cars stacked into a slow moving parking lot. It?s a great time to listen to your self help tapes.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

The thing about people living away from work has always surprised me. In a place with no real centre, where the residential and industrial areas are pretty much evenly sprinkled among one another, you'd have thought it'd be easy to get a place within walking distance of work. Likewise, in a city where you are constantly driving... not huge distances, under ten miles often, you'd have thought that electric cars would be the ideal solution - you're not going very far and you're certainly not going very fast, so they'd be ideal. Yet everyone drives huge gleaming SUVs which get ten miles per gallon, have a hundred-foot turning circle and get in the way. I can only conclude that people actually like sitting in cars in LA - very strange behaviour. The London solution to this is simply to make everything very expensive, which has sort of worked.

 

The weather, though. I can only borrow from Bill Bryson on this subject in London - "For months the sky had been a depthless grey. It was like living inside tupperware."

 

(checks sky) Yep, grey.

 

Phil

[Annie Wengenroth]

Tupperware! Oh man, that's great.

 

As far as what I plan to do when I get to La la land, it's looking like I'll try to meet some people who know people who know people, and so on. And if I do end up paying a little over 1000 for rent, that's cool, I'll deal. As far as sitting in the car for long amounts of time, I'm used to it-after all, I'm from Massachusetts! I'll figure out some feasible options for jobs, even if it's some bullsh*t temporary thing, just to get the ball rolling. Basically I'm trying to make connections and think about what sort of work I should start out with. I mean, I have a little over a year in which to figure it out, if not longer. It's not entirely definite that I would be going out there right away; I just know that it's where I'd eventually like to end up within the next few years.

 

Anyway, you all are a fantastic source of information and advice (as usual!) and I greatly appreciate it.

[Brad Grimmett]

Hi,

 

Assuming you're going to live for six months on that ten grand, what're you going to actually do with that time?

 

Phil

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It takes most people at least that much time to get a couple jobs and make some contacts. I know it took me a while before I was working. You burn through the money pretty fast. It's just good to have some cushion so that you're not broke in a month or two.

Hybrid cars are becoming more popular here and many producer, director, and actor types can be seen driving the Toyota Prius. The demand is so high that there's a long waiting list for one. I know I'll be looking for a hybrid once they make a truck that's big enough for all my gear. But there are a ridiculous amount of "soccer mom's" driving huge SUV's, and they all seem to cut me off in traffic! Hybrids make perfect sense in a city like LA. Too bad our country has been taken over by the oil interests or we would have a lot more choices. I have a friend who converted his truck to run off of natural gas (like many of the buses in LA), but he spent $10,000 to do it, so it's not a real good option for most people.

[Alessandro Machi]

The dramalogue magazine will go a long ways towards meeting people in a working environment. You might want to pick up copies now so that you can begin to spot the decent gigs from the waste of time gigs when you actually arrive.

 

Craigslist offers lots of living options, I can't vouch for how good they are but many of the ads plead for headcases to not apply, which might be a good sign.

[Brad Grimmett]

The dramalogue magazine will go a long ways towards meeting people in a working environment. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've never heard of that magazine. Is it for actors or something? Just curious.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

The hybrid thing is interesting, but remember natural gas is also a fossil fuel.

 

Within about fifteen years, oil will be so incredibly expensive that the world will be forced to either fix the problem or initiate world war three. Given the current US leadership, I think the war is probably more likely.

 

Phil

[Matt Pacini]

I'm from northern California (Sacramento, 425 miles from L.A.), but I lived in L.A. for 11 years, then came back home, but I'll be going back one of these days.

 

Everyone has an opinion about what L.A. is like, so here a few of mine:

 

1. Don't pay any attention to what anyone says who has visited there, but not lived there. And pointing to a map of an area that holds 20 million people, many of whom have come from all over the globe, and saying "all those people are like X" is just assinine and bigoted.

 

2. It's really expensive, and the weird thing is, that the price difference between living in a pretty good, safe neighborhood, and a dangerous gang-infested one where you hear gunshots almost every night is not that great. (this is how I picked up my habit of having to sleep with ear plugs on, that I can't seem to shake).

So don't just look at prices and say "I'll live there!", unless you want to get your forehead cut open requiring stitches. (been there, done that).

Hint: If there's graffitti on the front of houses, it's not a safe place to live.

 

3. Another bizarre thing:

You can be in a really nice neighborhood, and literally one block away is a dirty, disgusting, gang-ridden hellhole that you would never dare get out of your car in. It doesn't necessarily "gradually" get bad, which I'll never figure out, but it's true.

 

4. Get a Thomas Guide, and get a couple seasoned natives to circle the bad areas with a highligher for you, then stay out of those areas.

 

5. The $10,000 suggestion is good, but even better is one I heard but ignored: bring enough to live on for a year.

The reason my posts are full of crime and danger warnings, is because I showed up with very little money, and ended up in some of these bad places, and I have the scars and bad stories to prove it! L.A. is not a safe place for poor people!

 

6. You're gonna have to get a car, so get over it.

It's not New York, it's not London, it's not like any other place on earth, it's L.A., so don't whine about how stupid they are because they haven't figured out how to invent a public transportation system for 20 million people over a massive chunk of geography. It's not possible, so just deal with it.

- You can't get where you're going, when you need to be there, if you don't have a car, period.

 

7. Live in the outskirts, like the San Fernando Valley, & up where a couple of these guys mentioned: Woodland Hills, Westlake, Simi Valley, etc.

DO NOT MOVE TO HOLLYWOOD or DOWNTOWN L.A.

Hollywood may have been glamorous in the 40's, but it isn't now.

It's a festering pustule of whores, schizophrenics, beggars, and criminals, and I'm not necessarily referring to just actors!

 

8. Keep an open mind about the place.

There's a lot to love about L.A., and there's a lot to hate about L.A., so keep reminding yourself about why you went there in the first place, and try to put up with everything else.

 

Matt Pacini

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Actually it's not really that expensive, it's extremely cheap compared to London and I get the impression it's cheap compared to New York as well. Consider that in London it is impossible to pay less than the equivalent of US$2000/month for anywhere that isn't a complete hellhole, this being the reason I live forty miles out.

 

Phil

[Dominic Case]

you'd have thought it'd be easy to get a place within walking distance of work.

There you go again Phil. Forget about the "walk". Some areas it's not safe to, some areas it's too far, some areas just aren't designed for walking.

 

When someone in LA says "oh - we're just around the corner from where you will be - drop by and see us", expect to measure the distance in miles, and the travel time (driving) in 15 minute blocks.

 

Even close-by things are a long way apart: that's because roads and car parking areas take up so much space, so you need to drive to get from anywhere to anywhere. It grew that way, it's not going to change.

 

It's hard to flag down a cab on the street because no-one walks on the street. At least, if they do, they probably aren't people the cabbie wants in his cab.

 

Wherever you are, have the desk clerk or receptionist call you a cab.

 

If you need to do much of that, it will be cheaper to hire a car. It's cheaper to hire a car for a day than it is to take a cab from LAX to Burbank for example. You just need to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road. Follow the car in front (there always is one) - you get the hang of it quickly.

 

Of course there are more human-pedestrian-oriented areas. Locals are better equpped to comment on those (I just visit occasionally).

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Actually I just need to learn to drive, but that's something else that's hopelessly expensive and rules-bound in the UK.

 

Amusingly, when I spent ten days in LA with a friend, she mentioned having got used to LA driving and immediately getting pulled over on going back home and driving the same way...

 

Phil

[Matt Pacini]

Hey, we don't drive on the wrong side of the road, you guys do!!!

har har!

 

Seriously, forget the walking thing.

If you're going to live in L.A., you're going to have to have a car.

It's just too damn big and spread out.

I don't know how much of it you saw Phil, but I didn't get how huge the area was until I lived there for over a year, and I'm a California native!

It's about a 100 mile square of solid people, so think of how futile that is to think you could walk where you need to go.

 

Matt Pacini

[Brad Grimmett]

7. Live in the outskirts, like the San Fernando Valley, & up where a couple of these guys mentioned: Woodland Hills, Westlake, Simi Valley, etc.

DO NOT MOVE TO HOLLYWOOD or DOWNTOWN L.A.

Hollywood may have been glamorous in the 40's, but it isn't now.

It's a festering pustule of whores, schizophrenics, beggars, and criminals, and I'm not necessarily referring to just actors!

 

 

Matt Pacini

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with most of what you said Matt, except the above. Hollywood isn't what it once was in the 40's, but it's also not what it was a few years ago. It's getting nicer all the time. Sure, there are some bad areas, but there are also a lot of really nice areas. I live in West Hollywood, and it's a really great area to live in. Beverly Hills is about a half a mile away to the west and Hollywood is a couple of miles to the east. Actually, I'm moving into a bigger place soon and I'm looking exclusively in West Hollywood for a few reasons.

1. It's central to everything. The 101, 10, and 405 are all only a couple of miles away, as well as all of the studios. Also, many of the locations used for shoots are pretty close.

2. It's a really nice part of town. It's clean and (surprise) there are a lot of things in walking distance in the area. So when I want to have a few beers, or dinner there are about 20 places within walking distance.

3. I have friends that live in the area. It doesn't really pertain to other folks, but it's good reason for me.

You can't really rule out most areas because they're 'suppossed' to be bad areas. You need to check out the place and the area before you move in. Like Matt said, one block can be very nice and the next block can be really bad, but you need to check it out first.

[Riku Naskali]

Actually it's not really that expensive, it's extremely cheap compared to London and I get the impression it's cheap compared to New York as well. Consider that in London it is impossible to pay less than the equivalent of US$2000/month for anywhere that isn't a complete hellhole, this being the reason I live forty miles out.

Bloody hell?!? What kind of apartments are we talking about here? I'm paying something like US 300$/month for a shared flat right now. And I can't even almost afford it . But on the other hand, this is Finland.

Edited February 2, 2005 by Riku Naskali