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| New apartment building in Hollywood. |
When people come to L.A., they are thinking of the beach, Hollywood, the shows......Los Angeles is a great place, but it has a catch.....you need to drive to get around.
Granted, most people know this. L.A without a car is a logistical nightmare. What they don't know is how worse it has gotten the last years. Places where there was plenty of 2-hour free parking, like Glendale, now are a crowded disaster during the weekends. The main boulevards of most residential areas, relatively easy to navigate before, now seem like the streets of New York. The bottom line: the only easy drives in L.A today are on Sunday mornings, and far away from the malls.
So? It finally gets to you. You have to drive.....and driving in L.A. today is not fun. Even the parking lots are chaotic. And this has quietly changed the thinking of a lot of people. The news is that slowly but surely, an "urban" L.A. is coming to existence. Yes! It is possible to live in L.A without driving....much.
Option A: Hollywood, the West Side, Santa Monica etc
One option is to study things carefully before chosing a place to live. Most people want to be within walking distance of a supermarket, a pharmacy, a convenience store, the post office. And have good public transportation to work. Public Transportation? That rules out most residencial areas like Cerritos, Downey, Pasadena. The areas of L.A. best served by public transportation are Downtown, Hollywood, Santa Monica......now let's take those three places. They all have public transportation, but.....Downtown lacks a good retail infrastructure. Its a ghost town during the weekends. So.....you guessed.....the other two, and other places like Glendale.
Option B Live near a Mall....
The malls of L.A. have changed.....they are full of cars, parking during the weekends is not easy. But there is a positive side to this. The malls have grown so much now, that they are like small cities. Banks, Pharmacies, all types of shops. You live nearby? You have everything within walking distance. And they are nicer than Hollywood and parts of Santa Monica. Less crazies..... The secret is out, and people are moving in droves to the apartment buildings around Del Amo in Torrance, Glendale Galleria in Glendale.....and the others.
How is life then if you live in these areas? You can survive most of the week without driving. Since the city is so spread out, you will probably need the car to visit friends during the weekend, to go to certain places. But the pressure is off. Hey Hey Hey!!!
