# Moving to LA



## limerence (Sep 25, 2008)

Hi All,

I got a job offer at DirecTV on Imperial Highway (2 miles from LAX) and looking for a room to rent down there. Looking in the El Segundo area now but wanted to see if there are any close areas that you guys might recommend. 

So far, I heard El Segundo, Redondo, Culver City, and Torrance are good ones.
Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale I should try stay away from.

Thoughts?

Any help would be great.

Thanks.


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## DrRoebuck (May 10, 2004)

limerence said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I got a job offer at DirecTV on Imperial Highway (2 miles from LAX) and looking for a room to rent down there. Looking in the El Segundo area now but wanted to see if there are any close areas that you guys might recommend.
> 
> ...


If DirecTV is where I think it is (north of LAX), then some of those beach communities may pose a bad commute for you. Culver City would be better, and it's a city on a mild upswing.

Torrance will be too far.


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## limerence (Sep 25, 2008)

DrRoebuck said:


> If DirecTV is where I think it is (north of LAX), then some of those beach communities may pose a bad commute for you. Culver City would be better, and it's a city on a mild upswing.
> 
> Torrance will be too far.


It's actually south of LAX. right next to Raytheon on Imperial Highway


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## DrRoebuck (May 10, 2004)

limerence said:


> It's actually south of LAX. right next to Raytheon on Imperial Highway


Pwned.

Well, that makes the south bay beach communities A LOT more attractive. Manhattan. Hermosa.

Redondo and Torrance are still pushing it, as far as ideal daily commute. The length is not bad, just extremely heavy traffic and few ways to go. Much more manageable for those two as well, though, given where you'll be.

I would say Culver City and Westchester are probably out.

Again, I'm talking ideally.

I bet you could find a nice place in Inglewood for next to nothing. Most of the neighborhoods are quiet, family-type areas.


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## limerence (Sep 25, 2008)

DrRoebuck said:


> I bet you could find a nice place in Inglewood for next to nothing. Most of the neighborhoods are quiet, family-type areas.


don't you hear about inglewood in rap videos?

http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Inglewood&state=CA


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

Actually, Westchester would be ideal. I lived in Westchester, and it's a nice place to live. Should be a few rooms to rent near Loyola University. It would also be a very short commute. Just take Sepulveda. He says it's two miles from LAX, but it's actually across the street from LAX (two miles from the terminals, perhaps?). My dad used to build satellites down there when it was Hughes Aircraft.

limerence, hopefully you are working on the DirectTV user interface. I have some complaints I'll forward you! Let me know when you fix them all.


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## limerence (Sep 25, 2008)

mohair,

yep, youre right. i google mapped the mileage from point to point which showed about 2 miles, but when the cab took me there for the interview, it was just around the corner.

i'll try to check out westchester, thanks for the tip. 

as far as interface, i will actually be on their marketing team. i've always had comcast cable so i'll check out how it is and give them feedback. one of the perks is free directv, so there might not be complaints from my end though. =)


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## tom_h (May 6, 2008)

Manhattan & Hermosa Beach are the most desireable of the cities mentioned ... but also the most $$ housing costs.

Commute from Torrance would be 30-40 minutes, 1-way, at peak hours. That's not bad, at all.

El Segundo is sandwiched between LAX airport and the large Chevron refinery ... there tends to be a lot of background "noise pollution" at nearly all hours. Depends what your tolerance for background noise is.

Also avoid many parts of the "Venice Beach" district (actually city of Los Angeles). Quite a lot of thuggish gang problems. If any area _looks_ tawdry or sketchy ... then it usually _is_.


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## tom_h (May 6, 2008)

Westchester is adjacent to LAX, on its north side. It _will_ be noisy, from all the jets. 

During the day, the "normal" urban sounds partly mask the jet noise. Nights and weekends is when the jet noise would be most objectionable.

There's also a big legal battle brewing, because LAX wants to move the existing north runway an extra 300 feet _northward_. This will take years to play out. Not a problem if you're renting (just move), but be aware if you were planning to buy a home.

Again, depends on your tolerance.


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## kyoseki (Sep 16, 2008)

I drive from Culver City to a gym in Manhattan Beach (definitely south of Raytheon) a couple of days a week at around 7am and it's fine, you can do it in under 20 minutes.

If you're going to be leaving later, well, you should probably get creative, but you can avoid the 405 without too much trouble and you're still looking at a 30 minute drive at the outside.

On the return, avoid the freeway completely and just head up Vista Del Mar (seaside drive, nice :thumbsup and then take Culver into town.

You basically want to avoid the 405 or Sepulveda at that time of day (any kind of rush hour), but I can tell you right now that Vista Del Mar is completely empty southbound at 830 am, so you can take that to Imperial and then head inland from there.


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## quidquam (Nov 4, 2008)

what's your rent budget? There are lots of possibilities...

Also, get a motorcycle. You can get around LA a *LOT* easier with one.


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## kyoseki (Sep 16, 2008)

quidquam said:


> Also, get a motorcycle. You can get around LA a *LOT* easier with one.


Whilst I love bikes, unless he's ridden before, I'm not really sure that LA is the place to learn how to do it.

The only reason I ride here is because I've had plenty of experience of European car drivers trying to kill me, commuting by bike for a newbie in LA rush hour traffic is going to be pretty risky at best.


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## fast ferd (Jan 30, 2009)

kyoseki said:


> Whilst I love bikes, unless he's ridden before, I'm not really sure that LA is the place to learn how to do it.
> 
> The only reason I ride here is because I've had plenty of experience of European car drivers trying to kill me, commuting by bike for a newbie in LA rush hour traffic is going to be pretty risky at best.


+1. I rarely commute on my VFR. Definitely not in the dim rush hours. Great for weekends or jaunts up the mountains, tho. Although for some odd reason, it doesn't work my anaerobic threshhold very well.


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## limerence (Sep 25, 2008)

thanks guys. yeh.. i think i might just have to resort to being on a trainer to train for the LAF challenge.


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## kyoseki (Sep 16, 2008)

limerence said:


> thanks guys. yeh.. i think i might just have to resort to being on a trainer to train for the LAF challenge.


Well, if you're on a road bike, there's a bike path that runs down the beach from the very north end of Santa Monica all the way down to Palos Verdes, and the weather pretty much means you can use it year round - I use it during the week for my lunchtime rides, a quick 20 miles from Playa down to Manhattan Beach and back.

However, you're still going to have to find a way to get inland from the beach over to DirecTV and riding down Imperial most definitely isn't it  However El Segundo in general isn't all that busy, so you can probably find some quiet roads to use around there.


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## limerence (Sep 25, 2008)

kyoseki said:


> Well, if you're on a road bike, there's a bike path that runs down the beach from the very north end of Santa Monica all the way down to Palos Verdes, and the weather pretty much means you can use it year round - I use it during the week for my lunchtime rides, a quick 20 miles from Playa down to Manhattan Beach and back.
> 
> However, you're still going to have to find a way to get inland from the beach over to DirecTV and riding down Imperial most definitely isn't it  However El Segundo in general isn't all that busy, so you can probably find some quiet roads to use around there.


Well, I won't necessarily be coming from DirecTV. I'm also looking for paths I can take on the weekends, which sounds like the above would be good for. I'd be willing to drive to it. Just like within a 30 min drive, which might only be a couple miles driving in LA.


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## kyoseki (Sep 16, 2008)

limerence said:


> Well, I won't necessarily be coming from DirecTV. I'm also looking for paths I can take on the weekends, which sounds like the above would be good for. I'd be willing to drive to it. Just like within a 30 min drive, which might only be a couple miles driving in LA.


Depends on where you live and what time of day it is, leave at around 7am and 30 minutes can get you way the hell up the coast into the Santa Monica mountains, where there's some great road and mountain biking and generally the only thing you have to worry about is motorcyclists out tooling around before the CHP get up


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