Where is the best place to live in Los Angeles? Santa Monica or West Los Angeles?

	Where is the best place to live in Los Angeles? Santa Monica or West Los Angeles? I want to move there after college to become either a lawyer or producer. I want to live near Los Angeles in a safe neighborhood and people have said Santa Monica or West Los Angeles. Where is the best place to live? Also, how much money should I start out with so I can afford to live in an apartment? Also, has anyone ever heard of/seen the Pico Lanai Apartments, Pacific Plaza apartments, Plaza at the Arboretum or the Santa Monica Blitmore? (These are all in Santa Monica) Asked By: - 7/30/2010

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If you want to live here and enjoy the weather, then you have to pay for it. You put up with the smog and the traffic, enjoy the weather and pay your rent or mortgage. My advice is to start checking out craigslist, rent.com, and apartments.com if you are looking to rent. You’ll quickly see that the minimum rent for a non-ghetto place is about $1,000/$1,200 per month for a studio/1BR. Really nice areas (like the West LA area) easily run $3,000 or more. Want to live near the beach? Expect to pay a premium. The answer to this really lies in the answer to the question, “Where do you work”? It’s not good at all to live in South Bay if you have a job in Pasadena. It’s stupid, in fact. The one thing that grinds people down more than anything here is the traffic. It’s the worst thing about living here. So rather than worrying about “cheap and safe”, your FIRST order of business should be getting a place close to your job. THEN you can worry about safety and price. But, to reiterate, nothing is cheap here. "LA" is such a big place, there are so many neighborhoods/cities where you can live. Of course, even within a city or neighborhood, there are safer sections and less-safe sections. In Los Angeles, some nice sections are West LA, Brentwood, Westwood, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Los Feliz, Silverlake, and Eagle Rock. Palms and Mar Vista are pretty good, too. In the Valley(part of LA), you have Encino, Tarzana, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Granada Hills, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks, West Hills, and Chatsworth. Glendale and Burbank are good places, and are incorporated cities of their own. To the east: South Pasadena, parts of Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Glendora, San Dimas, Laverne, Azusa, Rancho Cucamonga. Along the beach: Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Rancho PV. In Orange County aka "The OC": Seal Beach , Huntington Beach , Newport Beach , Corona Del Mar , Laguna Beach , Dana Point , Capistrano Beach , San Clemente , Brea, Yorba Linda, Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest To the west: Agoura, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Simi Valley, Moorpark. This is not an all-inclusive list, but it's a start. If you want to see the safety and price factors, go to www.lalife.com. Also, the LA Times did a nice job of outlining all 277 neighborhoods in LA County: http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/n… Time to get researching! Answered By: Obviousman - 7/30/2010

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Santa Monica Answered By: Anthony M - 7/30/2010

Depends what you like and how much money you are willing to spend on rent. Both can be expensive, even though you can find inexpensive parts of each city. Parking sucks in both places. If you like a more beach feel, then obviously Santa Monica is the right choice. There are a ton of restaurants and bars. Pretty much everything West LA has to offer (there really close to each other) but near the beach. You probably have a better chance of finding a cheaper place in West LA and its still reeeeeaaally close to Santa Monica (literally down the street, 10 minute drive). My friend had a studio apt in Santa Monica and I think her rent was around $1300 (three blocks from the beach). So even for a studio in Santa Monica dont plan on spending any less than $1100 and im sure its even gone up now (not sure on that though). West LA you can probably get a one bdrm for the same price. Hope this helps! Good luck. Answered By: Brianna - 7/30/2010

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