MoshiMoshi

I am printing this map out for posterity. We lived right in the O of ASTOUNDING TRAFFIC.

I'm sure this has been linked before, but if you're moving to LA you should probably read this:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/t...ill-understand

Pulaski

Surely there is much is common: "a pungent waste material produced by a lower life form".

For the record, I like Marmite.

N1cky

We had an interesting experience with private schools in LA.

We were told how difficult they were to get into, but when I called them they all said they could potentially find room for an incoming international student. Our daughter tested highly and is sociable, and was offered a place at all the schools we were looking at. Although the costs were astronomical we decided it was worth the sacrifice to send her private, like we had done in England, we figured there would be quite a few people who did this. WRONG!

So first day of school, and we park in the carpark, amongst the Bentleys... and walk past the security men (looking back now, they were probably armed.) The first person to say good morning to us was John Fogerty, thought my husband was going to need a paper bag to help his breathing. And so began the madness.

The school was absolutely full of stars and their kids, and wow! did the school pander to them. Class was always disrupted by 2-3 kids being off 'on tour' with Mum or Dad. Then they of course had to spend a day looking at all the pictures and shit they had gathered while away in these places. No one cared about the education, because lets face it, if Stevie Wonders kid comes out of school with 0 qualifications, he isn't going to struggle for money.

While lots of the people were nice, I constantly felt out of place. Every kids party was held at some private beach club with valet parking and catered food. We were asked every time if we were members, and how they could put in a good word for us, and the fees were so reasonable only $20k to join, and whatever stupid money per month... Playdates were at peoples houses with a garage bigger than our entire house...

We lasted 6 months, and pulled her out. We then went to a much smaller private school that didn't have the wonderful grounds or the swanky uniform. There were a lot of people there who were in a similar position to us, and education was certainly the focus.

Sorry, I know that was very long winded, but just think really carefully about what you think you want, and what you actually want. And don't be swayed by how these places look.

If you want to PM me, I'll happily let you know what schools we looked at, and attended.

Chrisdc

I'm also in the LA minority - I love it here. Having moved from a tiny NYC apartment to a spacious house with *actual* bedrooms, a garden and a pool - it's bliss!
- The weather is lovely, and I don't mind the heat in the Valley - it's making up for twenty years of dreichyness in Scotland.
- The traffic is terrible, but we engineered a way to work from home - so we don't have to face it too often.
- I fly out of LAX a lot and I book my flights late/early, so I rarely spend more than 30 minutes getting to the airport from home (we are in Encino.) That's faster than I ever managed in New York.

If you are living in the valley - I would not recommend schools in Brentwood or Century City - that could be a soul-crushing commute. If you are on the top of the hill in Sherman Oaks, there are some routes down to Century City that might be acceptable, but I think it's brave.

If you can, find property south of Ventura Boulevard - that is the most valuable real estate.

If you end up in the Valley, the 101 can be a bit of a nightmare. Yesterday afternoon it was solid. I drove from Encino to Studio City along Ventura yesterday in busy traffic and it took 30 mins. Not tooo bad.

The houses in the hills above Sherman Oaks and Studio City are lovely, but remember you have to get in your car every time you need a pint of milk. And look carefully for sidewalks - a lot of streets have none. That said, the views are beautiful and lots have pools, if that's what you want. I found a house with a pool because I knew my family from Scotland would never take the trip to visit without a big juicy carrot like that!

There are good public schools across the valley - my friend is a senior entertainment industry exec and she has kept her kids in public schools all the way and is very happy.

Happy to expand on anything!

Chrisdc

I had just one other thought, and this pertains to the similar discussion of "do you love or hate living in the US" that crops up a lot. This is a bit philosophical and may be obvious to many, so apologies if it is redundant.

Happiness seems to me to be all about how much control you have over your circumstances. All cities (and countries) have their good points and negative points. If you are able to manipulate your personal situation to take advantage of the good aspects and suppress the negative aspects, then your experience will be joyful and satisfying. If you don't have control (and I'm imagining those poor souls on the 101-405 daily grind) then you are going to have a crappy time.

One's personal "ability to control" matters more than the actual physical and sociological makeup of the city (country etc...)

The Marmite has a fixed recipe, it's us folks that are all different.

SurreyMum

Oh Chrisdc the weather here in January and Feb can only be described at dreich! Love that word...!!

Thanks for the post - food for thought and totally agree about control over circumstances aiding happiness.

Sally Redux

Private schools seem to vary enormously from what I've heard from a few parents. Some are very substandard, but just tell the parents their kids are brilliant. However, LA Unified school district does not have a good reputation.

S Folinsky

Take a look at the L.A. Times Neighborhood Map. In mapping out things, make sure to look at "The Verdugos," "Central LA," and "North East LA." It is not always reliable, but if you are east of Universal City area, you will essentially have a "reverse commute." On occasion I have to drive out to Chastworth in the West San Fernando Valley from my home in Los Feliz -- and I can tell you that traffic out to the Valley is usually nil.

On private schools, if you don't mind Catholic, Immaculate Heart Middle/High School for girls is in Los Feliz, also Our Mother of Good Counsel. The Lycee International has schools in Burbank Media, Los Feliz and Pasadena. [fits both California and French standards]. A friend who as a LA Unified School teacher sent her daughter to Westridge. There is also the Polytechnic School in Pasadena. [Polytechnic started out as part of Throop Polytechnic which was later divided into the present K-12 school and the nearby university level California Institute of Technology].

Good luck.

S Folinsky

I would say that much the same applies to LAUSD. The opportunities exist in LAUSD if one knows how to work the system. Also, I think that the parents at home are the ones who contribute a lot to the quality of education.

Sally Redux

Yes, I didn't mean to imply LAUSD was bad overall. My kids went to Hancock Park Elementary School for a while and it was excellent.

ned1983

Hey there.
Im newer to LA than a lot of these people and I have had a totally mixed experience so far.

I lived in a wealthy area by the beach (50 yards of the beach), a Hispanic lower income area and in a relatively affluent area closer to Santa Monica and LA proper. The things people say here are true, its all about neighborhoods. Waaaay more so than England.

I hated it here for so long, even living by the beach offered little respite. Everyone is flakey, will cancel plans 10 minutes before they are meant to be there. The traffic is pretty bad and can make you a prisoner in your own neighborhood sometimes and you start to wonder why the hell everyone loves this place...

Then you explore a little, you find foods you had never tasted, hiking paths you didn't know existed, small backstreet bars or burger joints hidden in the back of a 7-11. Its taken me two years to accept that I have to drive 40 minutes to get anywhere and you start to think "its only 40 minutes who cares".

Once you let go of that "english" feeling, everything feels so much better. You can be as sociable or unsociable as you feel and thats all there is to it. For me the biggest shock was realising how much I relied on my friends to organise parties, movies, dinners out and was shocked when I got here and didnt have my weekends booked up months in advance.

I am going to be moving to Arizona in the not too distant future, I can honestly say, I am going to miss LA, it feels like home.

Hotscot

I miss the dreich weather very much. Month after month after month of heat with no respite here.
They should just hire weather people two months a year.

But then again Dana Point in two years

MMcD

Be careful when you use that word over here.
It doesn't have the same meaning as in Scotland - and it's not even spelled the same (tho sounds identical)....

Here it's....
drek
or
dreck

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/DREK

Whenever I hear it - to me it means "s_ _ t", plain and simple

S Folinsky

OK, what is the meaning in Scotland? From context I read it as referring to "crappy weather." I assumed it was probably a loan word from Cockney which in turn borrowed it from Yiddish. My experience with Scottish weather has not been all that good. Am I wrong?

Chrisdc

I love this list of synonyms from Merriam-Webster

black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dire, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, gloomy [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, solemn, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched