Moving? maybe...

[Big Man]

You have no idea what living in a city is like.

And I thank God every day that I don't ...

 

[pigeon toe]

People make a huge deal about LA being the 3rd pit of hell...Sorry...its just like -any- place...it is what you -make- of it. There is good and bad everywhere.....

Exactly. And if you really don't want to live somewhere even remotely unsafe, it's really easy to, even if you don't have a ton of income (and don't mind living in an apartment!).

Because it's so spread out, many people in LA haven't even been to "the ghetto". You don't have to if you don't want to. If you live in fear of places like that though, you miss out on a lot of good stuff. Good food, good art (Watts Towers anyone?), good culture and good people.

 

[carter]

From Ashville, NC to Vegas or LA? Sounds like culture shock.
However, Augusta County, VA to Dallas, TX via Tallahassee, FL, Rocky Mount, NC, and Little Rock, AR wasn't traumatic. Any location has it's pluses and minuses. It's not the place. It's what you make of it.
If a move is your heart's desire, go for it!

 

[dhermann1]

You can love being where you are without insulting other places. I've lived in both the city and the country, and I've enjoyed both. I don't think I could enjoy the suburbs, but I don't think I'd make such disparaging remarks as have been posted here. I'm sure North Carolina is totally heavenly, but personally I thank God I've had the chance to be exposed to almost every kind of environment in many parts of the world.

 

[Feraud]

Unnecessary comment.

 

[Big Man]

You can love being where you are without insulting other places. I've lived in both the city and the country, and I've enjoyed both. I don't think I could enjoy the suburbs, but I don't think I'd make such disparaging remarks as have been posted here. I'm sure North Carolina is totally heavenly, but personally I thank God I've had the chance to be exposed to almost every kind of environment in many parts of the world.

If you are addressing my comment, then I apologize if you mistook what I said as being insulting of other places. I am sure that many people love living in the city as much as I do living in the country, and are just as proud of their home state as I am of mine; but I would never be so presumptuous as to think "my place" is any better than "your place". I was doing nothing more than trying to make a light joke, thus the after my comment.

 

[warbird]

Well I certainly thank God I don't live in the city. I like being someplace where I can essentially go hiking when I step out the back door, where I can shoot my gun in the backyard and where we can go a short distance and camp out. I like to hear the animals and birds. If I could I'd live where the animals outnumbered the people, but I need to be closer to civilization than that occupation wise.

Cities are great to visit, but not to live. Not for me. Not to say I won't live in one again. I may, or on the skirts of one. The architecture and museums are about the only allures for me. I hate the politics of most cities, it's like a ultra big Home Owner's Association, somebody always in your business telling you what to do, I hate it hate it hate it.. Did I mention I don't like that.

L.A. is OK, the climate is great. Anyone who thinks it's hell hasn't been anywhere. I know folks say it, but dang it gets a heck of a lot worse than L.A., cept traffic wise. It is bad, but so is D.C. where I parked nigh on 10 years. I say if you have a great need to do something, to try it even if it doesn't work, then go for it. But, have a plan and know how you will live. Living poor in a big city is the pits. I can only say for me, to me the Pasadena area is nice, the Simi Valley is nice. One of my best friend's lives in Santa Monica, nice and close to action but dang a lot of people, no tall hills and buildings everywhere.

 

[dhermann1]

If you are addressing my comment, then I apologize if you mistook what I said as being insulting of other places. I am sure that many people love living in the city as much as I do living in the country, and are just as proud of their home state as I am of mine; but I would never be so presumptuous as to think "my place" is any better than "your place". I was doing nothing more than trying to make a light joke, thus the after my comment.

Maybe I over reacted, old buddy. I get very protective about my fair city.
I must say, having lived in Brooklyn for 18 years, in 3 different brownstones, where I had a back yard, and I could walk out my back door with my coffee and have breakfast beneath a canopy of trees, I really miss having that in the Bronx. I had the ideal combination of city and (almost) country. Sigh.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Anyhow...since I don't think a debate between city and country living is helping Mr. Sanborn a single bit........and was not what he even -asked- about......


I do think you should visit here before you make the choice to come out here...that said...for the Magic aspect of things...it could be a good move.

 

[Chad Sanborn]

Anyhow...since I don't think a debate between city and country living is helping Mr. Sanborn a single bit........and was not what he even -asked- about......


I do think you should visit here before you make the choice to come out here...that said...for the Magic aspect of things...it could be a good move.

Hey! Exactly! I will be visiting before I decide to move.
Truth is, that my agent is finding me less and less work. That's the problem with a smaller town. You run out of audience pretty quick.
My girlfriend of 5 years left me about 5 months ago, and I just need a change of scenery.
A fresh start if you will.

Chad

 

[StraightEight]

My pal likes to say, LA is a rat race but that's because there's more cheese here. Go where the work is. See you soon!

 

[Big Man]

Maybe I over reacted, old buddy. I get very protective about my fair city.
I must say, having lived in Brooklyn for 18 years, in 3 different brownstones, where I had a back yard, and I could walk out my back door with my coffee and have breakfast beneath a canopy of trees, I really miss having that in the Bronx. I had the ideal combination of city and (almost) country. Sigh.

I don't blame you for being protective about your city, as I feel the same way about my little community. In my defense, I have visited NYC once (even if it was back in 1963) and had a good time there.

I have an interesting story about the "country vs. the city". My grandmother's sister left here (rural western NC) to live in New York City back about 1910. She was born in a one-room log cabin on a farm, and had never been more than 20 miles from home when she left. Sometime in the early 1950's she returned for a visit (the first time she came back home since leaving), and stayed several days with my grandmother. Great-aunt Mae said that she couldn't sleep because it was "too quite". She had become so acclimated to living in the city that returning to the country was unsettling to her.

 

[Big Man]

Hey! Exactly! I will be visiting before I decide to move.
Truth is, that my agent is finding me less and less work. That's the problem with a smaller town. You run out of audience pretty quick.
My girlfriend of 5 years left me about 5 months ago, and I just need a change of scenery.
A fresh start if you will.

Chad

Sorry to hear about your girlfriend. When we all met a year or so ago she seemed like a really sweet person.

If it's a change of scenery you want, why not move over to Saluda? I hear the folks in Polk county are easily amused, so finding a new audience there shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

[Hondo]

Asheville, NC to L.A.?

I would carefully listen to every one here before up rooting, you sound like a young fella, L.A. can mean different things to everyone, salary range, got employment ops ready? I grew up in Santa Ana, now live way up northern Calif, I could NEVER live in L.A. Visit "Yes!" Live! No!!! Again it means different things, ideas, I once got lost and ended up in Watts, (this was before Riots, I found my way out, no problem lol ) I like L.A. West Hollywood, Westwood, Ventura but...listen to advice, and good luck!

 

[59Lark]

I too apologize for overzealot comments.

Dear fedora loungers; my apologies , it is true , my children tell their friends that father grew up amish and he cant help it, last generation for lanterns and wood stoves, horses and studebakers. Wood stoves, two furnaces, hauling wood from the bush and two gardens double the size of most building lots. We got hydro in the 40s and but some old ways took a long time to die, we had the farm from 1802 to 1982. We were quaker stock from penns.

Dont ask my advice about big cities , i am not comfortable with that much humanity. Too many people reminds me of the stockyards, except that you cant use the electric prods on people, really. From now on, will only give advice from rural perspective only. 59Lark

 

[pretty faythe]

Apologies accepted! To each there own. If your not a local, you dont really get the real feal of the city.

Apologies to any residents of Vegas, but I find the place utterly disturbing.

Key to happiness in Los Angeles: live close to your job. It doesn't matter where the job is, there is a nice neighborhood within a 20 minute drive. Find it, own it.
The local traffic has a Balkanizing effect on LA. Friends in the north stay in the north. Friends behind the Orange Curtain stay...etc.

As much as possible you live your life in your neighborhood, so pick a good one. Otherwise, you will tax your sanity on the roadways and retreat from LA with a belly full of its worst attributes and utterly starved of its best.

*cough cough* apply to any city where people arent residents and hear only the neg or see only the tourist traps


Quote:
Originally Posted by StraightEight


Shockingly to those who haven't actually lived here, most of LA's 12 million people have other things on their minds besides gang wars, petty robberies, and dope

 

[KittyT]

If you like taxes, then come to Seattle, you'll LUV it! We have a brand new one, 20 cents per bag. Watch out for the bike riders though.

Yes, except that WA has no state income tax, and the cost of living is lower than many other metropolitan areas, while salaries still remain relatively high.

 

[KittyT]

Well I certainly thank God I don't live in the city. I like being someplace where I can essentially go hiking when I step out the back door, where I can shoot my gun in the backyard and where we can go a short distance and camp out.

But see, not all cities are like this. Sure, New York is, but if you go to Seattle for example, you have some rather glorious mountains for hiking and skiing within about a half hour drive (and Mt. Rainier hovering over you all the time, well, when you can see it through the clouds), you have the Puget Sound on your doorstep and the islands a short and inexpensive ferry ride away. You have the world's only temperate rainforest, the Olympic Mountains and the Dungeness Spit within a couple hour's trip.

Boston isn't great for this, but you do have rural areas within a 30 minute drive of the city, Vermont and New Hampshire close by, and the Berkshires within 2 hours.

The point being here is that it's possible to live someplace where you have access to both the convenience and culture of a city, and the natural landscape around you. For some of us who love cities AND the natural world, having hiking nearby at 30 minutes instead of 5 is a compromise we find reasonable.

 

[SweetieStarr]

When is the big vay-cay? You have to check out Hollywood, obviously. The Formosa Cafe in W. Hollywood used to be a HUGE star hangout. Of course, there are a ton of other places.

As far as living, it depends if you want to be closer to the beach or more "big city." Some areas have more traffic than others, although all of LA has traffic.

 

[Idledame]

I second whoever said live near your job. Even if you can get a bigger place an hour away! There are great neighborhoods no matter what part of the city you're in. There are even still areas that are rural: for years I had horses, chickens, ducks just a couple of miles from the beach, and 15 minutes from what was, at the time the biggest Mall in the U.S. From most places in L.A. you're just a couple of hours or less from the beach, the desert, or snowy mountains in winter. Traffic is a pain, but you're young, you will probably get used to it quickly. For things to do, places to go, people to see, L.A.'s got it. There are a lot of Loungers in the L.A. area, we're spread out, but driving an hour or so is no big deal.