well i grew up here. lived in the bay area for about 5 years .
went to UCLA. live here again , work in what is becoming "silicon beach" because there are a lot of startups discovering that some geeks actually like the sun, gorgeous women and nightlift in west LA / santa monica.
That said here is LA for you.
if you live east of the downtown LA its pretty much a lot of mexicans, fobby asians . north east of LA isl ike where every porn movie is shot and the san fernando valley. i've been out there a few times and well it sucks.
north west of LA is places like oxnard. my cousin works there and hates it so much that he rents 2 apartments. one for friday saturday and sunday. i'm serious, he just rented an apartment in west LA just for the weekend.
i grew up in the "southbay" which is just north of long beach and just south of inglewood / compton areas. its probably the most mixed area in socal and very middle classy. but its not all one race like say orange county. lets just say i'm biased but i think its the most well rounded part of LA county (i'm talking like torrance, gardena, redondo/hermosa beaches).
Anyway, it depends on what you are into. I lived in the bay area for a while near oakland across the bridge from SF. comparatively maybe theres a little more "Character" to some of the areas, but i tired of hte hippies and false intellectual wannabes. silicon valley is a cock fest with ugly women and nothing much to do at night. but if you like hiking and shit well apparently its a nice place to be (i dont really hike or mountain bike or any of that stuff so it means nothing to me).
one thing about LA at least in contrast to the bay area (and i tend to think you either love one or the other a lot) you don't get people who make snide but somewhat veiled comments about say how uncultured you are as much in LA. I've been told its a lot more like NY in this way where in LA we will just tell you you look like shit, are fat and need to get to the gym. LA is a lot more blunt. its like in the movie swingers. people here may notice you look broke ass and think you are aloser. they may tell this to you flat out. they will honk at you in traffic . sometimes justified other times not. but they are always going to be willing to honk at you.
LA on the other hand... if you are into and i have to say this. vegas level of clubs, basically the electronic dance music capital of the west coast and possibly america, unrivaled selection of restaurants to eat at, beaches to lounge at , etc. well LA s your place. all these things cost money. i've lived at various levels of the income spectrum since college and i'd say LA isn't really all that fun unless you make at least $50k. i'd say it gets really comfortable at 100... if you want to raise a family well make even more.
and the traffic is not so great, but i guess it depends on where you are from. compared to say portland, yes its horrible. compared to the bay area / sf, its i'd say slightly worse but its really not that much worse unless you happen to be a moron and live a billion miles from work becuase you HAD to buy a house and it was the only "affordable" place to buy one. so yeah if you fall into the real estate buying trap like 90% of socal had well you could have a self inflicted traffic problem. otherwise its not the end of the world. buy a nicer car, one with satelite radio. get an automatic transmission, work slightly offset hours. its fine.
but yeah, there is endless amounts of stuff to do here. i am not sure its the best city in the world to raise a family and there are definitely some ghetto ass areas (moreso than the bay area in my experience, but well LA is a really really really big place). I suppose LA is so big it has a lot of "range". theres some great great areas, great looking women, great places to be at night. on the other hand theres some shitholes, tons of fat and, i mean disgustingly fat people , and if you are broke its no fun. and we dont have an NFL team. oh well.
also that said, i am not sure the women in most cities even compare. when i was going to school compared to say a "hot girl" in the bay area, i every other girl walking down bruin walk at ucla would have been a "hot girl" in SF. possibly more than every other girl.
so yeah, LA if you can figure out how to make it work for you CAN be awesome. you probalby want to be an extrovert. you probably want a nice car. you better like partying.
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