Crime in your area?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

My car got broken into last week. Second time in 12 months.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

My car got broken into last week. Second time in 12 months.

What about hit and runs? From what I have read it sounds like a real nightmare on LA roads. Im more of a walker myself.

Yeah, hit and runs are bad here. Not to sound racist, but there are a LOT of illegal immigrants around LA driving cars without licenses or insurance. If you're going to drive here, you def want uninsured motorist protection, and you definitely want to assume that cars will hit you when you try crossing the street.

What part of SoCal do you live in, Moderate? Do you have a nice car?

I live in Encino, a fairly affluent, heavily Jewish town in "the valley." My apartment has a gated underground parking lot, but management left the gate open for a week last month when they changed gate code. That's when my car was broken into. The earlier incident happened in Van Nuys on a road lacking street lights.

My car isn't that nice -- it's a 2005 Honda Civic. I don't usually keep a lot of things in my car (and I keep my trunk locked), so the theft was limited to a pair of old Ray Bans I left on the dash, a canister of my pre-workout supplement (I'd assume the thief knew what it was, because it's expensive to buy and holds 0 value for 90 percent of the population) and sadly, my Nintendo 3DS that I stuffed in the glove box after I took my car in for servicing a week prior.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Also, LA traffic and driving habits are terrible. I always assume the drivers around me are going to F up in some manner. Also you must watch out for the freeway trash. Random sh**t just tends to pop out at you on the freeways there. There is a price to be paid for living in SoCal.

I work from home. If I had to commute to LA every day at a time even close to rush hour, there's no way I could do it.

Oh, I know Silverlake is totally gentrified. I was just wondering whether the area south/south east of Hollywood, sort of between it and Koreatown was gentrifying yet.

Also Napoleon, you should look into Pasadena. It gets a little warmer in the summer (average high in the upper 80's with no humidity), and it also gets smoggier than the basin (but so does the valley). Downtown Pasadena is a exciting place to be though, and will be cheaper than other gentrified places in LA. Also, the apartments are newer and nicer there.

When I arrived in Los Angeles for the first time, I picked up a rental car at LAX and drove to my friend's apartment in Pasadena. The street was entirely blocked off. I parked on a side street, and inquired what was going on. Turns out a dude was shot in broad daylight right in front of the apartment complex.

Uh... but old town Pasadena is nice!

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I can afford almost anything...Silver Lake caught my interest more than anywhere else and when/if I decide to settle down, I would probably move a little north to Los Feliz. I guess that's fairly common. The problem with Pasadena for me is I would end up driving too often.

I think you'll be quite happy there. Silver Lake has a really great vibe to it. If I had to choose between West Hollywood and Silver Lake, I'd choose the latter -- nicer people and less meth.