I moved here (Culver) from Florida 3 years ago and I love it. The critiques people launch are generally true, but also avoidable.

The easiest way to love LA is simple. Move here, sublet til you find a job, then move into an apartment < 10 minutes from your job. (Or, if that's not doable, try to move opposite the flow of traffic.)

Moving here, picking a place, and then finding out that you have a 90 minute commute is just a recipe for hatred.

As far as the people -- Yes. There are a lot of self-serving actors, actresses, directors, etc. But there are 9.9 million people in this town, which means that even if the people you are inclined to like are a minority, there are hundreds of thousands of them. And the neat thing is, when they find you (and you them), you'll appreciate each other even more.

Thanks for sharing a positive viewpoint. But this doesn't seem sustainable. Your job will eventually change, and since LA isn't a nuclear city at all, you may now have a much longer commute. And what if your friends are in other neighborhoods? Or you want to go to an event across town? I've also heard the schools in LA proper are pretty terrible, so if you want to have a family you need to go to outer suburbs which implies long commutes. Could you counter my concerns about this?

It's really a shame that LA ended up so poorly designed; it's in such a beautiful setting and has one of the best climates in the world.

I can't speak to the kids/school aspect at all, however I'm not sure that subscribe to the "LA isn't a nuclear city at al" idea.

It's not that LA isn't a nuclear city, it's just that LA is 5 nuclear cities all within a (traffic free) 30 minute drive of one another. So the problem is when people want to live in one city and work in another.

There are more than enough (schools, companies,etc) within any one 'LA' to restrict your search to that and not be missing out on a golden opportunity.

As far as the friends thing, that's true too, but like another commenter pointed out, they start to become long distance friends, so you make it a point to go hang out with them, and you just end up socializing more with friends in your neighborhood, which is natural because when you go out, you meet people who live near you, more often than not.

There are plenty of jobs in the outer suburbs. Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills all have plenty of businesses based there. Many of which are technology related. Same goes for Pasadena, Irvine, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, etc. So yeah, your job may change, but so can where you live.

Not only do I have friends in other neighborhoods but I have friends in other cities, states, and countries. Some I see more often than others. We're still friends.

If I want to go to an event across town I plan accordingly.

LA has good schools and bad schools just like any other city.

> There are a lot of self-serving actors, actresses, directors, etc.

Talking to people from NYC, I frequently hear comments about how nice people in LA are. I think the gist of it is that people in 'the industry' have a serious need to network in order to find new work, since projects come and go. So unlike in NYC, where random strangers have nothing to offer you, here every burned bridge is potentially a career-killing blunder down the road.

Very true regarding living near where you work or commuting against traffic. I did the latter and then worked from home after I stopped commuting and both contributed immensely to quality of life. Though I suspect that to be true anywhere.