Best Walkable, Safe, and Affordable neighborhoods in LA?

[jd3189]

Hey everyone. Thought about posting this on Skybar, but felt it would gain more traffic and attention here. Mods, feel free to move it over there if you guys think otherwise.


So I’m about to finish residency and start my first attending physician job. I decided to stay with the same medical group that I did residency with in East LA but, unfortunately, I can’t live on campus anymore so I got to move out somewhere else within the next month or so.

I currently live in Boyle Heights and it’s alright. It’s apparently a high crime area based on the crime maps I have seen, but in the 3 years I’ve been here, it’s not too bad. It’s actually pretty convenient and relatively walkable. I usually walk to work and I’m only a few blocks away from a Metro station that can take me to DTLA and all the way to Santa Monica. I still drive but it’s more for leisure and errands rather than commuting.


Basically I wanted to know if there were any other places to consider moving to in the area that are relatively walkable, next to or along a metro line, somewhat affordable, and somewhat safe.


I thought about places along the Metro E line, which is near my job, such as remaining in Boyle Heights or going near USC, Crenshaw, Culver City, and Santa Monica. Also thought about Koreatown or East Hollywood. Pasadena or other neighborhoods in northeast LA like Highland Park are considerations.

I’m mainly looking for a studio or one bedroom apartment. Just trying to live below my means as I pay off my student loans and live decently on a doctor’s salary for now. I got no girlfriend at the moment and she probably wouldn’t live with me until I’m more established.

Hoping to get more input from the current LA forumers, but anyone can pitch in for tips on how to live well as a bachelor with a lot of debt lol.

[sopas ej]

This is kind of a cute place in South Pas; don't know how you feel about the price per month, though. Totally residential neighborhood but it's walking distance to the South Pas Farmers Market held every Thursday and to the Metro station too, plus all the shops and restaurants on Mission Street. There's the smaller Trader Joe's nearby as well. You'd probably prefer to drive to the supermarkets on Fair Oaks, though. It's also near Orange Grove Park.

https://www.apartments.com/815-orange-grove-pl-south-pasadena-ca-unit-815/crbjfrd/

I'm not sure what the parking situation is like, though. Me personally, when I was looking for a place, one of my requirements was on-site covered parking. Don't want my car's paint to oxidize and fade nor my headlights to turn cloudy yellow.

[destroycreate]

I'd go with Culver City or Koreatown (depending on the part, it's a big area). I love Pasadena and those areas on the east side, but let's be honest, they're quite far removed.

Culver City is extremely walkable, safe, and very pleasant. Very easy access to the nice areas of LA like BH, WeHo, mid-city, beaches, and getting to and from LAX a relative cinch. Also well connected with transit, you can take the metro all the way to DT Santa Monica which is a huge plus. But with a lot of tech companies based in that area, you're looking at premium rents (though the Palms neighborhood - I believe the densest district in LA - nearby is a very affordable choice, though all of the housing stock is straight from the 50s-70s, so a little dated looking).

Koreatown will have much more affordable rent, equally good access with metro (on May 8 you'll even be able to take the Purple line to Wilshire/La Cienega which is amazing, and in a year or two, downtown Beverly Hills). You also have access with the metro to DTLA and basically to much of the east/south side. Koreatown is super dense and walkable. It's not THE safest area of LA but definitely not particularly unsafe. I used to live on Wilshire/Hobart, and enjoyed it. The only complaint I had is it could be a bit dirty/unkempt. There are some tents and vagrants swarming around, but enough everyday workers/residents to mix it in and normalize the vibe somewhat. This is arguably going to be the most traditionally urban lifestyle neighborhood Los Angeles can offer. You're also smack dab in the center of LA, so you have relatively smooth access to much of the city by uber. The best benefit is access to tons of fantastic restaurants, nightlife, and everything is open late.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jd3189

I’m mainly looking for a studio or one bedroom apartment. Just trying to live below my means as I pay off my student loans and live decently on a doctor’s salary for now.

For serious "living below your means" dividends, consider replacing the "1" in the denominator of your rent equation with a crooked number.

It paid off huge for me!

[ChrisLA]

What is your budget? that would help but as you know everywhere is expensive in LA now days.
Here are my suggestions:

If I was still young and single, I would search in the area along Wilshire Blvd and just west of Highland and up to La Cienega Blvd. There's a mix of small older beautiful Spanish style apartments and newer more luxury ones. Personally, I would try to find one that has a washer/dryer in the unit. This would save so much time on keeping up with your laundry and maybe some change since laundromats are charging a lot to wash clothes.

Wilshire Blvd just west of Highland





Another area you mentioned was Crenshaw, maybe Leimert Park neighborhood. There as some nice Spanish style apartment in this neighborhood, and it's close and walkable to the K line, but if you're taking the train to work you would have to transfer to the E Line to head towards downtown and into Boyle Heights. Driving in the morning would be pretty bad heading towards downtown/Boyle Heights.

Typical looking apartments in Leimert Park, although they have built some luxury apartments along Crenshaw along with the train runs






North Hollywood specially the area around the subway is walkable and full of cafe's, theaters, clubs, and theaters and easy walk to the B Line to get downtown. But I suspect your profession will keep you very busy and you might not want to commute this far to Boyle Heights.

The area around USC seems like there are a lot of nice newer apartments. I like visiting the area from time to time because of the museums, rose garden, but I don't know about the safety of the area, and there are a lot of USC students. I also know it can get very congested because of all of the different entertainment/sporting events. But there is a nice little shopping village that opened a few years ago across from USC. It has a Trader Joe's, Target(City) and a number of places to dine and hang out. It's also close to the E line with easy access to Downtown and Santa Monica.

USC Village




Glendale, downtown and the surrounding neighborhood are walkable, and the area is quite bustling, but there is no train service other than the Metrolink so you would have to take the bus, but it's not really far from downtown LA. Again, traffic can be bad coming and going to downtown LA in the evening.

Last but not least, don't rule out downtown LA, especially the south park area. Nice new apartments, and you may find a decent studio. It seems. there are a lot more incentives right now to lease an apartment and I'm sure most of these units have washer/dryers and many would have plenty of amenities to entertain inside of the buildings even if you have a small studio apartment.

The San Fernando Valley along the Ventura corridor has some really nice and safe communities that are walkable. They are built for younger and single people with lots of apartments, but I think this would be too far for you to consider. Although if you ever decide to take a position in the valley, Sherman Oaks, Studio City would be my first choice and then Toluca Lake, Valley Village, on because these are further away from Ventura Blvd.

[LA21st]

I'll just limit to train station access off your post:

The area on Wilshire between La Brea and LaCienga would be my first choice now. Three new subway stops, very safe, close to many amenties, not far walk to the Grove/Farmes market from the subway, as is the Beverly Center. Alo short bus ride into West Hollywood.
This area is gonna be on the cusp of a large building boom and will become one of the most popular areas of LA. I don't think people are aware how game changing this will be. And the subway is going to Beverly Hills, Century City, UCLA next year.

Culver City and Palms, anything on the E Line going towards Santa Monica is all very safe and getting more transit oriented fast. Swatelle is sorta close to a light rail station, and thats a fun and walkable neighborhood, very popular with young people.
Palms is low key becoming of one of LA's densenst nodes, everything going up is like 7-8 stories and its adding up fast.

Noho is fine, but little further away. Los Feliz is fine, close to Griffith Park.

Little Tokyo/Arts District has its own subway station now.

South Park in downtown LA is baciallyLA's version of the South Loop in Chicago, almost to a t. Bunker Hill has a subway station now, but it's pretty boring. Safe, but boring.

As others have said,the A line headed into Pasadena, northeast la etc. Highland Park, South Pasadena.

Koreatown is fine, just dirtier than most la neigbhorhoods.I dont think it's unsafe. I lived there for a year.

USC area is chainging rapidly, not completely sure of safety lately but it def looks better than 10 years ago. Figueroa is building a little midrise streetwall that used to be fast food places.

As Chrisla said, Leimert Park is going to be a popular spot with it's new subway station. I think its taking longer there cause everything seems to be more in tranisiton there.

There really is a sea of change happening right now, it's just all flying under the radar. It's more in the "little steps" phase in some of these neighborhoods.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

I'd go with Culver City or Koreatown (depending on the part, it's a big area). I love Pasadena and those areas on the east side, but let's be honest, they're quite far removed.

Culver City is extremely walkable, safe, and very pleasant. Very easy access to the nice areas of LA like BH, WeHo, mid-city, beaches, and getting to and from LAX a relative cinch. Also well connected with transit, you can take the metro all the way to DT Santa Monica which is a huge plus. But with a lot of tech companies based in that area, you're looking at premium rents (though the Palms neighborhood - I believe the densest district in LA - nearby is a very affordable choice, though all of the housing stock is straight from the 50s-70s, so a little dated looking).

Koreatown will have much more affordable rent, equally good access with metro (on May 8 you'll even be able to take the Purple line to Wilshire/La Cienega which is amazing, and in a year or two, downtown Beverly Hills). You also have access with the metro to DTLA and basically to much of the east/south side. Koreatown is super dense and walkable. It's not THE safest area of LA but definitely not particularly unsafe. I used to live on Wilshire/Hobart, and enjoyed it. The only complaint I had is it could be a bit dirty/unkempt. There are some tents and vagrants swarming around, but enough everyday workers/residents to mix it in and normalize the vibe somewhat. This is arguably going to be the most traditionally urban lifestyle neighborhood Los Angeles can offer. You're also smack dab in the center of LA, so you have relatively smooth access to much of the city by uber. The best benefit is access to tons of fantastic restaurants, nightlife, and everything is open late.

Have you been to Palms lately? It's got tons of new construction. Some are old, but it's adding midrises like crazy.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

I'd go with Culver City or Koreatown (depending on the part, it's a big area). I love Pasadena and those areas on the east side, but let's be honest, they're quite far removed.

Culver City is extremely walkable, safe, and very pleasant. Very easy access to the nice areas of LA like BH, WeHo, mid-city, beaches, and getting to and from LAX a relative cinch. Also well connected with transit, you can take the metro all the way to DT Santa Monica which is a huge plus. But with a lot of tech companies based in that area, you're looking at premium rents (though the Palms neighborhood - I believe the densest district in LA - nearby is a very affordable choice, though all of the housing stock is straight from the 50s-70s, so a little dated looking).

Koreatown will have much more affordable rent, equally good access with metro (on May 8 you'll even be able to take the Purple line to Wilshire/La Cienega which is amazing, and in a year or two, downtown Beverly Hills). You also have access with the metro to DTLA and basically to much of the east/south side. Koreatown is super dense and walkable. It's not THE safest area of LA but definitely not particularly unsafe. I used to live on Wilshire/Hobart, and enjoyed it. The only complaint I had is it could be a bit dirty/unkempt. There are some tents and vagrants swarming around, but enough everyday workers/residents to mix it in and normalize the vibe somewhat. This is arguably going to be the most traditionally urban lifestyle neighborhood Los Angeles can offer. You're also smack dab in the center of LA, so you have relatively smooth access to much of the city by uber. The best benefit is access to tons of fantastic restaurants, nightlife, and everything is open late.

Palms is a good candidate, and the first I thought of. It's more affordable than Culver City, has it's own E Line station, and isn't far from CC. When I was in college, everyone told me to move into Palms (I ended up in Sawtelle/West LA). That said, Palms is not the densest area of Los Angeles:

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

For serious "living below your means" dividends, consider replacing the "1" in the denominator of your rent equation with a crooked number.

It paid off huge for me!

Nah, I’ve been doing that for over 10 years. I think I will be good alone this time around lol.


And a good amount of suggestions so far. I will consider Koreatown, Palms, Crenshaw/Leimert Park, South Park/ DTLA, Culver City, and Highland Park. Whichever place has good deals on studios and 1 bedroom apartments. I will let you guys know when I made my final decision.

But I guess one last requirement is if the neighborhood is far enough away from the freeways. I basically live inside a freeway loop and I don’t quite enjoy hearing cars speeding by at night lol.

[dktshb]

I lived in Hollywood for many years '97 to '13 and it was a great walkable neighborhood with access to the red line subway. Never used a car to go to movies, gym, grocery shopping, dinner, general shopping, etc. always walked through the side streets in the pleasant neighborhoods rather than the big blvds. I don't know what it would be like there now 13 years later. I am sure in some ways better and in some ways worse.