Koreatown (Los Angeles: 2013, apartments, neighborhood)

[vic the trader]

any downsides?

looks like the best place for someone with normal income to move 2

[rheasingh7]

parking is not great and it's surrounded by sketchy areas but yes, it's fine

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by vic the trader

normal income

Wonder what that really means in CA?!

[yamota]

It's okay enough in the daytime but I'd be careful walking around at night if I was you

[415_s2k]

I lived there for two years, I walked around at night frequently (I'm a night owl) and only had two negative experiences:

1) saw a guy getting mugged; hailed police car; police car drove away; police car went around the block, came back; hailed it again; police put lights on me, pulled their guns, ordered me to my knees, knocked me over, cuffed me, threw me against the cruiser, patted me down, then sat me against the curb, asked me why I flagged them down; told them it was because I saw a guy getting mugged; they asked "how I knew he was getting mugged" and told them a group of guys got out of a car, started beating him and demanding their money; they uncuffed me and drove off.

This was just before the Rampart Division scandal broke, and my part of Koreatown was patrolled by Rampart Division, so it's no surprise.

2) a latin guy told me to "get out of his neighborhood" (I'm white, I lived in the same neighborhood) from across the street and threatened to mess me up if he saw me back around there again. He had two buddies who were sitting there laughing as he did so. I was going to the store and bought some Raid because we'd been having ants lately, and on the way back, he saw me and started to run across the street towards me, so I sprayed Raid in his face. He was pretty drunk. His friends were laughing at him and calling him names as he stumbled back to the curb screaming "I'M BLIND!"

Keep in mind that I went on nightly strolls pretty much every night for 2 years; I really doubt that you'll have any weird/unpleasant happenings like this if you're slightly less nocturnal than I.

As someone else noted, yes, parking in K-town is epic awful. I can't imagine a more miserable place to find parking at night. The shopping districts are a-okay, but the residential parts are horrific. There were nights where I drove around for an hour or more after midnight looking for a space, only to give up and park a few blocks away on 3rd street or Beverly, where I'd have to move my car by 7am. Then two days a week you have street cleaning, and the process of shuffling cars around is awful... a lot of families in the area will actually keep a beat-up car on the street to use as a blocker to ensure they get a space when they get home, and this means that you have about 1/4 to 1/3rd less parking than you should in the first place. Ugh.

On the upsides...

1) excellent dining options for Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mexican food in the immediate area. I can specifically recommend Mi Jo Ri, a Japanese-Korean restaurant on 3rd Street. There's a good Bangladeshi place on Vermont a block south of Beverly that's open really late and super-cheap.

2) excellent grocery shopping in the area, due in part to California Supermarkets 1 (Western) and 2 Beverly), and HK Super on Western - California is Korean-owned, the one on Western is mostly Asian goods and the one on Beverly is mostly Latin, and HK Super is Asian. Wicked cheap prices on practically everything, especially produce.

3) more pool halls than you could possibly ever need, so if you go into a pool hall, make a scene, use the pool cue against the bouncer and leave threatening to kill anyone who comes after you, you can safely avoid having the cops called on you at a later date by simply going to a different one around the corner.

4) interesting architecture. A lot of the places there were built prewar and were actually somewhat grand in their day to accomodate the early Hollywood set. The parqued floors in our 1-bedroom were stunning!

[King0fthehill]

...Don't let anybody tell you that anything east of Vermont is "Koreatown."

[Adrien Lee]

Do you believe that Soot Bull Jeep is the best restaurant?

Koreatown: The Hottest Neighborhood in Los Angeles - Bloomberg

“Soot Bull Jeep for authentic, country campfire-style Korean barbecue. The kalbi is the classic beef dish, and the octopus is great, too. You must accompany the meal with beer. Entrees from $10.

[I_Love_LA]

I Love Kimchee!

[ka8]

You will find $1500 apt next to $800 apartments. Major plus of ktown is its location. Oh yea ktown is notorious for loud mexican musics on weekends. It's expensive for what it is, very crowded, dirty, but it's slowly changing.

[ImtheBrilliantest]

The bad things about ktown is that you shouldn't walk around at night (which is common sense) and parking is just ridiculously bad. It might just be me, but I think ktown has some of the worst drivers ever going through there.