Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Porter Ranch, Granada Hills (Los Angeles, Santa Ana: crime rate, houses)

[Ritu Season]

To residents of these neighborhoods: What do you like best? What is best avoided? We are relocating to L.A., and are still deciding on a neighborhood. All comments/suggestions are valued. Thanks much!

[Fleet]

What I like best in my area:

-Weather (out of the smog zone, which is farther east). It does get hot in the summer, average July max. is about 93 degrees, but almost all buildings have A/C. Summer nights usually go below 70 degrees so opening a window can bring in cool air. Mild winters; snow is extremely rare.
- Wide streets; usually not crowded
- Big parking lots
- Not too crowded compared to some other areas like Hollywood or downtown LA
- No parking meters on streets
- Santa Ana winds (don't like the fire danger associated with the winds but that only lasts from Sept-Nov.
- Scenery, hills, mountains to the north

What I don't like in my area:

- Overdevelopment. I remember several places in the 1980s which were open fields and rolling hills which are now completely gone, replaced by buildings, houses, parking lots, etc.
- Cost of living. Homes are expensive as are some stores
- As is true with most of the Los Angeles area, relatively little rain. Average per year is about 15"; something like 20-25" per year would be nice

Overall, for me, more advantages than disadvantages.

[Charles]

Those four areas are all in the CIty of Los Angeles but enjoy periphery status in that they have the lowest of the crime rates, lowest amount of undesireable activities such as gangs and grafitti and mostly decent to very good schools.
Porter Ranch and Granada Hills can get breezy
Woodland Hills can get hot (but actually all of them get pretty hot in August)
Tarzana is completely built out but closest to jobs in LA.
You can catch a metrolink in Northridge pretty east from Granad Hills and Porter Ranch if your job was downtown.
The 118 is more modern and probably smoother and faster than the horrible 101.

Usually it is important to know where you will be working because commuting is a big deal. So, if your job was on the south side of the valley then WH and Tarzana (and Calabasas and West Hills and even the Conejo Valley) would be places to consider. If it is on the north side, then PR, GH, Chatsworth or even Simi, Moorpark, and Santa Clarita are places to consider.

[socalmommie]

Originally Posted by Ritu Season

To residents of these neighborhoods: What do you like best? What is best avoided? We are relocating to L.A., and are still deciding on a neighborhood. All comments/suggestions are valued. Thanks much!

You've gotten a lot of good information so far, but here are my two cents:


WOODLAND HILLS
I lived here for several years & loved it - it has grown in stature & now has many wonderful dining options as well as a greatly expanded mall... suburbia with the benefits of city proximity. Property values also stay pretty strong, because they have some of the best public schools in the L.A. school district - especially the neighborhoods that feed into El Camino High School.

If you're considering Woodland Hills, though, I would also take a look at the adjacent West Hills - it extends to the north and west, you get slightly more for your money & still have the proximity to all the restaurants, etc.

In general, both of the above are fairly safe, although I would lock your doors at night & not leave valuable unattended at any time. Even in my former neighborhood, which was very safe, we experienced a burglary attempt and our neighbors across the street had their laptop stolen from their car.

TARZANA
As you travel further east on the 101, the more of a city feel you will get in these suburbs. Tarzana has beautiful neighborhoods south of the Blvd (Ventura Blvd, to be exact, and in this part of town that is "the" place to be, although there are many nice pockets north of the Blvd as well, especially around Victory).

This is not my favorite part of the Valley - it seems almost like a pass-through on your way to Encino - but that's probably just because I was always passing through!!

PORTER RANCH
A planned community with mostly newer homes, it's a beautiful & clean community, but it doesn't have nearly as many unique dining/shopping options as you'll find on the south end of the Valley... the Northridge mall, however, is being revamped and is much nicer... after all, they just opened a Yard House!!

GRANADA HILLS
I have very little input here - I'll leave this to the experts who know this area best.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by socalmommie

PORTER RANCH
A planned community with mostly newer homes,

Porter Ranch has been around almost 50 years.

I remember a statue of a man (Mr Porter?) on the corner of Devonshire and Tampa, not there anymore. I tried really hard to find a photo on google and elsewhere of that statue but I had no luck.

[socalmommie]

Interesting info, Charles! When I think of Porter Ranch, I think of S&S Homes & the tracts that have all been built north of Rinaldi. But now that I think of it, the neighborhoods further north off Tampa & Reseda all look a little older - are those perhaps part of the original Porter Ranch community? A photo would have been great, though!

I used to have old pics of my Woodland Hills neighborhood (Walnut Acres) from the 40s where people are riding horseback down Woodlake.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by socalmommie

Interesting info, Charles! When I think of Porter Ranch, I think of S&S Homes & the tracts that have all been built north of Rinaldi. But now that I think of it, the neighborhoods further north off Tampa & Reseda all look a little older - are those perhaps part of the original Porter Ranch community? A photo would have been great, though!

I used to have old pics of my Woodland Hills neighborhood (Walnut Acres) from the 40s where people are riding horseback down Woodlake.

Yep, Walnut acres. I know it. I used to play football with Roy Agee and I worked with Dave Cameron who were from there. Roy would be about my age early 50s and Dave would be 70 or so, just guessing.

[JG-WLA]

Originally Posted by Ritu Season

To residents of these neighborhoods: What do you like best? What is best avoided? We are relocating to L.A., and are still deciding on a neighborhood. All comments/suggestions are valued. Thanks much!

I would suggest Woodland Hills and Porter Ranch. All of them are pretty good
neighborhoods including Tarzana but there has been lots of robbery incidents due to
such nice houses around the area. Granada Hills is nice as well and very homey. But
the best place to live in would be Woodland Hills and Porter Ranch, which has low
crime rate and good schools.