From West LA to West Adams 90016 (culture shock) (Los Angeles, Glendale: real estate, apartment)

[ThrasherLA]

Moved out of my west LA apartment and purchased a home in West Adams 90016. The location is prime, and in 2 years my property value has increased over 300k (after I put in about 100k in renovations).

But South LA is a different world fam. I love how I can walk to the metro and am central to DTLA, west side, and Hollywood. Homes getting renovated and flipped left and right. We even got hip new restaurants like Alta and Highly Likely coming in.

But **** gets crazy here. Three homicide shootings in three months. Gang tags everywhere on garage doors that pop right back up even after 311 paints over them. Kids in muscle cars peeling out down residential streets. Ppl leave their trash on the sidewalk for months. Every weekend there’s a Party so loud you can hear the band from blocks away. Drivers in the hood are aggressive as ****. Ppl lighting off m80s at 2am on weekdays and the entire month of August. Guard dogs howling all night.

If you gonna be a gentrifier, know what you’re getting into.

[pwright1]

My experience living on the west side: Way too much traffic. Agressive drivers always laying on the horn. My car side window broken twice. Homeless living under the 405 and other nooks and crannies. Nasty library with constant homeless problem. Pedestrian unfriendly gigantic main streets. Never liked taking walks. Homeless sleeping on bus stop benches. Gang graffiti. Dog crap everywhere. Constant ambulance and firetruck noise since I lived near a nursing home. Comforter stolen out the dryer at a laundromat on Santa Monica Blvd. Too many gas stations and carwashes. Sometimes I would walk to Vons but now they tore that down and after a few years, still an empty lot. Uninteresting architecturally. Way too many teardowns with bland new. I found the west side to be the most pedestrian unfriendly, car centric bland part of LA. Now I see more bland new apts are going up along Santa Monica Blvd which means even more gridlock traffic. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

3rd Street Promenade is nice.

Parking is not fun anywhere in the LA area. Then again I live in Oxnard and pay parking has not hit in this area yet.

The one thing I don't understand about LA is the removal of driving lanes on the roads. The city is packed with cars and someone in Los Angeles has the bright idea to take away extra lanes? We are adding lanes in Oxnard. Makes things smoother when you want to drive somewhere.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by ThrasherLA

Moved out of my west LA apartment and purchased a home in West Adams 90016. The location is prime, and in 2 years my property value has increased over 300k (after I put in about 100k in renovations).

But South LA is a different world fam. I love how I can walk to the metro and am central to DTLA, west side, and Hollywood. Homes getting renovated and flipped left and right. We even got hip new restaurants like Alta and Highly Likely coming in.

But **** gets crazy here. Three homicide shootings in three months. Gang tags everywhere on garage doors that pop right back up even after 311 paints over them. Kids in muscle cars peeling out down residential streets. Ppl leave their trash on the sidewalk for months. Every weekend there’s a Party so loud you can hear the band from blocks away. Drivers in the hood are aggressive as ****. Ppl lighting off m80s at 2am on weekdays and the entire month of August. Guard dogs howling all night.

If you gonna be a gentrifier, know what you’re getting into.

“Move to South L.A they said , it’ll be fun they said ...”

I think people do sometimes not take everything into account about a neighborhood. Plus real estate agents can’t really comment much about a neighborhood. It also seems politically incorrect to talk about certain neighborhoods in certain ways even if shootings are going on a regular basis .

It’s interesting you say the location is prime , but it doesn’t sound prime with the gang tags and shootings .
Are you thinking of selling and moving?

Gentrification happens pretty slow in reality . Also I notice people sometimes consider it gentrification when prices go up but in a market like L.A prices can go up even if the neighborhood hasn’t really improved .

In other cities crime and stuff actually has to go down.

[sean1the1]

Originally Posted by ThrasherLA

Moved out of my west LA apartment and purchased a home in West Adams 90016. The location is prime, and in 2 years my property value has increased over 300k (after I put in about 100k in renovations).

But South LA is a different world fam. I love how I can walk to the metro and am central to DTLA, west side, and Hollywood. Homes getting renovated and flipped left and right. We even got hip new restaurants like Alta and Highly Likely coming in.

But **** gets crazy here. Three homicide shootings in three months. Gang tags everywhere on garage doors that pop right back up even after 311 paints over them. Kids in muscle cars peeling out down residential streets. Ppl leave their trash on the sidewalk for months. Every weekend there’s a Party so loud you can hear the band from blocks away. Drivers in the hood are aggressive as ****. Ppl lighting off m80s at 2am on weekdays and the entire month of August. Guard dogs howling all night.

If you gonna be a gentrifier, know what you’re getting into.

I think South LA is good bet the West Side is only getting more expensive, and crime for a rough part of town compared to nationwide is actually very low it's astounding how low crime is in LA compared to a city like Chicago. I would think moving to the south side one would be very weary of this, and I see it as up and coming and for some reason has way less homeless than the westside for some reason. Congrats on the equity, and I wish you the best.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by pwright1

My experience living on the west side: Way too much traffic. Agressive drivers always laying on the horn. My car side window broken twice. Homeless living under the 405 and other nooks and crannies. Nasty library with constant homeless problem. Pedestrian unfriendly gigantic main streets. Never liked taking walks. Homeless sleeping on bus stop benches. Gang graffiti. Dog crap everywhere. Constant ambulance and firetruck noise since I lived near a nursing home. Comforter stolen out the dryer at a laundromat on Santa Monica Blvd. Too many gas stations and carwashes. Sometimes I would walk to Vons but now they tore that down and after a few years, still an empty lot. Uninteresting architecturally. Way too many teardowns with bland new. I found the west side to be the most pedestrian unfriendly, car centric bland part of LA. Now I see more bland new apts are going up along Santa Monica Blvd which means even more gridlock traffic. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Yeah I definitely notice the aggressive drivers and horn honking when I go back to the westside .
Don’t notice that as much in the valley ,

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by sean1the1

I think South LA is good bet the West Side is only getting more expensive, and crime for a rough part of town compared to nationwide is actually very low it's astounding how low crime is in LA compared to a city like Chicago. I would think moving to the south side one would be very weary of this, and I see it as up and coming and for some reason has way less homeless than the westside for some reason. Congrats on the equity, and I wish you the best.

One thing is south la prices came down hard last downturn versus the westside . Like 50 percent drops from the high .
Of course things might be different next time but something to keep in mind .

If one is planning to live there a long time like 20 years it probably won’t matter much but if planning to buy and cash out in a few years could be a risky move .

[Finper]

Originally Posted by pwright1

My experience living on the west side: Way too much traffic. Agressive drivers always laying on the horn. My car side window broken twice. Homeless living under the 405 and other nooks and crannies. Nasty library with constant homeless problem. Pedestrian unfriendly gigantic main streets. Never liked taking walks. Homeless sleeping on bus stop benches. Gang graffiti. Dog crap everywhere. Constant ambulance and firetruck noise since I lived near a nursing home. Comforter stolen out the dryer at a laundromat on Santa Monica Blvd. Too many gas stations and carwashes. Sometimes I would walk to Vons but now they tore that down and after a few years, still an empty lot. Uninteresting architecturally. Way too many teardowns with bland new. I found the west side to be the most pedestrian unfriendly, car centric bland part of LA. Now I see more bland new apts are going up along Santa Monica Blvd which means even more gridlock traffic. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Are you sure that's all dog crap??? I will never understand how people live in LA. There's traffic jams at 11pm! The homeless everywhere cars and people everywhere. Everything's a struggle. 2000 for a one bdrm apt. Wtf is going on there??? Like SF this is unsustainable something's going to snap

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Originally Posted by pwright1

My experience living on the west side: Way too much traffic. Agressive drivers always laying on the horn. My car side window broken twice. Homeless living under the 405 and other nooks and crannies. Nasty library with constant homeless problem. Pedestrian unfriendly gigantic main streets. Never liked taking walks. Homeless sleeping on bus stop benches. Gang graffiti. Dog crap everywhere. Constant ambulance and firetruck noise since I lived near a nursing home. Comforter stolen out the dryer at a laundromat on Santa Monica Blvd. Too many gas stations and carwashes. Sometimes I would walk to Vons but now they tore that down and after a few years, still an empty lot. Uninteresting architecturally. Way too many teardowns with bland new. I found the west side to be the most pedestrian unfriendly, car centric bland part of LA. Now I see more bland new apts are going up along Santa Monica Blvd which means even more gridlock traffic. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

Was it the laundromat on SM and Westgate?

[LA Fan]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Yeah I definitely notice the aggressive drivers and horn honking when I go back to the westside .
Don’t notice that as much in the valley ,

Are you serious, I grew up in south central LA, drivers in the San Fernando Valley are far more rude and aggressive than anything I’ve experience in south central LA. The SFV was like this back in the late 1980’s, and its worst now. The southern parts of the valley is the worst, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, and then there is Glendale.

All of these areas are well to do communities, and many of these people are driving around in BMV’s, and Mercedes. Lots of rude and aggressive, horn happy people where I live.