Are there any negatives to living in Santa Monica?

[Cinema Cat]

Originally Posted by djmanu

The weather ... especially in the spring is awful, do you really want to live in a place where it's cloudy like London in June ?

Santa Monica's cloudy days are a feature, not a bug. I like its cloudy days. Wish it were cloudy all year round.

[cornblitz]

SM is a delightful place to live, as long as you aren't in the middle of the tourist zone.

[MrIndependent]

Overall - Santa Monica is a very nice place. It is quite pedestrian and bicycle-friendly. The expo metro rail connects it with the rest of LA. The bus system is great too.

There are tremendous amounts of mature tech companies, early-stage startups and VC firms in a relatively small-ish municipality. If that is your scene, Santa Monica is easily one of the best in the nation for that.

The most interesting areas of Santa Monica is NW of Wilshire Blvd or SE of Pico Blvd.

Downtown Santa Monica is ok. It can at times feel overran with tourists walking from the Pier and hanging out on the Promenade. It's deteriorated in the past 2 years due to increasing numbers of homeless. The situation is not as bad as some parts of LA (there are no tent cities for example), but it's nonetheless a frustrating problem.

If you prefer 80 something degrees and sunny, there are other areas in LA you should consider first. Santa Monica is usually 60s or 70s as the high temp for the day, year long. 80s or low 90s will happen occasionally in August or September, but that's the exception not the rule. Marine layer fog is quite common in the morning up until around noon.

Santa Monica is very expensive. One of the most expensive areas to live in LA. If you don't have the money, you will struggle here. Really need to be making at least $60,000/year with no major debt to be able to reasonably keep your head above water in Santa Monica. Assumes you're a renter (forget about homeownership). Below that 60k salary and you'll be uncomfortably tight financially.