USC student -- live in Glendale? (San Fernando: apartment, lease, low crime)

[am24]

My dad has recently let me know that he can't afford to pay monthly rent for me to stay in my house near campus once our lease ends in July. He owns an apartment in Glendale that he wants me to live in (alone), and I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about the area? It's on Acacia, which MapQuest tells me is near the intersection of Brand and Chevy Chase (not too far from the Glendale Galleria).
I've only been there once (last week, so he could show me the inside), and the apartment was pretty average, nothing great at all...actually, the whole area felt a little dirty.

I guess my biggest concerns are:
1) I run a lot (in the AM)...is the area safe-ish enough for that? (20 year old, weak female here)
2) The commute to school is going to be hell, right?
3) Safety -- If anyone knows anything about the USC area, I currently live in an house with my friends on 30th. This question may be naive, but I'll risk it: is the Glendale area I'm being banished to next year better/worse/the same compared to where I am now?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

[wvdevindavis]

I can't imagine the Galleria area being a bad area at all. You could run
just in the mall vicinity and I'm sure you'd be fine.

And if you're up to riding the bus, the 92 to the 200 wouldn't be terrible (30-60 minutes according to the website).
Or if you avoid the interstate and hop on San Fernando until it hits Broadway
, and weave through downtown, you may be able to cut some time off.

If you've got any days off, try spending the night up there and trying to drive down when you've got class as a trial run and see what kinda traffic there's going to be.

[UB50]

I can't think of where the Chevy Chase/Brand intersection is, off hand... Brand is not bad at all. You can run there. If you check the FBI crime statistics, you'll find Glendale is very low crime. I think it ranked as the 30th safest city last year.

You might be able to take Metrolink to USC. The Glendale station is near the train tracks near Costco. You would have to switch trains at Union Station but that would cut your entire drive out. Otherwise, if you stay off the freeways, it's easy to get to USC.

I believe there is a little tiny pocket of gang activity close to the 2 freeway. I read about it in the newspaper recently because they made a lot of arrests on a certain street. As long as you aren't living close to there (or running near there) Glendale is extremely safe.