Moving to the San Fernando Valley - need advice (how much, better)

[Hungry For Cheese]

lol@ McMansions....
There is one on Parthenia just east of Corbin on the southside that someone turned into the mini white house...I mean it looks like an okay house, but the other houses are crappy old 1950 regular valley homes.

There is another on Tampa south of Parthenia I believe...same deal..huge columns.
It's funny because these kind of houses are typically, if not always, some foreigner from Europe.
Anyways the 405 use to divide the good/bad area...but not the bad is moving westward. So it is hit and miss. I live in a GREAT area that recently divided itself from Van Nuys...the west part. And now other areas are wanting to take advantage of our cities name....areas we don't like so much.

[jessemh431]

what city would that be?

and the ventura blvd thing does mainly apply to eastern areas because north hollywood is okay, not great, south of the blvd (i think) but horrible up north. i think thats what it is right? someone correct me if i'm wrong.

[Burbankhotty]

Work in Encino, live in Sherman Oaks. Ofcourse, with out a car, you might be able to afford a place in Encino.....stay away from Van Nuys, north hills.
I'm guessing your job will be near or on Ventura Blvd, anything near there is safe, and the bus runs right along there.
I can't stress enough the importance of commute time. It can make or break your day. The closer the better. And the closer to Ventura Blvd, the safer.
I think you'll like it alot-you done good.

[Burbankhotty]

Originally Posted by richie894

I looked at buying a house in the Lankersham/ Strathern St area of North Hollywood. I know this is a big hispanic area, but is it safe and an ok place to live?

No. Very depressed, and they got no sense of humor.

[jackals]

West Hills, Woodland Hills, in fact quite a few of the towns further out on the 101 are nice when traveling north of Ventura Blvd. I think this 'south of or close to the blvd.' rule applies further east, the closer you get to LA Proper, ie. Encino, Sherman Oaks, etc.

Originally Posted by matt345

Thanks for the info! So it sounds like a lot of these communities in the western SFV, although way north of Ventura Boulevard, are still okay places to live? I was just wondering because everyone always talks about staying "south of or close to the blvd" yet the vast majority of the Valley is north of it. Does the "south of the blvd" rule apply more to the central and eastern portions of the valley? Or would a better rule be to stay away from the middle of the Valley? BTW, I'm not planning on moving there, I just like to learn about new places

[matt345]

Originally Posted by jackals

West Hills, Woodland Hills, in fact quite a few of the towns further out on the 101 are nice when traveling north of Ventura Blvd. I think this 'south of or close to the blvd.' rule applies further east, the closer you get to LA Proper, ie. Encino, Sherman Oaks, etc.

Thanks for the info. I was just wondering because I've traveled north of Ventura Blvd in the West Valley and a lot of those places don't look too bad to me.

[9126ebk]

Rule of thumb, south of the blvd is the place to be or own property. Almost everyone on this forum make it seem like the rest of the valley is a scary place. There is LOTS of pockets of nice quite neighborhoods with nice normal people throughout the whole valley. There are allot of Hispanic gang members everywhere in the valley, but they prey on their own kind. Black gangs are not usually seen in the valley....anyways, what im trying to say is the valley is a much more safer place to be/live then most parts of LA.

[bdbearshark]

Ive basically grown up in Burbank which is pretty much safe, and now currently live in the Northridge, Granada hills area and it is pretty safe as well. it seems as you have all stated before that the middle of the valley is pretty much a bad area but anywhere on the outskirts seems to be pretty nice. Porter Ranch for example has a lot of higher end homes and is located North of the 118 near Tampa ave.

On another note, i have taken shortcuts through the valley from the 101 to northridge via the streets right through the central part of the valley. I have yet to run into a situation to where i have been threatened or any other sort of gang related scenario. I am not ignorant though, and to say the valley did not have gangs would be stupid. But in general i believe it is a lot safer than LA proper

[Equality in America]

Yes as close to Ventura Blvd. as possible. There's lots of racism going on here. Yes, the hispanics have ruined the Valley so stay as close to the fills South of Ventura as possible close to with the Whites.

Stop making generalizations, everyone in the valley is not affiliated with a gang, although no one directly said that you may as well have. Yes, ha, I am Hispanic also educated by the way. I have to say, I understand staying away from gangs etc., but stating "hispanic" anywhere in there makes you sound like a bigot. You will probably refute what I'm pointing out or you may not, you may want to still live in Southern California and believe there's still a place without Hispanics, have you looked up the Hispanic population in Southern California recently, based on your comments you probably have not. How about the children of these "Hispanics" guess some of them will opt to a higher education and will be and some already are those "execs" that live in the hills and in demand, overpriced homes, where will you run to then? Utah.....

[Tasksgirl]

Hispanics run San Fernando and that's an amazing city that's both safe and a well-run active community.