Great for young adults, terrible for families
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7/15/2019
LA is a great city for young people, but definitely not a great place to raise a family. In my area (Larchmont Village), a 2-bedroom apartment without basic appliances like a washer and dryer and a dishwasher, will cost you around $3,000 per month. You gotta do fluff n fold or head to the laundromat. Buying a house is out of the question. Even the ugliest, most run-down houses get purchased for over a million dollars. If I had a million dollars in my pocket I still wouldn't buy one.
Traffic here is a nightmare and the Metro transit system is somewhat helpful, but it smells like pee and there are countless homeless people in the subway stations. The homelessness around the entire city is really bad, but definitely worse in some areas compared to others. Lots of tents on the streets. The entire city is covered in graffiti and our gutters are littered with piles of trash. Definitely a filthy place to live (because of the number of people we have crammed into this city).
The public school system is definitely not top-notch, but it is OK for what it is. The kids get fed junk food for lunch everyday though. For a place that is all about juicing, avocados and kale, you'd think our kids would be fed better than pizza, burgers, fries and sugary juice everyday.
The only positives is that LA has a lot to do if you enjoy being indoors. Lots of shows to see, lots of movie theaters, lots of bars, lots of clubs, etc. The quality of life here, though, is very low. My husband and I enjoyed being born and raised here and had lots of fun in our 20s exploring the city together. Now that we have kids and we are starting our 30s, we feel like it's time to move away and find somewhere nice to settle down. Not a family-friendly city by any means. But if you're young and single and looking for the bright-lights, busy-city, lots-going-on type of big city, LA is great.
Jay | Los Angeles, CA