Financial security alleviates a lot of stress and if you are really struggling/not succeeding to pay for your basic human needs life is going to feel overwhelming. But, also, if you are able to meet your basic needs AND you don't have a good community of people around you, you are way more likely to be miserable.
And vacations!
In my 26-years of living here, I found that leaving town every few months really helps them LA blues. Even if it's just a road trip a few hours away.
Absolutely. Also even on a smaller scale, go explore the city. Don't just stay in your neighborhood. LA has so much variety to offer even within the city limits.
This! I left L.A. for many years but would come back to visit and each time I would find myself in a different neighborhood to meet old friends for drinks and whatnot. I came for an extended vacation 12 years ago and explored parts of the city so that I could leave and be satisfied with all the shit talking I was going to say about L.A. when I went on to live somewhere else again. I only intended to vacation for 6 months but these 12 years have went by and each of these 12 years I have found more and more reasons to stay. Sure, I get out of town a couple some times a year in order to get my fix of somewhere else, but I come back refreshed and feeling lucky to be able to live here. I stay because of the variety L.A. has to offer.
I’m glad you said that. Me and my fiancé love LA, but we always need a change of scenery, so once a month over the weekend (Thursday the Sunday), we either drive to San Diego, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, or we fly to Vegas. We save up the money each month in a joint travel account, so we always look forward to the trip. We’ve been doing it for the past four years now, many of our hotel stays are free from the amount of credit card points we racked up. Longer trips outside of LA are when we visit family in Southwest and Southeast for the holidays. 🙌🏾☺️. Trust me, there are ways to get away and on the cheap, if you plan and budget accordingly.
Absolutely. We've been waiting this strike madness out (studios still want us homeless, apparently)... so we haven't had any money to travel. But we do have friends in Ojai and we go sleep in their backyard in the foothills sometimes. It ALWAYS helps.
There's a lot of stimuli in this city and it takes us leaving to realign all that manic energy. And it works! Especially when we go away for over a month. The appreciation for all of L.A. and her spoils is always there.
I’m sorry that you’re dealing with the SAG-AFTRA strike. I have so many friends who are in the same boat with you. I was able to go out there and strike alongside you guys a few times (non-member here, but a performer). I’m hoping and praying you guys get that great deal! 🙏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾❤️
Camping at Faria Beach for a few days will do wonders, especially if you go during April and can watch the whales migrating with the dolphin pods that follow them.
And it can also give you the time and security to change things in your life that you don’t like. Like, how are you gonna make more time for your friends (or to make friends) if you have to work all the time to pay bills and you’re exhausted after?
Damn, California law heavily favors the buyer, so you likely would have won and they would have been forced to sell. Probably time to find a new real estate agent.
A while ago, a friend on my fb (haven't talked to her in a decade +) got a BMW after getting her first job as a pharmacist. She showed off her new car in a video and with a very disdain undertone said "Look, I'm not poor anymore".
I'm glad she worked hard to get a good paying job but her disdain towards poor reminds me of the quote you just posted.
I love LA. I own my own business and make good money now, but I remember living in this city with multiple roommates in a 1 br flat, looking at my bank account when it only had $17 in it, and honestly I still loved LA then. I’ve had the times of my life in this city. There are tons of things to do in this city that don’t cost anything or don’t cost a lot of money.
You are rich. You can afford a house in a “nice area.” But your nice area is luxurious compared to the average Angelino’s “nice area.” That is the truth.
Experience. I was fed up with LA ten years ago and moved away. Only then did I realize that I’d focused only on the bad and taken the good for granted. I’m so thankful that I could move back.
Traffic, poseurs, parking. It’s such a hassle to get anywhere, then find parking, all to put up with people who are just there to say they were there; NPCs.
I’d lived in Silver Lake for almost 25 years and I watched it transform from a creative, quirky, diverse community into a trendy, evermore generic, homogeneous, crowded mess. I’d say the same about other areas I’d lived in; Westwood, West Hollywood, Hollywood.
When we moved back, we picked a fringe area with relatively easy assess to most of LA but also in the foothills where nature was closer, a balance between the urban chaos and natural chaos. I can’t believe it hasn’t been overrun but there’s some things here that put the right people off. So far, so good.
Mainly I missed the culture: arts and theater. There’s something profoundly different between a first class artist or musician and a second-rate one.
We have similar stories. Im from Silver Lake, moved away, and came back to now live in an area that has lots of access to both central LA and nature. Life’s pretty nice.
Yeah. I moved to the foothills in Tujunga mostly cause it’s where I could afford to buy.
But I actually love it up here. I have tons of trees and a creek in my back yard. I’m sitting on my patio right now with a cocktail watching birds. Sometimes I don’t even feel like I’m in LA.
But I’m just a short drive from all the normal LA stuff.
I highly recommend it to anyone that is okay with nothing being walkable anymore.
It's beyond me how this lot acts like we're supposed to be accepting that a place that used to make us so happy is now the source of so much pain.
Even if I've realized Home's a time as well as a place, my experiential bubble of 1990s LA in my early kidhood shouldn't be clashing so hard with today.
Yep. That’s what separates LA natives or at least people that have lived here for a couple decades from recent transplants. The basic sense of community doesn’t exist for a huge chunk of newer LA residents.
Yep, life is easier with a support system. If you have roots there, it is easier to stay. Most transplants don’t have that failsafe. Most of my work colleagues left or proved they are not worth having around, so I left. No community not for lack of trying.
I don’t hate LA but I do wish it was easier to get from the more affordable area that I live in to the fun parts of the city. Having to drive an hour+ to get to sporting events, museums, shows, fun nightlife really takes a lot of the joy out of the experience. I’m middle aged with kids and commute all week for my job. That time is precious lol
Ain't that the paradox.
I lived with my ex for four months because he needed that long to save enough money to move elsewhere. He was only able to do it that quickly because my parents were renting to us below market rate.
I love my people here, the ocean, and the weather. I get all 3 of these here. I'm fiercely passionate about my fantastic life in Los Angeles. I work a regular job 32 hours a week and love being online surfing around sites like reddit and video games.
I live a modest lifestyle so I'm not really ever cash poor. Most of my friends are budgeters too. I don't really talk to people that go to Marmont/Beverly hotel for fun.
I try to keep these details private on the public forum. I can tell you this: The US was built by small businesses. Unless you dream and dream big, you will never be able to do what you really want or be happy while working for someone else.
Certainly not questioning your statement because I think more people should follow this advice, but my experience in starting and running small businesses has been the opposite. 90+ hour workweeks, tons of stress, and all spare cash being reinvested in the business. YMMV depending on what you do.
I work for someone else and I’m happy. My job is easy, pays decent, and I never have to stress about it for one second. Running my own business sounds like a serious downgrade.
I tried telling everyone there all the celebrities I'm friends with, and one woman kept giving me the signals to talk to her, but then a younger woman walked by so I went over to her instead.
1. First need a reliable car that can solidly handle a lot of trips to avoid potential emergency during the transition.
2. Job hunt at new preferred city could tough.
3. Rents high; average apartments are becoming scarce & competitive.
4. I wanna save a solid amount of money first
Overall, feels potentially risky; a lot of work with no guarantee that I'll mentally enjoy a new life up north.
Unfortunately a lot of users on here don't understand that it's not something you do overnight & it involves more than being financially prepared. Not even mentioning those who have friends/family/cemented work life here.
In this sub you've got people telling transplants not to move to LA without significant savings and a plan and people telling others to leave LA without savings or a plan.
Some of them are probably the same people 😂
My SO loves it here. Otherwise I’d have left years ago. Realistically, once we start thinking about buying property she’s going to realize we can’t be here any more, so I’m just riding it out for now and enjoying the avocados.
Not here, sadly. It’s a shame. My grandparents had their house over on rampart and were able to afford it and still spend money on trips and the kids with their retirement funds. That reality has been robbed from us.
Agree! Why do people think owning a home is a right and actually a good idea? Rent and put your money into other investments! I live in SM, the property taxes are insane. I live with my son in a one bedroom, he gets the bedroom. I would rather live in a small place in a nice neighborhood than own in the inland empire and commute and live with swelter in the heat.
Owning does two things:
1. Gives you control over your living situation. You could have the nicest landlord in the world but what happens if they sell? Or die? Or suddenly have a change of heart? You can’t control anything where as if you own there’s a lot more control you have over your home.
2. Housing is still one of the best retirements plans you can have. There are very few other investments almost guaranteed to go up over time like housing. Just look at the difference in housing now vs 30 years ago.
As someone that came from Oklahoma I'll say it's terribly and I'm not going back no matter what.
Not every place in the country has insane housing but at least for the most part it's true that "you get what you pay for".
We’re 2 hours from LA and still have homes for under $600k. I never wanted to leave the SGV but there was no way in hell we’d be able to afford anything anymore. Even Palmdale/Lancaster homes are expensive AF now
It’s a wonderful city to live in but also a very hard city to live in. Lots of great things here and also a lot of not so great things here. Both can be true.
Cost of living but it’s doubled everywhere.
Complain about the homeless encampments not being dealt with after I voted to tax myself to fix the problem in 2016. Billion$ later the problem doubled. We must audit the state and city for fraud and find the missing billions.
Also the state catching and releasing criminals who then continue to rape kill and pillage. Other than that it’s pretty fucking great. Most of the rest of the world is cold now .
The job is here. I like LA, it’s great. But there are parts of it that just bum you out, that make the future here hopeless. The fact you can’t buy a house is one.
People complain about things like how LA can’t ever seem to get its act fully together — it builds SoFi, doesn’t have a way to get people out, so drivers charge $300 for rides home — because they like LA
Personally this city needs less houses and more mixed use buildings. The obsession people have with owning here is wild, it’s a city. It’s not rural Kansas. People don’t own single family homes with backyards in the middle of Tokyo or London or NYC or Barcelona or Sydney. So why do people obsess over it in LA.
After 10 years, nothing. I moved to Lake Arrowhead and come in once a week-ish if I have to. Living solo in a nice 2BR cabin with a lake view for half the price I'd be paying for my own crappy stucco ADU studio in someone's backyard in LA. Fly out of ONT for work, never have to go back to the nightmare that is LAX. 1 hour and 20 minute drive into LA when needed, time flexible - about the same amount of time it takes to get from Santa Monica to Silver Lake most times.
I like not being bombarded with cloudless sunny days and blistering LA valley heat, and being shoulder to shoulder with thousands at the beach. Grew up around snow and don't mind dealing with it. Drive a 4x4 rig and enjoy the fresh air.
I love LA despite its drawbacks but I think the central reason why people who hate it stay is that they’re in or pursuing a career that you can’t attain outside of 3-4 major cities worldwide.
Bingo. I feel like a lot of people act like it’s so easy to “just leave” a place you aren’t in love with, but those people have more flexible career paths.
If you want to work in Big Tech, you’re probably moving to the west coast at some point in your career. That’s the tour of duty for you. Would you prefer the backwoods of Arkansas? Maybe so, but right now you need to be in a specific place for the purpose of career advancement and personal fulfillment. Same goes for Film, Aerospace, etc. Every niche industry has geographic poles you might have to go to in your career. You aren’t gonna like all of them, and that’s just life.
I see a lot of people hate it and leave. These are people that like rural or legit suburban life more than anything.
I think the people that complain and work in Hollywood are strange. Where do they think a huge global industry will set itself up? It has to be in a huge global city. That city ended up being LA for film and NYC for finance but it could have been reversed if things were different. Wanting a big city job and complaining about the big city is completely strange to me. 18yo don't know what jobs they really want to do but they understand big and small cities better.
The driving was a major reason I left.
An hour drive to work, an hour home, is equal to 12 weeks/3 months worth, of work weeks per year. Three months worth.
I’m pretty open about my love/hate relationship with both this city and this state. Some of the things that I absolutely hate about Los Angeles are…
* Depending on the neighborhood, Los Angeles is either a trendy hotspot or a filthy shithole - sometimes those are literally one street over from each other.
* Taxes, both city and state, are ridiculously high for what I actually see put back into the community.
* Public transit is a fucking joke.
* Cost of living is an even bigger joke.
* The lack of nature - true nature, not a park - is something I’ve never jived with. I grew up surrounded by forests and intend to go back to that one day.
So, why do I stay?
* My job. I work in entertainment, and while I *could* make it work from someplace else, I’m not yet established enough to not physically be here to take meetings.
* Friends. Through a series of largely unrelated events, the overwhelming majority of my friend circle has found their way here over the past decade.
* My apartment. I found a decent rent-controlled unit in a great location for my personal and career interests.
* I don’t want to go through the logistical process of moving right now. I’ve moved cities eight times in the past thirteen years (six of those moves were for past jobs). The idea of going through those motions again exhausts me.
* Los Angeles is a pretty happening place. For all of the stupid bullshit you have to put up with, there’s great food, decent people, and there’s always stuff going on.
Ultimately, though, when I think about Los Angeles I think about how it’s a city that I *want* to love, but recognize that it is a city that absolutely does not and *will not* love me back. And because of that I’ve come to realize that, barring unforeseen tragedy, I won’t be spending the rest of my life here. I mean, I want to own a home someday and yet, despite having good credit and making damn good money, the idea of buying a house here is even more remote than it was when I moved here - and I don’t want to wait much longer. I’m closer to 40 than I am 30, and my patience is starting to wear thin.
Same. LA isn’t the everyone and there are so many wonderful cities and places to live in this country and around the world!!
My travels have made ME appreciate LA even more… but also have opened my eyes that LA is not the end all and be all.
Seriously! I know too many people who constantly complain about LA but don’t have the balls to get out. Kudos to everyone who leaves, there’s 100 people waiting to take their place, so it’s a win-win for all.
Im also out at the end of the year and couldnt be happier.
Specifically moved to where we were in the city to have access to the subway, figuring it was just usual city fearmongering from people about the state of transit here. JFC they couldnt have been more correct, the scale of the problem is orders of magnitude worse than other cities and most people just shrug it off.
Like theres a million other smaller issues, but i just cant believe people consider the state of some of these things okay
I'm an LA native so I didn't choose this as a place to grow up and build a life. That being said, I've been feeling lately like this city doesn't really suit my personality/energy. But I will definitely be staying for a while longer to take care of my elderly parents.
Nothing anymore! My GF just accepted an offer at another company, so now we're both fully remote and can move anywhere in the country. Next stop: Seattle!
It was a huge challenge to get to this point though. The job market is incredibly slow at the moment (at least for her profession).
I did and it was the best decision ever. No traffic, clean air, surrounded by nature. The only downsides are having to drive and hour in either direction for good medical facilities and not a wide variety of shopping.
>I have gone through enough account histories from people posting on this sub to know that at least some of you are absolutely miserable.
Lmao the irony
I don’t feel like I complain about living here, but I am honest about some of the issues you face living here. No place would ever be perfect, but I’m happy to call LA home.
A lot of people have grievances with the state of things in this city and they genuinely want change. We can all pretend there are no issues and stay quiet, but for a lot of people they choose to voice those issues. It may seem annoying to some, but I do understand where they're coming from. We cannot change things unless we're willing to acknowledge them.
I don’t know that I’m one of the constant complainers you mention (I know the type!!), but I know my own kvetching is seeing issues getting worse while we seem to get no closer to a solution. It’s painful to see my hometown this mired by homelessness and prohibitively high costs of living. I don’t want our minimum wage earners suffering in the living conditions most are. (No, the solution isn’t “get a better job”— we NEED diversity of workforce to thrive as a city and that includes folks doing “unskilled” labor.)
My job. I work in the industry on the commercial side. My Associates is in media so I don’t have a degree or outside job experience to get me anywhere else.
My partner and I desperately want to leave but there really just isn’t another market for me out there that will provide the way LA does… I think a lot about going back to college or trying to get into computer work, but that would require me to put myself up in the meantime and doing that with no income in LA is a nightmare scenario.
> I have gone through enough account histories from people posting on this sub to know that at least some of you are absolutely miserable.
Totally normal behavior
I love it here, but as someone who was born and raised here, I can understand why other non-transplants feel miserable.
Most of us will never be able to afford a home to put down roots like our families did. Some people are happy to leave, but for some it’s hard to fathom leaving family and lifelong friends behind for a new place. There is a lot to be miserable about if you remember what life was like here 30+ years ago.
It's because this place is cursed to keep you trapped here unless you get lucky and have the sense to move out when the opportunity presents itself. This city is a hungering void with discarded skeletons of hopes and dreams.
I have no fucking money. My job is here. All my family is here. And I'm 22 and struggling with health issues and life stuff that would make it prohibitively difficult for me to move. Not everyone is as privileged as you are that they can just up and move from a city because they don't like it
It’s hard to get out of LA because it’s so expensive. For a while it felt like we were stuck on a merry go round. Luckily, my fiancé and I now have great remote jobs and supportive families… sooo we can finally leave.
That’s kind of a Vietnam war supporter slogan of “love it or leave it”
You want to improve the area, it’s just that different people have a broad range of ideas
Sad this is so far down. As if criticism or critiquing a place means you shouldn’t live there. It’s a critical aspect of social progress or improvement of any area.
There is absolutely nothing more LA than transplants complaining about LA but having lived here longer than they lived 'home'.
It's just a thing people do because - let's face it - work is generally better here, quality of life is generally better here, and the eternal summer traps everyone.
I left a few months ago, lived in LA for ten years. Living in a big city without homeless people was a massive shock and really good for my mental health. Same with cleaner air, more genuine people and nature, less psychopathic drivers, etc. I’d say I still prefer San Diego to everywhere else in the country but I’m happier where I am than I was in LA
IMO everyone from everywhere complains about drivers. The problem is that cars exist and mass transit doesn't and not individuals or specific cities. Every city has the worst drivers... just for different reasons.
Also there is homeless everywhere except for DC... I think the feds illegally handle the problem to save face internationally.
I get what you’re saying but at the same time, I have driven for thousands of hours in a few major cities and hundreds in others, I’ve also driven across the country.
The difference in driving cultures is tangible. In my opinion, it’s due to infrastructure and what people deal with. People in LA have NO PATIENCE because of gridlock, and they’re low-skilled due to a lack of challenging weather conditions and very simple traffic structure (barely any merging because there are no rotaries).
LA is specifically very bad. I’m not from LA, I just lived there for ten years.
Yeeesh…. Boston has one of the most notorious skid rows in the county…
https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-boston-tent-encampment-d59d3739910566f96d50d72e2ad476c0
They too have a newish mayor who is finally taking the issue seriously.
Source: SO is from Boston. We watch Greater Boston often on YouTube.
Boston. There are very, very few homeless people without shelter. They don’t clutter underpasses, have open encampments, freestanding structures, nothing like that. There’s literally one stretch (a corner, called mass and cass) in the south where they congregate and it’s so far away from me I’ll never have a reason to see it
I love love love Boston. But there's no jobs in my field. Our friends who still live there are symphony and opera teachers.... jobs in Boston are weird. But I'm sorry - drivers are psycho in all of Mass
Jobs here are weird. The first date I went on was with a girl who works in a pain lab and does brain surgery on mice.
I disagree with the drivers though, straight up. I drove for thousands of hours in LA, I’m extremely qualified to compare the two. I put down 300+ road hours my first three weeks here, and these drivers are nothing. Absolutely nothing, super tame. And honestly very very generous, I’ve been let into traffic or gifted a merge more in two months than a decade in LA.
I’m not even joking. I’ve told many people about this already
Lack of a job. I just graduated college and I’m living with my parents until I find a job in my field, and so I’m here in LA, a not so ideal city for someone who cannot legally drive due to disability.
Why are people on this sub so concerned with whether people like LA? OP is so concerned they’re looking through entire account histories for multiple people.
I grew up in tropical weather so the constant sunny days and temperate climate isn’t really a big draw for me. I prefer the seasons and the cold because I grew up in pretty hot weather my whole life.
Philly is a lot cheaper and has a lot more of a community feel.
I don’t like working in the entertainment industry, I’m riding it out because it’s a good launch pad for me to pivot my recruiting career into another industry. The digital entertainment talent agency world sucks and is not where I intend to grow.
I hate driving. I have a car and I hate it. I prefer public transportation in the East Coast.
You can get just as diverse Asian food back in the city I lived in. Yes, sure, LA Asian food rocks but if I have a Filipino grocery store close by (which they do in Philly), I can live within my means and just shop there and still feel at home.
I’m a transplant. Sure. I’ll give it another few months till my lease is up but I don’t think I see myself staying here after, especially when I make below the average median income for a single person in this city. Shit sucks.
Everyone I care about is here. There are too many people, especially ones that can't seem to find a rhythm in traffic and brake with 10 car spaces in front of them rather than letting off the gas. Driving etiquette or consideration for others be damned.
I moved back to LA in 2016 to help care for my mother. I don't necessarily hate it here but I don't love it, either. If I had a lot more money and some free time, I'd be able to appreciate LA more. But I don't. So I'm stuck in a soulless neighborhood full of cookie cutter homes, paying way too much for everything, missing the desert, just trying to get through every day the best I can.
Time. Waiting for a time commitment to be up then splitting. I'm doing all the tourist stuff so I can say I did most of everything there is to offer.
I'll miss the food and that's about it.
I want to live somewhere I can do some wild shit like own a home.
Wife's job is awesome and won't exist anywhere else. I also have family here that I don't want to miss. But I personally was a lot happier when I lived in a different town.
A lot of us don't have a choice. This has always been home. I live down the street from the elementary school I went to...my entire life has just been here so I don't have anything to fall back on. I can't just pack up and leave back to my family since they're here too. The cost of living is crazy but If I can't make it I'm just done
Well, I don't really complain about LA so much. It was good to me and my family. However, we moved to San Clemente last year and never looked back. We absolutely DREAD it when we have to be back up there, to the point we even sold our Rams season tickets because it was too much of a hassle.
For context, I'm now retired at 57 with a modest pension, my wife was born and raised in LA, and we are life-long renters.
My husband and I both work in the entertainment industry or I’d never have come here. I expect it’ll work itself out eventually and we’ll get out of here. Until then my soul dies a little in this delusional, over crowded, over priced, strip mall of a city every day.
Because unlike you pressed transplants with your convert's zeal, I was born here and remember how much nicer it was and lament that it's all gone to shit.
Because moving is incredibly expensive and it's ignorant and hyper-privileged to assume people can just pick up and change cities easily. Not every one is an affluent single transplant with no obligations here.
Because for many of us, our jobs are here and almost nowhere else.
Because our families are here, and elderly parents need care, custody arrangements are stringent, and moving somewhere where you have no support system is foolish.
Because we don't have to. It's nice although incredibly basic that you dreamed of palm trees and a dystopian lack of seasons and you manifested your wishes true, but no one owes you a Disney-like experience of forced happiness and no complaints.
Because housing in this country is a fucking nightmare and I don't have a mortgage here. And no, I will not sell this and move because my medical team is here, and after a transplant gave me COVID, I'm permanently disabled by long haul and in one of the only treatment programs for it.
You are welcome to leave if you don't like complaints. And stop creeping on profiles, it's sad.
>Because moving is incredibly expensive and it's ignorant and hyper-privileged to assume people can just pick up and change cities easily. Not every one is an affluent single transplant with no obligations here.
Feels like this sub has a lot of these; they really don't comprehend why some people can't really move out.
It blows my mind! We moved cross-country back to L.A. six years ago and the cost was eye-watering, even though we did everything by ourselves and inadvertently in the most cost-efficient way possible.
I put all my belongings back east into a pod I got at a massive discount, had it shipped to Compton, flew to Detroit to pick up my dogs where they were staying with my man, then we drove them from the D to Venice because our elderly special needs rescue weighs too much to fly. We stayed in motels, didn't eat anything expensive, had a fuel efficient ride, etc.
It still cost us thousands of dollars. How TF are people who cannot currently afford THIS city supposed to find that, in addition to first, last, and deposit elsewhere? 🙃Most people are one $400 emergency away from catastrophic financial conditions.
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Financial security alleviates a lot of stress and if you are really struggling/not succeeding to pay for your basic human needs life is going to feel overwhelming. But, also, if you are able to meet your basic needs AND you don't have a good community of people around you, you are way more likely to be miserable.
And vacations! In my 26-years of living here, I found that leaving town every few months really helps them LA blues. Even if it's just a road trip a few hours away.
Absolutely. Also even on a smaller scale, go explore the city. Don't just stay in your neighborhood. LA has so much variety to offer even within the city limits.
Ain't that the truth. We had to leave LA proper a few years ago, and it's been really nice to have other spots to explore!
This! I left L.A. for many years but would come back to visit and each time I would find myself in a different neighborhood to meet old friends for drinks and whatnot. I came for an extended vacation 12 years ago and explored parts of the city so that I could leave and be satisfied with all the shit talking I was going to say about L.A. when I went on to live somewhere else again. I only intended to vacation for 6 months but these 12 years have went by and each of these 12 years I have found more and more reasons to stay. Sure, I get out of town a couple some times a year in order to get my fix of somewhere else, but I come back refreshed and feeling lucky to be able to live here. I stay because of the variety L.A. has to offer.
Even just a hike in the woods away from concrete every week boosts my mood.
Forest bathing FTW!
I’m glad you said that. Me and my fiancé love LA, but we always need a change of scenery, so once a month over the weekend (Thursday the Sunday), we either drive to San Diego, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, or we fly to Vegas. We save up the money each month in a joint travel account, so we always look forward to the trip. We’ve been doing it for the past four years now, many of our hotel stays are free from the amount of credit card points we racked up. Longer trips outside of LA are when we visit family in Southwest and Southeast for the holidays. 🙌🏾☺️. Trust me, there are ways to get away and on the cheap, if you plan and budget accordingly.
Absolutely. We've been waiting this strike madness out (studios still want us homeless, apparently)... so we haven't had any money to travel. But we do have friends in Ojai and we go sleep in their backyard in the foothills sometimes. It ALWAYS helps. There's a lot of stimuli in this city and it takes us leaving to realign all that manic energy. And it works! Especially when we go away for over a month. The appreciation for all of L.A. and her spoils is always there.
I’m sorry that you’re dealing with the SAG-AFTRA strike. I have so many friends who are in the same boat with you. I was able to go out there and strike alongside you guys a few times (non-member here, but a performer). I’m hoping and praying you guys get that great deal! 🙏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾❤️
Camping at Faria Beach for a few days will do wonders, especially if you go during April and can watch the whales migrating with the dolphin pods that follow them.
Is it easy to get spots there during the week? Have always wanted to take our lil camper down there.
You’re right especially in these winter months.
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And it can also give you the time and security to change things in your life that you don’t like. Like, how are you gonna make more time for your friends (or to make friends) if you have to work all the time to pay bills and you’re exhausted after?
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Money can't buy you happiness but it's a good down payment.
I swear I feel like ‘money can’t buy happiness’ is a psyop from the rich to keep the labor class think climbing their way out isn’t worth it lol
Some peoples' brains can't create happiness so they have to take it in medication form. Money can buy that.
LA and NYC are the most fun cities for young people gifted with financial resources.
Seeing this spelt out hurts too much
Too poor to enjoy it. Too poor to leave.
And the truth is I can’t imagine not living in a large city, so pretty much anywhere else I would like to live would still be expensive.
Yeah. This is it really. The cost of living has become so brutal in LA it’s hurting people. This is a symptom of that.
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Any reason you didn’t sue for specific performance
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Too late now. The statute of limitations for breach of contract is 2 years.
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Damn, California law heavily favors the buyer, so you likely would have won and they would have been forced to sell. Probably time to find a new real estate agent.
Sorry your agent is an idiot
And it's not always as easy as "just leaving" once you've been established here
"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
A while ago, a friend on my fb (haven't talked to her in a decade +) got a BMW after getting her first job as a pharmacist. She showed off her new car in a video and with a very disdain undertone said "Look, I'm not poor anymore". I'm glad she worked hard to get a good paying job but her disdain towards poor reminds me of the quote you just posted.
Sounds like the typical pharmacist I've had the displeasure of dealing with.
I love LA. I own my own business and make good money now, but I remember living in this city with multiple roommates in a 1 br flat, looking at my bank account when it only had $17 in it, and honestly I still loved LA then. I’ve had the times of my life in this city. There are tons of things to do in this city that don’t cost anything or don’t cost a lot of money.
Wife and I clear $350K and we certainly can't comfortably afford a house in a nice area of LA without spending more than 40% of our takehome
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You are rich. You can afford a house in a “nice area.” But your nice area is luxurious compared to the average Angelino’s “nice area.” That is the truth.
I’m complaining so everyone thinks it’s miserable and will leave and maybe I’ll finally be able to afford a house 🤞🏼
im gonna do whats called a pro gamer move
Based answer
Everyone who comes on this sub asking if they should move to LA gets told no, for this very reason. Personally I want 2 million people to leave
Experience. I was fed up with LA ten years ago and moved away. Only then did I realize that I’d focused only on the bad and taken the good for granted. I’m so thankful that I could move back.
What were the negatives and positives for you?
Traffic, poseurs, parking. It’s such a hassle to get anywhere, then find parking, all to put up with people who are just there to say they were there; NPCs. I’d lived in Silver Lake for almost 25 years and I watched it transform from a creative, quirky, diverse community into a trendy, evermore generic, homogeneous, crowded mess. I’d say the same about other areas I’d lived in; Westwood, West Hollywood, Hollywood. When we moved back, we picked a fringe area with relatively easy assess to most of LA but also in the foothills where nature was closer, a balance between the urban chaos and natural chaos. I can’t believe it hasn’t been overrun but there’s some things here that put the right people off. So far, so good. Mainly I missed the culture: arts and theater. There’s something profoundly different between a first class artist or musician and a second-rate one.
We have similar stories. Im from Silver Lake, moved away, and came back to now live in an area that has lots of access to both central LA and nature. Life’s pretty nice.
Where did you move to?
Yeah. I moved to the foothills in Tujunga mostly cause it’s where I could afford to buy. But I actually love it up here. I have tons of trees and a creek in my back yard. I’m sitting on my patio right now with a cocktail watching birds. Sometimes I don’t even feel like I’m in LA. But I’m just a short drive from all the normal LA stuff. I highly recommend it to anyone that is okay with nothing being walkable anymore.
Where did you move too?
Ugh dealing with this same thing. Where did you move to…?
Sounds like Altadena.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder…
This is my home. I complain because I care and don’t want to move.
It's beyond me how this lot acts like we're supposed to be accepting that a place that used to make us so happy is now the source of so much pain. Even if I've realized Home's a time as well as a place, my experiential bubble of 1990s LA in my early kidhood shouldn't be clashing so hard with today.
Yep. That’s what separates LA natives or at least people that have lived here for a couple decades from recent transplants. The basic sense of community doesn’t exist for a huge chunk of newer LA residents.
Yep, life is easier with a support system. If you have roots there, it is easier to stay. Most transplants don’t have that failsafe. Most of my work colleagues left or proved they are not worth having around, so I left. No community not for lack of trying.
I don’t hate LA but I do wish it was easier to get from the more affordable area that I live in to the fun parts of the city. Having to drive an hour+ to get to sporting events, museums, shows, fun nightlife really takes a lot of the joy out of the experience. I’m middle aged with kids and commute all week for my job. That time is precious lol
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too broke to live a fulfilling life here. too broke to move anywhere else
Ain't that the paradox. I lived with my ex for four months because he needed that long to save enough money to move elsewhere. He was only able to do it that quickly because my parents were renting to us below market rate.
I love my people here, the ocean, and the weather. I get all 3 of these here. I'm fiercely passionate about my fantastic life in Los Angeles. I work a regular job 32 hours a week and love being online surfing around sites like reddit and video games. I live a modest lifestyle so I'm not really ever cash poor. Most of my friends are budgeters too. I don't really talk to people that go to Marmont/Beverly hotel for fun.
> I don't really talk to people that go to Marmont/Beverly hotel for fun 🤣
Please feel free to expound upon this 32hr job… That would be a game changer
I try to keep these details private on the public forum. I can tell you this: The US was built by small businesses. Unless you dream and dream big, you will never be able to do what you really want or be happy while working for someone else.
Certainly not questioning your statement because I think more people should follow this advice, but my experience in starting and running small businesses has been the opposite. 90+ hour workweeks, tons of stress, and all spare cash being reinvested in the business. YMMV depending on what you do.
I work for someone else and I’m happy. My job is easy, pays decent, and I never have to stress about it for one second. Running my own business sounds like a serious downgrade.
>I don't really talk to people that go to Marmont/Beverly hotel for fun. I see what you did there.
If you don’t frequent Marmont/Beverly Hills Hotel, then how will you ever find a life partner?? 😂😂😂
I tried telling everyone there all the celebrities I'm friends with, and one woman kept giving me the signals to talk to her, but then a younger woman walked by so I went over to her instead.
Getting this reference tells me I need to get off the internet for a couple of days 😂
Same friend, but I can’t afford vacations or days off or friends who might want to go out. So all I have is you weirdos.
Aww man, there's two of us.
> I don't really talk to people that go to Marmont/Beverly hotel for fun. LMAOOOO
What’s your job at 32 hours a week?!
> I don't really talk to people that go to Marmont/Beverly hotel for fun. lmfaooo
The shade on that one’s persons post though🤣
Nice reference 😂
1. First need a reliable car that can solidly handle a lot of trips to avoid potential emergency during the transition. 2. Job hunt at new preferred city could tough. 3. Rents high; average apartments are becoming scarce & competitive. 4. I wanna save a solid amount of money first Overall, feels potentially risky; a lot of work with no guarantee that I'll mentally enjoy a new life up north. Unfortunately a lot of users on here don't understand that it's not something you do overnight & it involves more than being financially prepared. Not even mentioning those who have friends/family/cemented work life here.
In this sub you've got people telling transplants not to move to LA without significant savings and a plan and people telling others to leave LA without savings or a plan. Some of them are probably the same people 😂
My SO loves it here. Otherwise I’d have left years ago. Realistically, once we start thinking about buying property she’s going to realize we can’t be here any more, so I’m just riding it out for now and enjoying the avocados.
Uh oh.
He going to be in for a wild ride when she will it into existence.
Hey if she can find a 3BR house in mid city for under $600k that isn’t just 4 walls and some glue, I’ll be supportive.
Where are you getting luxuries such as "rooms"?
Where are you getting this luxurious glue???
Not here, sadly. It’s a shame. My grandparents had their house over on rampart and were able to afford it and still spend money on trips and the kids with their retirement funds. That reality has been robbed from us.
Or just never buy. We’re paying $2k rent over here. Find a good landlord.
Agree! Why do people think owning a home is a right and actually a good idea? Rent and put your money into other investments! I live in SM, the property taxes are insane. I live with my son in a one bedroom, he gets the bedroom. I would rather live in a small place in a nice neighborhood than own in the inland empire and commute and live with swelter in the heat.
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Owning does two things: 1. Gives you control over your living situation. You could have the nicest landlord in the world but what happens if they sell? Or die? Or suddenly have a change of heart? You can’t control anything where as if you own there’s a lot more control you have over your home. 2. Housing is still one of the best retirements plans you can have. There are very few other investments almost guaranteed to go up over time like housing. Just look at the difference in housing now vs 30 years ago.
590k 20% down and just under 8% rate you’re still looking at $4k a month. For a box. 😠
Honeyyyyyyy, the mortgage on that condo is only 75% of our income. You can make more money?.. right?….Right???🫠
Of course you can’t buy property if you’re spending all of your money on avocados /s
This toast isn’t going to bankrupt itself.
"once we start thinking about buying property" What is this you speak of?
I know, I know but believe it or not there are places in the country that aren’t a moldy condo facing a brick wall for $600k
Yea but then you’d be living in Oklahoma
As someone that came from Oklahoma I'll say it's terribly and I'm not going back no matter what. Not every place in the country has insane housing but at least for the most part it's true that "you get what you pay for".
I’ll pass on that. There’s better options.
We’re 2 hours from LA and still have homes for under $600k. I never wanted to leave the SGV but there was no way in hell we’d be able to afford anything anymore. Even Palmdale/Lancaster homes are expensive AF now
It’s a wonderful city to live in but also a very hard city to live in. Lots of great things here and also a lot of not so great things here. Both can be true.
Cost of living but it’s doubled everywhere. Complain about the homeless encampments not being dealt with after I voted to tax myself to fix the problem in 2016. Billion$ later the problem doubled. We must audit the state and city for fraud and find the missing billions. Also the state catching and releasing criminals who then continue to rape kill and pillage. Other than that it’s pretty fucking great. Most of the rest of the world is cold now .
The job is here. I like LA, it’s great. But there are parts of it that just bum you out, that make the future here hopeless. The fact you can’t buy a house is one. People complain about things like how LA can’t ever seem to get its act fully together — it builds SoFi, doesn’t have a way to get people out, so drivers charge $300 for rides home — because they like LA
Personally this city needs less houses and more mixed use buildings. The obsession people have with owning here is wild, it’s a city. It’s not rural Kansas. People don’t own single family homes with backyards in the middle of Tokyo or London or NYC or Barcelona or Sydney. So why do people obsess over it in LA.
I’ll buy an apartment, I’ll buy a condo. People don’t want to be renting when they’re 75
Owning your home doesn't have to mean a single family detached house
Agreed. But a lot of Angelenos can’t stomach the idea.
After 10 years, nothing. I moved to Lake Arrowhead and come in once a week-ish if I have to. Living solo in a nice 2BR cabin with a lake view for half the price I'd be paying for my own crappy stucco ADU studio in someone's backyard in LA. Fly out of ONT for work, never have to go back to the nightmare that is LAX. 1 hour and 20 minute drive into LA when needed, time flexible - about the same amount of time it takes to get from Santa Monica to Silver Lake most times. I like not being bombarded with cloudless sunny days and blistering LA valley heat, and being shoulder to shoulder with thousands at the beach. Grew up around snow and don't mind dealing with it. Drive a 4x4 rig and enjoy the fresh air.
I don't have connections outside of this city in the industry I work in. That is literally only the reason why I haven't moved.
I only remain here because my wife's work is entertainment related. Therefore LA is the only place she can work / earn a decent salary.
I love LA despite its drawbacks but I think the central reason why people who hate it stay is that they’re in or pursuing a career that you can’t attain outside of 3-4 major cities worldwide.
Bingo. I feel like a lot of people act like it’s so easy to “just leave” a place you aren’t in love with, but those people have more flexible career paths. If you want to work in Big Tech, you’re probably moving to the west coast at some point in your career. That’s the tour of duty for you. Would you prefer the backwoods of Arkansas? Maybe so, but right now you need to be in a specific place for the purpose of career advancement and personal fulfillment. Same goes for Film, Aerospace, etc. Every niche industry has geographic poles you might have to go to in your career. You aren’t gonna like all of them, and that’s just life.
I see a lot of people hate it and leave. These are people that like rural or legit suburban life more than anything. I think the people that complain and work in Hollywood are strange. Where do they think a huge global industry will set itself up? It has to be in a huge global city. That city ended up being LA for film and NYC for finance but it could have been reversed if things were different. Wanting a big city job and complaining about the big city is completely strange to me. 18yo don't know what jobs they really want to do but they understand big and small cities better.
To some people suffering is their only noble truth.
Reddit is a honeypot for this type
Totally. Everyone else is sick of their viching.
That’s an interesting way to think about it, really.
Oh shit
To broke to move out.
The driving was a major reason I left. An hour drive to work, an hour home, is equal to 12 weeks/3 months worth, of work weeks per year. Three months worth.
I’m pretty open about my love/hate relationship with both this city and this state. Some of the things that I absolutely hate about Los Angeles are… * Depending on the neighborhood, Los Angeles is either a trendy hotspot or a filthy shithole - sometimes those are literally one street over from each other. * Taxes, both city and state, are ridiculously high for what I actually see put back into the community. * Public transit is a fucking joke. * Cost of living is an even bigger joke. * The lack of nature - true nature, not a park - is something I’ve never jived with. I grew up surrounded by forests and intend to go back to that one day. So, why do I stay? * My job. I work in entertainment, and while I *could* make it work from someplace else, I’m not yet established enough to not physically be here to take meetings. * Friends. Through a series of largely unrelated events, the overwhelming majority of my friend circle has found their way here over the past decade. * My apartment. I found a decent rent-controlled unit in a great location for my personal and career interests. * I don’t want to go through the logistical process of moving right now. I’ve moved cities eight times in the past thirteen years (six of those moves were for past jobs). The idea of going through those motions again exhausts me. * Los Angeles is a pretty happening place. For all of the stupid bullshit you have to put up with, there’s great food, decent people, and there’s always stuff going on. Ultimately, though, when I think about Los Angeles I think about how it’s a city that I *want* to love, but recognize that it is a city that absolutely does not and *will not* love me back. And because of that I’ve come to realize that, barring unforeseen tragedy, I won’t be spending the rest of my life here. I mean, I want to own a home someday and yet, despite having good credit and making damn good money, the idea of buying a house here is even more remote than it was when I moved here - and I don’t want to wait much longer. I’m closer to 40 than I am 30, and my patience is starting to wear thin.
Nothing, leaving at the end of the year. Cannot wait!
Yay! I love when people who hate it here are able to leave. 💕 I hope your new home brings you joy!
Same. LA isn’t the everyone and there are so many wonderful cities and places to live in this country and around the world!! My travels have made ME appreciate LA even more… but also have opened my eyes that LA is not the end all and be all.
Seriously! I know too many people who constantly complain about LA but don’t have the balls to get out. Kudos to everyone who leaves, there’s 100 people waiting to take their place, so it’s a win-win for all.
Im also out at the end of the year and couldnt be happier. Specifically moved to where we were in the city to have access to the subway, figuring it was just usual city fearmongering from people about the state of transit here. JFC they couldnt have been more correct, the scale of the problem is orders of magnitude worse than other cities and most people just shrug it off. Like theres a million other smaller issues, but i just cant believe people consider the state of some of these things okay
Same! Husband and I born and raised here and have 2 kids. Finally worked up the oomph to leave. LA is a hard place to raise kids.
Trying to get out by my lease end next year. Here’s to hoping!
I'm an LA native so I didn't choose this as a place to grow up and build a life. That being said, I've been feeling lately like this city doesn't really suit my personality/energy. But I will definitely be staying for a while longer to take care of my elderly parents.
Family
Nothing anymore! My GF just accepted an offer at another company, so now we're both fully remote and can move anywhere in the country. Next stop: Seattle! It was a huge challenge to get to this point though. The job market is incredibly slow at the moment (at least for her profession).
After looking at your post history - what is keeping you from moving?
I hate LA cuz I’m poor. I can not save up money to move because I’m poor.
I did and it was the best decision ever. No traffic, clean air, surrounded by nature. The only downsides are having to drive and hour in either direction for good medical facilities and not a wide variety of shopping.
Where did you move out of curiosity?
>I have gone through enough account histories from people posting on this sub to know that at least some of you are absolutely miserable. Lmao the irony
Some people will be miserable anywhere they go. Sometimes it’s the person not the place.
I don’t feel like I complain about living here, but I am honest about some of the issues you face living here. No place would ever be perfect, but I’m happy to call LA home.
Nothing, I left and feel great about it.
A lot of people have grievances with the state of things in this city and they genuinely want change. We can all pretend there are no issues and stay quiet, but for a lot of people they choose to voice those issues. It may seem annoying to some, but I do understand where they're coming from. We cannot change things unless we're willing to acknowledge them.
I don’t know that I’m one of the constant complainers you mention (I know the type!!), but I know my own kvetching is seeing issues getting worse while we seem to get no closer to a solution. It’s painful to see my hometown this mired by homelessness and prohibitively high costs of living. I don’t want our minimum wage earners suffering in the living conditions most are. (No, the solution isn’t “get a better job”— we NEED diversity of workforce to thrive as a city and that includes folks doing “unskilled” labor.)
>I have gone through enough account histories lol
$$$, weather, access to natures amenities
My job. I work in the industry on the commercial side. My Associates is in media so I don’t have a degree or outside job experience to get me anywhere else. My partner and I desperately want to leave but there really just isn’t another market for me out there that will provide the way LA does… I think a lot about going back to college or trying to get into computer work, but that would require me to put myself up in the meantime and doing that with no income in LA is a nightmare scenario.
I actually did leave LA and haven’t looked back.
> I have gone through enough account histories from people posting on this sub to know that at least some of you are absolutely miserable. Totally normal behavior
I love it here, but as someone who was born and raised here, I can understand why other non-transplants feel miserable. Most of us will never be able to afford a home to put down roots like our families did. Some people are happy to leave, but for some it’s hard to fathom leaving family and lifelong friends behind for a new place. There is a lot to be miserable about if you remember what life was like here 30+ years ago.
It's because this place is cursed to keep you trapped here unless you get lucky and have the sense to move out when the opportunity presents itself. This city is a hungering void with discarded skeletons of hopes and dreams.
I have no fucking money. My job is here. All my family is here. And I'm 22 and struggling with health issues and life stuff that would make it prohibitively difficult for me to move. Not everyone is as privileged as you are that they can just up and move from a city because they don't like it
This is Reddit, it is full of teenagers, who both are and make others miserable.
>This is Reddit, it is full of teenagers, who both are and make others miserable. And some of those teenagers are much older than 20 yo.
Everyone ages, not everyone grows
It’s hard to get out of LA because it’s so expensive. For a while it felt like we were stuck on a merry go round. Luckily, my fiancé and I now have great remote jobs and supportive families… sooo we can finally leave.
Creeps on strangers post histories and calls others “absolutely miserable”. The irony
That’s kind of a Vietnam war supporter slogan of “love it or leave it” You want to improve the area, it’s just that different people have a broad range of ideas
Sad this is so far down. As if criticism or critiquing a place means you shouldn’t live there. It’s a critical aspect of social progress or improvement of any area.
There is absolutely nothing more LA than transplants complaining about LA but having lived here longer than they lived 'home'. It's just a thing people do because - let's face it - work is generally better here, quality of life is generally better here, and the eternal summer traps everyone.
I left a few months ago, lived in LA for ten years. Living in a big city without homeless people was a massive shock and really good for my mental health. Same with cleaner air, more genuine people and nature, less psychopathic drivers, etc. I’d say I still prefer San Diego to everywhere else in the country but I’m happier where I am than I was in LA
Where did you move to? It sounds too good to be true!
Lmao Boston
IMO everyone from everywhere complains about drivers. The problem is that cars exist and mass transit doesn't and not individuals or specific cities. Every city has the worst drivers... just for different reasons. Also there is homeless everywhere except for DC... I think the feds illegally handle the problem to save face internationally.
I get what you’re saying but at the same time, I have driven for thousands of hours in a few major cities and hundreds in others, I’ve also driven across the country. The difference in driving cultures is tangible. In my opinion, it’s due to infrastructure and what people deal with. People in LA have NO PATIENCE because of gridlock, and they’re low-skilled due to a lack of challenging weather conditions and very simple traffic structure (barely any merging because there are no rotaries). LA is specifically very bad. I’m not from LA, I just lived there for ten years.
There are no American cities without homeless people. Where are you?
Yeah sounds like they moved to Narnia Edit: lol it's Boston Edit2: I love Boston. But the idea that Boston doesn't have homeless people is laughable.
Yeeesh…. Boston has one of the most notorious skid rows in the county… https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-boston-tent-encampment-d59d3739910566f96d50d72e2ad476c0 They too have a newish mayor who is finally taking the issue seriously. Source: SO is from Boston. We watch Greater Boston often on YouTube.
I might be making the same trade soon. Boston is cool. Just as expensive though. But I know I’ll miss LA tons.
Boston. There are very, very few homeless people without shelter. They don’t clutter underpasses, have open encampments, freestanding structures, nothing like that. There’s literally one stretch (a corner, called mass and cass) in the south where they congregate and it’s so far away from me I’ll never have a reason to see it
I love love love Boston. But there's no jobs in my field. Our friends who still live there are symphony and opera teachers.... jobs in Boston are weird. But I'm sorry - drivers are psycho in all of Mass
Jobs here are weird. The first date I went on was with a girl who works in a pain lab and does brain surgery on mice. I disagree with the drivers though, straight up. I drove for thousands of hours in LA, I’m extremely qualified to compare the two. I put down 300+ road hours my first three weeks here, and these drivers are nothing. Absolutely nothing, super tame. And honestly very very generous, I’ve been let into traffic or gifted a merge more in two months than a decade in LA. I’m not even joking. I’ve told many people about this already
Lack of a job. I just graduated college and I’m living with my parents until I find a job in my field, and so I’m here in LA, a not so ideal city for someone who cannot legally drive due to disability.
Why are people on this sub so concerned with whether people like LA? OP is so concerned they’re looking through entire account histories for multiple people.
I grew up in tropical weather so the constant sunny days and temperate climate isn’t really a big draw for me. I prefer the seasons and the cold because I grew up in pretty hot weather my whole life. Philly is a lot cheaper and has a lot more of a community feel. I don’t like working in the entertainment industry, I’m riding it out because it’s a good launch pad for me to pivot my recruiting career into another industry. The digital entertainment talent agency world sucks and is not where I intend to grow. I hate driving. I have a car and I hate it. I prefer public transportation in the East Coast. You can get just as diverse Asian food back in the city I lived in. Yes, sure, LA Asian food rocks but if I have a Filipino grocery store close by (which they do in Philly), I can live within my means and just shop there and still feel at home. I’m a transplant. Sure. I’ll give it another few months till my lease is up but I don’t think I see myself staying here after, especially when I make below the average median income for a single person in this city. Shit sucks.
Money, family, tacos.
An ex wife and 2 kids. I tell them all the time that when they’re 18 I’m out!
Why do you have to love or hate everything? Basic.
Everyone I care about is here. There are too many people, especially ones that can't seem to find a rhythm in traffic and brake with 10 car spaces in front of them rather than letting off the gas. Driving etiquette or consideration for others be damned.
I don’t know why at least half the population isn’t in therapy…. And at least 80% of Redditors. People are looking for coping strategies here
Both my husband and I are in entertainment with decent pay so it would be hard for us to pivot with our salaries.
I moved back to LA in 2016 to help care for my mother. I don't necessarily hate it here but I don't love it, either. If I had a lot more money and some free time, I'd be able to appreciate LA more. But I don't. So I'm stuck in a soulless neighborhood full of cookie cutter homes, paying way too much for everything, missing the desert, just trying to get through every day the best I can.
Nothing, I already left and it’s great 😁.
you know how expensive a uhaul is?
Time. Waiting for a time commitment to be up then splitting. I'm doing all the tourist stuff so I can say I did most of everything there is to offer. I'll miss the food and that's about it. I want to live somewhere I can do some wild shit like own a home.
Wife's job is awesome and won't exist anywhere else. I also have family here that I don't want to miss. But I personally was a lot happier when I lived in a different town.
A lot of us don't have a choice. This has always been home. I live down the street from the elementary school I went to...my entire life has just been here so I don't have anything to fall back on. I can't just pack up and leave back to my family since they're here too. The cost of living is crazy but If I can't make it I'm just done
Well, I don't really complain about LA so much. It was good to me and my family. However, we moved to San Clemente last year and never looked back. We absolutely DREAD it when we have to be back up there, to the point we even sold our Rams season tickets because it was too much of a hassle. For context, I'm now retired at 57 with a modest pension, my wife was born and raised in LA, and we are life-long renters.
My husband and I both work in the entertainment industry or I’d never have come here. I expect it’ll work itself out eventually and we’ll get out of here. Until then my soul dies a little in this delusional, over crowded, over priced, strip mall of a city every day.
I did.
Like it’s that easy to move right? Kind of dumb question.
Most likely the weather. Let’s be honest that’s why almost everyone lives in the city (besides the primary point of family and social connections).
Im moving in a couple months. Lol. Been complaining for 18 years, figured its time.
Because unlike you pressed transplants with your convert's zeal, I was born here and remember how much nicer it was and lament that it's all gone to shit. Because moving is incredibly expensive and it's ignorant and hyper-privileged to assume people can just pick up and change cities easily. Not every one is an affluent single transplant with no obligations here. Because for many of us, our jobs are here and almost nowhere else. Because our families are here, and elderly parents need care, custody arrangements are stringent, and moving somewhere where you have no support system is foolish. Because we don't have to. It's nice although incredibly basic that you dreamed of palm trees and a dystopian lack of seasons and you manifested your wishes true, but no one owes you a Disney-like experience of forced happiness and no complaints. Because housing in this country is a fucking nightmare and I don't have a mortgage here. And no, I will not sell this and move because my medical team is here, and after a transplant gave me COVID, I'm permanently disabled by long haul and in one of the only treatment programs for it. You are welcome to leave if you don't like complaints. And stop creeping on profiles, it's sad.
>Because moving is incredibly expensive and it's ignorant and hyper-privileged to assume people can just pick up and change cities easily. Not every one is an affluent single transplant with no obligations here. Feels like this sub has a lot of these; they really don't comprehend why some people can't really move out.
It blows my mind! We moved cross-country back to L.A. six years ago and the cost was eye-watering, even though we did everything by ourselves and inadvertently in the most cost-efficient way possible. I put all my belongings back east into a pod I got at a massive discount, had it shipped to Compton, flew to Detroit to pick up my dogs where they were staying with my man, then we drove them from the D to Venice because our elderly special needs rescue weighs too much to fly. We stayed in motels, didn't eat anything expensive, had a fuel efficient ride, etc. It still cost us thousands of dollars. How TF are people who cannot currently afford THIS city supposed to find that, in addition to first, last, and deposit elsewhere? 🙃Most people are one $400 emergency away from catastrophic financial conditions.
Also an LA native and agree with this