Live in LA without a Car?
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- SteveJobs0
hahahaha - good one!
- gabe0
there are a lot of places in LA where you can live without a car depending on where you want to live and how much you're willing to pay. more than anything, it (obviously) depends on how much commuting you'll need to do.
the bus can be a downright pain and it's definitely not for everybody. the metro is workable, but just like the bus system, it can be arduous depending on where you're traveling from / to.
if having a car is totally out of the question, your best bet is to find a little community that you'd like to live in that's close to your work. if you can telecommute / freelance it definitely makes things easier, however many places will at least want to meet you before or have a kickoff meeting before hiring you for a project.
you can find cool areas to live in with grocery stores, restaurants, bars, shopping, etc. all within walking distance. look to places like downtown, parts of santa monica & venice, some spots in hollywood & west hollywood, pasadena, etc.
plenty of people on the west side live in santa monica or venice and bike a 2-3 miles to / from work, though it's harder to do as you go further inland.
maybe a little more info about what your plans are and people can offer more specific advice.
...unless you're truly just curious, in which case i feel like i've completely wasted my time crafting this thoughtful response.
- ********0
in other words, LA is like the rest of the USA. Urban sprawl, have a car or suffer because this is america and you have to buy a car to be in the fast lane with the chicks, the money, the GAME
- manonthestreet0
I've done this in LA and Phoenix using my bicycle as my major source of transport.
My daily commute was at least 12 miles each way in PHX [North Scottsdale to Tempe] and in LA I was a bike messenger/bartender.
It's easier to do this than be a car owner in my opinion.
- shellie0
I own a car I've finally paid off. I hope to avoid having another car payment in the foreseeable future. I live and work at home so bikes and walks do it for me most of the time. But in general if you want to be able to have any kind of freedom, especially at night, it's probably a good idea to have some kind of wheels. If I had to do it again though, I'd buy a scooter or a motorcycle, although even that wouldn't be very practical for the 4 hour drive to see my mother (with no train lines that go that way).
- ********0
I was in LA for a week, without a car.
Never again.
- boobs0
Living without a car is for paupers.
- keithrondinelli0
I've spent time working remotely on several different week- or two week-long projects for a client based in Santa Monica, which is considered the closest LA has to a "walking neighborhood", which I guess it is, to a certain extent. Nevertheless, there was an encroaching sense of isolation and loneliness that I felt I couldn't shake, like I was living in a Raymond Chandler novel. You might go crazy without a car. LA is a strange place – it's possible to feel both crowded-in and isolated, and jumping in the car and driving up the coast or out to Joshua Tree would do wonders for your sense of well-being.