possibly moving to LA area... need advice on communities...

[mammom]

Hello, Mamas! My husband is looking for a new job and one of them is near LA - Burbank, specifically. He has asked me to ask my more holistically-minded "contacts" about where to live...

He found a site online that was suggesting places like Burbank itself, Woodland Hills (although probably too pricey), San Marino, Glendale or Santa Clarita. The site he was on was not holistic though...

My biggest concern is schooling and I see there is a Waldorf School in Pasadena and one in Santa Monica. The Pasadena school seems like it would be more realistic if we were to live inland.

Any suggestions? We would prefer to buy a house if possible, but even though prices have come down quite a bit in CA, I know they're not *low.*

Thank you for sharing any thoughts.

Melissa

[monkeybars]

Hi Melissa. LA is huge, with unlimited possiblities for various cultural participation and it may be helpful to post a few more details about what you are looking for. Overall, this is a very diverse liberal minded city with a lot of options for someone interested in holistic living.

Two major concerns here are traffic and schools. I'm sure everyone would recommend living as close to work as you can. I am not interested in Waldorf personally, but both Pasadena and Santa Monica are terrific if you want to be near the schools - it would certainly be easier (cheaper, more available and closer) to live in Pasadena. San Marino is surely one of the most expensive places to live, so I don't know how realistic that is to be on your list. South Pasadena, Pasadena, Glendale, Northeast LA (Silver Lake, Mount Washington, Atwater Village, Los Feliz, Eagle Rock) are all good spots. I haven't spend a lot of time on the westside lately, which can be pricier, but great neighborhoods are Santa Monica, Venice, West LA, and Culver City.

The San Fernando Valley is typically less expensive than the city, and is usually not people's first choice. Woodland Hills is just okay - same for me with Santa Clarita. The valleys are much hotter and significantly more suburban overall.

As far as Burbank goes, we love it here! However, what drove us here (I'm a native heart o'the city angelina) was the Burbank school system, which you probably are not interested in. Burbank is one of the very few public school systems with mostly good or excellent schools from K-12, although there are a lot of homeschoolers here as well. It is reasonably close to commuting to Pasadena for schools too. There is a terrific park and rec. system here, and health food stores, etc. It is also incredibly safe and community oriented. Although by no means a conservative community, it historically was a lot of white, Christian Church-going, Lockheed types, so it is not as liberal as some other more ethnically diverse parts of the city.

Good luck, and let me know if you want more specifics.

[LuckyMommaToo]

Hi Melissa. LA is huge, with unlimited possiblities for various cultural participation and it may be helpful to post a few more details about what you are looking for. Overall, this is a very diverse liberal minded city with a lot of options for someone interested in holistic living.

She nailed it.

Another Burbank-er here! DH also works in Burbank, and he bikes to work, which is fantastic. 15 minute commute. If you think your DH will likely work in the Burbank area for at least a few years, I'd really consider staying close (Burbank, Glendale, Valley Village) if you can afford it. The commute times here can adversely affect quality of life, especially when you have kids.

The upside is that we have almost everything we need within a five mile radius, and rarely go farther than that unless we're on a special excursion.

I also agree with Monkeybars about the schooling issue. Also be warned that private schools are extremely expensive here.

Anyway, let us know if you have more specific questions.
-e

[mammom]

Little bit of our background: DS was born in CA, but in the Bay Area, where DH and I lived together for five years. DH lived out in CA for almost 20 years (San Diego and San Francisco) but after DS was born, I felt we should be closer to family - all of whom are back East. So, we moved to OH at the end of '04, when DS was about 8 months old.

Strangely enough, I have gotten more holistic in North East Ohio than I was in Northern California! And having only lived in Northern CA, I have images of LA that are hopefully VERY untrue! I was very happy to read your posts - the comments about LA being liberal, cultural AND holistic are all very encouraging. I am glad to hear about the parks and health food stores in Burbank... I do imagine the TONS of traffic and I admit I imagine lots of fake people - I do hope I am wrong about that!

I loved that Monkeybars said Burbank is community-minded. I would love that as well.

As our economy flails, I have images of it being hard to get food, gas, etc... Are there any farm-based food co-ops in the area? We currently belong to a Weston Price-based farm coop where we get our raw milk and grass-fed beef/meats. I would assume there are some farmers' markets at the very least, but a co-op would be ideal.

We also belong to the Frontier and United Co-ops. Are you familiar with any of those?? (I think it's easy enough to start them - you just need a certain number of people to order each month, or rather a certain dollar amount ordered each month...)

Lastly, I don't think there is a Holistic Moms Network in Northern LA... Do you think there are enough holistic moms in the area to get a chapter started??

Thank you for your posts! I really appreciate the insite!! (Or is it insight? I always mix those up!)

Melissa

[LuckyMommaToo]

There was definitely a Holistic Moms chapter in Pasadena in the recent past. I'm assuming they're still meeting.

We used this CSA for a couple years:
http://www.tierramiguelfarm.org/csa.htm
and there is a farmers' mkt in burbank every Sat morning. Not huge, but it always seems to have what I need.

When we moved here in 1999 I also assumed that I would hate it, to be honest. But instead I found the community I needed in Burbank (we have our own schools and police (separate from LA), sidewalks, walkable neighborhoods, lots of parks, good libraries, etc.). I have found wonderful mom friends here, and many aspects of AP (breastfeeding until two, babywearing, cosleeping) are extremely common IME.

Anyway, let us know what else you're wondering!
-e

[lolar2]

I live in Glendale! We are right between Burbank and Pasadena, so unless you are planning for your DH to drop the kids off at school on his way to work, it's a good option for work in Burbank and school in Pasadena. We have gorgeous views of the mountains (some of which are part of the Glendale municipality). The only thing I wish is that Glendale were a little closer to the beach, but that's not really a big deal.

One interesting thing about Glendale is that there is a large, concentrated Armenian community here. Lots of cultural events and stuff going on, Armenian supermarkets and such.

Depending on just how into Waldorf you are, and how geeky about history you are, the Theosophical Society headquarters is in downtown Los Angeles. Theosophy and anthroposophy have common roots, historically.

If you want more info on Glendale, or if you decide to move here or to Pasadena or Burbank, pm me if you like-- maybe I can show you around.

[Ironica]

Los Angeles native here, too. I grew up in Echo Park, went to UCLA for undergrad and (several years later) grad school, and last year became a homeowner in Atwater Village.

The image you have of Los Angeles certainly exists. Don't settle in Brentwood, or most of West LA, Century City, Westwood... any of those areas. Santa Monica is all right, but gets a lot of spillover from the "Westside" communities. Venice tends to hold them at bay ;-). At any rate, though, those communities are uncomfortably removed from Burbank for commuting, IMO. (I did commute from West LA to Burbank for a few months, and it wasn't bad; I was going against traffic and took surface streets the whole way. But I also knew it was temporary, since I was being laid off shortly after my employment relocated.)

In our part of Atwater (which is in the City of Los Angeles, just south of Glendale), we've got, I think, the best of all possible worlds. Our street looks like the middle of suburbia, with families taking walks, cute houses, and an elementary school right up the street. But we're just a few blocks in either direction from main boulevards with good transit routes. We're also just across the river (and the 5 freeway, but there's pedestrian bridges over both of them) from Griffith Park, which is among the largest urban parks in the US (if not the world). We're very dedicated to public schooling, and are lucky enough to have landed in a community that's very like-minded; many families with the resources to invest in their children's education agree with us that the best way to do this is to foster great education in the local public school.

I know that there's a Holistic Mom's Network getting off the ground in Pasadena; they share meetings with our local EC group. ;-)

My husband works in Glendale, and I spend a lot of time there, as there's good shopping and recreation (movies etc.). I would never buy a house there, though. My cousin lived there for years, and they cheated her out of thousands of dollars in "inspection fees" because she hadn't painted her house. She hadn't painted, because just as she'd gotten a loan lined up (she couldn't afford it out-of-pocket) and was about to start, the city, without notice or consent, ripped out the sidewalk in front of her house along with the front three feet of her yard, including her front steps, and replaced them really badly. They even sunk the stop sign in her yard! She was understandably reluctant to spend money she didn't have on making her house look better for them when they were just going to tear things up. :-/ During that whole debacle, on one of her trips to city hall, she overheard a couple of the Planning folks giggling about all the fees some poor schmuck was paying to process a permit on his addition, which they knew they were going to deny (but keep the fees, of course). Ick.

[monkeybars]

Hello again. You may have already checked some of these out, but here are some useful east side links:

http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/ - tons of Pasadena info, history, museums, parks, libraries, etc

http://www.ci.burbank.ca.us/ - ditto for Burbank and note we get ranked in the 100 best cities to raise a family

http://www.nelanet.org/ - northeast stuff

http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/ - Glendale

http://www.fullolife.com/ - the local health food store & restaurant in Burbank, but note every single neighborhood here has at least one health food store, a Trader Joe's and some a Whole Foods

http://www.laparks.org/dos/parks/griffithPK/index.htm - park, zoo, observatory, western museum

http://losangeles.parenthood.com/ - free LA monthly activities

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/angeles/ - our astonishingly wonderful and underused wildreness area

There is tons more info online, and I'm sure it is horribly confusing to research it from far away. As far as the "fake people" stuff, I agree there are some obnoxious types out there (mostly on the west end, though there are certainly as many or more wonderful, regular ol' people too - the stereotypes just stand out more), but honestly, the truly best part of this city is the incredible cultural diversity.

[lolar2]

Ah-ha, that's a good point about not buying a house in Glendale. We are so far away from the economic stratum that buys houses, that isn't even on my radar. But it's a nice place to rent.

[mammom]

Thank you all SO much for your posts. I really appreciate the help! We haven't heard yet about the job (although we expect to any day), and if it happens, we'll most likely have several months before we have to move out there, but I will keep you posted.

Thank you again!!

Melissa

[LoveOhm]

I live in Pasadena and was raised here ---- but have lived in Brentwood as well.

There are many things I like about the area the Pasadena Waldorf School is one of the nicest in the entire LA area. (Many families like it better than the Westside Waldorf) Also of note is Highland Hall Waldorf which goes thru 12th grade in Northridge. If you opt to do private school that is not Waldorf I think you should realize they seem to easily be asking $20k per year......... just something to consider.

I like private school for the moral values they instill in children but if I were moving & buying I would strongly suggest moving to an area with good public schools (even if it is just as a back up option because you never know what might happen financially). On the eastside Silverlake & Mt. Washington are strong districts. I would also suggest looking into Eagle Rock which I hear is on the rise both as a community & as a school district.

In the SGV I would say Burbank (but they are not really diverse or liberal so I would not move there), South Pasadena (my top pick in the area), San Marino or La Canada (both of which again are not diverse or liberal). Living in Pasadena know you are committing to private schools ---- it really is the only option in my opinion but I do truly love it.

In my perfect world I would live in Manhattan Beach ---- young energy, tons of both family and adult things to do, a laid back vibe and beach feel. If I could "do" LA it would have to be by the beach. If deep in the valley I would like Topanga and if I stay long term on the eastside it would be South Pasadena (because my family is in Pasadena) or in the Los Feliz/Silverlake are which is sooooooo diverse and liberal but a little bit more dirty in apparence than the suburbs.

Hope all the ramblings help some....