UCLA - Where to live?

[jenery]

If no, then give Palms/ Venice a shot. Be careful, since some parts can be kind of seedy and have their share of gang activity...

Can you elaborate on this please? 

[Kwertee]

If no, then give Palms/ Venice a shot. Be careful, since some parts can be kind of seedy and have their share of gang activity...

Can you elaborate on this please? 

Yes, could you?  I have found some apartments that are right along the bus line into UCLA and are priced low.  Are the particular streets/corners that I should avoid, or is the whole neighborhood "seedy"? 

[bruin]

Don't know much about specific streets/corners, but there def are some shady parts of Venice. I Don't think Palms would be as bad, especially near the big blue lines, due to heavy UCLA studnet presence.

[pop_tort]

I would start as soon as possible.

I have already started looking, but we weren't going to leave for LA to actually try to sign a lease until after the 4th weekend.  Do you think that is too late?

It's not too late, but I agree with everyone here... go ASAP! LA is a big city and the good places go fast! New places do go up for rent all the time, so there is some hope if you are going in early July.

[pop_tort]

If no, then give Palms/ Venice a shot. Be careful, since some parts can be kind of seedy and have their share of gang activity...

Can you elaborate on this please? 

Yes, could you?  I have found some apartments that are right along the bus line into UCLA and are priced low.  Are the particular streets/corners that I should avoid, or is the whole neighborhood "seedy"? 

I'm not an expert on which streets in partuclar house the most gangbangers, but if you take a look around the area, you'll get an idea of what I mean by "seedy" (bars on the windows, tagging...if you can read tagging, ganbangers "throw up" their affilations on walls, etc, apt. units look kind of run down compared to others that you've seen, etc) I know that's all subjective and probably doesn't help much, but it's just some things to loook out for.

You might have some luck in Marina Del Rey (right beside Venice) but you'll have to take a look at apts $$ because there's a lot of yacht lovers there, and you might hit rents that are too high. Don't go south of there because you'll get down to LAX, which is too noisy, too far, and may not be as safe.

Just east of Venice are Mar Vista and Culver City... totally doable, but just take a look around and see if the apts. and the neighborhood are to your liking. You might even be able to rent a small house in culver city if the price is right.

One other area that I forgot to mention that might work out GREAT for you is Brentwood, yeah where OJ's wife lived.....lol. Don't let that scare you, the area is great and then rents are decent if you have a roommate (and you have your girlfriend, so that works out). It's right ourside Santa Monica, so rent  is lower than SM and you can still drive/ take the bus to the beach if you need to get away.

Also, regarding transportation, check out http://www.metro.net for LA's *lousy* public transportation system. If you want to see where the specifc bus lines run, check out this link on their site: http://metro.net/riding_metro/riders_guide/planning_trip-01.htm and choose the "West/Central Los Angeles' link.

All this beach talk is making me think that I need to go lay out, espcially since I won't have the beach while I'm in law school. If I end up heading out there, I'll be on the look out for a few intersections/ streets in the area and let you know what I find.

[calikate]

When I first moved to LA, I lived in Westwood, worked in West LA and I didn't have a car, so I spent the 1st year taking the bus. MTA is crap because they strike every year it seems, so you pretty much have to take a cab if you rely on them. The Santa Monica Big Blue Bus is a godsend. I have a friend who took it the entire time she was a grad student at UCLA. Google it and check out the routes. If I were you, I would only rent near routes that it services. It'll take a lot of pressure off of you if you decide you can't afford a second car. Don't even think about Koreatown or even Hollywood. With traffic these days it takes FOREVER to get anywhere in LA. Like other posters said, try Palms, parts of Venice, West LA (between Westwood and Santa Monica) and possibly Brentwood. Marina del Rey is pricey and can be a lengthy commute.

[pop_tort]

Here's the link for the Big Blue Bus: http://www.bigbluebus.com/home/index.asp
I think they just added three new lines, so that should be good for you if you use it.

Don't have any new info on Venice... I was in Long Beach for work this morning and drove from there to Hermosa Beach to play, so I didn't quite make it through Venice. But if I get more specific info, I'll definitely post it. And yes, the beach was awesome... it's always great on the weekdays when no one is there =)

I agree with Calikate... you'll prob want to stay as close as you can to campus because LA traffic is a bi-atch, especially if you aren't used to it. But yes, the reality is that it really can take about an hour to drive 20-25 miles. Ridiculous, but hey, that's LA!

Yes, Hollywood is bit too far for a UCLA student. The rents will be cheaper, and if you found the right neighborhood, you'd be okay in terms of saftey... but traffic would still suck. You'd be better off shelling out the extra $100 and moving cloer to UCLA.

Hope this helps!

One of my best friends has a GREAT place right off of Santa Monica and Bundy, and she shares a large 2 Bdr/ 2BA with vaulted ceilings for $1400 total. It's on Bundy, so it can get sorta noisy and they only have tandem parking below....but hey, that's better than no parking, right?

[Kwertee]

I would start as soon as possible.

I have already started looking, but we weren't going to leave for LA to actually try to sign a lease until after the 4th weekend.  Do you think that is too late?

It's not too late, but I agree with everyone here... go ASAP! LA is a big city and the good places go fast! New places do go up for rent all the time, so there is some hope if you are going in early July.

We made some calls yesterday because I was afraid that we would need to drive to LA this week to find a place.  All three places we called told us that if we came down, they are signing leases to have us move in right now.  The general opinion was that if we want to sign a lease starting around August 1, we should come down around July 31 to look for a place.  The market is so fast that place come up and down in a few days.  I've never really done this apartment search thing before, and I am getting conflicting advice.  Anyone have an idea what I should do?

[bruin]

Tough to say. My experience with apartment leases is in areas immediately adjacent to schools, like Westwood. In those cases, people start signing academic year (Fall-Spring/Fall) leases in january-March.

Keep researching the rental market, narrow down the areas you want to live in. maybe waiting a few weeks is the best way to go, but if you find the right place, I suggest going for it.

[Munkeysgrrl]

I just got back last night from signing a lease in Brentwood.  It was a pretty lengthy process finding an apartment.  We were looking for a 2bd/2ba in brentwood, west la, or SM.  South of Wilshire got pretty seedy and there was no protected parking/building security in most of the places.  The places are going super fast because of all of the students coming in.  Literally, an apt would be listed on Westside Rentals and it would be gone the next day.  These 2 girls beat us to the leasing office to sign a lease the other day by like an hour after the apt was shown.  It was nuts!  I had 2 make 2 trips to find something, but then again it might be more difficult for larger apartments b/c of more students, etc.  My advice would be to look no later than mid-july.  best of luck!