Living in LA - Tell me your favorite area and why

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family has a place in Inglewood. We love it. It's been in our family since the late 40's. While the neighborhood around it is kind of sketchy, it's close to the airport and the beach, and the 405 is like half a mile away. We've rebuilt the home that was on site about 10 years ago, and use this place as an AirBNB host site and we stay there when we're in LA. There's a wall all the way around it, and it's like a private compound.

The property is HUGE (by LA standards) almost 7 acres, and has 3 wells that are yielding almost 11 barrels of LSC daily. The oil revenue alone has put 9 kids through college since the 60's

Everyone should own an oil well. It's like a license to print money. And when the barrel price falls below your desired profit point, you just turn it off and wait for the price to come back up. The oil will still be there!

Holy sh#t, that is nuts. I'm originally from Long Beach, so many questions for you. I had no idea people were privately pumping oil! I assumed all the mineral rights were owned by large companies.
-Who installed the equipment and how much did it cost?
-Where the hell does one even have 7 acres in Inglewood?!?

Kudos to your family. Talk about a smart investment!!!

It's near Florence and La Brea. Grandfather bought it when he left the Navy and started working for the airport. There was almost nothing there back then, there were still farms and fields all over the place. The mineral rights were easy, since ARCO considered the wells "panned out", meaning they weren't pumping enough oil to be worth the trouble of keeping the pumpjacks going. Hillcrest-Beverly has 40-some years left on a 99 year exclusive purchase contract to truck the pumped oil away a couple times a month. Some years it's almost not enough to be worth the fuss, other years it's pretty great. We've only "lost" money on it a few times, and back when oil was $150+ a barrel, it was making us almost $300,000 annually. Not bad for three little holes that are too small for anyone to be interested in, lol. The neighborhood is not great. Everyone still talks about the riots, but nothing happened to us. The area is starting to gentrify, but I don't know if it'll ever be a place worth living full time in. The main feature is being next ot the airport and the freeway, so it's a great spot if you're passing through. I can't ever see it being worth the trouble of pulling the wells and subdividing the lot, because the environmental rules are so draconian about cleaning up the site after the wells are closed. We'd have to truck away hundreds of loads of dirt and replace them with "clean" dirt in order to meet the rules. So we'll just keep it in the family for now, it'll be my kids/grandkids problem one day, haha.

Very cool story (at least to me). I grew up running around the oil pumps in Long Beach and Signal Hill. Thank you for following up and sharing!

Yes! Thanks for sharing! I used to live in Redondo, worked in El Segundo and went up and down this area all the time. What a great income stream, and story for your family! You're oil barrons!

[Anonymous]

I live in Pacific Palisades and am a native to this area.

1) understand the geography. The weather inland (over the Santa Monica mountains; the Valley, Pasadena etc) is totally different than Westside weather because there is no ocean influence. It is hot/cold. However; there are more sunny days than in the Westside, because the ocean also brings in fog.

Buy a book by Sunset Magazine that has the climate zones in it. Forget the USDA climate zones (we'd be 10 in that zone). Sunset has them broken down into microclimates with maps. For instance, Santa Monica is zone 24, but the Palisades is zone 23--it's because we have a cliff (a "palisade") that blocks some ocean influence.

2) You can walk in LA, but you need to find the right locations to do it. I like the Palisades because it is walkable if you buy something near the village here. In Santa Monica, there are areas around Third St. Promenade, and also around Montana Ave. that are nice. There are many walkable little areas in LA; other PPs can tell you (I recall a few but can't remember their names/street names).

3) Even though it's not near the ocean, Pasadena is awesome. The architecture (California Craftsman), the vibe, the food, the perfect gardening climate (near the beach you get "powdery mildew"). The town is big enough that locals will have to tell you the best neighborhoods. We used to live near Old Town...and I also recall Lake Ave are was great.

4) A PP recommends Topanga, which is on the other side of the Palisades, and inland a bit. It is a TOTALLY different vibe than the Palisades or adjacent Malibu. It's like horse/chickens/hippies/art courses. OMG it's so cool; so different.

5) If you like artsy/weird/pot/edgy/urban, Venice. I don't like all that but mentioning it.

6)Glendale--there is something about Glendale that is very appealing; check it out.

[Anonymous]

^^also want to say I LOVE the PP oil well story! ha I know a family who owns the well off of Del Norte on the 101.

there are little private oil wells all over LA, I read an article on it once.

[Anonymous]

Check out Rustic Canyon. Or Malibu.

[Anonymous]

I agree about Pasadena! I'm biased- it's where I live but it has a lot of culture and vibrancy. The city had a lot to offer.

[Anonymous]

I like Belmont Shore, Newport Beach, Santa Monica, Oceanside (near San Diego) Pasadena

[Anonymous]

11:36 again. Want to mention to OP that you should WAIT until your kid moves to LA so you know where they work, and work around that.

For instance, as I mentioned, I'm in Pacific Palisades. My brother and his family bought in Altadena (above Pasadena). It's an excursion to get to them; we don't see them unless we have a whole day to kill.

Ok back to neighborhoods. Marina del Rey ("The Marina") if you like boating, sailing, yachts...fyi there's no sailing situation in Malibu.

[Anonymous]

I love Beverly Hills but also conversely, Silverlake and Echo park. Very cool.

[Anonymous]

Eching the PPs....Pasadena is beautiful. It's near the San Gabriel mountains which has some nice hiking nearby. The traffic can be bad on the 210 or 134 though, depending on which direction you are going.

[Anonymous]

We live in Cheviot Hills, which is a charming, tree-lined, centrally-located suburb that is a few minutes commute from Century City, Beverly Hills and Culver City. It is right near several studios with ready access to freeways. We have been able to commute to jobs, schools and doctors in Downtown LA, Santa Monica and Sherman Oaks over the years without losing our minds from the traffic. Unfortunately, current prices for SFH are around 2 million.

[Anonymous]

^^If you watch Life in Pieces, Modern Family or the Goldbergs, you’ve seen Cheviot Hills. The studios are constantly using our neighborhood since it is close and there is such a variety of old and new homes here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pasadena

The rest sucks.

Sheldon?

[Anonymous]

I would pick Camarillo.