7 ms·

Quality of life tip: Living within walking distance of your job is priceless. I've been in LA for over nine years and never been more than fifteen minutes from

Quality of life tip: Living within walking distance of your job is priceless. I've been in LA for over nine years and never been more than fifteen minutes from the office. I'd sooner move to another city than spend some significant fraction of my life in traffic.

modfodder 12y ago
Same goes for NYC. I enjoyed going to work every day more when I didn't have to think about the subway commute.
- mechagodzilla 12y ago
  That requires that you work somewhere that you'd want to live, though. A few hundred thousand people work in midtown manhattan, but it would be a miserable place to live. The subway isn't great, but commuter rail is pretty pleasant. Commuting 10 miles each way in LA traffic is definitely the worst commute I've ever had!
  - harryh 12y ago
    I live in midtown manhattan (46th & 2nd) and while I don't enjoy it quite as much as I did living downtown it's still pretty great. I've no idea why you think it would be miserable.
  - modfodder 12y ago
    I lived on 37th and 10th for a while (working about 10 blocks south). You don't have to live a block from your office to make it enjoyable. A 15-20 min walk is more enjoyable than a 20min (more likely 40min) subway trip. While it obviously wouldn't work for everyone, it worked for me and was more pleasurable than living in even nice parts of Brooklyn and dealing with crowded trains in the morning.
    - avn2109 12y ago
      9AM L train is pretty bad nowadays.
  - giaour 12y ago
    I used to work next to Times Square and before that in Hoboken. I would never want to live within walking distance of either.
  - dr_ 12y ago
    I live in midtown Manhattan. It's not at all a miserable place to live. We can catch most of the subways within a block or two. We are a couple of blocks from Central Park. There are more and more families that have been moving into the area. There's an increasing number of restaurants, cafes etc. There are a lot of tourists coming thru, but we don't mind. It's been fun living here.
    - Roritharr 12y ago
      Just out of curiosity, how much rent do you pay? I live in Frankfurt Germany and find rent pretty expensive here, but i can't imagine how expensive midtown Manhattan must be.
      - cguess 12y ago
        Not OP, but you can expect to start at about $1500 a month for a studio apartment (maybe cheaper if you find a damn good deal). If you want a one bedroom, $2000/month is probably closer.
        a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
        > start at about $1500 a month for a studio I'm not a New Yorker but I'm having a very hard time believing this. Poking around online I get the strong sense any non-roommate living space at all in Manhattan is going to be very well over $2000.
        modfodder 12y ago
        If your only avenue to finding an apartment is Craigslist, then most likely. But once you've lived in NYC for a while and have a group of friends who've lived there a while, it's not difficult to find good deals (especially if you're patient and don't need to move in a hurry). It's just like searching for a job, sometimes the best job openings are never advertised outside a small subset of people.
        12y ago
  - solve 12y ago
    "it would be a miserable place to live" Different people, vastly different tastes, dude. Every small town around the world spreads this weird rumor among themselves that cities are so terrible. Apparently caused by the small percentage of people who moved to a city and then later moved back. Great sample to draw on. What if -- dense cities are extremely packed with millions of people because that's exactly what some people love? Not some convoluted tradeoff that millions of people are being forced to make by living there. What if the answer to why cities are that way is simply because people love it that way?
    - a_c_s 12y ago
      That's what I thought before moving to NYC. After being here a few years, I've found New Yorkers are rather more provincial than I had expected and many don't have any idea what "not New York" (or at least the tri-state area) is like. At this point I think a majority of people who live in NYC do so because they already live here.
      - solve 12y ago
        My theory on that is because Manhattan is so great, and the immediate surroundings are relatively so much worse in many ways (opinions vary but it's generally accepted). So, they get the idea that this trend just continues indefinitely, the further away you get the worse it gets.
- mullingitover 12y ago
  Difference is, in LA I have a small house and a back yard. There are olive trees with a hammock strung between them and my rent is 1850 a month. I'm pretty sure that would get me a small closet in Manhattan.
nathanvanfleet 12y ago
Really? I always thought that was not possible in LA. I like living without a car and having a semi-urban house with a backyard. Is that possible in LA? I seriously would love to live somewhere like that. I do iOS dev work, so I considered SF, but maybe 20 years ago...
- enraged_camel 12y ago
  I lived in LA for 7 years, in a variety of locations. Living within walking distance to your job isn't possible unless a) you make a lot of money or b) you don't mind living far from everything else.
- Sundog 12y ago
  Have lived in LA for 12 years, have lived walking distance from my job for all but one of them. Just takes planning, like anything else.
  - mattdeboard 12y ago
    > Just takes planning... ...and significant markup in housing costs, no?
    - anigbrowl 12y ago
      Somewhat, but that's offset by the savings of not running a car or spending a significant percentage of your valuable time sitting in traffic.
    - maxk42 12y ago
      LA is a patchwork of small "neighborhoods" -- each typically only a few square miles. Adjacent to any particularly pricey area will probably be several more affordable ones. Can't afford pricey Beverly Hills? There may be parts of Century City or Culver City or Mid-Wilshire more in your price range.
- danboarder 12y ago
  I live in LA county (Long Beach) and yes, there are a lot of great little historic tree lined neighborhoods spread all over LA... For example, I work downtown Long Beach, and live in beautiful Cal Heights, a short 3 mile bike ride, drive, or blue line subway ride to my office. live: http://calheights.org http://calheights.org work: http://www.downtownlongbeach.org http://www.downtownlongbeach.org
mkramlich 12y ago
take that notion to the limit: be able to "work" wherever you are; or wherever you have an Internet connection. trust me, its a better thing.

modfodder 12y ago

Same goes for NYC. I enjoyed going to work every day more when I didn't have to think about the subway commute.

mechagodzilla 12y ago
That requires that you work somewhere that you'd want to live, though. A few hundred thousand people work in midtown manhattan, but it would be a miserable place to live. The subway isn't great, but commuter rail is pretty pleasant. Commuting 10 miles each way in LA traffic is definitely the worst commute I've ever had!
- harryh 12y ago
  I live in midtown manhattan (46th & 2nd) and while I don't enjoy it quite as much as I did living downtown it's still pretty great. I've no idea why you think it would be miserable.
- modfodder 12y ago
  I lived on 37th and 10th for a while (working about 10 blocks south). You don't have to live a block from your office to make it enjoyable. A 15-20 min walk is more enjoyable than a 20min (more likely 40min) subway trip. While it obviously wouldn't work for everyone, it worked for me and was more pleasurable than living in even nice parts of Brooklyn and dealing with crowded trains in the morning.
  - avn2109 12y ago
    9AM L train is pretty bad nowadays.
- giaour 12y ago
  I used to work next to Times Square and before that in Hoboken. I would never want to live within walking distance of either.
- dr_ 12y ago
  I live in midtown Manhattan. It's not at all a miserable place to live. We can catch most of the subways within a block or two. We are a couple of blocks from Central Park. There are more and more families that have been moving into the area. There's an increasing number of restaurants, cafes etc. There are a lot of tourists coming thru, but we don't mind. It's been fun living here.
  - Roritharr 12y ago
    Just out of curiosity, how much rent do you pay? I live in Frankfurt Germany and find rent pretty expensive here, but i can't imagine how expensive midtown Manhattan must be.
    - cguess 12y ago
      Not OP, but you can expect to start at about $1500 a month for a studio apartment (maybe cheaper if you find a damn good deal). If you want a one bedroom, $2000/month is probably closer.
      - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
        > start at about $1500 a month for a studio I'm not a New Yorker but I'm having a very hard time believing this. Poking around online I get the strong sense any non-roommate living space at all in Manhattan is going to be very well over $2000.
        modfodder 12y ago
        If your only avenue to finding an apartment is Craigslist, then most likely. But once you've lived in NYC for a while and have a group of friends who've lived there a while, it's not difficult to find good deals (especially if you're patient and don't need to move in a hurry). It's just like searching for a job, sometimes the best job openings are never advertised outside a small subset of people.
        12y ago
- solve 12y ago
  "it would be a miserable place to live" Different people, vastly different tastes, dude. Every small town around the world spreads this weird rumor among themselves that cities are so terrible. Apparently caused by the small percentage of people who moved to a city and then later moved back. Great sample to draw on. What if -- dense cities are extremely packed with millions of people because that's exactly what some people love? Not some convoluted tradeoff that millions of people are being forced to make by living there. What if the answer to why cities are that way is simply because people love it that way?
  - a_c_s 12y ago
    That's what I thought before moving to NYC. After being here a few years, I've found New Yorkers are rather more provincial than I had expected and many don't have any idea what "not New York" (or at least the tri-state area) is like. At this point I think a majority of people who live in NYC do so because they already live here.
    - solve 12y ago
      My theory on that is because Manhattan is so great, and the immediate surroundings are relatively so much worse in many ways (opinions vary but it's generally accepted). So, they get the idea that this trend just continues indefinitely, the further away you get the worse it gets.
mullingitover 12y ago
Difference is, in LA I have a small house and a back yard. There are olive trees with a hammock strung between them and my rent is 1850 a month. I'm pretty sure that would get me a small closet in Manhattan.

nathanvanfleet 12y ago

Really? I always thought that was not possible in LA. I like living without a car and having a semi-urban house with a backyard. Is that possible in LA? I seriously would love to live somewhere like that. I do iOS dev work, so I considered SF, but maybe 20 years ago...

enraged_camel 12y ago
I lived in LA for 7 years, in a variety of locations. Living within walking distance to your job isn't possible unless a) you make a lot of money or b) you don't mind living far from everything else.
Sundog 12y ago
Have lived in LA for 12 years, have lived walking distance from my job for all but one of them. Just takes planning, like anything else.
- mattdeboard 12y ago
  > Just takes planning... ...and significant markup in housing costs, no?
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    Somewhat, but that's offset by the savings of not running a car or spending a significant percentage of your valuable time sitting in traffic.
  - maxk42 12y ago
    LA is a patchwork of small "neighborhoods" -- each typically only a few square miles. Adjacent to any particularly pricey area will probably be several more affordable ones. Can't afford pricey Beverly Hills? There may be parts of Century City or Culver City or Mid-Wilshire more in your price range.
danboarder 12y ago
I live in LA county (Long Beach) and yes, there are a lot of great little historic tree lined neighborhoods spread all over LA... For example, I work downtown Long Beach, and live in beautiful Cal Heights, a short 3 mile bike ride, drive, or blue line subway ride to my office. live: http://calheights.org http://calheights.org work: http://www.downtownlongbeach.org http://www.downtownlongbeach.org

mkramlich 12y ago

take that notion to the limit: be able to "work" wherever you are; or wherever you have an Internet connection. trust me, its a better thing.