Monday, September 17, 2012

Look Ma, I'm a real estate expert!


East Side Bride,

Love your blog, hate wedding planning, hate moving to LA.

I currently live in Chicago, my fiance lives in LA (Koreatown). I'm not that into living there, so we are looking for a place that is close to downtown but not K-town. A short commute is key. Will I hate Monterey Hills?

I feel like I should just move to Los Feliz but being a mid-western girl, I want some trees. Chicago is so easy, every neighborhood has a stereotype, why aren't other cities like this?

Thoughts?

-- Lost in LA

*****

gimme a stereotype. what are you aiming for??

*****

Hip young professionals and hip young families. People who spend more money on their art than their cars.

*****

Sounds like Silver Lake to me. If you can afford it, you will love it.

And don't worry... there are trees!



(Monterey Hills is NOT hip. And I think you'd feel isolated that far out.)

*****

Maybe I should give you a little more to work with. I snack on kale chips, organic beef jerky and carry around a water bottle. We are both corporate professionals but we have some esoteric interests. So a creative, hip, yuppie community. Being able to go for runs in the neighborhood is a key for me.

*****

Like I said, Silver Lake.

Image via YEAH! rentals (anyone know who the photographer is?)

41 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, these people sound insufferable.

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    1. Yes! Being those things is one thing. . .being aware if them (and claiming them) takes it to a whole new level of gag.

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    2. Yes! Could not have said it better myself!

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    3. @ Anon 8:23 Huh, I usually find a lack of self-awareness more insufferable. Like the hipsters who complain about hipsters.

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    4. huh. sounds to me like esb's usual gang.

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    5. Meh. I agree with @ lowercase lauren - there's a lot to be said for being who you want to be and just fucking owning it. Being artfully disingenuous just adds another layer of obnoxiousness.

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  2. In Chicago-speak, Silver Lake is Bucktown/Wicker Park.

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    1. Totally. And Ukrainian Village.

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    2. "Hip young families" almost made me say Logan Square buuuut then I read "yuppie."

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  3. Where do you live in Chicago? Sounds like a weird mix of hippie and yuppie...I'd guess Andersonville/Lincoln Square based on all the "tree" stuff.

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    1. (I live in Lincoln Square - "tree" sounded condescending - I didn't mean it to! "tree stuff" was supposed to be in quotes, not just "tree"...)

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    2. Hey, I live in Lincoln Square too!

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    3. another Lincoln Square resident here :)

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  4. GAG. Organic beef jerky? Are you kidding me with this?

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    1. I'd eat the shit out of some organic beef jerky. Nitrite free, obvs.

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    2. agree. with some kale chips? Sounds tasty.

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  5. OK I need to get in on the Chicago guessing game too, as it is my hometown and I am now trying to see if this person fits my neighborhood stereotypes.

    I'm guessing you live in... Lincoln Park or Lakeview.

    ????

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    1. Are you kidding, or have you not lived in Chicago for a while or are you really from the 'burbs but call Chicago your "hometown"? Lakeview/LP not nearly crunchy enough and def not "spend more money on art than cars." And not hip young pro's/young families but more like yuppie / post-frat type.

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    2. god "MISS GEORGIA" is usually obnoxious

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  6. Also, I grew up in Chicago and now live in Seattle. I really miss Chicago, but if you're outdoorsy (which it sounds like you are), I think you'll love the West Coast! It has Chicago beat on that score, hands down. I even think that's true for a huge sprawling city like LA.

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  7. does anyone even know where monterey hills really is?

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  8. It sounds like Lost could also be happy in Eagle Rock, which I don't consider to be toooooo far from Downtown. Anymore. Or Mt. Washington. Maybe. A lot of people I know are settling down and starting families there. But yeah, probably Silverlake boarding Los Feliz. I think once you live here all the neighborhoods starts running together to a certain amount and then suddenly you start thinking of Atwater Village as Los Feliz and then what, Los Feliz might as well be Glendale. And Glendale is where I first made the mistake of living when I moved here for Grad school in Pasadena 10 years ago.

    After moving to Pasadena and then to Echo Park to Laurel Canyon to Downtown back to Echo Park, I now live in Silver Lake, boarding Echo Park and it's great. There's the reservoir to run (or walk with your water bottle, whatever) around, decent restaurants and bars and overpriced coffee shops. And if I wasn't clear, people ACTUALLY WALK around here. Like to go places.

    ALSO, the only time I've been to Monterrey Hills is to go to that house with the teepee on the hill for a party. If you want to have some nearby nice restaurants or grocery stores, it's not the place for you.

    ALSO PART TWO, the Californians is the only SNL funny thing in the last 2 years and when you move here you will start talking much more frequently about how to get from one place to another (uncannily true).

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  9. I just barfed everywhere

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    1. Also don't move here, there's already a high enough concentration of douchebags in Los Angeles already. Importing the rest of the country's douchebags just make it harder for me to defend LA.

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    2. Or maybe LA should keep taking one for the rest of the country... sort of like how Jupiter sweeps most of the asteroids & comets up protecting the rest of the solar system LA helps consolidate the hip young yuppies

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  10. um....sounds like you just need to move to Portland. The "Alberta Arts" district would be perfect for you to get your hippie/yuppie/running/tree/environmentally friendly fix. you will find your people on the East banks of the Willamette...

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  11. HA! i really wish everyone would stop acting like they don't fit into these stereotypes as well. at least "Lost" is truthful about what she wants.

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  12. Fuck LA, make your FH move to Chicago.

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  13. This is why I live in norcal and just call myself a loser.

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  14. I agree that Silverlake is going to meet all your criteria, but depending on your definition of "short communte" Pasadena might be a good place to look. Its actually a surprisingly quick drive into downtown (15-20 minutes in the morning, longer at night), and it's outdoorsy and tree lined. North Pas, parts of South Pas and Altadena have lower home prices than you are going to find in Silverlake if you are looking to buy.

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  15. Wow...all of these opinions on Monterey Hills, yet none of you seem to have ever been there. It is , by the way, a tiny neighborhood nestled in the hills on the eastside of the 110 from Highland Park and is essentially a community of condo complexes on Via Marisol abd Via Mia. It is In Northeast L.A., and is adjacent to the main entrance to Debs State Park, and the neighborhood of Hermon. It is bucolic and relatively quiet, and sits just across the freeway from Highland Park/hipster-central/restaurants, bars, shops, etc. It is 5-10 minute drive to DTLA (via the 110 or Huntington Dr), 30 min to Subset Strip at noon (an hour at rush hour abd 15 min late-night).
    Monterey Hills is pretty, the air is cleaner and less dusty (I lived in Hollywood and Ktown for a decade combined) than in mid-city neighborhoods. Yes, there are less stores and shops to walk to than in Silverlake if you lice right off Sunset, but Silverlake ihas gotten pretty uppity in the last 5 years or so, and the stores and shops there have Beverly Hills price points and snobby attitudes. Highland Park has a greater variety of boutique businesses and an authenticity and sense of community that Silverlake lost in gentrification. My advice: Visit. Check out the neighborhoods. Find where you feel most at home, abd drive/bike/cab it to wherever you want to go out. L.A. Is huge...go out and explore. You might fibd you love Venice, or prefer the canyons, but you won't know until you check out the neighborhoods.

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  16. I just finally moved out of Koreatown after 12 years there. We moved to South Pasadena, it's awesome, I wish I could afford to buy a house here and stay here forever. Also, 5 minutes to downtown.

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  17. clearly VENICE is the place for this girl.

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