Moving to Cali, have a few questions!

[Walkurie]

Moved to Huntington Beach from Northern CA 4 years ago. Work in Los Alamitos, so it's an easy commute. Any of the towns mentioned along the 605 would be good for you to get to Santa Fe Springs. Downtown is a pain, I would bet that you would become irritated with the daily grind pretty quickly. As for restuarants and hangouts, almost anywhere in SoCal will be good to great, but embrace the beach cities. HB is a younger person's Mecca. Just about any of the beach cities are, now with Summer coming. Forget about the northern hangups. Learn to surf. Or bike. Or whatever you could not do on cold days. Made the move from the northeast 16 years ago and love it. There is no dealing with humidity and bugs you would find in the South because there are none. Many SoCal natives feel oppressed, and I can understand that. Yes, it is crowded here! But there are rewards. Good luck, check out the local meets, there is a good one in the Long Beach area every Thursday and especially Cars and Coffee at the Spectrum in Irvine. Every Saturday morning from 6:00 till 9:00. Call for help whenever you need it.

[dekaliber]

Just got back from my trip to SoCal. Took Wednesday and Thursday to look at housing options and did a little more driving around the greater LA area on Sunday/Monday morning before getting back. My thoughts so far:

1. Housing -- I'm gravitating towards some of the loft-like spaces in the more developed areas of downtown LA towards the west and the south. I probably should have driven more around these neighborhoods at night, but the buildings I looked at felt very safe with a doorman and secured parking. I'd be taking a hit on parking, which ranges from a decent lot in/under the building in the best case to public, outdoor, door-dings-guaranteed parking in the worst case. If I can't get a building with 2 spots I'm going to have to give serious consideration to selling my pristine ZHP and picking up an older, cheaper car (probably a convertible) as a DD that I could be less anal about. I LOVE my ZHP, but top-down motoring and less soul currency invested in worrying about where I leave my car are good upsides to this scenario. An E36 M3 may be in my future.

The coastal communities have a certain appeal. I didn't get to check out areas like Huntington Beach or Manhattan/Redondo/Hermosa Beach, but I drove around Long Beach and Seal Beach and can definitely see the appeal.

2. Weather -- Unbelievably nice 100% of the time I was there. I was hoping to see more in the way of clouds. The midwest develops some really beautiful cloud formations that I hope I'll continue to be able to see out west.

3. Traffic -- I didn't expect it to be any better than Chicago, but it didn't really seem worse either. Since I was staying downtown Wednesday night I commuted to work on Thursday morning during rush hour to my future office to stop in and say hello. It took 25 minutes door to door from about 7:50 to 8:15, with a lot of that time spent stuck on the exit ramp from the highway near work. I recognize that traffic was probably on the lighter side due to the holiday weekend and some spring break schedules, but the parts that got slow rarely came to a complete stop like it often does here.

I did much more driving around than I normally would, but traveling around the city certainly got to be a pain if I ended up on the wrong side of the highway at the wrong time. However, I don't think I ended up thinking about or planning around traffic any more than I would in Chicago. Lane splitting on a bike looks dicier than I expected due to the bumpy lane dividers, but it's one way to avoid being completely stopped in traffic. Motorcycle will definitely get a lot more use out here.

4. Roads -- Surface quality only slightly better than Chicago, and worse in some parts. The main difference seemed to generally uneven maintenance rather than foot-wide potholes. Haven't ridden on it in the super-stiff M suspension but I think I'll take the trade. Didn't get up to any mountain roads in my rental Hyundai (no point, no time) but I'm probably the most excited about this out of everything.

5. People -- On the whole, people seemed happier. Hard not to be when it's sunny and beautiful all the time, probably. I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone tended to be more assertive and more attentive in their driving as well. Rarely did I find myself stuck in the left lane with the guy in front of me texting on his phone going the speed limit. The downside was that accidents appeared to be a pretty regular occurrence. Somewhat concerning but I guess I just need to up my defensive driving.

Thanks for the continued feedback, everyone. I look forward to meeting some fellow Zposters once I get out there!

[Nikki]

Long Beach and Seal Beach and TOTALLY different from Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo.

I can agree that the people here are generally happier and driving here isn't bad since people here are more assertive than other places I've lived.

It's interesting seeing your comments since I have been here two years now and forgotten many of the things you've mentioned that struck me as odd or different when I first came here.

[The HACK]

Take a look at Huntington Beach too before you commit to downtown or west of downtown. The area around Huntington Beach is really nice and you have quick free-way access to 405 and 605 which will make commuting to Santa Fe Springs much easier. And it's marginally more affordable than Seal Beach and Long Beach.

Actually, Long Beach has better night life, if I have a choice, Long Beach would be it...Plus it's got a better artist community.