I'll probably live close to campus my first year then try to get a room in silverlake/los feliz/echo park. Downtown itself seems a bit too manhattan-y (I'm in brooklyn now so I prefer they vibe).
Yeah. After visiting LA last week I'm a little less worried about friends and now reading too much on earthquakes and deciding not to live in a concret building :/ haha.
I'm probably gonna put the deposit for the seat now. Though I'm still on some NYC schools waitlists which could lead to another tough decision...
Downtown LA is far from Manhattan (maybe only because only wealthy people can currently afford it?), and it's pretty small once you realize that there's only so much to do there before you branch out. However, Angelenos do have a certain air about them, as do people from anywhere "big".
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Also, I have been back in LA for almost two months. I'm from here, and was in the (boring) Bay Area for a year. I miss some aspects like clean air and nice roads and no traffic (since I was going the opposite way), but I like the LA vibe, the places to be, and the general city-like atmosphere, where as the Bay Area (outside of SF) has more of a small town feel with tech companies commandeering all the available space for their employees. The bay consists of 95% suburbs, I feel, but not really meaningful cities. While LA is a sprawl of burbs, they're all "LA" minded, until you go further out.
The best thing rn is that I work from home and don't have to deal with traffic. Best LA? I just go out at night and do whatever I want.
Once I move back to the Bay, I'll be scouting SF, because there's no point for someone like me to live in the burbs again.