On Beth's forum, I asked for advice regarding LOS ANGELES. I hope it isn't too annoying for me to post this here, too. Thanks in advance!!

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2000

Answers

Seriously, about three days before I moved to Los Angeles, I decided to. My boyfriend and I had been thinking about it for about a year and all of these things just happened; it was like, "all signs point to yes." Los Angeles is expensive unless you want to live in a shithole. That's my advice. Ok well, Hollywood isn't bad and moderately priced, but do your research before you come out here. For a 1 Bedroom, you'll be looking at anywhere from $700 to $1000+. Los Angeles isn't as bad as people make it sound, in fact, I hated Los Angeles growing up in San Diego and always had until I moved here - I love it. I'm currently looking for an apartment and am using westsiderentals.com, tons of westside listings as the name suggests. I don't know much about jobs in the film industry but I know that Warner Brothers is having a HUGE job fair coming up sometime soon I saw an ad for it in the Sunday edition of the L.A. Times. I always see jobs with Sony too. I'd check it out.

And you definitely need a car unless you ENJOY riding the bus with people who defecate on themselves.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Seriously consider living in Burbank, Glendale or Van Nuys. North Hollywood is just outrageous, as are some other areas in the San Fernando Valley.

My two bedroom apartment in Burbank was $750 a month with a 6 month lease. There was a jacuzzi, pool, gated parking and security. Pretty good.

You definitely need a dependable ride. You can wait at least 3 months (tell the police you just moved in, they'll let you off the hook) to register in California and take the emissions test (which costs $300 if your car needs to be converted.)

Avoid the I-10 whenever you can. Everyone goes to LA on the 10 in the morning, tries to get out of LA around dinnertime. Get a Thomas City Guide (LA County version) for $20 - very valuable to a SoCal resident.

It's a great place.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000