I guess I'm moving to West Hollywood?

August 21, 2014 12:10 PM

So, I didn't get the apartment I applied for in my last question. But . . . I'm moving into a surprisingly cheap three bedroom apartment in West Hollywood! I've lived east of Vermont pretty much from the start of my time in LA, and my early brief stint in West Hollywood was pretty miserable. I'm a little sad to leave Echo Park, but I want to get psyched about West Hollywood!

I guess I can afford to live in Weho, but Silver Lake, Echo Park, and even Highland Park, or at least anything nice and close to York is undergoing some serious rental inflation. When I moved to Echo Park, it was so much cheaper! But I digress.

My fears:
-Too many white people
-Too many gyms
-Too many pretty people
-Not enough good, cheap Mexican food
-No equivalent to Echo Park Lake, Elysian Park, and the Silver Lake Reservoir
-Far from the freeways
-A little far away from most of my friends (but they're honestly all scattered around LA, anyway)

But I am happy to be:
-in a very walkable neighborhood
-close to Cinefamily and everything else great along Fairfax
-close to the Pacific Design Center
-close to all the Russian markets
-maybe a little less hipster bullshit
-close to my acting class
-changing things up!

What else? Is there a Weho cheap ethnic market a la Super King? Where's the delightful green space? Are there real taco trucks, and not just fancy food trucks?

posted by ablazingsaddle to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

Although you will find significantly more white people than non-white people there, I will offer El Chato as an example of a very tasty taco truck in the area. To avoid white people, you will have to leave the area, since your neighborhood is 86.25% caucasian.
posted by saeculorum at 12:51 PM on August 21, 2014

Best answer: Go see everything at Largo at the Coronet! Though it is easy to be strangled by the overgrown handlebar mustaches...
posted by politikitty at 1:20 PM on August 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I will happily get psyched about West Hollywood in your stead, if you would like to trade me for my one-bedroom at Santa Monica and (just east of) Vermont. My neighborhood offers:

-less white people than West Hollywood (only 33%!)
-not a lot of gyms
-lots of good cheap Mexican food. There's Pollo Unico, which makes an excellent grilled chicken, and the somewhat reliable place next to the metro station, in addition to a million food vendors and taco trucks.
-Close to Barnsdall, Griffith, and Silver Lake Reservoir; not that far from Echo Park Lake and Elysian.
-Close to the 101
-Not that much farther from Super King (I still go every month even though I don't live in Echo Park anymore).
posted by Aubergine at 1:26 PM on August 21, 2014

Best answer: We just moved to just south of you, and while it's definitely a whiter area, there is still diversity-- our complex has a lot of Korean families, for example, there is a large Jewish population, and while I guess there are a lot of actor-type people it doesn't seem noticeably more polished than other areas of the city. (My apologies if these are a little further south than you wanted.) The Korean Cultural Center has events, classes, and exhibitions, the museums are great (and LACMA is free for LA County residents after three!), there are other awesome spaces on Fairfax like the Da Poetry Lounge, and it's very, very walkable. Also, closer to Westwood's awesome Persian restaurants, cheap college-student events, and UCLA's Hammer Museum/Fowler/other cultural sites. As for green space, there's Plummer Park, there's West Hollywood Park, further south is Pan Pacific, which has a lot of families having picnics and soccer games, along with a lot of dogs romping around, and perhaps the greenest (though possibly furthest from you) is Hancock Park, which wraps around LACMA and the Page Museum/Tar Pits. There's a small picnic area, Sticky! tar seep cones, and even now, the grass is still in pretty decent shape.

Sadly I have eaten no good, cheap Mexican food since moving so will be eagerly looking for updates on that.
posted by jetlagaddict at 2:26 PM on August 21, 2014

Best answer: On the next morning after a good rain or wind go to the highest elevation you can on the western end of West Hollywood and look out over the city bathed in the magical L.A. light. Actually, everyone should do this.
posted by Room 641-A at 2:30 PM on August 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Comment removed; if you want to talk about problematic framing of a question either use the contact form or broach the issue in Metatalk, but don't do it in the thread.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:37 PM on August 21, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks, guys!

Aubergine, don't rub in all the stuff I'm going to miss! (Although I heartily disagree about the place right next to the Santa Monica/Vermont metro station)

And I've heard about that food truck, and it's great, but it's definitely in mid-city and not in West Hollywood.

We just moved to just south of you, and while it's definitely a whiter area, there is still diversity-- our complex has a lot of Korean families, for example, there is a large Jewish population, and while I guess there are a lot of actor-type people it doesn't seem noticeably more polished than other areas of the city.

Thanks for understanding what I meant. Jeeze people!
posted by ablazingsaddle at 7:12 PM on August 21, 2014