Relocating to LA | Imamother

4thebooks

Wed, May 05 2010, 11:56 pm

Hi anybody here that lives in LA? Im Chassidish and DH wants to move to LA.. its just the 2 of us, no kids.. any ideas if we will fit in there? how is the rent? are job offers? are there more chasidish families living there? are the ppl nice? we have no family there.. DH just likes it.. any info would be helpful. Thank You

Sparkle

Thu, May 06 2010, 12:00 am

He better find a good job offer...it's expensive to live in LA.

About the community, there is a nice sized chassideshe community. I don't know how many young families without kids are there - but once your family starts growing iy'h you should be able to find a chevra.

JollyMommy

Thu, May 06 2010, 1:31 am

we recently discussed this in depth- I think the post was "moving to ca clueless in ny" or something like that. . . maybe someone can link it?

in very brief:

tons of chassidim here- especially in hancock park/ la brea area, you will definately not be the only ones, they have a chassidish kollel, schools etc.. so that's fine.

rent is big bucks. figure for a 1 bedroom if you pay $1800 we envy you-- in the area I mentioned above. other areas, like the valley are more reasonable.

the job market is a serious disaster in california at the present. but, if he can find a good job you should be ok.

in regards to not having kids- if its by choice that is uncommon in that neighborhood, but if you are newly married or going through infertility you will not be alone. call atime for the california number.

people are very nice, especially to new comers. you will be invited out a lot!

luvshopping

Fri, May 21 2010, 4:16 am

I live in the hancock park/la brea area and b"h we bought our house about 8 or 9 years ago and we got it for a very good price. Now the housing and utilities is a fortune. There's not a massive chassidish community here but there is a nice amount of chassidim. If you are a specific chassidus and you would want to be surrounded by your chassidus... it may be difficult because there are not enough chassidim to have more than one kollel for them. They have a small elementary school and a TINY!!!! high school (about 30 kids in the whole school). Some chassidim send to the other school that's a big mix. The chassidim here are really open-minded. Many totally mix with the rest of the la crowd so nobody makes a big deal that they're chassidish. I also find that the chassidim here are really frum. If you're chassidish but not that frum then it may be a challenge. Otherwise, LA is BEAUTIFUL!!! I love it and would tell eveyone to come here. It's also very laid back and calm here.

Tova

Fri, May 21 2010, 5:00 am

I was going back and forth about posting this, but seeing as it is just a consideration for the OP and not a done deal, it may be appropriate to mention. I have never lived in L.A. but I have been there to visit a friend, for a friend's wedding, and most recently for my brother's wedding (albeit in 2003).

1) Each time I was there I saw quite untznius and Hollywood-ish billboards smack in the middle of the frum community (Beverly/La Brea). I rememer driving with my husband and he was at the wheel (I was too young to drive the rental!) and kept telling him "don't look right, don't look left."

2) My husband dubbed it a middas sedom. Not from the people - they are all very nice - but the municipality or something wants to keep out outsiders and unless you have a guest parking pass you cannot park on residential streets.

We analyzed LA on the flight home and said we could never properly be mechanech our (theoretical at that point) kids there.

ganizzy

Fri, May 21 2010, 1:36 pm

Tova wrote:

there is permit parking bec otherwise the people living on the block would never have parking - but yes its annoying. not all blocks have this. you get permits for your cars and guest permits for friends. if ur having a big event u can get temporary permits for that day for e/o.

I live about 15 min from the pico area but I bring my kids in daily for school. being lubavitch, I dont know much about the chassidish community.

I moved out here 3 yrs ago, if u have any q's feel free to pm me

Cookies n Cream

Fri, May 21 2010, 1:51 pm

luvshopping wrote:

The billboards and pritzus are terrible but I guess since I live here for so long I don't notice anything. Maybe it's cuz I'm a girl but I think in general nobody pays much attention anymore.

Where are there billboards?
I was in LA for 2 weeks, and didn't notice any in the frum area.

Cookies n Cream

Fri, May 21 2010, 2:19 pm

Well when I stayed in the Hollywood area-there were definitely PLENTY of billboards there.
But I ate, and stayed in the Pico-Robertson for Shabbos (where the Kosher restaurants are), and also in another neighborhood-don't remember the name off hand (there's a chasidish shul in that area),
and I did not notice any untznius things.
Unless I'm just really spaced out?

luvshopping

Fri, May 21 2010, 2:51 pm

I live in the hancock park/la brea area and in our area alone we have quite a bit of billboards. In the pico area there may not be as much but I don't go there too often. In general, I remember going on a vacation to a place about 2 hrs away from here and practically in the desert and even there they had plenty of billboards. Maybe at the time when you came they were changing the billboards or didn't have that many up yet. Now there's plenty of them.