[quote=The-Shoveler]In defense of the commuters, people who have worked in L.A. for any length of time., an Hour commute is just on the long side of normal, 40 minutes is average).
Like I said you buy your first home 15 minutes from work, 5 years later you’re driving an hour to get to your next gig, it’s fairly normal there (unless you want to buy another home every five years, some do).
I actually drive to Santa Ana airport (from north county), it’s a little further mile wise but the drive is much nicer than going down to San Diego airport.
L.A. is not a bad place to live actually (most won’t admit that) but most of my friends I grew up with moved out only to move back and plan to retire there.
(there are places I would not drive even during the daytime however)[/quote]
Yeah, shoveler, there are a lot of places I would live in LA County. As long as one isn’t freeway dependent five days per week, living there is very convenient. Some of the suburbs are heavily treed and very beautiful. The bulk of it is more established than metro San Diego. If I lived there, I just wouldn’t accept a new job which would render me freeway dependent. I would take jobs only in my general area. Since good jobs are almost everywhere in LA County, this requirement can likely be met … unlike SD County.
And moving every five years or so (if in high tech) is probably okay, too, for a lot of workers.
I feel the same way about the SF bay area but commuting nightmares are even more pronounced up there because its counties are not contiguous to one another. The terrain in ALL of the SF Bay counties is more interesting and naturally beautiful than that in SoCal, IMO, because it is not considered “irrigated desert” up there.
