Living in Los Angeles, California

Although it’s been said many times, in many ways, you just can’t beat it. 72 and sunny. You’ll never truly appreciate what it’s like to never be hindered by rain, snow, sleet, cold, or humidity until you live it. The occasional smoke-filled air and rattle and roll sure, but a weather-free existence surrounded by snow-capped mountains, swaying palm trees, and one glittering ocean is pretty amazing.

On the other hand, let's not kid ourselves about the struggles with traffic. Angelenos have come to accept it. It just is. Podcasts! Also, the Eastside people refuse to visit the Westside people and vice versa. It’s too much to ask. It takes at least 45 minutes to get anywhere and there’s quite a cultural divide -- the Eastside people think the Westside people are robots with 2.5 kids and a GoldenDoodle, and the Westside people think the Eastside people are too scrappy. Figure out which tribe you want to join and burrow in. Sometimes, as you’re navigating around Postmates robots and there’s nowhere to park your obligatory car, it feels like you’re living in Minority Report. Still, the Rose Parade always goes off without a hitch.

If you connect with Angelenos about their lifestyle, you're going to get a lot of different answers. There are surfers, hipsters, artists, actors, and families all making a go of it here. On many things, they do agree. These include:

• LA has more to do on any given day than any city on the planet. With all due respect to NYC, London, Paris, and the other majors, if you take into consideration the outdoor lifestyle experiences available, nothing touches LA for how much is going on. There are amazing museums, art shows, festivals, 16+ pro sports teams, and beaches with temps around 70 degrees nearly every day of the year. The Getty gets a lot of attention from the museum crowd, and it is well deserved, but LACMA is also wonderful, as is The Broad. Perhaps even cooler than the world-class museums are the Griffith Observatory and Griffith Park, the largest urban-wilderness public park in the United States. There's a reason LA appears on LookyLOO's list of Top Art Center Cities in the country.
• The city is filled with creative class dreamers who create and experience world-class entertainment throughout the city every single day of the week.
• The outdoor experiences are not to be believed. While the white, sandy beaches are rightfully celebrated, it's important to remember that in LA you are surrounded by mountains and national parks that offer some of the best biking, hiking, camping, and sightseeing on the planet.
• It's a foodie paradise. LA has some amazing, upscale Michelin-starred restaurants, but more important to most of us are the amazing, inexpensive options the city has for Mexican, Korean, Japanese, and more. For the naive, you might be surprised at the amazing Jewish delis and the best hamburger scene, both gourmet and fast-food, of any city in the US.
• The last thing we'll note about LA is that, unlike its nerdy sibling to the north, LA has a pretty nice work-life balance. People work hard here, but the weather and outdoor lifestyle means that no one's missing a chance to hit the beach or a sunset walk with the doggo or an evening yoga class.

You're going to struggle here with traffic, and the unhoused population situation is at a crisis level, but much of the LA lifestyle is very pleasant. One other common notion among locals is that it takes a while to get in the groove in LA. The city is vast, and you need to be patient learning how it all works.

LAUSD takes a lot of heat for the quality of the schools, but it's the second largest district in the US (after NYC), so the collective criticism isn't that helpful. There are plenty of schools that rank low and plenty that rank high in standardized scoring systems, and LAUSD comes in at a "B" rating on niche.com across all schools, which means there are plenty of "C's" and plenty of "A's" to choose from, depending on the individual school and neighborhood.

The consensus for this and many California school districts is that at the elementary level, most families can find one in their area that works for their kiddos, but as you hit middle and high school, the quality can take a plunge. Areas surrounding LAUSD, like El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Culver City, Santa Monica, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and South Pasadena, have the highest rankings, so some will move there instead (assuming they can afford it) or move once they hit middle school. Within the district, a couple of high-fliers include: Downtown Magnets High School which scores an "A+" on niche.com, Girls Academic Leadership Academy, also an "A+" on niche.com, and The Science Academy STEM Magnet, another "A+" on niche.com.

If you stay in the district and demand high-ranking schools for your little ones throughout high school, you're going to have to target living in neighborhoods with better high schools or commute to the charters or magnets.