Moving to NW Los Angeles area for work, where's a good place to live?

I'm a frequent visitor to LA, my grandmother used to live there, I have friends in the San Fernando Valley, I go to LA for museums and theater mostly. Glendale or Burbank would be my choice of LA to live in. It's a good location - central, safe, clean - for a lot of the fun stuff I like doing. If you're going to downtown and he's going to Simi Valley it's kinda in the middle, I must admit it's been a long time since I've had to drive to downtown LA. Seriously, if you could afford it (and I have no idea how much it would be to live there) the Toluca Lake area of Burbank I think is one of the more charming areas that I know of in the northern LA area, definitely worth taking a look at.

Well, if he's going to be working in Simi Valley, then that's what I'd recommend. It's safe and clean, and they're building new malls and restaurants as we speak. Here's the Simi Valley city web site: http://www.ci.simi-valley.ca.us/ If you want to be further inland, but close to Simi, you may also consider Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, and Moorpark. Nothing personal towards Robuttox, but you definitely don't want to live anywhere he mentioned and be commuting all the way to Simi Valley or downtown. Since you will be working downtown, you may want to consider Burbank or Glendale- they'd be kind of in the middle of your commutes...

All that area is nice (compared to the rest of LA). From Santa Monica to Burbank is full of nice neighborhoods (Beverly Hills/ UCLA/ Bel Air, etc...). They call it the westside. Hollywood has a sort of seedy side with punk kids and whores hanging out (but its still okay) so I think that has the best deals for renting. If you can afford Santa Monica or Venice Beach, then go for it. Culver City is a little cheaper, older, and not as nice. It used to be really nice. Burbank, out into the San Fernando Valley, is nice. Take your pick. You have to check out each property individually because some parts of Santa Monica are really nice (near the beach) and some parts aren't the nicest neighborhoods. You have to look around in person if you don't know the area. It's been many years since I've lived around there. I hope that helped. Maybe you'll find a better answer from somebody who has lived there recently. Good luck. OOPS - My mistake. Simi Valley is a little NW of that. Santa Monica has a really nice farmers market though. On certain days, they close down the 3rd St. Promenade and open it to farmers. The boardwalk along the beach is nice, too.