if you commute in regular business hours, +,- 45 minutes each way. with your car ofcourse. bus is twice that, including bus stop. downtown would be a nice break from culver city.

abracadabra... thanks for the info. i've been searching craig's list and westsiderentals.com for apartments on the westside, (santa monica, marina del rey, venice, culver city) but have found nice places outside this area as well. not being from la, i have no idea what commute times are. i have a car and don't think i'll mind the commute. my girlfriend just learned how to drive and will most likely work downtown, so i'm trying to reduce her commute distance. what would you suggest?

look around silverlake and echo park as an alternative to downtown. midtown is nice too. i live 2 miles from the beach but i haven't been there last couple of years. i've been seeing a lot of rental signs lately in the west side. places i know that were 6-700 a month now +,-2000.
hollywood is a hard place to get to if you don't work there. i don't like venice but you might over the years i've seen the place change, from affordable beach ghetto to overrated design-center.
mar vista is good but it means commute for your girlfriend.
so, stick with silverlake, echo park or downtown if you don't mind the drive. and, you might discover your own short cuts and optimum driving hours in time.

dont live in dowtown, u'll want to kill urself

oops, thought someone was moving to cali, colombia. my bad.

Yeah, definately don't live downtown. Echo Park is nice and you can still find a realatively good deal on an apartment. Silverlake is great but the rental prices are now the same as they are on the Westside.

I live in Echo Park and commute to Venice, on a good day with absolutely no traffic on the highway, I can get to home in under 40 minutes, with traffice it can take close to 90 minuts.

If I were you I would try to split the difference in midtown/ mid wilshire. There are some great places in the Hauser area that I have heard are somewaht reasonable.

Yes, try north of wilshire to melrose, between Fairfaxand La Brea, more or less... Rents are expensive, but that will put you in a nice central location, split the commute for you and your girl (maybe 15-25 minutes each). Lots of restaurants, close enough to Hollywood, etc. I would give it a try before downtown.

downtown is fine.... i lived near downtown.. and worked downtown.. its was actually very nice...

thanks for all the suggestions. moving from the east to the west coast is a bit of a headache, but i won't miss the snow storms!

i live downtown and worked in santa monica(further west than culver city) for a year, and had about a 45min. commute--it all depends on traffic though. on weekends it's only 10 minutes.
downtown would probably be better in terms of commuting than silverlake because you can take the 10 freeway straight across. any additional surface streets will slow things down.
plus, you get a beautiful view driving into downtown at night . . .

I am looking to move out that way with LA or San Fran either next summer or next fall. Problem is that i would have to support two people on an interns pay. ANy tips about where how to proceed wit hmy IDP so that it makes it easier to escape new orleans for CA?

Pasadena...

Beautiful, safe, clean, 45 min drive to Culver City; 20 min to downtown

don't forget expensive...

here is an example of an interior of a 3 BR house in Venice
http://thomas.stolendev.com/viewer/index.php?gid=20040609-Venice_701B_Sunset_Ave

got a wonderful place in Pasadena cheaper than I could get a dump in Venice, Santa Monica, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, etc...

Pasadena is not a 45 min drive to culver city in traffic! unless you drive a flying car... but it is nice :-)

if you take Washington, it can be. Avoid the 10 in rush hour...

bmyrum-
If you high tail it out to Cali beofre the end of the year you can get your exam file started and you won't have to do IDP.

Or you could stay where you are and send California a check for $100 and your transcripts and do the same thing. No residency required.