Customer Reviews

Newcomer's Handbook for Los Angeles (Newcomer's Handbooks)

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I bought this book because we're thinking of moving to LA. It is helpful, but it's not complete by any means (and it's 3 years old). You could get at least 60-70% of the information in this book out of the yellow pages. This applies to listings of churches, synagogues, museums, dry cleaners, stores, amusement parks, etc. The Pacific Bell Yellow Pages are more helpful than this book in that regard. It is nice to read the author's review of the neighborhoods, but not all neighborhoods are included. When you pick up an LA Times and are looking for an apartment to rent or house to buy, there are more neighborhoods listed there than in this book. Cheviot Hills isn't mentioned, nor is Miracle Mile, nor is Pacific Palisades, nor Beverly Hills, nor BHPO....I could go on and on. Buy any Rand McNally map or Thomas Guide to LA and you'll see these neighborhoods listed on the map, but nothing about them in this book. The description of the neighborhoods is okay, and would only serve to confirm what you might discover on a long weekend trip to LA. What is missing? Drive times. Now anyone who lives in a large city knows that commute times can vary from day to day by as much as a half-hour. But there is no mention of this here. How about a chapter called, "Where you should live based on where you work". List recent price ranges of homes/apartments in the areas. There are affordable places in Beverly Hills, believe it or not. After two weekends of house hunting in LA, I already know more than this book has told me. Better to apply the purchase price of this book to a cheap weekend airfare and see for yourself. That's the only way to really know.

Relocating to the Los Angeles area is not easy, and this book can make it much smoother and less stressful. The best part is the neighborhood profiles. Very helpful.