I hate changing hotels but I’ll piggy back on the above. LA traffic is like no city I’ve dealt with. I didn’t live there so I don’t know it like the posters above but had to deal with it enough over a five year span to know I wouldn’t want to be commuting from Pasadena to Orange County.
You didn’t ask about costs but you did ask about whether colleges should be added or subtracted. UCLA will be full freight as an OOS student. UC’s are officially not giving financial aid to OOS. USC will probably be cheaper because if accepted you would likely get at least some aid.