Hi everyone! I got accepted, and looking for advice on safe areas to move. (near UCLA) I qualify for living on campus, but I do not want to do that. I wanted to rent an apartment like 20-30 away max from UCLA. Anyone from LA willing to chat with me and give me a scoop on what cities are safe and if living somewhere semi far will affect me? 
Beverly Hills
I am going to lay down an unpopular opinion- anywhere east of Beverly Hills is not safe.
Iād say donāt go near K-Town or anywhere east/south than that. K-Town is pretty dangerous at night. Iāve lived here for 10 years. Itās 30 mins from here (720 bus) to UCLA. However, you can live in dorms near Westwood,Santa Monica, Culver City. I do recommend anywhere near UCLAā¦ Or you can go further south- even to a place like Marina Del Rey. Iāve once lived near Marina Del Rey for 3 yearsā¦ A place like Playa Del Rey is really nice (my friend used to live here, the neighborhood is amazing and very civil). Itās where Electronic Arts is (hahaha). MDR and PDR are far from UCLA, but the neighborhood there is amazing too. Keep it as your alternative! MDR- Anywhere near SMC (basically Santa Monica).
In conclusion
donāt go near or further than K-Town (anywhere east of Beverly Hills) and stay near UCLA.
20-30 minutes driving, biking or walking? Parking is a challenge over there, so make sure you can bike or use public transit.
Honestly, you have to try to pretty hard to find a bad neighborhood near UCLA. Why not start living on campus? In the future youāll be able figure out where to move.
I donāt think K-Town THAT bad. Granted, I was only there for an hour or so - but I wouldnāt describe it as unsafe. Sure, itās West LA (right? if not, Iām totally off) - but itās not all that bad.
I lived in Koreatown for almost 10 years, lived in Los Feliz, Silverlake, Thai Town, Culver City for years as well. I donāt agree that itās ādangerousā there, especially Los Feliz or Silverlake or most areas of Hollywood. At night, 3 in the morning, yeah there can be creepy dudes lurking around but I wouldnāt go as far to say that theyāre dangerous areas best to be avoided at all costs. Iāve walked around in those areas at night and never felt like I was in danger, and neither do most people I know.
If anything, living on the east side and commuting to UCLA everyday would be a pain just because of the traffic and the distance.
Areas on the east side can be more gritty, while Culver City and areas on the westside is a little more pristine and upscale, but also expensive. If anything, I was incredibly bored with the west side and wanted to move to the east side where it felt more lively. But I would not recommend living on the east side, even Koreatown, and commute to UCLA. Thatās just insane to me.
Letās all take a moment to appreciate UCLAās surrounding area is nothing like USCās. Anything considered unsafe around UCLA would look like Irvine compared to USCās area X_X
Yeahā¦ I take it back.
I donāt think K-town is that much dangerous at all-
so far as to say that āyou should avoid it at all cost.ā
Iāve lived here since 2005 and I attend LACC.
Itās good to know that a lot of people are with me- itās what I usually stood for- that K-town is safe.
Thank you for all your replies!! I will be driving to school (I know parking will be awful). I am looking into places on the west that are like 20 mins away probably 40 with traffic? Hoping it wont be much of a troubleā¦
West side is expensive. What is your budget?
Whenever I hear people throw around the words ādangerousā or āghettoā, I immediately grow skeptical of exactly how they came to that conclusion. Often times, it is a matter of people driving down the streets of clearly lower income parts of town and feeling the urge to lock their doors.
Areas where residents are on the poorer end of the spectrum or even areas that actually do have relatively higher rates of crime are no more dangerous than driving on the freeway. You will not be walking to the store in broad daylight and someone is going to run up and shank you. Even if you were to live in a true ghetto, it is not a prison block. This irrational fear of even being resident in certain communities when we have no logical reason to feel threatened is really something that we should start to challenge as we grow older.
You likely will be living in a place where it would be wise not to walk around at night because it is not safe to walk around the whole city of LA at night. We all turn on our local news and hear about people getting murder and going missing. It is a terrible reality. It is understandable to not want to raise children in certain areas because parents by nature are paranoid messes. But to label the majority of these areas that people slap this āreputationā onto as dangerous is quite the stretch.
Iām sorry about my short sighted conclusionā¦ All I know is that judging an entire neighborhood is extremely bad. Itās insensitive generalization and I want to apologize for my comment up there.
I hope people werenāt offended, or please forgive me if I did hurt you.
I didnāt mean it at all.
As someone else stated, parking can be an issue. Also, if you are commuting at peak times, 20-30 min away might turn into an hour. Just something to keep in mind
I was thinking about commuting from Van Nuys, but after some research it seems like that would eventually become exhausting. Thatās not to mention the parking problem.