live in a charming but worn 1940s garden apartment in East Hollywood, a diverse neighborhood that encompasses Thai Town and Little Armenia, touching bustling Hollywood to the west and Los Feliz to the east. There’s a subway station minutes away and Griffith Park is just up the hill. There’s a dentist, a family-owned deli, and a yoga studio on my block. It’s not a perfect neighborhood—discarded desks and old mattresses line the sidewalks, and Western Avenue has a long way to go before it’s an inviting place to walk—but it’s close.

Finding the perfect neighborhood is a delicate balance. It’s like putting a puzzle together, and it’s complicated by the soaring cost of housing. But even if you have the means to afford to live wherever you want, every neighborhood has its trade-offs. Below are some of the most important things to take into consideration before putting down roots in Los Angeles.

First, know LA’s regions.
Los Angeles is made up of more than a half dozen regions, and each of those regions contains many, many smaller neighborhoods and cities. There’s the Westside, Central Los Angeles, Northeast LA, San Fernando Valley (aka the Valley), the San Gabriel Valley, South Los Angeles, the South Bay, the Verdugos, and the Eastside.

There are others, but these are the predominant regions known informally as LA. They have their own distinct culture, terrain, and even, in some cases, weather. The boundaries are up for debate, but this map from the Los Angeles Times is solid.

Second, know the neighborhoods.
This is more difficult than memorizing the regions, because there are a lot—at least 472 according to this map, which is inarguably the most accurate (but still not comprehensive) map on the internet.

It’s important—for both your sanity and the health of the environment—to pick a ’hood that’s close to where you work.
Or close to your main hobbies.Do not fool yourself. You will not live a breezy life in Echo Park while working in Manhattan Beach. Unless you have a forgiving schedule, you will probably not surf every morning if you live in Glendale.

There’s no definitive figure for how close you should get, but a good rule is around 5 miles. Anything over that and your commute is bound to take more than 30 minutes.
http://www.helmersworks.com/los-angeles-neighborhoods-explained/
Do you want to be near public transit?
You can pretty much always find a bus route, no matter where you live, but buses in LA can be slow and unreliable. LA’s other public transportation options—the subway and light rail—are more efficient. Living near one will make navigating LA much easier. But those lines and stations are fewer and farther between.

This official rail map from LA’s transit agency, Metro, should be your guiding light. The map also shows bus-rapid transit and rail lines that are under construction now, including the Crenshaw Line, which is scheduled to open this year.