TORRENTS / TORRANCE

New Year's Day found me anxious to get on with my next phase in LA - out with the old apartment, in with the new!

I drove through the rain to "South Bay" (the part of LA on the Pacific south of town, e.g. Santa Monica and cities south) to check out neighborhoods I might want to move to this month before my lease runs out in Hollywood January 31. (I refuse to give my present landlords the pleasure of more rental checks to fuel their resolute and nasty incompetence. Service with a sneer. )

It gets dark early these days (before 5:00), so by the time I got there through the maddeningly slow traffic in the rain Sunday, it was getting too dark to really look around, so I stayed over in a Motel 6 in order to get a good start the next day. (I didn't relish driving back an hour-plus in the dark and rain. LA drivers just don't know how to drive in rain. Too little experience!)

Monday, I had already picked out two areas on my map that I was considering renting in: Torrance and Manhattan Beach near the 405 freeway. After checking out of the motel and finding a breakfast place that was open, I fought the torrents of rain and wind to get from my car into the restaurant almost losing my umbrella. Then, stomach loaded for the first half of the day, it was on the road through the pools and puddles, trying to get a sense of neighborhoods and their amenities through the pouring rain. (I have to have some shopping/eating nearby where I live - preferably no more than a block or two walk.)

Central (modern) Torrance was a typical post-50's suburban wasteland with block after block of just single-family houses or miles of spaced out mega-malls and mini-malls. Not too interesting. But east Torrance, the old town, was a Brigadoon. It was stuck in an Old California time warp - a real, old-fashioned downtown with shops and coffee houses and banks and attractive 1930's bungalows on tree-lined streets within walking distance. Not only was it a real downtown in a small-town way, but the big-name chain stores had yet to discover it. It was mainly mom-and-pop stores, small local drugstores and restaurants, and lots of non-profit organization offices (meaning rents were still reasonable). It was like stepping into 1940's Los Angeles. It still retained the stereotypical hang-loose "California time" and a relaxed feel that you really don't get anywhere in LA anymore. A few modern condos had been inserted into the retro city center, meaning that development was in the beginning phases. (Shocking that it hasn't been discovered yet, especially such historic and attractive real town. Perhaps its distance from the sea is part of what has saved it. The coastal communities of South Bay have been heavily "discovered" in the worst sense of the word.)

The main reason I was looking in the areas I was was that I had decided that I should be better located for the weekly activities and priorities I have come to have over the past six months. For instance, I'm now looking to take more computer courses at the UCLA Extension this term, never an easy commute from Los Feliz. And one of the churches I have come to like during my church shopping period is in Long Beach - clear across town from central LA. And my favorite walking beach, Torrance Beach is an easy drive west along Torrance Blvd. Plus, old friend Kim and her husband Alan live in San Pedro, which is as far south of downtown as you can get without getting your feet wet! And I'd always like to have access to the culture and activities in downtown LA if at all possible. In this overextended city, getting anywhere without losing your hair and patience requires reasonable freeway access, thus my new apartment should be within comfortable freeway distance (to the right freeways) to get to the places I need to get to.

So, little old downtown Torrance is the best of most worlds for me in the new year:

To downtown LA: 20 miles straight shot via the 110 north (no freeway changes)

To UCLA: 20 miles north via the 405 (no freeway changes)

To church in Long Beach: 10 miles straight east on the 405

To the beach: 6 miles straight west on Torrance Blvd.

To San Pedro: 6 miles straight south on Western Ave.

Now, all that remains is the small detail of actually finding an apartment there I can afford. (Don't worry; I'm still job-hunting, but I have to have a Plan B meanwhile!)