[Aloysius]

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The problem with LA is that everything in LA is going to get worse and worse

Working in the industry doesn't really having anything to do with why LA sucks...traffic is a nightmare, smog, dirty beaches, housing is waaay overpriced, everything is expensive(gas/food/etc), the people are pretty lame overall, etc. Now there are a lot of cool things about LA too but long term I'd say the negatives out weigh the cool things esp as you get older.

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CDS - well I guess we'll have to disagree on these points. I mean the "people are pretty lame overall" comment is kind of absurd considering it's a huge city with millions of people. And if anything, I've found LA people to be more mellow / easygoing than people in SF or of course NYC.

Pretty sure also that LA smog has gotten better (or at least flattened) and is not getting worse due to emissions restrictions etc. And traffic, while it can be bad, is not that bad locally.

I think a couple things (and I'm not sure how it compares to ATL, but I do know vs. SF and NYC) that LA has going for it is that 1) bang for the buck real estate wise (compare what you'd get for $1M in LA vs. NYC or SF); 2) convenience; 3) weather.

Outside of dismal public schools (so added price of private schools for your kids), I think alot of things about LA favor it as being a good place to be as you get older.

Also, and to the OP I agree with Lapoker:

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i think that moving away from where you grew up/where your family lives is always a good idea - even if it's just for a few years.

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And of the different places to try living in the US, LA is definitely up there by any objective metric. For mmbtone and his girlfriend, seems like there are alot of other considerations and it might not make sense to move to LA right now... but if you're going to move somewhere and try something new, you could do a whole lot worse than SoCal.

-Al