Argyle Ave, Hollywood

The theme of Argyle Avenue just north of Franklin is "just good enough." Tucked away at the base of the Hollywood Hills, the neighborhood is safe enough. Some of the Hollywood troublemakers make it up here, but in general, it's mostly young professionals, families and the elderly roaming the streets. There's an occasional break-in, car window smashing or mugging spaced out perfectly to remind you to carry mace and lock up your shit. It's close enough to Hollywood and Franklin Village to make it interesting. It's affordable enough for what you get space-wise and a lot of the buildings that line the streets are very very cute. But...

Here are the problems:

1. Parking. If you don't have a parking space. Good-freakin-luck trying to park on this street or any of the neighboring streets after 4 pm. During the day, the street is sparse, but as soon as 4 pm rolls around, all the spaces start to fill up and people can be see lining the streets, stalking their prey of people about to move their vehicles. It's annoying. Even more annoying is that most of the people parking there don't actually live on the street AND there are precious few parking spaces you can rent from neighboring lots.

2. Noise. It seems like a quiet street. Sure the street may be quiet; however, your neighbors will not be. I've lived in two separate apartments on opposite sides of my building and in both places, I've had noise problems emanating from other buildings. The police can do nothing because most of the apartments are behind locked gates and unless the manager is there to let them into the property, you will have no luck trying to get them to shut up. Also, there are a lot of young people who don't seem to be employed living on this street, so they have no concept of "Can you please turn down your techno at 5 am on a Thursday morning? I'm trying to sleep, but 1998 keeps trying to blow into my apartment via the window and I have to get up for work in the morning."

3. Pets. I love dogs. Had been a dog owner all of my life until I moved to my tiny little Los Angeles apartment, so please take what I am about to say with that understanding...these people don't deserve to have animals. There isn't a park around, so dog owners settle for taking their horror mutant mutts out for walks on the sidewalk (mostly without leashes) and then not picking up after them. In the summer, it gets disgusting. As if the smell alone of rotting animal excrement wasn't enough, you really really have to watch where you step on the sidewalk. Residents seem content to leave their dog's business in the middle of the sidewalk. I'm sure there are some respectful dog owners on this street, but there are enough who suck to ruin it for all of them.

3a. It's dirty. This is sort of tangential to the pet problem, but in general, this is a rotten, filthy street. People just leave their large bulk junk items on the sidewalk where they rot for days. On weekends, vomit can often be seen in the street and, if you're lucky, on the sidewalk.

4. It's crowded. Have you ever had romantic visions about tenement living? Did you see Gangs of New York and think, "Hey! That looks like an exciting place to be!" Then Argyle Ave is for you! People are constantly moving in and out and whole families live in single apartments. This may not directly affect you, but be prepared for the first weekend of every month being a constant onslaught of U-Haul trucks.

I live here because it's cheap and the location is central. I've tried to outline the major problems with the area in general, but really it's not a bad place. It can just be annoying if any of the above are really a pet peeve of yours. Good luck!