AW CITIES

Escape to a 15-Minute City

The joys of urban living has less to do with the space and more to do with the place

Source: Author / A room in the apartment we’d happily move to Spain

If we could only move this apartment to…

That’s how my wife and I feel about our current space.

A spacious 1,000 square foot, one-bedroom apartment in a 100-year old building in the heart of Los Angeles that exudes 1950's movie star character and charm. The type of place where you can just picture Marlon Brando smoking a cigarette in the lobby.

We love living in this apartment. It’s not a $3,500-a-month modern luxury pad in a hipster neighborhood. It’s everything we need and want on the inside. Unfortunately, something — actually, a lot — is missing on the outside.

We’re under rent control so we pay slightly under $1,500 a month. We’re adjacent to multi-million dollar homes. We’re 20 minutes (without traffic) from downtown Los Angeles and a stone’s throw to Hollywood.

Sounds great, except —

Other than walking to the grocery store on the corner, a handful of restaurants nearby or wandering our neighborhood, which has a nice main street, we have to drive or use rideshare.