I just wanted to say that this is not necessarily a "short drive" at rush hour. When I drive to Downtown from Eagle Rock in the mornings, I will sometimes take the Glendale Freeway (and Chicagogal will soon learn that we always refer to our freeways by number. That's the "2" freeway), and it tends to be pretty trafficky when you hit Echo Park. A lot of drivers, it seems are using the 2 to get to the Hollywood Freeway, the 101 (one-oh-one) by cutting across on Alvarado.

None of this will make sense until you get here, of course.

Also, you might want to check out the Los Angeles forum at city-data.com. There's a subsection for people relocating to Los Angeles who have questions. There are a lot of LA Haters there, but you can get some value out of it.