I don't want to pee on any parades, but modeling jobs in California tend to be a way of bringing new blood into the porn industry. If that's your thing, then no worries. If not, you should really check out whoever is offering the job pretty carefully and make sure that they're legit. That said, the west side of L.A. (where I live) is nice but pricey... average apartment rents are between $1,400 and 2,000. Renting a two or three bedroom house will run $2,000 to $4,500.
Right next to Oakland is the nice little island community of Alameda. Safe, nice and affordable (for the bay area). Plus your 20 minutes away from San Francisco, which is nice! I pay 900 dollars for a one bedroom, and I can walk to the store, restaurants, bus lines or pretty much anywhere I need to go!
If your looking for an area between LA and San Diego then check out riverside county or orange county. Both are nice areas. Both have nice suburban towns. You can find 1 bedroom apartments for like 675$ a month. If you wanna know exactly where just PM me I know the cheap apartments. oh and some of these cheap apartments are some of the nicest places in socal. oh and orange county and riverside county also have lower crime than san diego and LA counties. Many families are raised in orange and riverside county. and since they are between LA and san diego, depending on which exact town you live in you can have anywhere from a 30min. to 1 hour drive. but just so you know this is california. not matter what town you are in they all have gangs. even the nicest suburban rich towns have gangs. just cus it's a 275,000$ suburban house does not mean that gang members can't afford. anyhow just PM your questions. I know all the towns. I travel lots. I only know Socal though.
well there are area's in inland empire to avoid. Perris very ghetto and crappy. and Hemet also has some pretty ghetto areas. Overall though riverside county is pretty nice. anywhere in southern california you have mexican gang members though. Your right by the border so you gotta get used to it. and some of those cheap 600-800 dollar aparments are nice. but there is always going to be gang members and sketch people in the cheapest apartments. but there is also poor families and plenty of good people in them too. you'll also have lots 18 yearold kids that party cus they just graduated and got kicked out of their homes by their parents. Riverside county is full of people 18-25 who have house/apartment parties. Lots of good weed around here.