Los Angeles is actually a much better place to live now for people in tech than the bay area. All the young people want to live in overpriced SF and the ones with families want to live in the south bay.
In LA the thriving tech community is all in west Los Angeles, where Venice is the hip San Francisco (but waaay cheaper) and Santa Monica / West LA has great homes (also much cheaper than say Palo Alto [if you exclude beach front]). And these 2 neighborhoods are 10-15 minute commute, very different than the hour commute between most of the south bay and SF.
I've lived in LA for ten years. Commuting anywhere can be a nightmare at any random hour of the day. Housing prices are amazing in comparison though -- a third as expensive as the Bay Area, I'd say (rental). They are building some new rail lines, but it's going to be a while... Great food too!
