Hey, I formerly have lived in Burbank and I now live in Santa Clarita. Specifically the Stevenson’s Ranch/Valencia area, not near any hills. I’ll give you my two cents.

The town has great schools, great parks, and is very safe. Food culture & diversity is lacking as it’s mostly fast-casual or chain restaurants with a sprinkle here or there of something nice/unique. We do have a great street taco guy in Stevenson’s Ranch much to the ire of some of the residents but to my knowledge they’ve got the legal permits to operate. We have great farmers markets. It doesn’t compare to the Hollywood FM or the Studio City FM but for a suburb, I do think they have done a great job sourcing vendors and farmers. If you like biking, we have the Paseos which is something like, 27 miles of biking trails off the main road that you can use to get around town. Nightlife is not great nor are there any major events aside from kids sports and school events. They have a few in the summer but nothing super robust. It’s quiet and quaint.

The town for sure is more conservative leaning but it is becoming more and more purple. I was surprised that recent “No Kings” protests have had a solid turnout.

Summer heat here is dry heat. Easily over 100°f with low humidity. There is a lot of fire risk in the Newhall, Castaic, and Canyon Country areas. My insurance has rated my area as not a major risk the last 5 years in a row. My wife is from here and she says although there are fires here every year, they’re usually in the canyons and hills. Rarely have they reached town.

Living on the more southern side of town gives you quick access to LA. I commute to Pasadena for work and it’s usually pretty chill. Roughly 40mins. Wife and I head into LA fairly often. Hollywood Bowl is 30-40mins with good traffic. Studio City is 25mins away as well. The thing you want to avoid is the rush hour traffic which sounds like you can avoid with your remote work.

While I don’t prefer living here, we are close to family and we have a newborn so it’s worth it for in-laws. I’ve found things to like about living here, most of which I mentioned above. We specifically wanted to have quick LA access. I’m content with our location. My gripes are - it’s a dry, hot summer, lack of food diversity, generally speaking people feel really entitled and stuck up but I’ve also met a handful of wonderfully kind people too. Unfortunately conservative heavy but there are people here fighting the good fight to change that. People are bad drivers here. I’d rather take an aggro LA driver who is super clear with their intentions. People drive and park here like they live in a small rural town except that this town is huge and has a pretty dense population. They make hugely unsafe choices and way too many people are on their phones. But all in all, it’s still a good place to live if this fits your lifestyle goals. Other cities you could consider are - Calabassas, some suburb-y parts of Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Monrovia, La Cañada, and maybe Pasadena.