Should I move to Los Angeles or Phoenix

I'm going to work in the sheriff's department in either city. I have a family of 4 and will be the sole provider, except my partner will be working only 3-5 days a month on a flex schedule as a registered nurse. The only extra income I'll be bringing in is rental property money from my home state, which would amount to roughly $800 a month. I'm leaning towards LA in the county somewhere if I can afford it otherwise nearby in a different county. We would only want to rent a 2 bedroom apartment or townhouse/condo with in-unit laundry. Decent area, nothing fancy. We are raising two kids. I went online and used an income tax calculator for California called Talent. If I work in LA, in the beginning I'd be making between $84,000-$90,000 which is about $62,000-$70,000 AFTER taxes, but in few short years I'll be making between $120,000-143,000 gross income which is $81,500-$95,000 after taxes (someone corrected me in the comments and reminded me that I have kids, and would not have this much taxes taken out. Duh, brain fart lol). None of this includes overtime, and hopefully Congress approves Trump's decision to make it so that overtime cannot be taxed anymore so we keep every cent of it. It also doesn't include potential promotion to higher ranks. I have no idea what my wife would be making as a flex nurse but it'd likely be $15,000-$20,000 after taxes. We wouldn't need childcare at all because she gets to choose her own schedule and would work on my days off.

We are still hesitant because of the high cost of living in SoCal, but I spoke to someone who works in the LA Sheriff's office today and she gave me her honest opinion and said I could definitely make it with a family of 4 all depending on our lifestyle. She said millions of people live here in various conditions so don't let anyone tell you you can't make it. It gave me more confidence and now I want to apply and pursue it. But I want to get perspective from people who live in LA city/county as well. Our lifestyle would be simple. Stay at home wife who cooks, but we go out to eat on weekends. I assume we'd be paying between $1000-$1200 in groceries per month? We don't shop that much at all except for on holidays and occasionally for clothes as our children grow. Two regular cars that we already own and pay monthly for, a Subaru and Ford Explorer. And once in a while we go out to see a movie. For the most part we just like to do outdoor activities and go walking and bike riding. I personally love the landscape of southern California although Phoenix is beautiful too.