I hate LA. (Los Angeles, San Diego, Brentwood: apartment, crime, unemployment rate)

[hpunkinway]

Originally Posted by FrostyThe2nd

In the OP's defense, I can understand the hatred towards LA. I think most of us have gone through a point in life when they yearn for a change, especially between high school and college. It won't be until we've experienced the change that we'll have an objective view of where we want to live. At this point, the OP will definitely be biased against LA. I don't blame him (or her?) We all wanted to move out of our parents house... we can then extrapolate that to a new city/country.

I know I went through this when I couldn't wait to get out of LA for college. It didn't work out so I went to UCLA for undergrad instead. I'm glad I did cuz I had so much fun there. I went out of state for grad school, but in the end I chose LA to be home just because I've seen what other cities have to offer and LA trumped them all when it comes to what I want in a city. I'm inclined to live in a city that has everything offer.

I'm an L.A. native (and a UCLA alumna), what a lovely post! Thank you. Our city is not for everyone, nor should it be. But I am so glad to have such a wonderful person feel that way. I too chose UCLA for my undergrad due to a parent's illness. I wanted to go to Berkeley, was accepted, but stayed in town to take care of my mom. I too am very glad I did. Thanks so much for this wonderfully optimistic post. Some of these people who are experiencing culture-shock could benefit from hearing my own when I entered Purdue, but that's a long and tedious story (but shocking)--suffice it to say that L.A., my home-town, is the place! It may take a while to meet people here, but when you do they are true-blue. Thank God for large cities. Cheers! h

[hpunkinway]

Originally Posted by sam222

I thought Kardashians is reality TV show for no reason, just for soulless ppl like hpunkinway who has nothing to do during the day.

PPS

What motivated you to post that? Curious only.

Where do you live?

Where did you go to college?

Where did you go to graduate school?

Curious only. Really. I'm new to these intenet things. Just wondering.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by hyb808

LA is a cool place if you're a certain personality type.. its very segmented so unless you are one of the following:
1) Artsy with a 'hipster' thin look
2) Preppy Asian
3) Arrogant Well-Off Individual (People gravitate towards these types)
4) Extremely strong persona who doesn't give a F what anyone thinks..

You'll suffer.

I'm an extremely nice person, and often approaching new people and being as extroverted as I am is a really tough situation.. (Although, if you're good looking you can make anything happen..)

A shy person like myself, as nice as I am, have become an alcoholic since I moved here simply trying to socialize with people. It's put a huge strain on me, and actually, my success tanked because of the personas around me.. I found myself making money and getting people in my life that didn't really care about anything but that..

If you can see beyond that, LA is awesome.. but based on people giving me free food 'because i'm nice' tells me that LA is filled with horrible selfish people. I'm sure the LA natives are cool.. but LA, like all other cities have certain people that gravitate towards the city - and lots of people who are taken advantage of, or just plain bitter in general will not give ANYONE the benefit of the doubt if you don't fit certain physical/financial/personality criteria. It makes me really sad, but what can I do.. LA would be such an amazing place to live if I didn't feel so out of place all the time.. I'm a super nice person but unfortunately, I must be one of the few..

confirms what I already thought about LA, but you could say similiar things about any city, particularly NY. only difference there is the prejudices are more educational/academic/intellectual than what you would find in LA.

[hpunkinway]

'people have'

not, 'people has'

I know it is only a nicety, not an indicator of intelligence in any way, but still it is a good idea to pay attention to grammar. It does have an effect on people when you are arguing a point, particularly when you put it in writing. Also, you should be very careful whom you write to. You don't always know who is that anonymous person on the internet. I understand.
You don't really bring your cause across effectively with writing like yours (seems to stem from the poisoning of obsessive texting, together with the same thought process, or lack thereof). I honestly still do not understand what you were driving for with your point, but only vilify me for unknown reasons.

[hpunkinway]

Originally Posted by goofy328

confirms what I already thought about LA, but you could say similiar things about any city, particularly NY. only difference there is the prejudices are more educational/academic/intellectual than what you would find in LA.

Well-said. Cheers.

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by hyb808

LA is a cool place if you're a certain personality type.. its very segmented so unless you are one of the following:
1) Artsy with a 'hipster' thin look
2) Preppy Asian
3) Arrogant Well-Off Individual (People gravitate towards these types)
4) Extremely strong persona who doesn't give a F what anyone thinks..

You'll suffer.

I'm artsy, but I'm 6'2 and built like a main battle tank. Not well-off, though hardly poor or broke, and though I most certainly do have my bouts of strong, immovable persona, I am generally very agreeable.

I'm an extremely nice person, and often approaching new people and being as extroverted as I am is a really tough situation.. (Although, if you're good looking you can make anything happen..)

I'm also a very polite, gentle person, have an introvert/extrovert personality (meaning I'm generally quiet and unassuming the more people who are around me, but quite engaging and outgoing on a more person-to-person level), and I had a huge social circle in LA when I lived there - if anything, I had to stop myself from becoming "one of them" by having to choose who to flake on because my social calendar was always being pre-empted by someone else. I'm not a weirdo or ugly, but I'm not super-good looking; being good looking will help you anywhere, not just LA. Relative to Seattle or SF, both of which I've lived in since I moved from LA, meeting people down there is wicked easy.

A shy person like myself, as nice as I am, have become an alcoholic since I moved here simply trying to socialize with people. It's put a huge strain on me, and actually, my success tanked because of the personas around me.. I found myself making money and getting people in my life that didn't really care about anything but that..

That's more of a personal issue, to be honest. Not trying to be the finger-pointing, hardcore tough-love libertarian dude here, but if you're relying on alcohol to help you socialize, you're socializing in a way that you can't cope with. When I lost my job a couple years back and couldn't find anything, I hit the bottle really hard, and it made the situation worse, but I didn't blame the city I lived in at the time (San Francisco) or the people around me. It was a personal failure, and I dealt with it by failing again, personally. I could have blamed all the employers who didn't hire me despite my having a great resume and great references, but what's the point in that? It wouldn't have made the situation change.

I'm very sensitive to the people around me and how their attitudes and personalities affect me, and always have been this way. I found a way of putting some degree of distance between the things that I didn't want to be around in the workplace (a lot of type-A, aggressive, wannabe-mogul sorts running around...) but still kept myself close to the things I was comfortable with, and ended up forming pretty strong personal ties with nearly everyone I worked with, even people who I didn't initially want anything to do with one way or the other!

If you can see beyond that, LA is awesome.. but based on people giving me free food 'because i'm nice' tells me that LA is filled with horrible selfish people.

This is most certainly true. LA has ten million people in it, and so the sheer number of a-holes is higher than most places. A lot of unpleasant people have overbearing, outgoing personalities; because of this, you have a much higher-than-average chance of running into unpleasant people. The whole transient actor/actress/model/rockstar-to-be contingent adds a whole 'nother element to it all: the outsized sense of importance and entitlement that a lot of these people have is pretty trying. People try to act like what they perceive a "successful" person acts like, and for some horrible reason, in the US there's an attitude that a "successful" person can treat others like crap because they're so important, these people will take it so as not to alientate the "successful" person. Think big, act big gone horribly awry.

But let me ask, have you ever been to New York, or dealt with the NYC mover/shaker crowd? I lived in NYC for two months and couldn't tolerate it any longer.

I'm sure the LA natives are cool.. but LA, like all other cities have certain people that gravitate towards the city - and lots of people who are taken advantage of, or just plain bitter in general will not give ANYONE the benefit of the doubt if you don't fit certain physical/financial/personality criteria. It makes me really sad, but what can I do.. LA would be such an amazing place to live if I didn't feel so out of place all the time.. I'm a super nice person but unfortunately, I must be one of the few..

You're not at all. I met and still keep contact with many really super nice people in LA. Maybe you're inadvertently gravitating towards a lifestyle that is conducive to meeting and encountering a-holes?

Ultimately, if LA doesn't work for you, you should move somewhere where you feel like you fit in more. That's why I left Seattle...

[hpunkinway]

Agreed!

[hpunkinway]

I think the problem is that most are transplants. It's hard being born and raised here, isn't it? Trying to convince our east-coast friends that the natives are really normal?

[nickdahammer]

What do you mean by 'educational/academic/intellectual' prejudices?

I am just a doofus from Los Angeles, mind you, but sounds contradictory to me.

Originally Posted by goofy328

confirms what I already thought about LA, but you could say similiar things about any city, particularly NY. only difference there is the prejudices are more educational/academic/intellectual than what you would find in LA.

[nighthouse66]

We never promised you anything, so why on earth have you turned our neighborhoods into soul-less places of people who seem to enjoy acting in an obnoxious and disgusting manner from the neighborhood of respect and courtesy that I grew up in? (I.e., O.J. Simpson, who single-handedly destroyed my and my family's neighborhood.) Brentwood used to be a lovely place to live.

yeah, brentwood, last time i was there, i was jumped for my lipgloss by a gang of designer princesses who beat me with their expensive handbags. i mean, huh? you live in brentwood and OJ dragged it down? dude, LA has ALWAYS been filled with murderers and cults and weirdness. where have you been? maybe you ought to stay behind your security fence. about the most dangerous thing about brentwood is the teenagers with too much money texting on their cell phones while driving their expensive convertibles. rich people murdering other rich people happens everywhere. if you had said you lived in the santa susanna pass and you said that charlie manson had dragged the neighborhood down maybe i could see your point. except, like everywhere in LA, you can't find a single corner where there hasn't been a body drop or a murder or a scandal or some weird cult blowing themselves up. LA was and always will be built on corruption, dastardly deeds and did i say corruption? pretending that there was some sort of untouched gentile innocent corner of this city is denying its entire history. even when things seemed innocent back in the post-war days, it was only innocent because of a land developer's screwing over the farmers up north to steal their water to feed all those palatial, innocent, peaceful front yards. if that is lapping on your doorstep in brentwood, seems like karma to me.