Why in the world is Los Angeles so looked down upon (Anaheim: beach, budget)

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by tjarado

Disclaimer: I was born and raised in NYC, worked and lived in Nassau County, and retired to the sixth borough (SoEastFla - Palm Beach County) a few years ago.
I have been to Nor-Cal a number of times and was awed at its beauty and culture..and everything.

BUT .. the couple of times I've been to LA I was overwhelmed by the spread-outedness of the place!
Can someone tell me where exactly IS THE CENTER of this town?
I have visited many world-class cities, and none requires you to have a vehicle and fight traffic that seems to never end!

So, altho LA has much to offer, it is a huge challenge for the casual visitor to negotiate.
Where to stay to see it all? How long should one stay and how much should it cost? And how to get around?

Tell me how YOU would suggest that a young couple or a family enjoy a visit to your fair 'city'?

I dont agree with LA being hard to navigate for the casual visitor. After my high school graduation, myself and three friends took a trip to LA. I was the youngest at 17 and the other three were 18. We landed at LAX and took a shuttle to union station. Then took the subway to hollywood/highland where our hotel was (magic castle hotel is pretty underrated). That week (week MJ died actually) we walked and used transit everywhere. On our third day, we walked down la brea to wilshire and walked down wilshire to rodeo drive. Long walk, but it was easy and cool meeting people along the way. Took the metro rapid buses to the beach a few days. We even went to six flags, taking the subway to union station, then the commuter train to sylmar, and then a bus to the stop right outside six flags magic mountain. We are all young dudes out of high school doing this by just looking at a map schedule. Its easy getting around LA imo, as a visitor. Of course, it also depends on what you want to see I guess.

[GatsbyGatz]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

The world-class cities to which L.A. is inevitably compared are generally much more compact and largely free of the massive boring suburban stretches.

Yeah, I think the "problem" that our generation is beginning to have is that our big cities (outside of a select few) don't look like London, Paris, Tokyo, Madrid, Barcelona, and the host of other older (if not ancient) cities that are almost entirely devoid of the detached suburban houses within the city limits that you see throughout LA's center.

As trends and technologies change, we'll see our cities adapt to the changing social and technological culture. So for the city of LA, it once had extensive streetcar networks working throughout the city. Trends changed and those streetcars were removed. Our generation is the first step to a possible return to what LA had abandoned. I like to think that had LA never gotten rid of its streetcar network and LA still had this form of transit throughout the city, it would be much more adored as a city than it is today.

LA wouldn't have ever been regarded as "sprawling" or "unwalkable" city but rather a "cool" city that you can rely on streetcar rails to transport you anywhere you want to go. LA (and practically all American cities) was built for the streetcar. I hope that one day LA has its rails restored to its rightful place.

[chessgeek]

LA had hosted the Olympic Games in the 1980's and seemed to have a good reputation then for the most part. I remember popular shows like LA Law and the Beverly Hills Cop movies. The Melrose district was becoming popular. Hugh Hefner had moved his digs out of Chicago and into his LA Playboy mansion. Magic Johnson was creating excitement for the Lakers, etc.

Then the 1990's hit the city like a ton of bricks in a mostly negative way. It was the period from 1992-1995 that significantly damaged LA's reputation the most and it has recovered from that finally.

In the early 1990's LA was an inexcusable war zone of gang and drug violence and especially in South Central. The LA riots of 1992 after the Rodney King verdict were a nightmare that started in South Central and spread throughout the city. It did not help that police chief Darryl Gates, who had a reputation for toughness if not occasional police brutality, was simply asleep at the wheel during this crisis. I remember he refused to leave a speech at a dinner banquet to deal with it. Things are better today there, but the misinformed in the USA think it is still just as bad.

The other event was the embarrassing O.J. Simpson trial and verdict in 1995. Not only the verdict, but the soap opera behavior by so many players. You had Mark Furmann's racist and vulgar rants, detective Van Adder leaving a vial in his suit pocket instead of booking it as evidence. Kato Kaelin's testimony should have been put on the Comedy Channel...no more comment on that. LOL. Then drama king Johnny Cochran acting however he darn well pleased and Judge Ito not doing anything about it. An embarrassment for the city and its justice system on every conceivable level. It was televised around the country. Terrible damage to LA's reputation and some people thinking you guys really were fruits and nuts in the 1990's. Movies like Grand Canyon, Falling Down and others showed the dreadful side of LA to the viewing audience in the early 1990's.

The challenge of living in a famous and highly publicized city is that a small percentage of violent, unethical people, bad decisions and unfortunate incidents can reflect badly on the city overall. That is not fair, but it is reality. There were innumerable LA jokes making the rounds in northern California in the mid-90's not too long after the riots and Simpson trial. Of course, we were concerned on your behalf during the riots, but no sympathy to LA on the Simpson fiasco, except the murder victims and their families. Some of us had friends in San Diego and said the worst part about driving there was we had to drive through LA.

Anyways, I think the city is working harder to improve now and have heard that good things are happening downtown. The people seem to care more today than the people in the 1990's did or at least that is the perception. There is optimism now that did not exist then. The focus can once again be on the weather, beaches, attractions, food, entertainment and neighborhoods. LA is not the only U.S. city with bad traffic and mediocre schools.

In summary, my answer as to why LA is still disliked by some is still that dreadful period from 1992-1995. That was a terrible era for LA. (Anyways, most major cities have challenging eras. NYC had some nightmare years in the 1970's) Too many still think it is that way, but things have improved. Give yourselves a pat on the back for that.

[Tlaneloli]

Originally Posted by Trae713

I dont agree with LA being hard to navigate for the casual visitor. After my high school graduation, myself and three friends took a trip to LA. I was the youngest at 17 and the other three were 18. We landed at LAX and took a shuttle to union station. Then took the subway to hollywood/highland where our hotel was (magic castle hotel is pretty underrated). That week (week MJ died actually) we walked and used transit everywhere. On our third day, we walked down la brea to wilshire and walked down wilshire to rodeo drive. Long walk, but it was easy and cool meeting people along the way. Took the metro rapid buses to the beach a few days. We even went to six flags, taking the subway to union station, then the commuter train to sylmar, and then a bus to the stop right outside six flags magic mountain. We are all young dudes out of high school doing this by just looking at a map schedule. Its easy getting around LA imo, as a visitor. Of course, it also depends on what you want to see I guess.

Getting around like that ain't too hard. My friend from Phoenix visting and driving, she had a hard time with the streets and freeways, and I wasn't much help I grew up on the bus. So I think it's more of an issue of getting places by car that people speak of for non-natives.

[Tlaneloli]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

To be fair about it, I think it would be stretching the truth more than a little to say that Venice Beach or Hollywood are ghettos. Hollywood's always been a bit tacky, though less so now than in the past, and landmarks like the Roosevelt Hotel and Musso & Frank are well worth visiting to anyone interested in 20th century American film.

Ghettos, nah, but they're pretty dirty and abound with bums, or at least with Venice the boardwalk area, the houses right next to it will cost a pretty penny, but I like Hollywood and Venice, they're interesting places

[Bunjee]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

If you limited your list to just the main cities themselves, instead of metro areas, Gatsby's assertion would be absolutely true. Most of America is suburban, plain and simple. I wouldn't expect Chicago-Joliet-Naperville to be much different from L.A.-L.B.-Santa Ana in that respect, except that the Illinoisians have to shovel their walks in the winter.

The world-class cities to which L.A. is inevitably compared are generally much more compact and largely free of the massive boring suburban stretches. If the Bay Area were like SoCal, then places like Hayward and Daly City would all be part of the City of San Francisco, and people would be yammering about how wretchedly ugly and banal most of the City is.

The assertion is Los Angeles' prevalent housing, more so than other cities', is detached SFHs. If we limit that to city proper then the percentage in L.A. is 39.3%. Is that more or less or about par for other cities? If it's the specific indictment then that's the question to be answered. Because what people casually assume from Google Views to be SFHs, on the ground are actually big apartment buildings. Whether the street "looks suburban" is an entirely different matter but in the end weak support for the base assertion about housing.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzVL...TRUOHc/preview

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by Tlaneloli

Getting around like that ain't too hard. My friend from Phoenix visting and driving, she had a hard time with the streets and freeways, and I wasn't much help I grew up on the bus. So I think it's more of an issue of getting places by car that people speak of for non-natives.

I agree that it wasn't, but the person I was quoting was saying that it is hard to get around LA without a car. It really isnt depending on your destination. Also, getting around in a car in any new large city will be difficult for mewcomers and visitors.

[Those Who Squirm]

Originally Posted by PDF

NYC has the AirTrain that goes from JFK and Newark airports, but then you have to connect to the subway or local commuter train. LaGuardia is so close to Manhattan that it not having a subway connection isn't a good argument.

More cities than that have subway connections at their airport. You have to count light rail, which is appearing in most cities now, because what's the difference between hopping on a subway at the airport vs. light rail?

I found the FlyAway at LAX to be extremely convenient. Everyone should take it.

While it isn't L.A. proper, BUR is served by both Amtrak and Metrolink trains--rather remarkable for an airport on the edge of the SFV.

And I certainly agree that people ought to use shuttles, public transit, or taxicabs to get to and from the airport. It's much more efficient because vehicles can carry passengers both ways.

[marreekarr]

LA is just big. People like to complain about Big because they want convenience and control of their immediate environment. But LA has the Dodgers. And it has Manhattan Beach and Disneyland too! Where else You gonna get that? And Pink's hot dog stand over on La Brea! I don't know about You folks - but I'm stayin right here!

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by chessgeek

In the early 1990's LA was an inexcusable war zone of gang and drug violence and especially in South Central. The LA riots of 1992 after the Rodney King verdict were a nightmare that started in South Central and spread throughout the city. It did not help that police chief Darryl Gates, who had a reputation for toughness if not occasional police brutality, was simply asleep at the wheel during this crisis.

When I first moved to LA a woman I met recommended a documentary about this to me but I can't recall what it was called. There are probably several documentaries about those subjects, but does anyone know any of them off hand?