How is life in Los Angeles?

[LALady]

Originally Posted by Charles

Here's a good example:


About ten minutes later some guy in his early fifties sees us and pulls over and asks if we have a problem. I explained what happened. I tell him where I live. He tells us he'll be right back. Fifteen minutes later he drives up with a flatbed trailer. We load the bike on to the trailer and he takes us all the way back to Moorpark. Wouldn't accept any money. He simply tells me that I can help him out someday if he ever breaks down on the side of the road.

Imagine that.

I'm speechless.

[katenik]

Originally Posted by dx000

I plan on moving there and I need to know what life is like there. How is the enviroment? Weather? People? Shopping? I just need a detailed overview of the daily life in present- Los Angeles. I also need to know what is like in Hollywood Hills. Thanks for your help.

why are you already planning to move to a place about which you seemingly know nothing?

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by Charles

Here's a good example:


About 15 years ago my girlfriend and I were on my Harley on Soledad Canyon Road out past Canyon Country. I lived in Moorpark at the time. Beautiful day.

All of a sudden..vooommmmmmaaaaah... the engine dies.

Moorpark is about 40 miles away.

I walk the bike to the side of the road and in those days I didn't have a cell phone. What the hell was I going to do?

About ten minutes later some guy in his early fifties sees us and pulls over and asks if we have a problem. I explained what happened. I tell him where I live. He tells us he'll be right back. Fifteen minutes later he drives up with a flatbed trailer. We load the bike on to the trailer and he takes us all the way back to Moorpark. Wouldn't accept any money. He simply tells me that I can help him out someday if he ever breaks down on the side of the road.

Imagine that.

Yep. Good story.

Multiply that by 100s and that will tell just how helpful many people are out here.

[YankeeTom]

Originally Posted by LAPalms

L.As smog has been reduced by over 50% in the last 25 years. I don't know who you have been talking to, but we now have 0-1 1st stage smog alerts a year. in the 50's-70's there were MANY stage 1 episodes. See Wikipedia (Los Angeles). Los Angeles and California lead the nation and the world in general in anti-pollution technology. Granted it is not perfect, and not always this clear, for sure. But JES guys, c'mon, give us a break. This is a natural condition that was here when only Indians lived here as the mountains captured the ocean air and was the "valley of the smokes". Now we have 10 million people and the cars trucks, factories etc. that go with it and are still able to accomplish this ongoing "clearing up" of the air. Yes, we still have a long way to go.
I am a native ANGELINO (that's an L.A. native), and when I was a kid in the 70's it was a rare day to see the San gabriel Mountains from the coast. Now it is very rare NOT to see them. People that have visited me from out-of-state for extended periods have often commented "what's the big deal about the smog? I don't see it?"
May you all be blessed and prosper in the new year and may we find peace! -Don

August 2005 Waterman canyon rd. Looking out I could not see the valley for the smog! I KNEW what the talk was all about conserning the smog for I could see and smell it. Parked on the side of the road , I could see the frightened faces of the moterists passing by, I was a smoker in 2005 and the dryed and crumbling yellow weeds on the mnts catch fire with ease. I want to like California but CA has some problems it needs to work out. I think other areas of the country could provide a better quality of life for people of more diverse economic statis. To live well in CA you Got to have $$$$

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by YankeeTom

August 2005 Waterman canyon rd. Looking out I could not see the valley for the smog! I KNEW what the talk was all about conserning the smog for I could see and smell it. Parked on the side of the road , I could see the frightened faces of the moterists passing by, I was a smoker in 2005 and the dryed and crumbling yellow weeds on the mnts catch fire with ease. I want to like California but CA has some problems it needs to work out. I think other areas of the country could provide a better quality of life for people of more diverse economic statis. To live well in CA you Got to have $$$$

There is still the fact, though, that there are far fewer stage 1, 2 or 3 smog alerts in the last 15-20 years than there was during the '60s and '70s.

[skreem2]

I've been browsing through this thread, and I see similar ideas that keep popping up - usually objections to Los Angeles have a physical aesthetic appeal - graffiti, street vendors, hovels. Sometimes I hear the refrain about crime, gangs, and illegal immigrants. Let me just say that there is more to the story.

I've been teaching high school on the East side of Los Angeles for nine years. I also have friends and relatives who live west of the 405 freeway. West of the 405 is cleaner, prettier, and more sophisticated, but the people who live there have MUCH to learn about genuine community. They are isolated from each other - trying desperately to appear more well-off than their neighbors. They resort to expensive attorneys to settle disputes that could much more easily be resolved by talking and applying such simple human virtues as forbearance. They step all over each other in order to "get ahead."

In the East side of town, the barrios, people know each other and bond to each other in ways that are incomprehensible to the wealthy of the west side of LA. The elderly are taken care of by their children. The children become neighborhood responsibility. Illness and domestic disputes become the "Chisme" of the block. There aren't the same pretenses and airs of superiority that you see in the Beverly Center. Gangs are a problem, but they arise out of that deep sense of togetherness that we Anglos don't really understand.

When you are on your death bed from bone cancer or some other horrible pathology, how much comfort will you find in your bank account? People on the East side of town die intimately and deeply connected to others. I know what I'm talking about. I've seen it. Latin American people are not better, not morally superior (they have problems with rules and self restraint). They are different from us white-bread Americans, and those differences are not all bad - No, not at all.

[Charles]

My comments in Invalid Violet.

Originally Posted by skreem2

West of the 405 is cleaner, prettier, and more sophisticated,

That is a good thing.


but the people who live there have MUCH to learn about genuine community.

Is this a valid statement? How do you know? Have you measured it? What proof do you have?

They are isolated from each other

What do you mean by isolated? They don't socialize? Go to church? They don't go to parties? They don't visit at their kids' soccer games?

- trying desperately to appear more well-off than their neighbors.

What's wrong with looking nice, taking care of your yard, owning an expensive vehicle if you are financially responsible?

They resort to expensive attorneys to settle disputes that could much more easily be resolved by talking and applying such simple human virtues as forbearance.

Actually, attorneys normally get involved when easier, less expensive means of settling disputes are exhausted.

They step all over each other in order to "get ahead."

Have you ever heard of Charles Darwin? Many people consider climbing the ladder to be a virtue; sure some people are jerks but is there any evidence that people west of the 405 are any jerkier?

In the East side of town, the barrios, people know each other and bond to each other in ways that are incomprehensible to the wealthy of the west side of LA.

Is this a valid statement? How do you know? Have you measured it? What proof do you have?

The elderly are taken care of by their children. The children become neighborhood responsibility. Illness and domestic disputes become the "Chisme" of the block. There aren't the same pretenses and airs of superiority that you see in the Beverly Center.

OK, nothing wrong with this.

Gangs are a problem, but they arise out of that deep sense of togetherness that we Anglos don't really understand.

I guess they are OK then?

When you are on your death bed from bone cancer or some other horrible pathology, how much comfort will you find in your bank account?

Actually, a lot. I would rather know my kids would have an inheritance than not have an inheritance.

People on the East side of town die intimately and deeply connected to others.

Is this a valid statement? How do you know? Have you measured it? What proof do you have?

I know what I'm talking about.

Everyone thinks they know what they are talking about.

[skreem2]

Well Charles,
I seem to have gotten under your skin. Hmmmm.
Do you remember the line from Shakespeare's Hamlet?
"Me thinks she doth protest too much."

[skreem2]

Charles,
Did you actually read the last two sentences in the post that you hated?

[dustin183]

Originally Posted by LAPalms

To me (and I've been in every Major city in the U.S.) it is simply the greatest.

But what you are asking cannot be answered in a few posts. It is deeply detailed, complex, varied, culturally mixed, HUGE. It has a metro area of 15 million people. You cannot go out and seek the essence of Los Angeles. It slowly reveals itself to you. You can look it up in Wikipedia and many other sources but it will take a couple of years of being here before it all starts to fall into place and make sense.
Your patience will be greatly rewarded.

It is a wonder beyond description.

Very well said. I agree 100%.