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Does anyone think L.A. is becoming similar to third world countries? There is a large seperation between the lower and upper class, and really, there is no middle class. Parking lower class communities next to upper class communities is a recipe for crime and hostility. It seems many on this forum constantly debate the quality of life in L.A.. But I've yet to see anyone chime in from Watts or Compton and tell me how wonderful Los Angeles is. The fact of the matter is, most raving about Los Angeles are living in the upper crest of society here.
Most hoods in Los Angeles are a stones throw from very wealthy neighborhoods. Unlike most other large cities, the ghettos are not isolated from other areas. Take the geography or planning of many cities, and that is why you have this vast difference in Los Angeles. It all comes down to poor city planning and geography. It's not complicated...
So if an area becomes affluent would you have them forcibly moved? Or if an area declined would you immediately bulldoze it to keep the classes from mixing?
Does anyone think L.A. is becoming similar to third world countries? There is a large seperation between the lower and upper class, and really, there is no middle class. Parking lower class communities next to upper class communities is a recipe for crime and hostility. It seems many on this forum constantly debate the quality of life in L.A.. But I've yet to see anyone chime in from Watts or Compton and tell me how wonderful Los Angeles is. The fact of the matter is, most raving about Los Angeles are living in the upper crest of society here.
Most hoods in Los Angeles are a stones throw from very wealthy neighborhoods. Unlike most other large cities, the ghettos are not isolated from other areas. Take the geography or planning of many cities, and that is why you have this vast difference in Los Angeles. It all comes down to poor city planning and geography. It's not complicated...
There are so many dubious assertions here it is difficult to know where to begin. In random order:
--LA does not have an enormous amount of "crime and hostility" compared to other big cities. If you look at the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports you will see it has less crime per capita even than Salt Lake City. And violent crime is falling here (particularly in the city proper), whereas it is rising in America as a whole.
--The ghettos not isolated from other areas? They look pretty isolated to me, by the mere fact of distance. You have to go a long way from Brentwood to find a poor ghetto. One reason is that LA does not have the huge housing projects that brings extremely wealthy people in, say, New York's Chelsea into close proximity with extremely poor people in the Hudson River projects.
--The middle class is shrinking, as it is everywhere. But LA still has lots of middle-class jobs, as well as lots of well-paid working class jobs, many of them connected to the ports (e.g., warehousing and logistics). LA is not just Beverly Hills and Compton. Look at "boring" places like Cerritos, Monterey Park, Diamond Bar etc. Lots of middle class people there. Look further east, to San Bernardino and Riverside counties, and you will see hundreds of thousands more. Again, this makes LA very different from New York.
--It is wrong to suggest that poor people were "parked" in one area while rich people were "parked" in another. With the important exception of the restrictive covenants, which kept Santa Monica, for example, largely white, planning had little to do with who settled where. Look at Compton for example. Almost entirely white in the 1950s, almost entirely black by the 1980s, very largely Latino now. I don't see a planner's hand there.
LA has its problems. It is not the sunny utopia of Beverly Hills 90210. But nor is it the hell-hole of Straight Outta Compton.
What type of middle class affords 500k+ houses. I don't see the middle class here. The middle class affordable lifestyle does not exist in L.A. anymore. If you are affording the lifestyle (house, cars, whatever) and your in the middle class tax brackey, you either bought in 15-20 years ago or your in over your head (aka foreclosure).
New York's Chelsea into close proximity with extremely poor people in the Hudson River projects. The Hudson river seperates the poor from the rich. This is an example of geography seperating the rich from the poor. For example, numerous upper scale neighborhoods (ie: Venice) are gang infested due to directly neighboring areas. There are 25000 members in the 8th street gang, and there are about 100k to 300k gang members within L.A. county. This is by far more than any other city in the U.S.. Ask any police officer here, and he will probably back up my claims. The streets are crime infested.
Most importantly, the transportation system is one of the main faults to how this city is evolving. People can't commute easily from safe affordable areas to the financial or richer districts for work. There are a few exceptions to peoples abillity to tolerate hour commutes (the train and bus are barely functional here). This cities zoning and planning is clearly hosed.
Location: Los Angeles, which as I understand was once upon a time ago part of the United States of America
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In West L.A., particularly South Brentwood, what were middle-class neighborhoods are now becoming upper-class, with two-bedroom homes being gradually replaced with 4 bedroom homes, at least twice the square footage. The same seems to be happening in Santa Monica as well, north of Wilshire. In other areas, not experiencing a similar renaissance, what were previously middle-class neighborhoods are becoming third world no-go zones, rife with the dregs of the planet.
What type of middle class affords 500k+ houses. I don't see the middle class here. The middle class affordable lifestyle does not exist in L.A. anymore. If you are affording the lifestyle (house, cars, whatever) and your in the middle class tax brackey, you either bought in 15-20 years ago or your in over your head (aka foreclosure).
New York's Chelsea into close proximity with extremely poor people in the Hudson River projects. The Hudson river seperates the poor from the rich. This is an example of geography seperating the rich from the poor. For example, numerous upper scale neighborhoods (ie: Venice) are gang infested due to directly neighboring areas. There are 25000 members in the 8th street gang, and there are about 100k to 300k gang members within L.A. county. This is by far more than any other city in the U.S.. Ask any police officer here, and he will probably back up my claims. The streets are crime infested.
Most importantly, the transportation system is one of the main faults to how this city is evolving. People can't commute easily from safe affordable areas to the financial or richer districts for work. There are a few exceptions to peoples abillity to tolerate hour commutes (the train and bus are barely functional here). This cities zoning and planning is clearly hosed.
And this is almost as bad... sigh...
Re. New York, when I say Hudson River projects I mean the huge projects on or near the Hudson River--Fulton Houses etc. Right next to million-dollar apartments in Chelsea. You find the same juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme poverty in the Lower East Side and many other places in NYC. Like I said, this is much less common in LA. Venice is an example, but it's not nearly as striking as somewhere like Chelsea where the change is literally block-to-block.
Gangs and crime are not the same thing. LA is undoubtedly America's gang capital, with Chicago second. In both cities the crime rate is a lot lower than in places without organized gangs. Gangs are bad, of course, but they are not as bad as a high crime rate. Just ask someone who lives in Philadelphia, Newark, Detroit, Milwaukee etc.
Sure, property prices rose much too high in the past few years. That is why they are crashing at the moment. And the rail system sucks (I disagree about the buses). But bad public transport does not mean you don't have a middle class or an upper working class. LA had even worse public transport during its supposed 1960s golden era, when the city was a middle-class paradise, or so we are told.
Is Obama black? Depends. LA is zoned like you'd expect it to be, high-density where it should be, low where it should be. However, it doesn't enforce them. Anyone who has ever lived in a decent suburb can tell you that there's a Code Enforcement officer stalking your property with a tape measure and a citation in hand. This not only enforces the law, but keeps blight away.
LA is not the third world. what are you talkin about. i love it here andi live in a place most people on this board would much rather avoid. i am far from the upper crust. i live the working class life. thats it. i do what i do to get by. and i aint worried about the rich hollywood types that are out there. they aint parked where im at. they far from me and i am fine with that. i throw a stone it aint hitting a rich person, unless they got lost or are lookin for some good tacos, shoot i throw a stone, ima get 10 stones thrown back. i love LA. as for planning, LA has a pretty good grid of the streets. from east to west, north to south. there is a rhyme and reason for it all. from first street to 225th street. from eastern ave to western. the biggest problem LA has is its publi transit. that is poorly planned. the rail system dont even connect or have a hub. it sucks. other than that I LOVE LA!!! moral of the story, dont be throwin stones.
LA is planned pretty good actually for the most part... city proper and the suburbs.
East LA: Boyle Heights, City Terrace, East Los Angeles. All are TJ lite...
South LA: South Central/South Los Angeles, Watts, Willowbrook, Athens. The most notorious gang activity in LA and some of the cheapest home prices.
Midwest LA: The only true cluster of areas in my opinion... Jefferson Park, Hyde Park, Crenshaw, Mid-City, Westlake, Pico-Union, West Adams, Koreatown, and Arlington Heights are all undesirable areas whereas Hancock Park, Country Club Park, Leimert Park. Harvard Heights, and pretty much anywhere along Wilshire west of Koreatown is good.
Southwest LA: Sawtelle, Palms, Mar Vista, and Venice which are gentrified ghettos as well as Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, and Westchester which are all upper to middle class.
Northwest LA: Brentwood, Westwood, Pacific Palisades, Bel Air. VERY upper class areas.
Northeast LA: Highland Park, Montecito Heights, Lincoln Heights, Monterey Hills, El Sereno, Mount Washington, Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Chinatown. Bad areas for the most part except for northern Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake next to the reservoir (Mount Washington isn't *that* bad just the houses are VERY small).
Hollywood area: Contains Hollywood (not that desirable) and the hilly areas of Hollywood Hills and Mount Olympus (great areas).
SFV: The central core and northeast (Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Reseda, Winnetka, Canoga Park, Sun Valley, Pacoima, Arleta, North Hills, Panorama City, Mission Hills, Lake View Terrace, and Sylmar) are the bad areas while the south and northwest (Studio City, Toluca Lake, Sherman Oaks, Valley Village, Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Chatsworth, West Hills, and Porter Ranch) are the best. Northridge and Granada Hills are just average but aren't nearly as bad as the others...
Port area: Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, Wilmington, San Pedro. Not very good areas...
Long Beach: The bad areas (North Long Beach, Wrigley, Rose Park, northern downtown) are all on the west side...
Suburbs: For the most part the bad areas and good areas are separated. The least desirable ones are Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Lawndale, Lomita, Carson, Signal Hill, Compton, Paramount, Lynwood, South Gate, Cudahy, Bell Gardens, Bell, Maywood, Huntington Park, Commerce, Vernon, Montebello, Pico Rivera, Norwalk, Bellflower, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier, La Puente, Industry, Baldwin Park, El Monte, South El Monte, Rosemead, Pomona, Azusa, Covina, West Covina, Irwindale, Duarte, Monrovia, San Fernando, Lancaster, and Palmdale. The most desirable ones are Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, Diamond Bar, Walnut, Bradbury, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, San Gabriel, Temple City, Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Marino, South Pasadena, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, La Canada Flintridge, Malibu, Calabasas, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Culver City, West Hollywood, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, La Mirada, Cerritos, Lakewood, and Santa Clarita. About half and half and the trend is mostly a string of bad areas followed by a string of good areas.
Steve, I don't mean to sound like a prick or anything, but why do you still live in L.A.? (if you dont then please excuse my ignorance).
Just curious, really I'm not trying to be sarcastic this time, I'm truly curious why one would stay somewhere that they hate. I hate Indiana...and I'm doing something about it, leaving.
You should look into Indiana maybe? You can get a HUGE 4 bedroom on 2 acres for around 160K. You can get a nice 2 bedroom in a nice family neighborhood for around 80K, just a thought, you don't seem happy in CA at all.
...whyt dont I stay and enjoy these low prices? Life is pretty boring here if you not a family man.
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