What are the intellectual areas of the Southland?

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

What defines an "intellectual"? I think the term is pretty fluid and pretty open for interpretation. The OP talked about the way in which Northern Californians like to think they are more "intellectual" than Southern Californians. They claim to spend more time in coffee houses and book stores, volunteering at charities/causes and they pride themselves of their social awareness.

There is a large cluster of public and private universities in the Bay Area region -- which is a geographically compact area of counties surrounding San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

Southern California has just as many public and private universities as the Bay Area, they are just spread over a wider geographical area, so they have less influence on the culture. Southern California's counties also host a larger population of blue collar people, we are more affordable in terms of COL, so we get told (by people in the Bay Area) we "lack culture" compared to the Bay Area.

San Francisco and the Bay Area have always had a geographical "rivalry" with Southern California, although I think its fair to say that the Bay Area is the primary antagonist in this "rivalry". San Francisco carried the state during the Gold Rush era, then Los Angeles carried it for a time with movie production and the aerospace industry. Currently, San Francisco is carrying the state with the tech industry and that has given the Bay Area a "spring in its step" for the time being, but that may change eventually as new industries are born and new talent is discovered.

All that said, there are "intellectual" people in Los Angeles and Southern California, they just tend to avoid wearing their intellect as a badge and people in L.A. are much less interested in virtue signaling than people in the Bay Area seem to be.

Yes I feel the same way . Other terms like this are " creative " and " professional " .

Is someone in their early 20s automatically a " professional " because they have a college degree in business or some other degree?

I do feel like SF does have more bookstores than LA but it's also a much smaller city .
We have a bunch of coffees shops besides just Starbucks , I've seen a number of new ones pop up around more recently too .
Our public libraries are pretty busy all the time too .

There are a lot of events every single day at colleges , bookstores , theatres , museums that appeal to intellectuals .

I think unfortunately people only think of Hollywood and reality tv , but that shows more that they are shallow and not looking deeper enough rather than LA being only about that .

I do think L.A is too often painted as a city of " low brow culture" while people view SF and NYC as high brow culture.
Low brow culture can be fun too though .
I can appreciate going to see a classical music performance and also a raunchy comedy show .

[Bunjee]

So the definition has shifted to cultural institutions. Westside still has them, including the bookstores (like Book Soup), arthouse theaters (like Nuart), live theater (like Geffen Playhouse), art education (UCLA and Otis). Still leans to Pasadena and downtown. Arts education kinda favors Pasadena with Art Center College, and DTLA with USC, SCI-Arc, and CalArts, one of the most innovating art schools in the country I think operating out of RedCat. Funny though, CalArts' campus is in Valencia so how does Valencia rate in this area ranking?

If we're adding fine arts into the mix then L.A. easily makes its case. I have heard the odd dismissive argument that the city's (pretty damn significant) art scene is only a function of its massive size, but what on earth does that mean? Explain first, and provide "intellectual" detail. There was a thread in the CvC section that declares L.A. writers only work in TV and movies yet a native author whose novel is set in Los Angeles was on the long list for this year's Booker Man Prize. So no call to denigrate a city for its lack of "intellectualism" if the critique is ironically ignorant and not very, er, "intellectual."

[majoun]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Yes I feel the same way . Other terms like this are " creative " and " professional " .

Is someone in their early 20s automatically a " professional " because they have a college degree in business or some other degree?

I do feel like SF does have more bookstores than LA but it's also a much smaller city .
We have a bunch of coffees shops besides just Starbucks , I've seen a number of new ones pop up around more recently too .
Our public libraries are pretty busy all the time too .

There are a lot of events every single day at colleges , bookstores , theatres , museums that appeal to intellectuals .

I think unfortunately people only think of Hollywood and reality tv , but that shows more that they are shallow and not looking deeper enough rather than LA being only about that .

I do think L.A is too often painted as a city of " low brow culture" while people view SF and NYC as high brow culture.
Low brow culture can be fun too though .
I can appreciate going to see a classical music performance and also a raunchy comedy show .

Of course.
The neighborhoods I was saying were not "intellectual" are decent and often quite pleasant areas, and many of them are quite nice.
"Intellectual" is descriptive more than it is good or bad.

[SeasonedNewbie]

What about Exposition Park? I would consider it to be an intellectual area with the Natural History & California African American Museums, CA ScienCenter, etc. These places sit right across from USC and have three public libraries close by (Vermont Square, Jefferson, and Exposition Park branches).

[payutenyodagimas]

Originally Posted by 13Bulldog

See, I feel like SoCal is missing some of that intellectual "coffee" culture.

substitute coffee with pho or noodles if in OC

[13Bulldog]

Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas

substitute coffee with pho or noodles if in OC

Bolsa intellectual. I like it!

[BRinSM]

I think the hub for the intellectual crowd in the region is probably KCRW. Looking at the events they host/sponsor, there is no specific area of the city/county/region where these occur with great enough frequency to really create any sort of easily defined intellectual area. From that, I can extrapolate that intellectual areas in southern CA are all over and are hard to define with any specificity.