L.A. Third World Country (Los Angeles, Torrance: rent, college, place to live)

[fastfilm]

I've seen the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, in person, and would add that although our housing stock is vastly superior to tinroof shanties, the Los Angeles illegals here import their similar third world lack of sanitation habits along with them. Code enforcement here in the Valley has given up.
DeteriorationBlight

Here's an interesting assessment from neighbor of mine from Thailand married to an American: she said Los Angeles in general, and our Valley area in specific, are far dirtier than her homeland cities, because the slum conditions created by the illegals here are so widespread throughout Los Angeles, as opposed to a third world, segregated ghetto.

[SLOnative]

But as U.S. cities go, most Americans would be shocked to see parts of Los Angeles that the media doesn't cover. I few years ago I drove to a printer for a late press check at 10 PM one night. I took an early offramp by mistake, driving down to near the LA Coliseum. Having been familiar with the South Central area since about 1960, we drove east on Vernon (or maybe it was Central) past the old music store when LA Diskjocky "Huggy Boy" used to broacast R&B music from. "Central and Vernon, Vernon and Central" is what he used to call out.

A few blocks east we crossed some railroad tracks and turned around. We were shocked to see graffitti painted empty storefronts. But that's not all. They were without windows. The glass was broken out of all of them. It was amost like a bombed out city.

Last Saturday I took Hwy 5 north from Orange County to City Center, then drove west on Wilshire. That downtown area they are trying to gentrify didn't look like any place I would want to live. Skidrow is still skidrow.

Wilshire Blvd is full of potholes until you come to Beverly Hills. But after to pass through B.H. and reach the LA city line, this once great street disintegrates into loose chunks of asphalt. So okay, maybe just the city's Public Works Dept is "Third World".

[calipoppy]

LA is most definitely becoming much more of a "Tale of Two Cities" - the very wealthy in general don't have a motivation to change the situation because the very rich always need an underclass of uneducated, low-skilled poor to be able to serve them.

[xyzxyz]

The reason LA looks like a third world country is because we allow everyone from a third world country to come into our country. The problem is, we don't make them conform to our culture. in theory, we think it is wonderful for these people to come here and carve out their little niches in certain sections of the city like Koreatown, Chinatown, sections where Russians congregate, etc. We think we are being such an advance, open-minded society by doing that but what we are really doing is shooting ourselves in the foot. People in this city speak 75 languages and they don't try to mingle with each other, they stay in their little niche. This is where this city, and eventually this country, will come apart at the seems. We won't be able to communicate with each other because no one speaks the other's language. The liberals are loving it because it tears the country apart.

[snb3]

Originally Posted by xyzxyz

The reason LA looks like a third world country is because we allow everyone from a third world country to come into our country. The problem is, we don't make them conform to our culture. in theory, we think it is wonderful for these people to come here and carve out their little niches in certain sections of the city like Koreatown, Chinatown, sections where Russians congregate, etc. We think we are being such an advance, open-minded society by doing that but what we are really doing is shooting ourselves in the foot. People in this city speak 75 languages and they don't try to mingle with each other, they stay in their little niche. This is where this city, and eventually this country, will come apart at the seems. We won't be able to communicate with each other because no one speaks the other's language. The liberals are loving it because it tears the country apart.

No different than New York a hundred years ago, they seem to have done well. Give LA's ethnic citizens a generation or two to assimilate into the greater LA culture if it survives the "reconquista".

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by snb3

No different than New York a hundred years ago, they seem to have done well. Give LA's ethnic citizens a generation or two to assimilate into the greater LA culture if it survives the "reconquista".

Thank-you snb! You're absolutely right about New York. Thanks for pointing it out. Rep point coming!

[CalGal953]

I gave you a rep-point too, snb!

Originally Posted by BRinSM

The same goes for the shanty towns in Mexico and the favelas in Brazil, both of which I have seen first hand. Yes, there are ghettos in LA which are not a pretty sight, but they look lavish when compared to neighborhoods in other developing countries (some of which aren't even considered 3rd world). The difference is that our government has had its **** together for a lot longer and has been able to produce a much more stable economy.

I would disagree with anyone who said that our government is free of corruption, but then again, we're don't have to payoff cops for speeding tickets in this country, nor do we have to deal with drug wars in our cities.

I've been to Brazil and seen some of the shantytowns as well. Not in person, though. This was from a bus ride we were taking from Sao Paulo to Curitiba.

[High Springs Gator]

Noticing that the City of Burbank has absolutely no illegal vendors on its streets, I called the Media Information Officer at the Burbank PD, and asked how they were able to keep illegal street vending to zero. He told me that unlike the LAPD, they had a policy of enforcing illegal vending pro-actively. I told him that the LAPD says they don't have the resources to make proper enforcement of illegal vending possible. He said that is because they let it go for too long

Why sit back and let things get out of hand and then say we can't do anything about it. That makes no sense.

[mcorrales]

I see that this thread has degenerated into political issues, but as one who has lived the greater part of 45+ years in Southern California, from Torrance, to OC to the Antelope Valley, let me say that you could not pay me to live anywhere there again. I escaped just a year ago, and I have never been happier than I am now. I have a daughter in OC, one in Valley Village and another in Calabasas and yes, you better make $200k a year if you want to live a half way decent life. My daughter and her husband bought a 60+ year old completely refurbished home in VV 2 years ago for $780k, and you can go three blocks and see the homeless folks. I got to feeling that I lived in another country. Everything, and I mean, everything is in Spanish. I now live in a small town in Western PA, the town has less than 1700 people. I bought a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, full basement house on more than a half an acre. Winter was fun, not too bad at all, I have not heard Spanish since I got here. Spring is absolutely glorious, I paid $90k. Sure we have some fixing up to do, but I love living here. We are 20-30 minutes from some nice metro areas and 1.5 hours tops to Pittsburgh. Neighbors here are wonderful, just attended my first town meeting, could not have felt more at home. The librarian knows me as I walk in the door, saves books unasked for, just on knowing what I like to read. Only down thing is no mexican food, but it is worth it. I have nothing against hispanics, just not illegals. My grandkids are hispanic as is my youngest daughter. Just respect our laws and come here legally. Learn our language, do not expect us to conform to you, you assimiliate into our culture, if yours was so great, stay where you are.

[xyzxyz]

Originally Posted by snb3

No different than New York a hundred years ago, they seem to have done well. Give LA's ethnic citizens a generation or two to assimilate into the greater LA culture if it survives the "reconquista".

I think you mean let LA's ethnic generation take over, correct?