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Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
7,409 posts, read 6,537,276 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Heel82
“I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.”
That is a classic quote….not sure if still true today but in my day Santa Monica/Westside of LA and SF were 2 areas of CA that someone from NYC metro (not talking upstate or Suffolk County) would most easily adapt.
Me. My wife is from LA and I’m from NYC. Moved there for a year when we first got married. Was very happy to return. Was tough to adapt to the lifestyle which is very different.
It’s a nice place. Great weather. Good Mexican food. But there’s not much oomph. Day to day lifestyle is pretty much anytown USA. Drive to work. Pass by a few strip malls. Get on highway. Then do same thing in reverse at 6.
Given we walk/subway here - there’s just more “life”. Seeing different characters on the street everyday. On way home - hey that new pizza joint just opened on A - let me take a detour. It’s liberating. It’s more free. Not a slave to our cars. Going by foot allows for more exploring. So the mundane commute doesn’t need to be.
This is just one vestige of the differences. Will post more at a later time.
Mean no disrespect toward LA. Great town. Just doesn’t speak my language. Being from NY, the culture shock is significantly less in say London, where you can have a relatively approximate lifestyle as one does in NYC.
That is a classic quote….not sure if still true today but in my day Santa Monica/Westside of LA and SF were 2 areas of CA that someone from NYC metro (not talking upstate or Suffolk County) would most easily adapt.
I moved to LA in 1998 right out of college. My friend worked as an agent assistant for CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and I was intent on working in the industry as a model or actor, or being a part of the industry somehow. I interviewed for CAA, but didn't get hired. I applied at many places (restaurants/bars/temp work/etc) and finally landed a counter gig in Bevery Hills at an italian high end restaurant. Newbies had to start out as counter workers, then moved to "on the floor" where they could be server assistants. Then, if you did well, you moved up to a server. Servers made bank here, since a lot of celebrities came in, and their entourage.
Anyway, I worked at this for about 3 months and decided it wasn't for me--just the LA scene in general. I moved to Atlanta after the 3 months, where I landed a gig in desk top support almost right away.
Flash forward 2 1/2 years in Atlanta, and I moved to Brooklyn, to live with my best friend in a loft. Pretty much fell in love with NYC right away, and have lived here in the NYC region on and off for more than 17 years.
Still though, I wanted to give LA another shot, in between my feelings of wanting to remain in NYC, just to see if I missed out on the LA move. So in late 2014, I started applying for LA jobs and looking for apartments remotely. I had an interview that went 4 rounds and they were going to give me an offer. I visited LA the weekend before they indicated an offer was coming forward, and stayed with friends, hung out, looked for a couple of apartments (all in West Hollywood/Bevery Hills/Santa Monica/Hollywood areas), and just felt out the vibes to make sure this is my next step.
Well, I packed up and came back to NYC Monday, and woke up that Tuesday and withdrew from the interview process and declined the offer. As much as I love LA, revisiting gave me the realization that it is so opposite NYC on so many levels. The big thing was LA felt so quieter on a street level than NYC, the focus on appearance and status is huge in LA, and the amazing weather and more laid back feel wasn't really me on a daily basis.
I visit LA about once a year, and have 2 of my best friends out there still. I love the city and can see the appeal. But compared to New York City, it's not on the same level.
Los Angeles “technically” is my home town as my parents lived half year in LA and owned residences there since 1989. I lived in Manhattan starting the ‘90s, never wanted to raise kids in the city (so often I saw nannies pushing baby strollers with plastic cover in the front walking in the rain while babies curled up.) so when we were married and had our child we decided to move back to LA so our daughter could be close to my parents in a much kids-friendly weather, in a house with yards as opposed to apartments.
I’ve been always a more NYC person than suburban Californian. I remember flying back to LA to spend time with my parents I started to get bored after the 3rd day, couldn’t wait to fly back to NYC. In 2003 during the NYC big blackout, while my friends went on and on telling me how the city showed so much warmth and camaraderie folks were helping each other in the way only 9-11 could compare, how they all walked together for 58 blocks singing and cheering each other, meanwhile (I happened to visit my parents at the time.) my biggest excitement of the day was to go to Costco to get toilet paper!-but parenthood changed me so I was happy and started to see the good parts of living in LA. For one the weather is much pleasant all year round; two you get mountains and ocean all within 1-2 hrs drive, depends on where you’re in metropolitan LA. You get less claustrophobic than being in NYC, and like us to live on the hills where you absolutely have privacy and the view (there’s no much “view” living in NYC because most so-called views are often other people’s windows and a bunch of buildings which can be depressing especially in winter.)
California truly is a geographically beautiful state. The Atlantic, the Gulf and the rest have nothing on the Pacific Ocean. Mountains usually scare me, but when I drove on the 210 (notice I still say “the” before the freeway? That’s a California thing that I’ll never shake.) facing San Gabriel Mountains so closely (near Pasadena and Arcadia) I was in awe of its beauty.
In NYC I walked enormously and constantly. I could easily walk from SoHo to Union Square or even Chelsea in 100 degree weather. I didn’t like waiting for subways and I’m deadly scared of rodents (the older I get the more the fear strengths which is why I can never live in NYC again!) so i just rather walked. There were always stuff to see, places to explore and people to run into. I walked so much even now I could spot magazine editorials background and tell you where they shot it in NYC; or take one glance of the movies/TV and know where it is in NYC.
However NYC these days seems to be a bit boring. So many gritty, full of character little holes in the wall places are gone. My apartment was one block away from CGBG, it became John Varvatos menswear designer boutique later, talk about irony. Nolita used to be this very up-and-coming cool little very European village with unique shops and interesting characters, once I saw Ralph Lauren setting shop there I knew it’s been gentrified. This absolutely beautiful building, old Bank Beaux-Arts style building on the corner of Lafayette and Spring, my old turf, is now yet another Duane Reade. On top of my head there were already 3-4 Duane Reade within less than 1-2 miles. How many Duane Reades does NYC need?!
In LA we were stuck in traffic all the time. But there are so many canyons, valleys and weird turns/hidden gems in LA an imaginative mind can go very wild in LA. We loved driving on Mulholland Drive at night, freaked me out sometimes but it was fun. LA is such a David Lynch city, can be kind of creepy and sort of evil underbelly but that’s also why I find it fascinating. (There are many dark history in LA.)
I am kind of glad that we are not going to raise my daughter in LA, nothing is wrong with that, however it still seems to be a fairly “mall culture” sort of environment. The close proximity to Hollywood did create a bit wannabe culture even among tweens/teens, these days are striving to be either YouTubers or Instagram “influencers”. I’m sure it’s everywhere now, but seems to be even more so in LA.-we don’t want our child to be like that.
Between the two of them I’ll always prefer NYC because it fits my personality better, I love the outgoing and no-nonsense of the NYC energy. I will always carry a soft spot for LA though. My daughter was born in Upper Eastside Manhattan but she is a certified Southern-California bred child who loves sun, outdoors (her Mom doesn’t care for nature at all.) and anything sunshine lollipop candy colored unicorn dreamy Californian. They will always be my favorite cities in the US.
Sidebar: one of my longest, best friends is from Rio Brazil. She used to live in NYC and is quite familiar with LA too. One of our favorite topics is to discuss how NYC is like Sao Paolo whereas Rio is more LA with the entertainment industry and more hedonistic culture….etc.
Apology for writing a novel.
Lastly, thank you for making this thread.
Last edited by achtung baby; 08-07-2022 at 01:08 PM..
Only thing similar to NYC urbanity out west is San Francisco (smaller of course) but you will not find that liberating urban lifestyle in any other part out west. Most of west was built for car dependent lifestyles
People actually consider 'NYC and LA' their two favorite cities in America??
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