If L.A. is "fake" then what cities are "real"? (Los Angeles: 2013, purchase)

[HyperionGap]

Originally Posted by mrsltd

What does your first sentence mean? For that matter, what does your second sentence mean? Can't a place be both commercial and urban?

Your third sentence is silly. Los Angeles existed before the entertainment industry existed here, and has a lot more going for it than just that. It has the second-busiest port in the country and a whole host of industries--it is NOT a one-act town as Detroit, Pittsburgh, or Cleveland (to name a few) were back in the mid-twentieth century.

Your fourth is just off also. Try driving down Pico from Western to Sepulveda as I did earlier this month and then tell me it seems like Legoland. IT DOESN'T. I realize that is but one street of the city but it passes through quite a cross-section of LA.

So what about the billboards? And they are not generic, nope. The ones I saw were created by those folks who KNEW the areas they placed them in and what languages are spoken there (yup, lots in Spanish) and what the people might want to buy.

Your next two sentences (won't even bother with the last statement) make no sense. Public transportation here does not suck, and your assertion that LA is too spread out but yet is not real enough to get yourself lost in....well, it would be EASIER to get lost in LA SINCE it is so spread out. And how is something so spread out "cheap and simplistic"?

Actually San Pedro is #1 and Long Beach is #2. LA's Harbor is basically has twice as much annual cargo as any other port in the US.

List of world's busiest container ports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by cityKing

New York's suburbs are even more real then most of what LA offers.

The only real places in Los Angeles area is Long Beach and East LA.

The hell does this even mean?

[ryanms3030]

I grew up in Boston and it is "real". I lived in D.C. for a year and it's faker than L.A. there.

I really think this "fake city" stuff is ridiculous on one hand but on the other I do feel like everyone in L.A. and D.C. has an agenda.

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

I do feel like everyone in L.A. and D.C. has an agenda.

You should talk to a therapist about your paranoid delusions.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

You should talk to a therapist about your paranoid delusions.

Proving my point!

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

Proving my point!

...

[wecaredalot]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

I grew up in Boston and it is "real". I lived in D.C. for a year and it's faker than L.A. there.

I really think this "fake city" stuff is ridiculous on one hand but on the other I do feel like everyone in L.A. and D.C. has an agenda.

So what? People are ambitious and don't want to waste time on bull$hit that doesn't serve their ambitions. As long as they're not running people over with their cars to get what they want, I don't see the problem.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by wecaredalot

So what? People are ambitious and don't want to waste time on bull$hit that doesn't serve their ambitions. As long as they're not running people over with their cars to get what they want, I don't see the problem.

Come visit Glendale. They are running people over in their cars here

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

Come visit Glendale. They are running people over in their cars here

They're tired of driving Ubers and cabs all day, cut them a break, of course they're gonna drive nutty at home neighborhood..

[nslander]

Originally Posted by themayorofhell

In general when people say "fake," what they really mean is "self-realized, self-aware, usually rich, and more honest about their true ambitions than I am, or will ever be."

"Fake" is a terrible world to use to describe LA. I cringe when I hear it.

People talking about "commercialization of LA" are trying way to hard to live up their delusional self-image of some elegance-seeking artist. Nobody is buying it. LA is spread out because it wasn't a planned city, hence the lack of public transport. This is very simple, billsfan..

The problem with LA as a successful young person is that 99/100 people you meet are profoundly unsatisfied with their lives. They are in LA because they want to make in show biz, period. If they haven't, they failed, and you can feel their sadness.

In some cities waiters are happy waiting tables; they accepted their lot in life, and do the job the best they can. In LA that almost never happens. Hence service usually sucks. Hence hanging out with waiters usually sucks; they are unhappy.

Pure crap.