Top 5 mistakes by naïve tourists. (Los Angeles, Santa Monica: houses, neighborhoods, theater)

[Visit a Library]

Originally Posted by hockfan86

I don't have a top 5, but I just moved out to CA last January and the biggest misconceptions for me and a lot of others are regarding Hollywood. A lot of people think Hollywood is this great neighborhood where all the celebs hang out/live and all the major studios are there. This is so far from true its not even funny.

A. A good chunk of Hollywood is a dump.

Reminds me of this Mark Dice video:


Mark Dice Visits Hollywood - YouTube

[New Horizons]

I stayed right on Sunset Blvd when I visited, it put me right in the center of everything.

I can actually remember the first time I ever heard of Hollywood, I was a toddler and I asked my mom where the movie stars live. She says, Hollywood. I ask where's that, she' says in Los Angeles. I remember being confused as to how you can have a city within a city. Like everybody else I had this image of a an untouchable enclave for the rich. It wasn't until the past few years that I came to understand Hollywood and it's history. The image were indoctrinated with is based on a short period of the 20's to the 50's. But what makes Hollywood so fascinating to me is the way it kind of assimilated back into the city of LA. It was the 1960's that they started building all those concrete multi-unit buildings so the average Angeleno could afford to live there. It's period of "decline" was typical of a lot of cities throughout the U.S., as everybody headed for the burbs. Now it's all about yuppies getting back to the city now. And in LA's case, Hollywood is the city. Hollywood is a special place, and I say cherish it. Because I'm sure there are developers just itching to tear down those mid-century buildings in order to build monstrosities like that Ralph's at Western and Hollywood.

I can't get out there soon enough.

Originally Posted by Trimac20

Hollywood is still a very convenient place to stay, although given how LA is laid out, it depends where you want to see.

[New Horizons]

The only filth I see in the area is Mark Dice himself.

Originally Posted by Visit a Library

Reminds me of this Mark Dice video:


Mark Dice Visits Hollywood - YouTube

[Trimac20]

Kind of funny, but if you want to be close to tall mountains LA is a better bet than Denver. I think it's probably cool some decent skiing isn't far from the sunny beaches of SoCal.

[balmain]

The only thing I'll say is....a very brief trip to LA will more than likely leave you unimpressed.
LA is too big (spread out)..you need at least a week to appreciate it!

[majoun]

Originally Posted by desert_scene

I stayed right on Sunset Blvd when I visited, it put me right in the center of everything.

I can actually remember the first time I ever heard of Hollywood, I was a toddler and I asked my mom where the movie stars live. She says, Hollywood. I ask where's that, she' says in Los Angeles. I remember being confused as to how you can have a city within a city. Like everybody else I had this image of a an untouchable enclave for the rich. It wasn't until the past few years that I came to understand Hollywood and it's history. The image were indoctrinated with is based on a short period of the 20's to the 50's. But what makes Hollywood so fascinating to me is the way it kind of assimilated back into the city of LA. It was the 1960's that they started building all those concrete multi-unit buildings so the average Angeleno could afford to live there. It's period of "decline" was typical of a lot of cities throughout the U.S., as everybody headed for the burbs. Now it's all about yuppies getting back to the city now. And in LA's case, Hollywood is the city. Hollywood is a special place, and I say cherish it. Because I'm sure there are developers just itching to tear down those mid-century buildings in order to build monstrosities like that Ralph's at Western and Hollywood.

I can't get out there soon enough.

Actually even in the 1930s Hollywood had a wide range of economic groups living in it. Not as many very poor as today, a much bigger middle class, and considerably more wealthy, but there were some low income people, especially in East Hollywood and the Yucca Corridor. While Hollywood in those years was overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly white it had a good amount of economic and social diversity as well as different types of people within the "white" category. (When my mother went to Hollywood High there were a few Hispanics and Asians but no blacks) My family was lower middle class when they settled in 1940s Hollywood and there were a massive amount of lower middle class people in Hollywood at that time. The "average Angeleno" could afford to live there at the time although not in every part of Hollywood. The old houses and elaborate apartment buildings began to be torn down in the '50s to build cheaply built apartment buildings when the Hollywood Freeway was built, but there was still luxury apartment construction in the '60s as well as the building of "dingbats". The '70s saw a massive and rapid decline which in retrospect had been building up throughout the '60s. Ironically, in that period many Hollywood residents and businesses were involved in a "flight" to Valley neighborhoods which are now worse than Hollywood.

The 1969 World Book Encyclopedia said that one quarter of Los Angeles' population lived in Hollywood (although the encyclopedia's definition would include what is today the city of West Hollywood as well as parts or all of the Fairfax District, East Hollywood, Hollywood Hills, Hollywood Hills West, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake). I wonder when that ceased to be true.

[LizzyNola]

Sorry, but whever stated that Los Angeles is not that pretty is wrong!

Los Angeles is a Beautiful city. There is beauty everywhere! And it is surrounded by beauty!

Of course this is coming from a native

[Caladium]

1. Going to see celebrity footprints at the Chinese Theater is not at all exciting, and the area's a dump.

2. Olvera Street is ok if you happen to be near the area, but not worth going out of your way for.

3. The Sunset Strip is not terribly exciting in and of itself. There are a few good places to eat and drink there, but driving there "just to see it" will be a disappointment.

4. Chinatown is another place that is over rated (although there are some good restaurants there).

5. Driving around to see the security gates outside of celebrity homes has always struck me as a boring thing to do. But... do drive around some of the wealthier neighborhoods just to see a few fabulous homes. I like the homes on Palos Verdes.

Go to the beach, go hiking, watch surfers and girls rollerblading in bikinis, go to the Hollywood Bowl (if you like pops or symphony music), go to clubs or a few concerts, go kayaking in Redondo Beach, experience the thrill of driving on the freeway, if you belong to a club it can be fun to go to an LA version of the club meetings (sometimes they can have a "California" flavor), if you are religious there are some amazing churches in LA. If you like bike riding, you can rent a bike and ride on the strand, or if you have access to a bike try riding all the way around PV (be prepared this is quite a challenge).

[UrbanLuis]

imho the must see things to do in LA

Go downtown! walk broadway then walk over to santee alleys for some cheap shopping. dont forget to pick up some tacos and horchata, for that you can go to "EL Taurino" on Hoover just south of Olympic. Go to the original tommys burgers on Beverly and rampart! Drive down Crenshaw, go to the slauson super mall. Go up to Griffith park for great views of the city....Check out the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.....Take the blueline from Downtown to Long beach. Go to venice beach, check out the santa Monica peer, drive the santa monica, pasadena and hollywood freeways, or get some one to drive them for you!.......Man there so many things to do in LA, and if you dont do atleast ONE of these things i mentioned, then you really didn't really experience Los angeles!(IMHO)

[hockfan86]

Caladium, this is a great list. The only thing I do like on the list is driving around celebrity homes in Belair and Beverly Hills. Call me cheesy, and I don't even really know why I like it, but I do. However, I completely understand how others would see it as boring. I thought the sunset strip had a lot of cool restaurants and a lot of cool history, but its not super exciting to drive down it.

Part of enjoying LA for me is the nostalgia, although it wears off after some time. I grew up in the midwest and so I saw all these shows on television and I knew that television spruced things up and made the area look nicer than it is, but there is still a warm feeling when I experience a place in real life that I spent hours watching on tv or in the movies. For example, I am a huge fan of the Lethal Weapon series and I recently went to the LA Harbor where multiple scenes from all 4 movies were filmed. The harbor was nice in and of itself, but it meant more to me because I had seen it in those movies a dozen times. This all might seem really cheesy to a lot of people, but its my two cents, and things like this helped ease my transition from Minneapolis to SoCal.