Why in the world is Los Angeles so looked down upon (Oakland: section 8, credit)

[wecaredalot]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

If by "common sense" you mean "whatever random nonsense ModrinSolus claims on the internet" and if by "silly metric" you mean "actual documented homes sales in the real world", then yeah.

High end real estate in LA is more expensive than anywhere in the U.S. outside of the NYC area. This is a fact. If you look at the most expensive home sales in the U.S., outside of NYC, no area comes remotely close to LA. Out of the 100 biggest sales of 2015, something like 20-25 are in the LA area, 70-75 are in the NYC area, and the remaining few in South Florida.

Okay, but why are you so obsessed with high-end real estate and rich folks? How are they representative of LA or anywhere for that matter? The average salary in LA is something like $60,000. Most people living here aren't rich.

[EclecticEars]

Overall, superficiality is more prevalent in Greater San Diego culture than Greater Los Angeles culture. That said, the Westside and some of South OC have the biggest concentration of pretentious a-holes perhaps in the U.S....but at least, unlike San Diego, Westside L.A. can be enjoyed (almost) 24 hours a day, and OC is actually rather cosmopolitan these days. Despite the laid back mantra of SD, I don't find people to be any more or less helpful than their LA counterparts, and SD people are in some ways less helpful in day-to-day interaction. Not all LA is the Westside or Newport Beach, ya know...

But...work brought me from LA to SD. At least I can come back to LA on weekends to get reenergized.

[CrockettandTubbs]

Los Angeles is looked down on because many people are insecure, ignorant, unhappy, miserable, jealous, haters. The world is full of negative energy. If you wanna be smart, just ignore all of these negative idiots. Los Angeles is a great place to live and has some of the best weather on earth. Many wealthy people live in Los Angeles because it's a great place. I'm not saying that Los Angeles is perfect. No place is perfect. However, I would say that Los Angeles is about as good as any other place. Especially if you got money. The only way that Los Angeles sucks is if you don't have much money. Then again, any place sucks if you don't have much money. I think Los Angeles is great for many reasons. One is that it has great weather. The year-round weather in Los Angeles is very comfortable compared to most other places. It never really seems to get too cold or too hot in Los Angeles. If you prefer 4 seasons of weather, then that is one reason that Los Angeles could suck. San Diego has a better reputation than Los Angeles and San Diego is more popular overall than Los Angeles is. However, San Diego is small and gets kind of boring after a while and Los Angeles is so big with so much going on that it's hard to ever get bored in Los Angeles. That's just my opinion.

[SIJ95]

I don't look down on LA. It has the most beautiful natural setting of any city and it offers the opportunity (if you got the mula) to have a family sized single home with a yard smack in the middle of the city.

However to be honest I associate LA with unassimilated illegal immigrants, gang wars and the worst excesses of modern American culture (uber materialism, thought stopping political correctness, limousine liberalism/champagne socialism, over taxation/regulation) and that's the perception amongst my peers too. Yes my city NYC has all of those issues as well but it seems more pronounced in LA

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by StatenIslandJake1995

However to be honest I associate LA with unassimilated illegal immigrants, gang wars and the worst excesses of modern American culture (uber materialism, thought stopping political correctness, limousine liberalism/champagne socialism, over taxation/regulation) and that's the perception amongst my peers too. Yes my city NYC has all of those issues as well but it seems more pronounced in LA

Misconceptions all.
There are Mexican immigrants/illegals that don't speak English and drive like drunk toddlers, but how many non-English speaking immigrants does NYC have? I encountered MANY when I lived there. These are major cities that attract people from all over the world, and some people have their own ideas of integration.
Los Angeles is one of the safest big cities in the country with a pretty low gang-violence rate and a lower murder rate than Chicago and NYC. And Los Angeles cleaned up it's streets without hassling every black and brown person every 15 minutes or trucking homeless people to other states.
America is materialistic. Nowhere in this country will you find a widespread culture of minimalism and charity. Los Angeles is exactly American.
Is Los Angeles liberal? Sure. But what major city isn't? Political correctness isn't rampant here because Los Angeles is laid back, not uptight. Go to a comedy club is Los Angeles and you'll find bracingly ballsy, boundary-pushing jokes about things that New York liberals would gasp at.

You should spend some time here before jumping to conclusions.

[tomal.web]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

There's more to it than that. San Francisco has a higher cost of living and the traffic is just as bad. The media/popular culture has put forward an image of Los Angeles that exaggerates the negative things, downplays or ignores the positive things, and perpetuates silly stereotypes.

But in Bay area, at least you have good public transit.

I think they really need to address the traffic situation. Everybody needs to work and commute. Just imagine, if there was really less traffic in LA and lots of public transit option, LA would be so much different and I think would be much better than other big cities since it has the scenery which cities like NYC lack.

[HyperionGap]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

Those areas are totally atypical for LA, and the wealthy don't live there. I don't see the point of talking about Hollwyood or Koreatown when we're talking about the preferences of the rich in LA.

Most rich people never head east of Fairfax/Farmers Market area, unless they have to go to an event downtown or something. LA, to them, is everything to the west. Koreatown may as well be Pomona.

If you think that's true, you really don't know much about LA.

San Marino and La Canada are two OBVIOUS examples, but there are many others.

[wecaredalot]

Originally Posted by tomal.web

But in Bay area, at least you have good public transit.

I think they really need to address the traffic situation. Everybody needs to work and commute. Just imagine, if there was really less traffic in LA and lots of public transit option, LA would be so much different and I think would be much better than other big cities since it has the scenery which cities like NYC lack.

Public transit is only good in the Bay if you live next to a Bart station or a bus line. I lived in SF for a year, and trust me, those are two big IFs. Even when I lived in Inner Sunset/Forest Hill, it would take me 50 minutes on the 6 bus to commute 6 miles to SoMa. That's a worse commute than what I have in LA! (40-45 minutes to commute 14 miles). Bart is a lot better, especially if you live near a Bart station but SF is still not like NYC or Chicago where there are stations/stops every few blocks. If you live in Oakland, but you're 2 miles from the nearest Bart station, you'll either be biking or driving to it, which adds to commute time. And that's not to mention Bart's seemingly endless delays and train problems.

People really, really need to get the real picture on SF. It's dirty, has horrible traffic AND is difficult to navigate, and the cost of living is ridiculous for what you get. Yet, somehow people praise SF to high heavens and crap on LA for reasons that are present in SF!

[erin_elise_]

Originally Posted by wecaredalot

Public transit is only good in the Bay if you live next to a Bart station or a bus line. I lived in SF for a year, and trust me, those are two big IFs. Even when I lived in Inner Sunset/Forest Hill, it would take me 50 minutes on the 6 bus to commute 6 miles to SoMa. That's a worse commute than what I have in LA! (40-45 minutes to commute 14 miles). Bart is a lot better, especially if you live near a Bart station but SF is still not like NYC or Chicago where there are stations/stops every few blocks. If you live in Oakland, but you're 2 miles from the nearest Bart station, you'll either be biking or driving to it, which adds to commute time. And that's not to mention Bart's seemingly endless delays and train problems.

People really, really need to get the real picture on SF. It's dirty, has horrible traffic AND is difficult to navigate, and the cost of living is ridiculous for what you get. Yet, somehow people praise SF to high heavens and crap on LA for reasons that are present in SF!

I believe u.

I've been to SF a couple of times, and I can see where you are coming from. SF seems like a difficult place to live because everything was so compact. Parking was HORRIBLE in SF and VERY expensive.

I like SF, but only to visit.

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

Misconceptions all.
There are Mexican immigrants/illegals that don't speak English and drive like drunk toddlers, but how many non-English speaking immigrants does NYC have? I encountered MANY when I lived there. These are major cities that attract people from all over the world, and some people have their own ideas of integration.
Los Angeles is one of the safest big cities in the country with a pretty low gang-violence rate and a lower murder rate than Chicago and NYC. And Los Angeles cleaned up it's streets without hassling every black and brown person every 15 minutes or trucking homeless people to other states.
America is materialistic. Nowhere in this country will you find a widespread culture of minimalism and charity. Los Angeles is exactly American.
Is Los Angeles liberal? Sure. But what major city isn't? Political correctness isn't rampant here because Los Angeles is laid back, not uptight. Go to a comedy club is Los Angeles and you'll find bracingly ballsy, boundary-pushing jokes about things that New York liberals would gasp at.

You should spend some time here before jumping to conclusions.

Well maybe this statement says more about NYC than it does about LA. I used to love going to comedy shows in NYC and was not finding good ones anymore before I moved back to the west coast.