When people tell me that LA is an ugly city... (Los Angeles: apartments, house)

[quixotic59]

When people tell me that LA is an ugly city...

I ask them to stop looking in the mirror.

[MordinSolus]

Maybe it's just because I'm still new but to me LA is gorgeous. I love driving around LA, especially at night. I don't work a 9-5 job, I just work when I feel like it, so I have a lot of time to explore and get to know the city. That's what I've been doing since I moved here this Spring. There are slums, most definitely, but no city is without them. There are also areas of pronounced poverty and crime, but these are like scars. They're always there, everyone has them, and they're part of what makes you who you are. If a person had not a single blemish on their body you would know that that person is dull and never had a good time. Cities are much the same and LA is beautiful, scars and all. A lot of people get bogged down in the "yeah, but such and such isn't like on the TV" instead of looking at the big picture. Unable to see the forest for the trees, as it were.
What other city is like LA? What other city is bookended by mountains and ocean, has several of the world's most recognizable skylines, the amenities of a world-class city(and the diversity to match) AND some of the best weather in the world, year-round?

[andrecle]

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. If you prefer newer, planned sunbelt cities than LA is going to look older and uglier by comparison. If you come from older cities on the East Coast or the Midwest, then LA is going to look nicer. I don't think it's envy, everybody just has different tastes.

[hjt123]

Originally Posted by andrecle

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. If you prefer newer, planned sunbelt cities than LA is going to look older and uglier by comparison. If you come from older cities on the East Coast or the Midwest, then LA is going to look nicer. I don't think it's envy, everybody just has different tastes.

I think most of the people who are calling LA ugly are probably from older East Coast cities.

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by yby1

I don't think most of theese people are looking at South Central or East LA. Most likely they are referring to Hollywood.

Harrier was acquainted with a Canadian who was living here temporarily to work.

He visited Hollywood and gave his opinion that it was "a dirty little town".

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

...I'm just going to send them this video:



Seriously, of all the LA timelapses that have come out over the past 2 years, this one is my favorite by far. It perfectly illustrates the lights, the topography, the reflections on the buildings during that beautiful dusk light...everything I love about how this city looks.

Any big city at night looks beautiful. Daylight is what counts. Parts of LA look good, but some parts are downright gritty, dry and nasty looking. Some parts are looking overbuilt lately with towering residential complexes that take the wind out of the street view.

[GatsbyGatz]

People just hate on LA because most of its buildings weren't built during the Victorian or previous Eras and therefore lack that European aesthetic that everyone enamors. World travelers see the Haussmann-style architecture in Paris with its uninterrupted urban walls of 6-story, decadently decorated buildings and then come to LA to see stucco strip malls and detached single family homes and question if LA is a true city at all based on this aesthetic difference alone.

Yeah, LA is no Paris or London. It can't compete with the old-school architecture which was focused on aesthetics. LA's buildings traditionally were more about function than design. That's somewhat changing today but not entirely, as many of LA's current high rise buildings being developed today sit upon ugly concrete parking podiums. Developers in LA seek profit and budget-saving, not aesthetics.

Is LA an ugly city? No. Many buildings in LA are wonderful. LA also has such an array of architectural styles that it boggles the mind. Is LA as aesthetically pleasing from the pedestrian perspective as say Paris or London? No. But that doesn't make LA ugly.

[lterease]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt
...I'm just going to send them this video:




Thanks for sharing.

[saybanana]

I think LA city and some surrounding areas is one of the ugliest of the major cities. I know beauty is subjective and having lived and traveled to many cities in Asia/SEA and Europe and some in American; LA ranks rather low on the beauty scale. From a movie quote: ( It's) like a full-on Monet... It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s OK, but up close, it’s a big old mess. Seems like a free-for-all in terms of aesthetics.

[SpaceMonkyPunks]

It's subjective but some people can see beauty in even the beat-down, gritty places. I like that LA ,for the most part, looks real. What you see is what you get, it's functional and alive, it's where real people live their daily lives, in the rough spots and the ritzy spots.

It's not like Vegas or Phoenix or other newer western cities, trying to hide behind a facade of identical shopping centers, chain restaurants, awful freeway art, and just trying to direct your gaze away from the so-called undesirables.