Why don't people like LA (Santa Clarita, Santa Monica: cost, homeless, air quality)

[John_marts]

I can see people not liking LA if they dont like DRIVING. If you get tired of driving to places, dont move to LA. I've found it quickly that your car is your second home here. This city is meant for the car, now obviously with its traffic they need to do something about it but it was and always will be a DRIVING city.

I happen to love driving and the traffic here doesnt bother me at all. I love being in my car listening to music and soaking up the scenery, so for me LA is great. Now if you do love driving, then move here and take advantage of it. There are some incredible driving roads in the canyons. Spectacular views with incredible flowing twists and turns that make you think they carved these roads out of the mountains specifically for enjoying the open roads.

[WizardOfRadical]

Originally Posted by John_marts

I can see people not liking LA if they dont like DRIVING. If you get tired of driving to places, dont move to LA. I've found it quickly that your car is your second home here. This city is meant for the car, now obviously with its traffic they need to do something about it but it was and always will be a DRIVING city.

I happen to love driving and the traffic here doesnt bother me at all. I love being in my car listening to music and soaking up the scenery, so for me LA is great. Now if you do love driving, then move here and take advantage of it. There are some incredible driving roads in the canyons. Spectacular views with incredible flowing twists and turns that make you think they carved these roads out of the mountains specifically for enjoying the open roads.

Me too, growing up in the LA area, cruising a strip looking for girls was a past time! I love driving around and finding new places.

Public Transit is largely unpleasant and not very fun when going out to have fun.

I can see it being viable to commute if the costs are less than gas and the commute time is reduced.

Problem here in the bay is most public transit is far away from the majority of high profile job centers, and the cost is very very high even for a short distance. If I am paying 200-300 bucks a month just to ride transit, I might as well invest in a car and insurance at that point.

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by WizardOfRadical

Me too, growing up in the LA area, cruising a strip looking for girls was a past time! I love driving around and finding new places.

Public Transit is largely unpleasant and not very fun when going out to have fun.

I can see it being viable to commute if the costs are less than gas and the commute time is reduced.

Problem here in the bay is most public transit is far away from the majority of high profile job centers, and the cost is very very high even for a short distance. If I am paying 200-300 bucks a month just to ride transit, I might as well invest in a car and insurance at that point.

We can blame all those NIMBYist who blocked branches of freeways that were supposed to evenly distribute traffic rather than let it bottle neck west of downtown. As well as blocking LA from developing a real rapid transit system like what they have in similar major cities around the world. LA's bottlenecks won't be nearly as bad as today if they had completed the freeway system as well as built a real rapid transit system. They still can today if they have the well and manage their budget to use technology that will allow such projects to be built.

Contrary to popular belief LA is actually a good candidate for an Asia like rapid transit system as there are many high density corridors developed during the streetcar era i.e the 1/2 radius of wilshire between the coast and downtown as well as east toward San Gabriel Valley. The streetcars were destroyed after the massive GM lobby to replace them with buses. However during the freeway building frenzy NIMBY environmentalists decided to politically sabotage many freeway projects west of 110. Which lead to massive traffic jams on city streets and existing freeways as they bottleneck due to overcapacity funneling into inadequate infrastructure west of downtown and buses to be stuck in traffic as well. that blocked freeway project also blocked subway or other rail projects to the westside. If one gets to visit Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc you will see how they have innovative infrastructure that funnels traffic from freeways into the city as well as a futuristic metro system which NIMBYists also blocked from being built in much of LA using many environmental/safety excuses. LA could had been a much better city if it wasn't for all these special interest groups that claims themselves as Progressives yet always seem to find some way to block progress.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by John_marts

I can see people not liking LA if they dont like DRIVING. If you get tired of driving to places, dont move to LA. I've found it quickly that your car is your second home here. This city is meant for the car, now obviously with its traffic they need to do something about it but it was and always will be a DRIVING city.

I happen to love driving and the traffic here doesnt bother me at all. I love being in my car listening to music and soaking up the scenery, so for me LA is great. Now if you do love driving, then move here and take advantage of it. There are some incredible driving roads in the canyons. Spectacular views with incredible flowing twists and turns that make you think they carved these roads out of the mountains specifically for enjoying the open roads.

Yeah I agree. I know some New Yorkers and others LOVE to complain about how you have to drive everyone in L.A and calling it "a city of suburbs"...but the variety in neighborhoods is actually what I found so interesting.

There is just such an amazing variety. You could be on Hollywood Blvd...and within minutes you could be hiking in Runyon Canyon.
There are multiple places within the city limits where you would think you were out of state and pretty rural still. Chatsworth, Shadow Hills and other areas.
Then of course there are the beach areas too.
Personally I don't find an area/neighborhood boring , if it's not super dense and walkable.
I like that there are areas where there are not tourists and areas most natives haven't even been to.

If you are looking for a city where you can easily get around with public transit...L.A isn't that city...at least not now.

[cbusoh415]

Originally Posted by Mr_Geek

Haters. Jealous haters.


Oh and the traffic for those who don't choose their home location wisely.

That's a little simplistic. What are you supposed to do? Move every time you get a new job, or only take jobs that are within 5 miles of your house?

[Chowhound]

I don't hate the LA area, I just find it to be highly overrated. I'm born and raised in So Cal. I find the crowds to be too much, the traffic too much and the cost of living to be too much. Every time I go out of state I feel like I can breathe, get away from all the crowds.

I think that LA is probably great for young single people, I'm a married middle aged guy. All of the stuff that people talk about as being a good draw for the area doesn't impress me. I don't care about Hollywood and all of the other "tourist attraction" type things here.

I'm looking to sell my house and get the F out of here. LOL

[PDF]

Originally Posted by Chowhound

I don't hate the LA area, I just find it to be highly overrated. I'm born and raised in So Cal. I find the crowds to be too much, the traffic too much and the cost of living to be too much. Every time I go out of state I feel like I can breathe, get away from all the crowds.

I think that LA is probably great for young single people, I'm a married middle aged guy. All of the stuff that people talk about as being a good draw for the area doesn't impress me. I don't care about Hollywood and all of the other "tourist attraction" type things here.

I'm looking to sell my house and get the F out of here. LOL

Don't let some people around here hear ya say that.

[Astral_Weeks]

Originally Posted by Chowhound

I don't hate the LA area, I just find it to be highly overrated. I'm born and raised in So Cal. I find the crowds to be too much, the traffic too much and the cost of living to be too much. Every time I go out of state I feel like I can breathe, get away from all the crowds.

I think that LA is probably great for young single people, I'm a married middle aged guy. All of the stuff that people talk about as being a good draw for the area doesn't impress me. I don't care about Hollywood and all of the other "tourist attraction" type things here.

I'm looking to sell my house and get the F out of here. LOL

The daily grind of living in LA can be tough. I am single, no kids. Live very close to work. So life is pretty simple for me.

But I see some coworkers with kids that have some grueling daily routines (as in commute or the logistics of getting their kids to school, etc.). I can see why some people might consider a less stressful, cheaper and more chill area to live. I was just in Phoenix for a business trip. Really blows you away to see how low density that place is compared to LA. Also, driving there is a walk in the park compared to LA.

Where are you thinking about moving?

[Chowhound]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

The daily grind of living in LA can be tough. I am single, no kids. Live very close to work. So life is pretty simple for me.

But I see some coworkers with kids that have some grueling daily routines (as in commute or the logistics of getting their kids to school, etc.). I can see why some people might consider a less stressful, cheaper and more chill area to live. I was just in Phoenix for a business trip. Really blows you away to see how low density that place is compared to LA. Also, driving there is a walk in the park compared to LA.

Where are you thinking about moving?

thinking of maybe new Mexico but need to go scout it first

[i'm not a cookie]

Originally Posted by NativeOrange

Yikes.

Where do you live/work that it takes you that long? I commute from Huntington Beach/Westminster area to Pasadena twice a week and my total driving time is never more than 2.5 hours. But those locales are 45 miles apart.

Also, glad to hear that you are starting to like LA more. I know how much you hated it when you first started posting here. Just goes to show that a lot of the posts in this thread are totally true about LA being a city of mediocre first impressions. It takes time to really appreciate it, but when you peel back the layers, there is something very exciting and unique about Los Angeles.

haha yeah I really did hate this city at first, to the point that I used to get depressed when coming back from vacation. I have grown to really appreciate the city for what it is, to the point that I actually think I will miss it a great deal when I have to relocate in the future. I live in downtown and I work in Santa Monica, so I'm always in the heart of the traffic and the times in which I leave are at peak rush time. I would say that on average my total drive time is over 2 hours each day, although some days it is only 1.5 hours total drive time. Since the light rail is opening up in May I am looking forward to ditching my car commutes.