Is LA a better city than Chicago to live in? (Los Angeles: apartments, movies)
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I'm curious what experience you have in Los Angeles and the metro area that leads you to believe you have to drive from location to location to enjoy the city?
It is a rare occurrence for me to use the car on the weekends, and probably 90% of my activities are not just in the city limits of Los Angeles, but pretty much constrained to Central LA. I have yet to have a boring weekend in this city in the year and half I've been here. I don't have a ton of expendable cash, so even more impressive is I've been able to do so much for so little money.
Chicago easily wins in food, and also wins in culture, the Arts, museums and learning institutions. Chicago is also located within easy driving reach of many other cities, while L.A. has access to San Diego, and that's about it.
Since most people would rather have sun and no snow over the Chicago Symphony, it's not hard to realize why L.A. has grown from nothing to the second-largest metro in 100 years.
L.A. used to have a disadvantage of being full of odd people with their secular religions of environmentalism, food regulation, recycling, "tolerance" and other intrusions into freedom, while Chicago was full of tough, regular folks who acted normally and talked the right way. Now, after 40 years of hippie indoctrination, Chicago feels like a leftist paradise that tries to regulate every personal choice.
If Chicago is merely going to be a colder L.A., take the real L.A.
I don't think you know that much about either city. You comments reflect what you think the cities are, or are supposed to be like.
Chicago doesn't necessarily win in the culture, the Arts, museums, and learning institutions. That may have been true definitely 30 - 40 years ago, but LA has MAJORLY caught up in that category. The Art Institute is world class no doubt, but greater LA has three MAJOR art museums (LACMA, Getty, and Huntington Library) and several smaller ones (MOCA, Norton Simon, etc.). It has the Walt Disney Concert Hall with performances of all kinds.
How is Chicago more easily driving distance to other cities than LA?? This is probably one of the major complaints about Chicago is its isolation. Chicago you are easy distance to Milwaukee and that is it. Everywhere else is about 5 hours away. Conversely LA has Vegas 4 hours away, Phoenix 6 hours away, the entire SF Bay area, 5-6 hours away. Plus LA has small touristy cities 2 hours away in addition to San Diego like Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.
And LA is not sunny all the time. More so than Chicago yeah, but not nearly as much as people make it out to be. Look up June Gloom. Also, the nearby mountains have snow on top of them all winter.
LA used to have a "disadvantage?" LA always had plenty of regular people. Still does.
Chicago has indeed experiences a lot of gentrification and a lot of hipster culture over the last 20 years. But if you go back further, Old Town was considered a major hippie neighborhood. It wasn't quite Haight Ashbury or even Greenwich Village. In fact, if anything, one of my major complaints is that significant parts of Chicago, on the far northwest and far southwest sides where a lot of the police live, feel a little stuck in the 1950s culturally speaking. If I wanted that I would move to a much smaller city. If I wanted tough, regular folks, I would just move to Youngstown, Ohio. And don't you think the Union influence of that culture is/was "leftist?"
Look Archie Bunker, the world changes. Don't you think that its good that people are becoming more environmentally aware. Do you really think
How is Chicago more easily driving distance to other cities than LA?? This is probably one of the major complaints about Chicago is its isolation. Chicago you are easy distance to Milwaukee and that is it. Everywhere else is about 5 hours away. Conversely LA has Vegas 4 hours away, Phoenix 6 hours away, the entire SF Bay area, 5-6 hours away. Plus LA has small touristy cities 2 hours away in addition to San Diego like Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.
LA:
Las Vegas
San Fran - 382 miles
Phoenix
San Diego
[And there is nothing between L.A. and Phoenix or Vegas]
Within that same distance, Chicago can reach:
Cleveland
Des Moines
Detroit
Windsor, Ontario
Indianapolis
Cincinnati
Louisville
St. Louis
Evansville
Grand Rapids
Toledo
Madison
Milwaukee
Lexington
Columbus
[The distance between Chicago and any of these cities is filled with population]
Like I said...
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And LA is not sunny all the time. More so than Chicago yeah, but not nearly as much as people make it out to be. Look up June Gloom. Also, the nearby mountains have snow on top of them all winter.
L.A. is sunny all the time. The weather is why the people are there and not Buffalo.
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Chicago has indeed experiences a lot of gentrification and a lot of hipster culture over the last 20 years.
There are no hipsters, anymore in America, unless a beret-wearing Kerouac beatnik is still floating around a smoky jazz club, and Chicago has banned smoking in bars. Perhaps France has some hipsters.
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In fact, if anything, one of my major complaints is that significant parts of Chicago, on the far northwest and far southwest sides where a lot of the police live, feel a little stuck in the 1950s culturally speaking.
Not nearly enough 50's influence to save Chicago from falling into softness, weirdness and its loss of identity.
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Look Archie Bunker, the world changes. Don't you think that its good that people are becoming more environmentally aware. Do you really think
Where do you get off insulting anyone, and how does Aguilar let certain insults and trolling stand while reflexively yanking effective but minority posts?
There are no hipsters, anymore in America, unless a beret-wearing Kerouac beatnik is still floating around a smoky jazz club, and Chicago has banned smoking in bars. Perhaps France has some hipsters.
Labels get re-purposed.
In 2030 we'll probably be complaining about hippies again.
Las Vegas
San Fran - 382 miles
Phoenix
San Diego
[And there is nothing between L.A. and Phoenix or Vegas]
Within that same distance, Chicago can reach:
Cleveland
Des Moines
Detroit
Windsor, Ontario
Indianapolis
Cincinnati
Louisville
St. Louis
Evansville
Grand Rapids
Toledo
Madison
Milwaukee
Lexington
Columbus
[The distance between Chicago and any of these cities is filled with population]
Like I said...
L.A. is sunny all the time. The weather is why the people are there and not Buffalo.
There are no hipsters, anymore in America, unless a beret-wearing Kerouac beatnik is still floating around a smoky jazz club, and Chicago has banned smoking in bars. Perhaps France has some hipsters.
Not nearly enough 50's influence to save Chicago from falling into softness, weirdness and its loss of identity.
Where do you get off insulting anyone, and how does Aguilar let certain insults and trolling stand while reflexively yanking effective but minority posts?
I apologize for sounding insulting, but I have rarely come across an attitude on C-D that seems is oblivious to the cycles of history.
Come on, do you really think that the hippie culture with long hair, etc. were more masculine than todays generation?? Were the Beatles in anyway masculine? What about Elvis with his rhinestone-studded costumes? So what if smoking is banned in public places? Many other things that are legal today, were not back then.
The reason I used Archie Bunker to compare you to, is that you are saying the EXACT things that someone of the Depression and WWII era would have talked about the Boomer generation when they were young back then. AT LEAST they had a reason, THEY actually went through trials in the 1930s and 40s when THEY were growing up. They had the "street cred." The boomers conversely, grew up in a comfortable, prosperous era, and had a little too much fun.
The only difference between the Boomers and those born in the 70s and 80s, is the technology and fashions.
OK, fine yes, LA is sunny most of the time, but do not even for a second think of LA as ANYTHING like an overgrown Florida city where people just moved for the weather.
I will say, that Southern Californias climate was A factor, and that many of the industries that LA grew on needed a nice climate in its early days. Early movie shooting needed LOTS of natural light, so the movie industry moved there. Before Florida citrus industry grew, Southern California was the only place to grow citrus, Southern California also had oil deposits (there is still oil pumping in the city limits), combine that with the climate necessary for testing and flying early aircraft, the aerospace industry grew from that. Also, the coast of LA, had areas that were conducive to build large shipping ports, in a way that other areas, even the Bay Area didn't quite have that extensive space (San Fran got big earlier partly because of the Gold Rush) but the smaller areas of flat basin, meant it had less room to grow). Thus, LA developed the biggest port on the west coast. WWII in the Pacific meant more industry on the west coast which grew more in post war Cold war. Throw in the fact that it was geographically closer to the new sources of immigration from Asia and Latin America. (LA and lesser extent the Bay Area) became the new Ellis Islands of the post war world.
Not to sound like a know-it-all, but LA didn't become the city it is today, just because it has nice weather.
Not to sound like a know-it-all, but LA didn't become the city it is today, just because it has nice weather.
That's about 94% of it. 5% is the harbor, and 1% is oil. Nothing created by L.A. draws anyone there. The only reason you have the movie studios is because they wanted to be able to shoot, year round. Everything L.A. has is reducible to its geography and climate. If everyone were thrown out of L.A., the rest of the country would breathe a sigh of relief, because they could finally move to the area. The worst thing about L.A. is what people have done with it over the past 50 years.
If you get to call me "Archie Bunker," Aguilar would gasp at what I'd like to call you.
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Originally Posted by munchitup
Labels get re-purposed.
In 2030 we'll probably be complaining about hippies again.
Words have meanings, and merely wanting to be part of something interesting doesn't entitle one to a label. Today's youth are no more "Hipsters" than a girl with her head buried in an iphone is a "Flapper."
Everything L.A. has is reducible to its geography and climate.
This could be said about every single city in the United States, particularly in regards to geography.
Why isn't Santa Maria, CA or Camarillo, CA, or Salina, CA, or Oxnard, CA blowing up? They have even more desirable weather than Los Angeles, minus much of the smog. Yet they are all about 50,000-100,000 cities. Obviously there is something going on here other than "weather".
You sir, are talking out of your hindquarters and it is very, very obvious.
This could be said about every single city in the United States, particularly in regards to geography.
Few move to Columbus, OH because of its weather or seaport.
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Why isn't Santa Maria, CA or Camarillo, CA, or Salina, CA, or Oxnard, CA blowing up? They have even more desirable weather than Los Angeles, minus much of the smog. Yet they are all about 50,000-100,000 cities. Obviously there is something going on here other than "weather".
California has three major port towns. Does it need a fourth?
Of course, there's more "going on here than weather," but that's a straw man. Everything going on there ultimately exists because of the weather.
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You sir, are talking out of your hindquarters and it is very, very obvious.
You're uncomfortable because you don't know the first thing about matters on which you inflict your opinions on others.
L.A. used to have a disadvantage of being full of odd people with their secular religions of environmentalism, food regulation, recycling, "tolerance" and other intrusions into freedom, while Chicago was full of tough, regular folks who acted normally and talked the right way. Now, after 40 years of hippie indoctrination, Chicago feels like a leftist paradise that tries to regulate every personal choice.
Gee, life's easier in the cave, ain't it? So, tolerance is an "intrusion into freedom"? If the redeeming aspect of a city are those who are "tough, regular folks who acted normally and talked the right way", we'll gladly let the cretins fester in such a place, while the rest of us will enjoy the sun and surf at our leisure. Without the burning urge to express obnoxious intolerant, backwards BS. People head west expressly to get away from that.
Gee, life's easier in the cave, ain't it? So, tolerance is an "intrusion into freedom"? If the redeeming aspect of a city are those who are "tough, regular folks who acted normally and talked the right way", we'll gladly let the cretins fester in such a place, while the rest of us will enjoy the sun and surf at our leisure. Without the burning urge to express obnoxious intolerant, backwards BS. People head west expressly to get away from that.
It's not "backwards" or "obnoxious" to reject aberrance and deviance, and odd ideas that are foreign and contrary to the human condition are not an improvement of humanity. The "sun and surf" can be fully enjoyed without a backdrop of warping human mores and weakening the proud, bold and unflinching innate human character.
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