RSS
Stories
I will
Later
LA - The World’s Largest Small Town
I’ll readily admit I stole that tag from a coworker. I’ve never been to a place that epitomizes small cities as much as Los Angeles. Except for downtown, LA is a city of sprawl and niche interests. You can be driving through houses or light industry and suddenly find yourself in a quaint downtown area from a by-gone era. Just as suddenly (3-4 blocks, even) and your back in single-family homes, studios or even a blighted area. It’s fascinating and it seems to happen in every little suburb of LA. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to wander LA for a couple of days and define some of it and here is what I learned.Malibu is of two minds. I decided, despite advice to the contrary, to explore Malibu. The east side is house so close together they must be mating. You can’t even see the ocean unless you own one and parking is a ridiculous experiment in dodging traffic on the PCH. I can’t imagine that’s fun in the morning. You must work from home... alot. But, west Malibu has beautiful vistas, gorgeous properties and quite accessible beaches. Charlie Harper has to live out here somewhere. Commuting would suck, but the view might even make a 2 hour commute worth it, if you had the insane money it would take to live here.
Beverly Hills is like an island. It’s quite amazing. I’ve never been to a city that seems to be so walled in as Beverly Hills. One minute you’re driving through West Hollywood, which I admit gets a little run down and then like entering Disney Land, you’re taken to another place entirely. Suddenly everything becomes extremely well-manicured lawns, big houses, expensive cars and wrought-iron accoutrements. Wow. This city is intense. Amazingly, I didn’t think Beverly Hills or Bel Air were much richer, cooler, or exclusive than someplace like Highland Park in Dallas or Memorial in Houston. It was cool, but there’s money in other places... Maybe not as much, but, then again, Texas isn’t as expensive.
Let’s talk beaches. Malibu isn’t really a beach community, because the beach is nearly inaccessible. I’d call it a coastal community. Venice Beach and Santa Monica, however, are beach communities and they couldn’t be more different. Where Malibu has crowded shacks and massive mansions, Venice Beach is a community with blocks of small homes, bars and shops. Santa Monica is the slightly upscale cousin to Venice. It lacks the distance from LA of Malibu, but makes up for it in accessibility. Venice is dirty, gritty, hippy. Santa Monica is the politically correct beach up the road. I wouldn’t say that I disliked Venice but I wasn’t enamored with the pot, the crafts and the skaters. I think it’s cool for all that, but I wouldn’t choose to hang there on a Saturday afternoon as much. Santa Monica was bustling and a little more family oriented with the pier, nice facilities and great places to eat and drink (Shutters on the Beach was pretty cool).
Downtown LA is growing on me. It’s a boring American downtown for the most part. Nightlife tends to disappear in US downtowns, especially in major cities. Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta are all great examples. Who stays downtown after work? No one! LA like Dallas is working on to get people to stay downtown and sleep, eat and party near work. In a few years, I expect they will have decent clubs down there. For the time being the party is on Sunset.
Sunset (W. Hollywood) is a blast, but only during the week. On the weekends, you need VIP reservations and fame (or for women, a perfect body) to get in most places. One Thursday night, we hit the Viper Room, Whiskey A Go-Go, the Roxy and a couple other cool places. But, on the weekend, I could have wasted half the night waiting in line. Just not worth it. (I’ll take Austin’s open bars any night of the week, thanks).
I spent a lot of time driving around LA looking at the community. It’s an interesting city. Sprawl is part of being American. People want to have their little half-acre. But, it’s amazing the scope of the sprawl and where people decide to live. The hills are gorgeous, but so much of Los Angeles is in the valley and each one of those communities has their charm. It just seems so far... far from work, far from nightlife, far from the water. Needless to say, there are redeeming qualities to LA, but all-in-all, it’s not my first choice for a visit or a lifetime. Not unless I have a ton of money burning a hole in my bank account. Too many small communities that act big. Too much of nothing in the middle. Too much traffic. The weather was good though... No horrible hot summer days like Austin.
0 Comments
Copyright: 2011-04-24 21:53:31