Leaving La / California - Asap (Los Angeles, Torrance: apartments, sex offender, schools)

[LC81]

Originally Posted by OCCASparky

In California? The state of which our "beloved" Senator Feinstein said, "If I could have got 51 votes, I would have rounded them all (guns) up?"

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Yeah--good luck getting a CCW permit in this state.

Ill take that as a no. lol

[Jigga2006]

I'm a recent college graduate and I just visited SoCal for the first time a couple of months ago. I've been a life long resident of the East Coast, and I was shocked to find how a West Coast "ghetto" looks. I drove through the dreaded city of Compton and saw houses with lawns fenced in, not exactly what I was expecting. Granted a lot of what I saw in and around LA was not very nice, but I believe that sometimes people in SoCal overexaggerate the plight of their area. I grew up in the Bronx, New York City and my definition of a ghetto or urban blight is slightly different than what was seen in LA. That's just my opinion however, it's all open to interpretation. SoCal as a whole was a very nice area, aside from the traffic and air pollution, and is somewhere where I could definitely see myself living. One thing I'll throw in is that a lot of LA people like to hype up how great their city is at producing basketball players, I'm a little 5'7" white kid who played Division 3 college ball and I held my own at some of LA's best parks. LA can't hold NYC's sneakers in basketball.

[fastfilm]

Hey, jigga2006. You just found out firsthand how firmly rooted in illusion L.A. is, somewhat based upon Hollywood imagery. Looks are deceptive, peek behind the set scenery. We don't have the skyscraper projects of the east coast: what started as nice, modest little houses with yards are the window dressing to a terrible gang culture of knee-jerk brutality. I believe you would not be at all comfortable, even as a savvy NYer, running around Compton at night. And your Bronx middle class family would not be comfortable in most middle class areas here unless they think of Bed-Stuy as a norm.

Please read the first post on the first page of this thread, it explains it well. And congrats on your game.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

Looks are deceptive, peek behind the set scenery. We don't have the skyscraper projects of the east coast: what started as nice, modest little houses with yards are the window dressing to a terrible gang culture of knee-jerk brutality. I believe you would not be at all comfortable, even as a savvy NYer, running around Compton at night. And your Bronx middle class family would not be comfortable in most middle class areas here unless they think of Bed-Stuy as a norm.

Compton's actually improved somewhat compared to the 1980s and 1990s because many of the hardcore gangsters and their families moved to San Bernardino, Moreno Valley, Lancaster, Palmdale and Las Vegas.

I've played poker at night at the Crystal Park Casino (which happens to be in located in Compton) and saw little evidence of a "terrible gang culture of knee-jerk brutality." I've also eaten at the Compton branch of Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles at night and saw just a few possible gang members enjoying their meals along with a large number of young families and some senior citizens. Compton is only about 10 miles east of Manhattan Beach (down Rosecrans Ave.); however, it's often portrayed as being "a world apart." On a historical note, Compton is the only city in California that had two future U.S. Presidents (George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush) as residents.

[dougnaie]

You are very well spoken on this topic, and I read your comments with interst as a CA native. I am 41 and have lived on the same street in Long Beach for my entire life. My family is here, my friends are here - basically my whole life is here. That said, we are very seriously considering moving east due to what can only be described as a search for a "real life". One that does not involve 1 1/2 hour commutes 30 miles, one that does not require translating everything into Spanish, one where money might go a bit farther. We have already sent our high school age daughter east to boarding school to prevent her from falling into the trap that gang bangers are boyfriend material, and that a classroom with 37 kids in it is normal. We are also finished with the Hollywood obession that passes for culture here, and has reduced the average teenager into an anorexic Star reading idiot. The pace here is unhealthy, and I undertand completely your observation that people in other places seem more relaxed. We've spent quite a lot of time in CT, and we are always amazed at the difference in stress level as soon as we get there. It is remarkable. As to the crime, you are in a position to comment on this with more insight than others. I would say that after a while, you just sort of get used to having your car broken into, or your garage ransacked by tweakers. I hate to admit that this seems so normal here I almost do not even notice anymore. I honestly thought everyone lived like this. It is not to say that there are not a lot of great things about CA. Obviously the weather could not be better, and there are some places that retain the old CA feel that I remember growing up. Unfortunately, the reasons to stay are far outweighed by the reasons we go.
I thank you so much for putting into words what I was feeling and for so succintly presenting your position.

[Californiaguy2007]

L.A/California has it's Good,Safe,Clean Parts,but it also has Bad,Dangerous and Trashy Parts too.

Just because their's one or a few bad apples in a tree doesn't mean the entire tree has rotten fruit,but you just need to look around and you'll find good fruits :-)

[IdaGirl]

I completely agree with you but if your a dumbass, all the training in the world is not going to help you. Look, when my kids were little they stopped making the little jumpers for pre-toddlers that had wheels. Because some parents let them use them at the top of the stairs and the brainiacs let their kids fly off and they were seriously hurt or maimed. Hello...unfortunately anyone can have kids and usually the dumbest ones have 4 or 5. So you cannot blame the gun, or the toys. Up here at the Costco, they stopped making the very berry sundae with the good berrys and have substituted with this crappy strawberry sauce! Ugh...The gentleman said that someone choked on a berry, so they changed it to a mushy strawberry...People love not taking responsibility for their actions. It happens everywhere...
but California leads the nation in the affliction.
P.S. I was not referring to you as a dumbass, you seem highly articulate.

[Des_Demona]

For those posters who either just recently moved here (the one from Hawaii) or the one who just visited and hasn't lived here.... you obviously haven't given it enough time. Wait until the first and second and third time your car is stolen/broken into, wait until you continually are accosted on the streets by random people and homeless people - the one who visited. Some parts of LA may LOOK nice on the surface, but believe me, it's the side you ARENT seeing that everyone is complaining about. We aren't overexaggerating and I don't think you are in the position of making any such statement when you haven't experienced what we have. How would you be in a better position to make a statement like that than the people who have lived here all their lives? And dougnaie I agree with you 100%. And CaliGuy I believe this post was for people who ARENT billionaires. Unfortunately, that is where the good places are... only for the billionaires. If you've got at least a couple million to blow, then you'll like LA... if not, you probably won't. Bottom Line.

[fairweathergolfer]

even with money people are cold, mean, cruel, self centered, narcisists, unprincipled . . . which is fine if one is here to just make a living, but even here people are clearly paid to be nice-and there are some that truly are-but many are just unbound from a solid sense of humanity and kindness. Sometimes I go to Home Depot late at night just to get a sense of a small town feel and people just going about their jobs without all the craziness of people, people, people. Also it is pretty white on the west side and in Seattle there was actually more African American folks that I had in my life on a regular basis. The races are really split off on the westside and a downside to insulate oneself here. A big loss. I have increasingly lately seen a wealthy/upper middle class black folks here though and this has been very nice. But as someone said in another thread, some of this stuff is the reality of a very large city.

But there are serious unique challenges here. I used to work in the downtown 'Pioneer Square' area of Seattle and found myself chased and accosted on several occassions. I have the good fortune to be insulated from all this here (generally) but some of these folks even on the streets of Santa Monica are really scary.

There was a woman once a few weeks ago, I sh-t you not, she made sounds straight out of the move the Exocist. I was so freaked when my husband and I were trying to quickly get in my car I had to pray as I practically fell into the car seat and closed the door. I swear this woman was possessed by some sort of demon. The noises coming out of here and surrounding her were not human. It was terrifying. It is a difficult issue and combine that with all of the illegal labors and issues that come with that (gangs etc) and you have some serious problems here, especially for anyone that can not insulate themselves. OUCH!! That is a very sad but also a hilarious story Des Demona. It just kills me. I can completely see it too.

[fastfilm]

When we lived in Venice (a nice area near the beach, people, not Oakwood,) a homeless person wrapped themself up in our garden hose and passed out on our front lawn. When we called the police, we could not answer the question of whether the person was male or female, there were so many layers of rags. There were many others. We finally figured out that our area was a day's walk from the then psyche ward at the Veteran's center, and we were near the point where the thorazine wore off.

What I find is a far more disturbing trend is the newfound assumption that polyglot language is "normal." All this talk of multi-lingual communication would be fine if its practicioners here spoke English as well as a means of unification with one's new country, but they do not.

Even in Africa with all its differences and tribalism, everyone learns Kiswahili as the lingua franca of the continent, to make sure you have some means of communication with one's fellow Africans, no matter what diverse origin. Since the illegals here have no respect for the US, its people or its laws, I'm not surprised. But those from other countries who expect to live out their lives here without an iota of English proficiency do as well. That's being narrow-minded and provincial at its worst, to assume one will have no contact ever with people outside of one's expat national origin in an American city. Adult ESL teachers have cued me to this one, that some of their new pupils were sooo surprised when a new employer strongly suggested they learn some English for the first time in their lives.

I believe this is the genesis of much of the lawlessness in L.A., the fact that people moving here have lost any semblance of empathy for others outside their insular expat world. America is supposed to be for everyone, not just their personal origin, and having proficiency in the language of the entire rest of the country would remind them.