Why does everyone hate LA? (Los Angeles, Bakersfield: neighborhood, gated, standard of living)

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Cato the Elder

We went to the LA Times Book Festival today and it's the same BS - people standing in the middle of the sidewalk texting as if they're in the middle of a park. It's crowded as all get out, and all these Moderator cut: idiots are making it 10 times worse.

I didn't know it was unique to LA but it's so annoying when people are completely inconsiderate and apparently ignorant of the world around them. I see it at Costco when people turn their huge cart across an aisle and stand next to to effectively blocking 90% of traffic. Do you think you're the only one around? Get out of the way you idiot. Same think at the soda machine at a fast food place. I get my drink and get out of the way but others feel the need to camp out there for 2+ minutes fumbling with a lid and straw ensuring that no one else can get to the machine. I think it's all just a function to too many people in too little space with too little regard to anyone else around them.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

I didn't know it was unique to LA but it's so annoying when people are completely inconsiderate and apparently ignorant of the world around them. I see it at Costco when people turn their huge cart across an aisle and stand next to to effectively blocking 90% of traffic. Do you think you're the only one around? Get out of the way you idiot. Same think at the soda machine at a fast food place. I get my drink and get out of the way but others feel the need to camp out there for 2+ minutes fumbling with a lid and straw ensuring that no one else can get to the machine. I think it's all just a function to too many people in too little space with too little regard to anyone else around them.

Ha, odd forum to complain about people at the self serve soft drink fountain but you are right on. They stand there for ages, topping, topping, waiting for the fizz to go down, sometimes with multiple drinks.

I might also add the self serve yogurt machines, some people turn it on but cannot push it the right way to turn it off; a product of our public schools?

How about kids that get an ice cream cone and then go to the condiments and try to put every topping there is on it, most of it ending up on the floor.

[adysmom]

Originally Posted by timelesschild

When I open my eyes and look around me, I see beauty. Natural beauty and also beauty in built forms. I see people of every shape and color taking part in city life, who are (by and large) courteous drivers. Yes, I'm talking about LA. I swear I have NO idea why people dislike LA. Most of the people, though, who claim to dislike it, I find, have not actually been living in it or exploring it. They sort of see it from afar, and decide they hate it.

Then there are people like adysmom quoted here, who apparently lives in LA but dislikes what she sees.

All I can say is, apparently it isn't for everyone. I can be happy anywhere, including in an isolated setting, but I prefer the urban existence by FAR. And of the cities I've seen or lived in, LA is my favorite.

I guess when we open our eyes we see different things. When I open my eyes in Los Angeles they burn from smog, And I see a crime infested cesspool. It's been not too long sense we have been too LA and I hope it's allot longer.

[Miss Pip]

Originally Posted by zenkonami

Los Angeles is more like London...

I'm from London and Los Angeles is nothing like it. Los Angeles is segregated really bad. London has traffic but you can get out of it. You cannot get out of the traffic in LA, you are stuck there. When I use to live in London, if I was stuck in traffic on the bus, I would hop off and go catch the tube. It's great. LA doesn't have any of that. The cultures/environments are completely different. I find LA to be very sad with it's segregation. 1 minute I feel like i'm in a rough part of Mexico and then next minute i'm in a mansion in Hollywood Hills.

[zenkonami]

Originally Posted by Miss Pip

I'm from London and Los Angeles is nothing like it. Los Angeles is segregated really bad. London has traffic but you can get out of it. You cannot get out of the traffic in LA, you are stuck there. When I use to live in London, if I was stuck in traffic on the bus, I would hop off and go catch the tube. It's great. LA doesn't have any of that. The cultures/environments are completely different. I find LA to be very sad with it's segregation. 1 minute I feel like i'm in a rough part of Mexico and then next minute i'm in a mansion in Hollywood Hills.

I can't argue with you about London traffic (I've visited several times but never lived there), but I found London could be highly segregated and I don't see most of Los Angeles as being that segregated at all. There are rich and poor parts of London just as there in Los Angeles...L.A. is probably a larger city in area which may account somewhat for that perception.

I live in North Hollywood which I consider as "typical" an example of an area in L.A. as can be, and I have neighbors all around me from different economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

L.A. does have a subway, though it pails in comparison to the Tube. There are ways around L.A. traffic, however, and improvements in transit and better zoning and development are making it better all the time.

On the other hand, your view of London as more positive than L.A. (at least by some quantifiable measure) only makes me appreciate London more

[Miss Pip]

Originally Posted by zenkonami

I can't argue with you about London traffic (I've visited several times but never lived there), but I found London could be highly segregated and I don't see most of Los Angeles as being that segregated at all. There are rich and poor parts of London just as there in Los Angeles...L.A. is probably a larger city in area which may account somewhat for that perception.

LA segregation is very bad compared to London. I went back last month and it felt so great to be around everyone. You can live in somewhere like Brixton which has amazing houses next to bad council flats. It's all mixed together. Notting Hill is the same, it's quite rough round there but it's rich and beautiful at the same time. We all get the public transport together. When I sat on the tube I was with Persians, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Africans, Jamaicans, Whites, Skaters, Goths, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, Hindus, Rastas, The Rich Business guy, Punks, Rudebwoys and Rudegals etc. It's just so mixed unlike LA. Of course some parts of London may have more of 1 race for example Stoke Newington has a big Turkish community but you'll still see a lot of Africans, the arty farty types etc. It's a different kind of segregation, basically it's less segregated.

LA on the other hand, it's South Central LA mainly blacks and Mexicans, Venice Beach mainly whites, Koreatown mainly Koreans and Mexicans, Echo Park mainly Mexicans, Santa Monica mainly whites etc. No one likes to mix here. Koreatown is disgusting, almost everything is in Korean. If I was going to move to Poland or somewhere I would not make a British town where everything is in British. I would move there and adapt and learn the language. They're segregating themselves from everyone else. Yeah it's good to know your roots etc but still.

I'm so moving back to London now haha

[A.J._in_L.A.]

Originally Posted by Miss Pip

LA segregation is very bad compared to London. I went back last month and it felt so great to be around everyone. You can live in somewhere like Brixton which has amazing houses next to bad council flats. It's all mixed together. Notting Hill is the same, it's quite rough round there but it's rich and beautiful at the same time. We all get the public transport together. When I sat on the tube I was with Persians, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Africans, Jamaicans, Whites, Skaters, Goths, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, Hindus, Rastas, The Rich Business guy, Punks, Rudebwoys and Rudegals etc. It's just so mixed unlike LA. Of course some parts of London may have more of 1 race for example Stoke Newington has a big Turkish community but you'll still see a lot of Africans, the arty farty types etc. It's a different kind of segregation, basically it's less segregated.

LA on the other hand, it's South Central LA mainly blacks and Mexicans, Venice Beach mainly whites, Koreatown mainly Koreans and Mexicans, Echo Park mainly Mexicans, Santa Monica mainly whites etc. No one likes to mix here. Koreatown is disgusting, almost everything is in Korean. If I was going to move to Poland or somewhere I would not make a British town where everything is in British. I would move there and adapt and learn the language. They're segregating themselves from everyone else. Yeah it's good to know your roots etc but still.

I'm so moving back to London now haha

What you're describing is more of an American phenomenon. Every big city here in the U.S. has heavily segregated communities. It's the same in NYC, the same in Chicago, and so on and so forth. Ironically, L.A. is supposedly the most "liberal" when it comes to segregated neighborhoods.

OTOH, I don't think you've really given certain L.A. neighborhoods a chance on the diversity option. Let's take the hood you mentioned, Echo Park. Did you know that Echo Park is 40% white now? With the very same artsy fartsy hipster types that you can find anywhere else. West Hollywood, with it's gay/lesbian and Russian population. Hollywood, with it's large Thai and Armenian communities. And let's not forget about Long Beach to the south with it's very large Cambodian and Pacific Islander communities. I know you're living here now so I'm kind of preaching to the choir, but I wanted to highlight that.

I think what you're looking for is the public transit systems that binds all of that together. Although I do agree that L.A. infrastructure is severely dated, we're working on that.

[KnoxTown]

I love this town!

[matt345]

Originally Posted by Miss Pip

Koreatown is disgusting, almost everything is in Korean.

Are you kidding me? Koreatown and all the authentic Korean food is one of my favorite things about Los Angeles. I consider that neighborhood an asset to LA, not something “disgusting”.

[helloheather28]

hmm maybe because they cant afford the lifestyle here..i dont know ...but i love it