Greetings from the land of orange groves asphalt.
I’m in Los Angeles for a while and thought I would write about it. But every time I tried, I ended up with a diatribe on my screen, a vicious rant that made it appear as though I was living in a cesspool. It’s too easy to pick on Los Angeles; there’s smog, sprawl, and movie stars. So, because I don’t want to appear too cranky, I’m going to try to write a blog post about what I like about LA.
First, the weather is pretty great. It rains rarely. (Just don’t ask where LA’s water comes from.) This Thanksgiving week, the metro area is experiencing what newsmen are calling an “arctic blast.” I’d better put on a sweater.
Second, the people I’ve talked to are all very nice and interesting. I met about 10 history graduate students from UCLA last weekend, and I was really surprised that they didn’t all talk like surfers. They were generous with their beer and their microwave tacos.
(Speaking of tacos, they’re very good around the area where I’m staying. I’m living on the western edge of Culver City, where there are about 20 taquerías within a block radius. And the grocery store that I can walk to has fresh tamales.)
I’ve spoken with some interesting people riding the bus around LA’s west side. One guy told me about how when he sees young women on the street he wants to squeeze their boobs and imagines himself in porno movies with them. He was making hand gestures similar to Charlie Chaplin’s in Modern Times, when the tramp screws bolts for too long. How nice of him to share his thoughts with a stranger, right?
I had another interesting conversation with a guy who worked in Westwood, and was riding the bus because his car had been stolen. When he realized that he got on the wrong bus, halfway to Santa Monica, he got up and spoke to the bus driver, returned to his seat, and started complaining about how rude bus drivers are. I told him its probably because their job sucked. He told me that they were ignorant if they couldn’t get another job. I told him he was an asshole and that he was full of shit.
He stopped being so friendly after that. We still chatted though. What if instead of tossing off the idea of mass transit in LA, I asked him, people got serious about supporting sustainable and efficient modes of transportation? Maybe then we’d have a better appreciation for public transportation, bus drivers included.
You’re right, he said. It’s true. But I’m just here because my car was stolen. I can’t wait to get my car back.
I think what surprises me the most here is that in any other city that I’ve lived, drivers always let a bus in if its changing lanes or merging. We had a saying in Massachusetts: “Don’t fuck with the buses.” In Los Angeles, drivers never yield to a bus. (Maybe China has the right idea here, with an elevated bus that straddles the traffic.)
Los Angeles does invest a lot of money into its public transit, which covers the county with a fairly dense network of bus routes and subway lines. Fares are relatively cheap, compared to other cities. And a lot of people take advantage of it. If even more people did, maybe traffic wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe the city would be more successful in adopting smarter plans for further growth. It won’t turn into Vancouver overnight, but city planners could do much more to encourage bike commuting, car sharing, and more dense, mixed use development.
And maybe people, like that guy whose car was stolen, would be a little less ignorant. Lewis Mumford once wrote that a city should be designed as a stage upon which social theater is performed. If Los Angeles is a stage, perhaps the performance is that of a symphony, because there sure is a lot of noise in the city, and its mostly honking cars. (If a symphony, it is cacophonous and atonal, and not in a cool Ornette Coleman sort of way.) Soon that guy will join them, idling on the 405, spewing sulfur into the air.
OK, I’ll stop. I think the problem with picking on the city is that it posits Los Angeles as exceptional. In truth, the same critiques that we levy against Los Angeles can be thrown at many other cities in the US. They’re mostly designed in a way that promotes segregation and a passive, materialistic citizenry. At least Los Angeles has In-N-Out Burger.
Los Angeles is exceptional in one way, which brings me to the third thing that I like. Single stream recycling! It’s crazy! You put glass, plastic, paper and cardboard in one big pail! And you can even put plastic grocery bags in too!
In conclusion, I know that I need to include more photos in my blog posts. Here’s a picture of a two legged chihuahua that was on the LA evening news tonight.
PS - I just began reading Josh Sides’s book on the history of race in L.A. Maybe next week I will return to talk about it. Until then, I will simply suggest that you view Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a film that offers a sly but pointed critique of mid-century urban policy as it relates to race in Los Angeles.
I’m in Los Angeles for a while and thought I would write about it. But every time I tried, I ended up with a diatribe on my screen, a vicious rant that made it appear as though I was living in a cesspool. It’s too easy to pick on Los Angeles; there’s smog, sprawl, and movie stars. So, because I don’t want to appear too cranky, I’m going to try to write a blog post about what I like about LA.
First, the weather is pretty great. It rains rarely. (Just don’t ask where LA’s water comes from.) This Thanksgiving week, the metro area is experiencing what newsmen are calling an “arctic blast.” I’d better put on a sweater.
Second, the people I’ve talked to are all very nice and interesting. I met about 10 history graduate students from UCLA last weekend, and I was really surprised that they didn’t all talk like surfers. They were generous with their beer and their microwave tacos.
(Speaking of tacos, they’re very good around the area where I’m staying. I’m living on the western edge of Culver City, where there are about 20 taquerías within a block radius. And the grocery store that I can walk to has fresh tamales.)
I’ve spoken with some interesting people riding the bus around LA’s west side. One guy told me about how when he sees young women on the street he wants to squeeze their boobs and imagines himself in porno movies with them. He was making hand gestures similar to Charlie Chaplin’s in Modern Times, when the tramp screws bolts for too long. How nice of him to share his thoughts with a stranger, right?
I had another interesting conversation with a guy who worked in Westwood, and was riding the bus because his car had been stolen. When he realized that he got on the wrong bus, halfway to Santa Monica, he got up and spoke to the bus driver, returned to his seat, and started complaining about how rude bus drivers are. I told him its probably because their job sucked. He told me that they were ignorant if they couldn’t get another job. I told him he was an asshole and that he was full of shit.
He stopped being so friendly after that. We still chatted though. What if instead of tossing off the idea of mass transit in LA, I asked him, people got serious about supporting sustainable and efficient modes of transportation? Maybe then we’d have a better appreciation for public transportation, bus drivers included.
You’re right, he said. It’s true. But I’m just here because my car was stolen. I can’t wait to get my car back.
I think what surprises me the most here is that in any other city that I’ve lived, drivers always let a bus in if its changing lanes or merging. We had a saying in Massachusetts: “Don’t fuck with the buses.” In Los Angeles, drivers never yield to a bus. (Maybe China has the right idea here, with an elevated bus that straddles the traffic.)
Los Angeles does invest a lot of money into its public transit, which covers the county with a fairly dense network of bus routes and subway lines. Fares are relatively cheap, compared to other cities. And a lot of people take advantage of it. If even more people did, maybe traffic wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe the city would be more successful in adopting smarter plans for further growth. It won’t turn into Vancouver overnight, but city planners could do much more to encourage bike commuting, car sharing, and more dense, mixed use development.
And maybe people, like that guy whose car was stolen, would be a little less ignorant. Lewis Mumford once wrote that a city should be designed as a stage upon which social theater is performed. If Los Angeles is a stage, perhaps the performance is that of a symphony, because there sure is a lot of noise in the city, and its mostly honking cars. (If a symphony, it is cacophonous and atonal, and not in a cool Ornette Coleman sort of way.) Soon that guy will join them, idling on the 405, spewing sulfur into the air.
OK, I’ll stop. I think the problem with picking on the city is that it posits Los Angeles as exceptional. In truth, the same critiques that we levy against Los Angeles can be thrown at many other cities in the US. They’re mostly designed in a way that promotes segregation and a passive, materialistic citizenry. At least Los Angeles has In-N-Out Burger.
Los Angeles is exceptional in one way, which brings me to the third thing that I like. Single stream recycling! It’s crazy! You put glass, plastic, paper and cardboard in one big pail! And you can even put plastic grocery bags in too!
In conclusion, I know that I need to include more photos in my blog posts. Here’s a picture of a two legged chihuahua that was on the LA evening news tonight.
PS - I just began reading Josh Sides’s book on the history of race in L.A. Maybe next week I will return to talk about it. Until then, I will simply suggest that you view Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a film that offers a sly but pointed critique of mid-century urban policy as it relates to race in Los Angeles.
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3 Response to 3 Things I Like About L.A.
Apparently George Takei is at least partially responsible for some of the public transport successes in LA that people ignore? So maybe the next time you get in one of these discussions you should find out if the critic is a Star Trek fan.
Counterpoint: L.A. sucks.
1) The people are jackasses. I've traveled all over the country and nowhere else even comes close.
2) It is a giant parking lot. The public transit system is expansive, but it still takes forever to get anywhere.
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwlogyj7nFE
Also Emily: explain? George Takei?
Yes, Two Scoops, LA sucks in all sorts of ways.
I dunno if you can contest the musical heritage here just with RHCP though. What about Tom Waits? Los Lobos? Chico Hamilton? Dave Alvin? Fear?
Anyways, that's cool about George Takei. He is the Jimmy Carter of ex-Star Trek actors, undoubtedly.
Someone should call Jack Tenney and have him locked up.
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