I Love L.A.

People seem to commonly think that I hate L.A. This probably stems from the fact that I frequently say “I hate L.A.” But even though I say it, it’s not really true. The main things I dislike, L.A. residents also dislike, namely traffic, smog, and heat. That’s not hating, it’s just pointing out facts, ones with which everyone agrees.

Anyway, for balance, here are things I love about L.A. (SN. I actually don’t know when it’s proper to use “L.A.” I’m careful to use SoCal when I mean the whole region, and use L.A. specifically for L.A. County, and The O.C. for Orange County. When Jieun’s family used to live in Cerritos I could just use “L.A.”, but now that they live in Buena Park and we spend the bulk of our time there, I’m careful about the SoCal / L.A. / The O.C. partitioning, although maybe no one cares. But for the purposes of this list, “L.A.” means SoCal):

• Food. The high-end isn’t so great, but low to medium, it’s awesome. Korean food lies right in this sweet spot, and L.A. has the consensus best Korean food in the world. I thoroughly enjoy the Korean food I have whenever I go down. There are many other places as well; Minho introduced me to Thai BBQ and Versailles. Good stuff. And this might sound absurd, but even fast food is better in L.A., I guess since it’s the birthplace. But their menus (e.g. a 1/3 lb Angus burger at L.A. McDonalds’) and deals (e.g. better $1 items) are better down there than anywhere else. I track fast food fairly closely so I know this, but yeah, even passing by the fast food signs in L.A. makes me salivate.
• Beaches. The beaches in NorCal pretty much suck. It’s just way too cold most of the time; really Santa Cruz is the only place with decent beaches and decent weather, and it’s not that accessible. L.A. has an abundance of good beaches, and cool places by the water. It’s a lot of fun, and makes me jealous, since I love water.
• Stuff to do. I’m a total suburbanite, but I like doing things, and the #1 thing that frustrates me about San Jose (Houston also, for that matter) is that there’s not a single compelling tourist destination. I don’t count shopping as a tourist attraction, as I would never travel just to shop. But yeah, can you think of a compelling thing to see in San Jose (or Houston) that you would travel for? That deeply perturbs me, and is why on Road Trip III I insisted on seeing the Water Wall in Houston. Just the principle that there must be something to see in a major city, and we’re going to see it, even if it is a piss poor imitation of a tourist attraction.L.A. has many many legitimate tourist attractions. Aside from that, there are many cool places to hang out. Santa Monica, Old Town Pasadena, even artificial places like The Block in Orange or the Irvine Spectrum. I’m a sucker for places like that. And aside from Santana Row, there’s nothing like that in NorCal.
• Christianity. The Bay Area is, in a word, godless, and it’s kind of depressing sometimes. L.A. has a number of good seminaries, and even though it’s still overwhelmingly pagan, you feel more of a Christian influence, and that’s cool. Years back I was listening to an L.A. Christian radio station that played exclusively worship music, including Scott Underwood. That’s rad.
• People. This is the biggest thing. Yes, they’re insular, never seem to leave L.A, and are L.A.-centric. But I honestly can’t think of a person I know well from L.A. that I dislike. A good number of my L.A. friends have made a profound impact on my life. I look forward to L.A. trips primarily because of people there I genuinely like.

OK, I can’t myself. A brief list of things I dislike about L.A.

• Sprawl. If you ever get the chance, look at a satellite map of L.A. It defines sprawl. Poorly planned, bad distribution, all over the place. Even Jieun was enraged by this on our last trip. “Why is everything so far from everything else?” I don’t know, Jieun. I don’t know. This is very closely related to…
• Traffic. I tire myself with this repetitive, cliched rant. But as I always say, every time I run into traffic on “the” 5 on a weekend, I get a little angry. The sprawl wouldn’t be such a problem if it didn’t take so freaking long to get everywhere. But of course, everyone’s on the road because everything is spread out all over the place. It’s a chicken and egg problem with no solution other than to stay the heck away.
• Smog. So the wedding was in Pasadena. I’ve told this before, but years ago were were there after a rain, and Karen marveled at how clearly you could see the mountains. These aren’t distant mountains; they’re right by the city. And the vast majority of the time, you can’t really see them. That’s vile. I once drove through Redlands and it was like a London fog of smog. How can you live like that? It’s just gross.
• Fakeness. I have no idea how to explain this, but everything just feels fake in L.A, down to the architecture. I can’t quantify at all how it’s any different from the Bay Area. But on a gut level, it is.
• Insularity. I once went to an L.A. wedding where they made no hotel accommodations for out-of-town guests because virtually had no out-of-town guests – all the friends and family lived in L.A. They thanked us profusely for coming all the way from NorCal. I have no problem with wanting to stay in one place your whole life – if you like that place, why should you leave? What I do have a problem with is not recognizing that there’s something outside that place, because then you think the way things are in that one place you live is the best or only way. This is not unique to L.A. That Midwest pastor who said that living in a place with seasons is spiritually important was speaking out of his blowhole.
• Superficiality. Note, this isn’t saying the Bay Area is any better. It’s like picking your poison. The Bay Area is insanely materialistic. L.A. is superficial. I passionately hate both things, so it’s not an L.A. is worse thing, just a thing I don’t like. But yeah, there’s a level of superficiality in the region. I’ve said this before, but one skill I had to learn when interacting with L.A. people is pretending to be closer than you really are. It eventually becomes a genuine friendship, so it’s in no way fake, but the order of things was reversed from what I was used to in interactions with people from anywhere else in the country. This particular example isn’t so bad, but yeah, it’s worse in other ways. It’s not a coincidence that both Clueless and Entourage are set in L.A, and disturbing that not everyone sees them as a satire, in large part of L.A. culture.

But on the whole, I love L.A. We love it!