East Coasters: Los Angeles is our NYC

[Taverner]

Hear me out here...

I know a lot of East Coasters who live in CT, DC, NJ, MA, etc... who hate going to NYC. 'It's just one big fucking mess' I was told by one. Granted, many love it and celebrate exactly that, the wonderful, beautiful mess.

Out here in SF we look at LA that way. Some of us think its "Just one big fucking mess" while others love Disneyland, Downtown LA (that would be me), and all of LA's sights and sounds.

Not sure if SF and Burlington equate, but I think LA and NYC do...

[bigwillq]

1. NYC is awesome!

I live in CT, and I love going down to the City.

[Taverner]

2. I am sure I would agree with you

I like LA, and most SFers think I'm crazy

Just like how some Jersey-ites might find NYC to be too much.

[Tikki]

18. LA is awesome....

I live about 40mins. N of LA and I love going to the city.

Tikki
ps We made it to NYC first time a few years ago...amazing place :)

[lukasahero]

3. MAsshole here who "Loves NY"

I wasn't keen on SF when I visited - it was ok but I'll take NYC any day. :)

You want a mess? Visit Boston - we don't know the definition of "grid". :rofl:

[melman]

4. Grew up in CT and live in Boston

and I love NYC. I don't understand people that don't like it.

[Taverner]

7. I imagine I would like it

I like LA AND SF so I have to like NYC right?

[marmar]

5. I love New York and San Francisco......

L.A. I can do without.

[Taverner]

6. LA Rawks - you just have to understand it

It's Vegas for the arts - it's Jerusalem for the hedonistic - it's, well, LA or El Lay as I like to call it

[david13]

8. Just for the record, nobody, nobody can do without Los Angeles.

Because the world revolves around Los Angeles.
Now, that aside, it's not just San Francisco with this anti LA attitude. It's the entire Bay Area, from Santa Cruz and Salinas (ugh on both) to Marin and Oakland.
Snobbo's almost all of them.
But the thing about Los Angeles, is, well, you get used to it. The warm weather, access to nice beaches, good roads nearby (plan it to avoid gridlock, don't join the race race rush hour).
Nice neighborhoods, after you find them.
Screw Disneyland, that's for newby tourists, that's all.
dc

[Taverner]

9. Look, as much as I love LA....

It is not the COMPLETE center of the 'world'

Vancouver, BC can make just as much of a claim to that

However, LA is pretty fucking cool, in every aspect of it

---------------------------


When History teachers teach about the 1990-2030 mindset, they will point to LA. Because it is where their dreams are made.

[david13]

12. I'm only joking. I love travel, and almost every city I have ever

visited has many nice features that I could live with. Even the dirt poor hovels.
dc

[Chan790]

13. On what basis can't I do without LA?

It does nothing for me as a DC resident (begrudgingly) and native Manhattanite (Home. I can't wait to return.) or growing up in CT (spending all my time running away to the city.) DC and NYC both have better arts scenes. NY is the future of big-screen filmmaking in as much as that is a globalizing and diversifying field that no city will soon be able to claim...in any sense, Hollywood is past not present in film. (As a screenwriter, I won't even work with LA people. Hollywood is endemic of everything wrong with American filmmaking.)

NYC? Yes. Yes! Oh god, yes! (Note: Orgasmic sounds might be cheeky, but express how much I love my town.)
DC? Maybe?
London, UK even? As a banker (because I need a day-job for sanity not money), sure.
Paris? Je l'aime.
Barcelona? Mi recreo.
Venice? The last vestiges of an older world. Romance by day, decadent lust by night.
Toyko? Sometimes an evening is best spent with grown women in sailor costumes and pigtails. Tokyo has its' place in the world.

LA? has what?

[CTyankee]

15. LOVE NYC and LA! Both are places with very creative people. SF too.

DC, on the other hand, can never have the sparkle that those other two have. Ilived there for 9 years and found it boring as hell and self conscious about it's "art" status.

There's a reason that songs are written about NY and SF, and even some about LA. There are NONE written about DC. Have you ever wondered about that?

[Chan790]

21. A song about DC.

Happens to be one of my favorite songs.

The Postal Service-The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUIBnmdJJ50

[david13]

20. What? See below. Tokyo? Too too way too crowded, and ...

pigtails? I hate pigtails. And pigs.
DC? No need for me to comment there. The only reason to go there is if ... unfortunately ... you won the election, and now you are stuck.
London, Berlin, way way too expensive.
Paris? Dude they only speak French there, and they hate americans.
Venice? Don't fall into the canal. Only the bones come out.
LA has what? Let's start with ... good weather? And then ...
dc

[MrScorpio]

10. I love New York

I love New Yorkers

Always have.

Sure it's messy, but it's a very cool mess.

[Taverner]

11. I'd love to go there

My best friend is from, and loves NYC

I'd want to go with him

[Bertha Venation]

14. Hi, Taverner. Here's a note from an Orange County native:

Disneyland isn't in L.A. :hi:

I love San Francisco, BTW. Only been there twice; long to go back.

(And a note for Arte Moreno: Anaheim's not in L.A. either, you moron! "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim," my ass. What a prick.)

[tishaLA]

16. I've taken to calling the SD Chargers....

"The Los Angeles Chargers of San Diego."

I won't be satisfied until LA has colonized all of southern California. Except Bakersfield. And probably Lancaster.

[Taverner]

23. I know, I know its in Anaheim

But us folks North of the grapevine consider LA, OC, Imperial Valley, Diamond Bar, etc. to be LA, or 'El Lay'

:)

[NNadir]

17. In your dreams...

I say this as a New Jerseyan (and ex-New Yorker) who spent many years living in the LA area as well as in San Diego.

Alan Kalter, David Letterman's announcer has it right. "New York City, the greatest city in the world..."

LA?

Um, no...

[Taverner]

24. LA does have its fans

And anything you can do in NYC, you can do in LA, if you have the time and gas to drive there :)

[NNadir]

27. Sorry, but not really....

I mean the Getty Museum is OK, but it's not the equal of the Met, the Modern, the Neue, the Guggenheim, any one of them, never mind all of them combined.

The LA Philharmonic is not the New York Philharmonic.

The theaters in LA do not have the feel or creative energy of Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and off-off-off-broadway.

Speaking of off broadway, Derek Jacobi is going to be performing his transcendent "King Lear" in, um, Brooklyn (which should, I confess, secede from New York City).

LA has never had its own language or even its own accent (save maybe that Valley Girl/Surfer thing.)

Worst of all, LA lacks deep history: It's not a place where Washington almost got wiped out, not the city for which Hamilton, Jay, and Madison wrote The Federalist papers, not the place where Washington said farewell to his troops. You cannot feel history in LA.

It's not like foreign countries were inspired to put statues celebrating America in, um, LA harbor. I don't think anybody climbs a hill in Wilmington (next to a refinery) to gaze down at beautiful LA harbor.

It's not like the tall ships cruise up the LA river on the 4th of July under a cloud of fireworks.

However, I will confess, that New Yorkers do share in the privilege of going to see the Spruce Goose.

We also lack the La Brea tar pits.

Happily though, LA people are definitely not the cultural snobs that we New Yorkers are.

[Taverner]

29. You're looking at LA from the wrong angle

No, they have a crappy symphony, but you can feel history there. Go to Downtown LA on a Sunday. Old buildings, great food, and a completely differing vibe from the rest of LA.

LA has pockets that are amazing. You just have to drive to them.

[Presidentcokedupfratboy]

19. As a transplanted NYer living in L.A.

I think New York is much easier to live in than L.A. NYC has more cultural attractions and is a little easier to get around.

That said, I alaso like my adopted home, especially in January and February.

[MiddleFingerMom]

22. Maybe EVERY region has its inter-city rivalries/conflicts.

.
.
.
Tucson has Phoenix -- way too industrialized/corporatized/all-covered-in-asphaltized
red state city (their county is home to Sheriff Joe Arpaio).
.
Tucson (somewhere around a million people -- I can never seem to find a definitive
census or agreement about the city's parameters) is a lush blue oasis in the midst of
a huge red ocean. Somewhat of a smalltown feel. VERY GLBT friendly (comparatively).
Large arts community. GENERALLY nice, friendly people.
.
.
I've lived in Philadelphia (along with D.C., my favorite American big city) and loved
many of its "local" attractions.
.
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I've lived in D.C. -- LOVED the cultural availability of so many different venues and
flavors.
.
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I've lived in Atlanta -- PARTS of that are gorgeous... I lived just on the border
of Buckhead and there was an area that I can't remember that was like Philadelphia's
South Street/D.C's Georgetown/Tucson's 4th Avenue.
.
.
There were all SORTS of places I loved in Germany -- one of the coolest, unimaginable
things about it (at least in Bavaria) was the fact that you could walk around (even
STUMBLE around) safely at 2-3 AM (not true of certain of its ethnic neighborhoods --
including the American ones).
.
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And several smalltown places in various parts of the country.
.
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MiddleFingerMomSis and her family lived in and LOVED San Francisco. They transferred
to NYC and loved living in smalltown Connecticut and loved visiting NYC. They lived
just south of Los Angeles and neither loved it nor loved visiting it.
.
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.
It usually boils down to personal taste and experience -- though some (like many
American soldiers in Germany known as "barracks rats") condemn cities and locations
without any firsthand knowledge -- I think probably without and REAL justification
whatsoever.
.
.
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[KamaAina]

25. SF and Burlington?

Boston, maybe, with Berkeley playing the role of Cambridge.

[mnhtnbb]

26. I LOVE NYC and I HATE L.A.

Born in Manhattan.

Lived in L.A.--all over from Westwood to Studio City to Woodland Hills
to Santa Monica--from 1965 to 1988 and you could NEVER get me
to go back to L.A. to live again.

Now, if I had enough money, I'd keep a studio apartment in
NYC--upper west side--in a heartbeat.

[Joe Fields]

28. No to L.A. No to N.Y.

Cesspools, both of them.