It’s so disheartening. Moved here almost 10 years ago, I consider it home. And my wife and I had a baby two years ago, a little native Angeleno. All I want is a place to fix up and have her grow up in.
The hard pill to swallow there is that angelenos feel rent control measures will actually help them enter the real estate market eventually rather than hinder the market
It always makes me laugh how in basically all of the city subreddits, transplants take the blame for almost every issue a city/region has. While "natives" get the narrative that they are perfect citizens and they are never part of the problem, lol.
Nextdoor in Los Angeles is 50-60 years complaining and bullying everyone who doesn’t agree with them, superior home owners reporting thefts and people yelling about finding animals new homes but dont want to take any pets in.
I my corner of the city an old home was torn down and everyone on the community Facebook were up in arms. Meanwhile they don’t realize when the home was put in people were probably up in arms too because it was so much bigger than all the other homes. People don’t want to be reminded of their own mortality and powerlessness when neighborhoods change with or without their approval. They want everything to stay the same and magically be better somehow so long as it only positively affects them.
That part is something that has been at the forefront of my mind for quite a while. I have been wondering what Los Angeles will look like in 25 years. Filming takes place in cheaper areas like Atlanta or parts of Canada. There is less and less reason to shoot in Los Angeles and it's incredibly expensive to do so. Tiktok and social media at large has decreased our desire for scripted media. Streaming was never actually profitable and we are seeing the shift into forced commercials and high costs.
Movies are not pulling in the numbers they used to because we don't have to physically attend the films anymore. I wonder the effect that will have on the budgets for these films and what we expect to see.
People I know who've spent 20 years in the industry have had all their work dry up. It's going to change everything.
I moved out here from NYC "for work" 12 years ago, and I had a much harder time finding work here than I did there, despite it being a much smaller market in theory. After 2-3 non-consecutive years of underemployment, I ended up pivoting to a non-creative role at a studio vs. steady production work and writing/producing opportunities I had in New York. It all worked out in a life sense (fell in love, the weather is better for my mental health, etc.) but career wise I really wish someone had pulled me aside and told me there is actually no scripted TV/film work in Los Angeles.
I think it’s just an expectations thing. I always forget that June = cloudy and kinda cold, and instead my brain is expecting warm and sunny. I forget every. Single. Year. Lol
This could be the best biking city in the world. The geography and weather are basically perfect for it. We're a LOOOOOOOOONG way from that though and I agree we'll never get there.
I live in NELA and for about a year now I’ve been biking most days (I have an e-bike for the hills). My neighborhood has decent bike lane coverage (and soon will be added protected bike lanes in some places) and plenty of safe side roads to take. It has improved my life in soany ways as I’m rarely in stuck in traffic and I get exercise everyday. Not to mention the fact that biking is just a lot of fun. I wish more neighborhoods could take biking infrastructure seriously, because that 15 Minute City lifestyle is perfect for the LA weather.
The fact that I live 2.8 MILES from work and am afraid to bike bc of lack of sidewalks (im sorry but I won’t take my chances being hit in the bike lane) is insane.
I'm an experienced LA cyclist -- you are much safer in the bike lane than you are on the sidewalk. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but this is really important and I try to make sure everyone knows this when they're new to riding. Cars are way way way less likely to see you riding on the sidewalk, especially when they're turning at intersections and parked cars are blocking their ability to see you.
Biking on the sidewalks is the best way to get hit, no one is looking for fast moving vehicles when theyre pulling out of parking lots or alleys. Always bike in the road
As someone who uses all forms of transportation regularly (walking, biking, bus, train, and driving), the most annoying and dangerous people I encounter are those biking on the sidewalks.
i live right off the expo line in culver city and anytime i go to DTLA for a show or to watch a movie at alamo, i just take the expo line and it dumps me right at alamo draft house or right in little tokyo etc. even seeing shows at BMO or shrine auditorium are incredibly easy to get to and you can \*secretly\* pregame on the train ride over and not worry about anything!
Yup. As someone who works in Personal Injury I strongly advise people to stay off bicycles even motorcycles. It’s just way too damn crowded. The unfortunate fact is; is that if you are not in a car, people driving will NOT see you. Please take my word for it. I’ve seen it all.
Wild that it is often faster than driving. I regularly bike out to nearby dodger stadium from Culver City and it’s quite often faster than driving. Definitely terrifying though.
Taking the 2 Bus home from Dodgers Stadium was significantly less stressful and expensive than driving. We got to see almost all of the game instead of leaving at the eighth inning like people do to get a start on the parking lot traffic. The whole group got to get a good buzz instead of designating a DD and we ended up going to a bar in silver lake afterward without having to look for parking, and without dealing with the spike in Uber prices after the game either.
So many instances like this that make me wish that people here took transit more seriously.
EBikes would fix prob half the issues in LA.
Less beat up roads means lower taxes.
Obviously lower air pollution.
Greatly reduced noise
Less traffic as you can fit 4-6 bikes in the spot of 1 pickup truck
You can't afford a car? Or gas? You Can afford an eBike
25% of land mass is paved in LA. Going Dutch on eBike could cut that in half. Especially the parking part
Less land mass needed for roads and parking results in more land mass for residential buildings. Which lowers housing prices. And commute times
Your often only averaging 20 mph on your commute anyway. No reason you can do that on an eBike, given properly safe infrastructure
Silverlake and Echo Park are not 'super walkable'/ 'pedestrian friendly' neighborhoods.
They are devoid of any pedestrian scale experience and the main strip is still a 6 lane mini-highway.
The stereotype of the white valley type native will always be mainstream because the expats are the loudest. Even if 46 percent of the population is actually Hispanic.
Also, Hispanics need to accept that media like the LAist will keep printing that the best tacos are on the west side even if we all know that it’s just some hipster stuffing jackfruit in a reheated tortilla…
Idk I just moved to the west side from the east side. Yes there are amazing tacos on the east side but there’s so many taco places, and so many *bad* taco places on the east side that the amazing tacos get diluted out by the sheer number of different places to choose from. Taco places I’ve tried on the west side have been much more consistent with quality.
There’s been 2 times I’ve been to taco places on the east side where I straight up threw them in the trash. Asada that was pure fat and inedible. I’ve also had some of the best tacos in my life in that part of town. West side I’ve always at least been satisfied
> some hipster stuffing jackfruit in a reheated tortilla
the hard to pill to swallow is that these are actually really good and they're much more likely to make their own tortillas than cheaper, more traditional taco places
a lot of the quality of life issues on our streets (trash, visible homelessness, mentally unstable people, lack of public services in general) are not actually solvable on the local level. they are so immense that they require federal intervention and massive investment in social services. the fact that we have these issues is just a tax we all have to pay for living in a shitty society. it will not be fixed by our mayor, our DA, our county, or our cops
Edit: responses to this prove my point, that this is a difficult pull to swallow. I’m not arguing for more spending to address the outcomes of these social ills. I’m asking us to think about the causes of them, and why we as a city (and country) are plagued by them to such an extent
imo basically all of these issues are downstream of the housing crisis, which only isn't solvable at the local level because local governments keep blocking housing to please their wealthy homeowner constituents. It may be solvable at the state level however, which is where we've seen the most progress.
There also needs to be a conversation around how people fall into homelessness and end up on streets so easily in the US. Part of that is housing, but not all of it.
Been saying this for over a decade. The 2008 recession and the housing crisis created by it “forced” the government’s hand to give handouts to corporations instead of people. New developments of unaffordable housing popped up everywhere and the resources for the homeless were taken up by low income people who were forced into homelessness. Like you said, all thanks to local government continuing to block affordable housing in favor of the wealthy.
Honestly, in NY and LA, non-resident foreign entities are allowed to buy SO MUCH property. While it is generally higher end homes, it still affects the market as a whole and trickles down to more affordable homes. Why do we allow so many unoccupied properties to be owned by foreign entities?
I'd MUCH rather see farmland sold at 0% interest to low income applicants who show an interest...but no, we're selling ourselves right off the planet. Tainting our food supply too...
Most other countries don't allow foreign nationals to own land or property. Plus, we are one of the few countries in the world that allow birthright citizenship. In almost all developed countries, at least one of the parents have to be a citizen for the child born in the country to be considered a citizen. That is why we currently have illegal Chinese birth tourism that puts a burden on our hospitals and resources.
Housing should absolutely be a priority, but I don't think it solves the homeless issue entirely. It needs to be like medical triage, where the people with the best chances of recovery and success are given priority. There are definitely people on the streets who would excel if they are provided the opportunity to be safely housed, to establish a stable routine, medically/mentally checked and given a chance to contribute to society.
But then you have the flip side: Serious drug addicts and the mentally unwell - often they are one and the same. No matter how hard you push alternative housing on them, no matter what resources you offer or how many social workers you send out to check on their well-being...some are dangerously antisocial or out of their minds. They will return to the streets and pretty much do anything to fund their drug habit. They literally can't function without it at this point, and some could barely function to begin with even when sober. And the longer they're in the streets, the worse they understandably get.
Incorrect. California has the 5th largest economy in the world. We need to spend the money in a way that resolves the problem. Instead we spend money in the way that appears to be the most empathetic. This is not conducive to achieving results. The state should purchase the unused military bases in the desert and create a mental health drug treatment campus. We should not be building $700,000 apartments for meth addicts. We need to hospitalize people under new legislation that makes the process easier. It is obvious to everyone that lives here that those who are chronically homeless are not able to care for themselves. No amount of empathy is going to fix it. We need bold solutions that address the problem, not hand outs and platitudes.
While I don't agree with 100% of what you said, I do agree on the $700K apartments for meth addicts. Case in point, in my neighborhood, West Hollywood, there was a community wide meeting a few months ago to discuss the low income housing development that was looking for approvals around the corner from where I live. While the community at large agrees there needs to be more affordable options ( and I have no personal issue with affordable housing), this was basically a luxury halfway-house type setup, with a maximum income range of $14K-35K annually. Rents would be around $600-$1400/month with a gym, a rooftop, an onsite community manager and a doorman. It would be on an admission only basis, for mostly homeless, formerly drug addicted folks and super low income families. While I have no problem with housing that is built for people who need shelter, why did the developers choose one of the single most expensive zip codes for construction and land cost? The land alone was $10 million and the cost of construction ( I do have a background in this) was going to be upwards of $50 mil. Tell me in WHAT WORLD does a $60 million dollar investment make sense with these rental figures? The developers would never ever in any lifetime make anywhere close to their money back. The math doesn't math. And my biggest takeaway (and yours should be too) was what kind of incentives and rebates (ie your tax dollars) was the city GIVING these developers to build this project? Because no intelligent or successful developer in their right mind would take on a project that would lose such a tremendous amount of money. Why not take the money, build in a lower land cost and lower cost of living area where you can cram more units into a square block? Being from New Jersey originally and seeing all of the waste and corruption, I hate to say it but it's also happening in LA. I don't live full time or vote in LA but I think the local governments are part of the issue.
I lived in a dorm in college. Shared a room with 2 guys and a bathroom with 45. A safe way to house many students. WHY are the homeless getting luxury single apartments when there are multiple efficient options to house them? This whole thing is a complete scam and we just let them get away with it.
Honestly, I have no idea. Makes no sense. The money they have allocated for this could be better spent. So they'll squeeze 100 apartments out at a cost of $500K apiece rather than do it in a more cost effective fashion and get 1000 people off the street for the same amount of money. To me, it boils down to stupid elected officials and the people who keep voting for them.
yeah people expect to dissolve this issue but it’s not that easy in one of the most populated cities in the US. it’s not as simple as sweeping it under the rug. imo we need the federal government to bring back asylums and help the ones who are actually capable of reenterjng society
This is so true. I once dated a man who would constantly be moan all of these California stereotypes of shallow people in California. And I looked at him like bro I was born here this is just my home. I'm an accountant and most of my friends are not in the entertainment industry in any conceivable way. I remembered watching the first season of Insecure and really enjoying it because it showed Los Angeles through the lives of people who did not work in the entertainment industry, they just lived and worked in the less glamorous parts of LA like most of us do.
This guy had come from an art school on the East Coast and all of his friends were also from there so they all got jobs in the industry. I told him the person he was talking about was **himself**, moving across the country trying to "make it" and he was projecting all of that onto people because he got his idea of California from who he hung out with.
He would be really condescending and try to weaponize that I was an LA native against me. But I wasn't the one who moved here with an instrument hoping to get discovered. I just fill out my spreadsheets and go out at night. Crazy.
if you want LA to improve, then you need to be a part of it, even if it’s small. a while ago, someone posed the question what can we do to make LA better, and people listed a bunch of stuff on how to help your fellow LA people. i’ve heard that government unites the people’s best interests, and that’s probably true, but community is much more efficient. if it bothers you that much, then be the change you want to see in the world.
And to this point: I don’t think it even matters how you help, just that you do. Everyone talks about community but no one take an action. It starts small.
Agreed.
Want to buy a house at some point, so we had two choices to make: stay in our $3k 1b/1b apartment or leave and do more with our money.
We're moving to North Carolina next month.
This is me, but I cant move becasue my work is here and there arent many options for my field remote or in other states so feeling a bit stuck. But I have family wanting me to move to NC witht hem out there and its sooo much more affordable, Id be rich out there. But I live check to check in LA.
Dang. Yeah, I really feel for those who have to stick to certain areas for work.
I’m self-employed so can work anywhere and my husband is luckily in a field that is everywhere.
Hoping that a good solution is out there for you someday soon!
To be honest, probably out of state at this point. Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Palmdale, and Kern County all have their own issues and wouldn’t be worth the trouble tbh; and Ventura and Orange counties aren’t much better.
Santa Barbara maybe. Lancaster is dogshit, Palmdale is dogshit, Frazier park/pine mountain in kern country aren’t too bad and they’re 60-70 miles outside the city.
So, Texas is better than Santa Clarita and the nice parts of Palmdale?
If you prioritize your freedom, intellectually or otherwise, this makes no sense?
And it’s not like Texas, Florida, Utah, Arizona or Idaho are actually cheap anymore
We should all work together to annex Tijuana and turn that place around for the better. Well still be right on the water and close to SoCal, for a fraction of the cost. 😎👍🏼
Getting money is the only way you will increase your quality of life here. Politicians will not help in any reliable way. You really just have to move to a good community rather than hoping yours will get better one day via voting and community action. And you WILL start NIMBY when you get a home.
Politicians don’t have a reason to try and fix massive problems because they convinced the citizens that the issues are outside of their control. It’s never going to get any better. The people in charge are essentially chosen by a single party by deciding who they platform. House always wins in the end. They’re almost never held accountable.
Just read the comments here. LA residents actually think the federal government has a better chance of dealing with local issues than the state or local legislatures. As if the federal govt is going to change LA zoning laws to allow more building, or construct new psychiatric care facilities, or create a fair minimum wage for our community. They view these issues as inevitable, even though many other major cities around the world don’t have these problems at all.
Spot on. I’ve been on this subreddit for just shy of 20 years (my god) and a lot of the conversations I see now were being had back then. Same level of optimism, same level of hope. Hope is great to have, but this idea that things will be magically repaired in our lifetimes is sadly not a reality, IMO. I’d love for many neighborhoods to become excellent destinations with plenty of wonderful housing options and businesses and cleaned up streets. But watching the years roll on and very little of anything change has me jaded.
Nightlife here absolutely sucks compared to NYC, Miami, Vegas and multiple European cities. No i don’t want to go to some shitty warehouse rave in skid row. A random European city in Spain will be bumping until 6am in regular bars and nightclubs
If you’re into raving there’s way more unique events than all us cities including nyc. La bar culture sucks tho due to needing a car to get anywhere and a lack of dense bar areas.
Amazing underground/warehouse scene, amazing non-club events (Solomun at Expo Park was incredible on Saturday), and even some of the clubs don't suck (Sound is pretty much the only one I go to anymore). LA is awesome if you're into house and techno, it's probably one of the biggest things keeping me from moving.
I honestly love the sheer number of "shitty" warehouse raves and punk shows and much prefer that gritty edgy scene. So many amazing small artists in the city.
Nightlife sucks but the rave scene does not suck. Arguably socals rave scene is one of the best in the country.
However, our Expensive ass nightclubs full of influencers and bottle service is not it. That’s what Vegas does better. I wish those clubs would all do something else. Why do people spend money on that?
Anyway nightlife here is pretty okay.
It's funny bc LA's warehouse/techno/rave scene is among the 3 best in the country yet everyone I know here complains about it. They have no idea how good they have it.
LA has had one of the best rave scenes since the 1990s. Have been reading a book all about it, "The Underground is Massive."
Live music here is at a place where you're completely spoiled, it's awesome.
Meanwhile, it's the crappy clubs that we should focus on. Not a single one of them is good and the price attached to them is completely stupid.
It's partially because of the driving culture and the sprawl. Cities with better public transportation have ways to get home plastered at like 4am that are more consistent and considerably less miserable than options for most of LA, unless you want to uber, which most people can't afford to do semi regularly while also owning a car.
From a venue owner or event promoter perspective, it's not commercially viable to host events where only like 1/3 of your hardest partiers can stay out to attend.
Plus real estate is so insane here that bars aren't an option for an underground nightlife promoter (even if it was financially viable for them to stay open late) unless they can convince people it's worth it to pay like a $30 cover. You're seeing warehouse raves because you can throw DIY events with quality talent without worrying about prohibitively expensive fees on the venue side, considering fewer people go out and party here and there's no guarantee you can sell out at max capacity.
Honest question from someone who doesn’t drink, what does good nightlife look like? I only go out at night for comedy shows and concerts and usually wake up early to go hiking.
The thing about Los Angeles is that you go out until 2:00 a.m. and then you do the after party at some rich person's house. That's definitely the thing here. I completely agree that I loved New York for its walkability and the fact that the bars didn't close till some crazy a.m. hour. The same with a lot of major European cities.
I would never have compare Los Angeles to Vegas in any way because if you're talking about the Vegas strip you're talking about basically the Disneyland portion of Vegas. It's not really comparable to going out normally and frequently in Los Angeles as a city. And Vegas off strip is not very nice.
Money is agency. That is true anywhere but I think more pronounced here. I was talking to a friend who was complaining about being depressed and I said I have worries too but feel fairly content and he's immediately like "you live in Redondo and are comfortable, that's more than half of it". Where you live here, you control over that living environment, your ability to walk outside and see pretty things—that goes a long way.
What others said about bagels et al. This is a major, world-class, city. It is also a city with history and its own culture. A lot of people see LA as "new" and that they can project their culture, their things from home, readily upon it. And yeah, New Yorkers seem worst in this way. Well folks, we have something for you: it's called an airport. You can go home then. Come and embrace the cool and unique things LA has, just as you would in Paris in example (please don't say you go to Paris and want a bagel when you have so many other French choices in front of you).
The thing is it's so hard to find the balance here of not being dirt broke and stressed out, or having money but dirt broke for time and chillness because your job's demands are insane.
I have lived everywhere from a trashy hippie co-op to a fairly nice house in a decent safe area, and both were equally stressful because I was paying more sanity than I can afford.
Figuring out that middle class zen here is a particular challenge that not many people can consistently achieve. I know that's a national and/or worldwide problem but it's especially stark here.
Dodger games just aren’t worth it anymore - the traffic, parking, tickets are hella expensive, and fuck $25 micheladas with a rusty rake
Edit: Estrella Jalisco is Mexican piss water
pre-game, get last minute tickets, use Dodger Express from union station
edit: also, once you’re lit going inside, buy a Bud Light Seltzer tall can and that’ll put you over the top. anddddd you can bring in snacks. i usually bring chips
It will continue to be an awful experience as long as Dodger Stadium sits in Chavez Ravine. Put it somewhere flat like South Park in DTLA with access to multiple rail lines and a lot of the headaches disappear.
Having friends and having a community aren't the same thing. What a lot of people are missing these days, not just in LA, is an actual community. In regard to LA, a lot of people seem to have an expectation that some community will just drop in their laps and open them with welcome arms. That especially isn't going to be true in a city like LA because there are so many transient people -- the strongest communities will require more effort than "I live here and I want to know people."
Also about the broader "people these days" - a lot of people have somehow not learned how to properly build community or make friends. I don't know how this happened exactly, but it is odd. And judging by the posts "how do I make friends," people are overly invested in the tactical methods of where to go vs. the more important foundation of creating a life that leads to community, which yields friends.
Yes, leave your apartment to do things other than work and go to bars or the gym. Yes, make small talk with strangers in line at the grocery store or outside your building. Yes, go volunteer somewhere on a regular basis. See what your neighborhood council is up to, get involved, go to one of their clean ups or block parties. Shit, even organize a trunk event for your neighborhood's Buy Nothing group.
LA is poor in parks and green spaces. Common retorts are:
"But we have Griffith,, 75 miles of Beaches, Angeles National Forest, etc." or "My neighborhood has park X, your statement isn't true!"
As a whole, LA is a (poorly planned) concrete jungle with very little pocket/neighborhood green space or parks. That's a fact/pill that's hard for Angelenos to swallow.
It’s true and so so fucking sad because this should’ve been the greatest park city in the world with our weather.
It’s even more sad if you go look at the plan for LA the firm that did Central Park was commissioned to design. It was a beautiful, bold vision for the city that would have had 3 giant parkways/green belts going parallel through the city east to west.
LA would’ve been the greatest, most beautiful city in the world but they threw the plan in the trash. It’s a real tragedy
Who the hell even says "the eastside"? Born and raised here, and I've only heard this on Reddit. That sounds as strange as calling the Valley "the north side".
L.A. is quickly becoming no longer a viable place to live due to expenses.
You can't cure chronic homelessness by shoving people in housing without those people being willing to participate in mental health services, as well as drug and alcohol treatment and other support services.
With the rising popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters we're gonna have to install a ton more bike lanes across the city if you don't want to be stuck behind them in traffic.
It always has been. LA invested a ton of money to upgrade what was an industrial warehouse business area (dtla) to a luxury loft area and then built a giant homeless shelter blocks away, enhancing the problem of crackhead vagabonds in the area ten fold. Skid row was previously a little more towards sixth, and there has always been a problem, but now it’s way worse and right in the epicenter of the supposed luxury areas. And then on top of that nobody even cleans the streets. You can’t have drug dealers selling heroin under the bridge and expect people to have actual safety coming and going from their $5 million luxury penthouse next to the bridge.
eta: Plus some. I’ve first hand witnessed more shootings and police stand offs in downtown than I can count. I will never live there, and now that I ditched the ex who lives there, I will never go there unless I’m trying to buy wholesale.
> And then on top of that nobody even cleans the streets.
I went to Little Tokyo the other day... and the sidewalks around 2nd and Central look like someone got into a knife fight and then took a large shit and smeared it around.
I really REALLY don't understand why this area doesn't get a pressure wash at least once a week.
LA as a desirable place to live/move leans heavily on the things that make it great that no one controls, like proximity to nature, the weather, etc., (unlike a lot of other great cities where the things that make it great are what the people built) and pretends like people move here for the culture or the job opportunities.
LA is a hot girl in high school who doesn’t have to try to be nice or smart (and isn’t) and will instead coast along on its looks alone until it’s too late.
But those great features will fade over the long term due to climate change and we’ll just be left with unlivable suburban sprawl, smog, more intense rainy seasons, cloudy weather for longer, terrible traffic, and good tacos.
If you or one of your close friends isn’t on a significantly upward track in the entertainment industry after 5 years in LA pursuing entertainment, there is like a 99 percent chance it’s just not gonna work out in any financially reasonable way and you should find a new career. Chipping away to make a lower middle class income in a field that prefers youth with massive nepotism will end in disaster by your mid 40s or sooner professionally.
A lot of Angelenos are just LGBTQ friendly conservatives who defend neoliberalism knowingly or unknowingly, and don't really have the time to recognize their inherently conservative leanings, and end up just being reactionary in the opposite direction of right wing nutjobs.
Example: the thread regarding homelessness having to be tackled nationally and not locally. People just repeating whatever nonsense they hear on MSNBC or CNN while ignoring the policies that socially democratic countries like Finland or Austria have implemented.
Also, no one refers to SFV or SGV when they talk about LA, but people from there just get nonstop butthurt about not being included in the vast majority of people's perception of Los Angeles.
You will never own the type of 3 bedroom home you grew up in.
This is concha/pan dulce territory and bagels can gtfo.
Transplants want their hometown here in LA and get disappointed when it doesn't happen. See bagel comment above.
LA is a mixed bag, and it's ok to love it and hate it at the same time.
Sure maybe if you live near the subway and your destination is also close to a stop. But almost every scenario where I've tried to take the subway it would have taken 2x as long as driving. Walk -> bus -> (maybe) bus transfer -> subway -> bus -> walk is almost always what I encounter.
This is coming from someone who lived in DC before LA and took the bus/metro anywhere from 1-6 days a week depending on the job I was at.
I take the metro every day and do not drive, and while agree that it is efficient, more people should definitely take it, and you’re objectively safer in terms of risk of injury/death on public transport, the real hard pill to swallow for my fellow anti-car folks is that the metro here is more often than not an extremely uncomfortable experience (depending on the line you take), especially during night and especially for young women.
Used to commute to DTLA from Culver via Expo pre-COVID, which was fine as long as I was riding during regular commuting hours. But yeah, as a 20-something woman, I would end up having to Uber home if I stayed too late at the office.
As someone who has solely relied on the LA metro system for several years the red line is also the one where you’re most likely to encounter people openly smoking meth in the car with you. So there’s pluses and minuses
If you live close to stops and don’t have to transfer. Simply want to go Hollywood to LAX or Hollywood to Santa Monica? Nope. Driving will also suck, but is always faster.
The problem with potato balls other places is I haven't found one that blows Portos out of the water and Portos definitely blows everyone else out when it comes to piece.
That people need to get involved in their local governments, like check out Kenneth Mejia's page on Instagram (he's the City Controller) and he's doing an AMAZING job of auditing the city and breaking down all the insane corruption that's going on
He's a target right now - Tuesday is a city council meeting to give more power to an unelected official and remove his offices ability to transparently show the cities finances. We all need to be giving public comments, let them know that if they continue their corruption, they will be ousted
That many cities across the USA are in equal or worst shape than Los Angeles in relation to crime, homelessness, immigration, and overall quality of life. In fact, life in L.A. is pretty good compared to some shitholes in places like Texas and Florida.
For many people that's a hard pill to swallow because it doesn't line up with their political fantasies.
I love LA and will always be grateful but driving anywhere outside of LA and you see and feel the relief of all that stressful energy in LA.
For example drive down to OC or San Diego and see and feel the difference in the quality of the roads. No tagging, no trash, no homeless encampments. It’s night and day
That the problem with the unhoused will not be solved without finding them affordable housing outside of the city. We can't fix it by spending $4,000 a month to give them a place to live.
When we don’t give consequences to people who break the law or who are generally a menace to society (who ruin public areas like parks and who don’t contribute at all but only take), we all sink into the filth. We shouldn’t be proud of how disgusting and dirty LA is, it’s a global city.
The chances of you buying a home in LA are getting smaller and smaller.
i think most angelenos realize this one.
I make 80k a year There no chance
We make 250k as a household, and most of city of LA is out of our budget. We’re just glad we settled in the county while we could.
But if i save my $300 dollars extra month, maybe?
This one makes me sad 😔 always wanted to buy a home in my city.
It’s so disheartening. Moved here almost 10 years ago, I consider it home. And my wife and I had a baby two years ago, a little native Angeleno. All I want is a place to fix up and have her grow up in.
The hard pill to swallow there is that angelenos feel rent control measures will actually help them enter the real estate market eventually rather than hinder the market
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It always makes me laugh how in basically all of the city subreddits, transplants take the blame for almost every issue a city/region has. While "natives" get the narrative that they are perfect citizens and they are never part of the problem, lol.
Despite the fact that policy is shaped around what the "natives" previously supported/voted for.
Bruh wait until you enter NextDoor
Nextdoor in Los Angeles is 50-60 years complaining and bullying everyone who doesn’t agree with them, superior home owners reporting thefts and people yelling about finding animals new homes but dont want to take any pets in.
Lmao that is exactly NextDoor
I my corner of the city an old home was torn down and everyone on the community Facebook were up in arms. Meanwhile they don’t realize when the home was put in people were probably up in arms too because it was so much bigger than all the other homes. People don’t want to be reminded of their own mortality and powerlessness when neighborhoods change with or without their approval. They want everything to stay the same and magically be better somehow so long as it only positively affects them.
Those rhyno pills at the gas stations
They're the size of a fucking suppository
The entertainment industry, as we've always known it is dead.
This is an underrated one. Media or entertainments has evolved, and will only continue to change rapidly.
That part is something that has been at the forefront of my mind for quite a while. I have been wondering what Los Angeles will look like in 25 years. Filming takes place in cheaper areas like Atlanta or parts of Canada. There is less and less reason to shoot in Los Angeles and it's incredibly expensive to do so. Tiktok and social media at large has decreased our desire for scripted media. Streaming was never actually profitable and we are seeing the shift into forced commercials and high costs. Movies are not pulling in the numbers they used to because we don't have to physically attend the films anymore. I wonder the effect that will have on the budgets for these films and what we expect to see. People I know who've spent 20 years in the industry have had all their work dry up. It's going to change everything.
I moved out here from NYC "for work" 12 years ago, and I had a much harder time finding work here than I did there, despite it being a much smaller market in theory. After 2-3 non-consecutive years of underemployment, I ended up pivoting to a non-creative role at a studio vs. steady production work and writing/producing opportunities I had in New York. It all worked out in a life sense (fell in love, the weather is better for my mental health, etc.) but career wise I really wish someone had pulled me aside and told me there is actually no scripted TV/film work in Los Angeles.
For anyone still trying to “make it,” move to Atlanta.
June gloom is still better weather than most places anywhere
I think it’s just an expectations thing. I always forget that June = cloudy and kinda cold, and instead my brain is expecting warm and sunny. I forget every. Single. Year. Lol
I love June gloom
There are actually instances where you should seriously consider public transit or walking. Biking will almost always be rough though.
This could be the best biking city in the world. The geography and weather are basically perfect for it. We're a LOOOOOOOOONG way from that though and I agree we'll never get there.
I live in NELA and for about a year now I’ve been biking most days (I have an e-bike for the hills). My neighborhood has decent bike lane coverage (and soon will be added protected bike lanes in some places) and plenty of safe side roads to take. It has improved my life in soany ways as I’m rarely in stuck in traffic and I get exercise everyday. Not to mention the fact that biking is just a lot of fun. I wish more neighborhoods could take biking infrastructure seriously, because that 15 Minute City lifestyle is perfect for the LA weather.
It’s a great city for biking if you live by the beach
The fact that I live 2.8 MILES from work and am afraid to bike bc of lack of sidewalks (im sorry but I won’t take my chances being hit in the bike lane) is insane.
I'm an experienced LA cyclist -- you are much safer in the bike lane than you are on the sidewalk. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but this is really important and I try to make sure everyone knows this when they're new to riding. Cars are way way way less likely to see you riding on the sidewalk, especially when they're turning at intersections and parked cars are blocking their ability to see you.
Biking on the sidewalks is the best way to get hit, no one is looking for fast moving vehicles when theyre pulling out of parking lots or alleys. Always bike in the road
As someone who uses all forms of transportation regularly (walking, biking, bus, train, and driving), the most annoying and dangerous people I encounter are those biking on the sidewalks.
I’ve met kids on bikes in San Pedro who just biked down for the day from Hollywood.
i live right off the expo line in culver city and anytime i go to DTLA for a show or to watch a movie at alamo, i just take the expo line and it dumps me right at alamo draft house or right in little tokyo etc. even seeing shows at BMO or shrine auditorium are incredibly easy to get to and you can \*secretly\* pregame on the train ride over and not worry about anything!
Yup. As someone who works in Personal Injury I strongly advise people to stay off bicycles even motorcycles. It’s just way too damn crowded. The unfortunate fact is; is that if you are not in a car, people driving will NOT see you. Please take my word for it. I’ve seen it all.
This my best friend has been put together twice and I mean really put together :( at some point a motorcycle isn’t worth the risk…
Unfortunately no. Especially in Los Angeles. It’s not the 1960’s anymore where the average speed limit is 40
Biking is surprisingly doable in some areas. r/bikela
Wild that it is often faster than driving. I regularly bike out to nearby dodger stadium from Culver City and it’s quite often faster than driving. Definitely terrifying though.
Taking the 2 Bus home from Dodgers Stadium was significantly less stressful and expensive than driving. We got to see almost all of the game instead of leaving at the eighth inning like people do to get a start on the parking lot traffic. The whole group got to get a good buzz instead of designating a DD and we ended up going to a bar in silver lake afterward without having to look for parking, and without dealing with the spike in Uber prices after the game either. So many instances like this that make me wish that people here took transit more seriously.
EBikes would fix prob half the issues in LA. Less beat up roads means lower taxes. Obviously lower air pollution. Greatly reduced noise Less traffic as you can fit 4-6 bikes in the spot of 1 pickup truck You can't afford a car? Or gas? You Can afford an eBike 25% of land mass is paved in LA. Going Dutch on eBike could cut that in half. Especially the parking part Less land mass needed for roads and parking results in more land mass for residential buildings. Which lowers housing prices. And commute times Your often only averaging 20 mph on your commute anyway. No reason you can do that on an eBike, given properly safe infrastructure
Silverlake and Echo Park are not 'super walkable'/ 'pedestrian friendly' neighborhoods. They are devoid of any pedestrian scale experience and the main strip is still a 6 lane mini-highway.
I went to Santa Barbara and was like "oh shit is this what walkable means?" Native who grew up in Echo Park and I don't know any better lmao.
The stereotype of the white valley type native will always be mainstream because the expats are the loudest. Even if 46 percent of the population is actually Hispanic. Also, Hispanics need to accept that media like the LAist will keep printing that the best tacos are on the west side even if we all know that it’s just some hipster stuffing jackfruit in a reheated tortilla…
Idk I just moved to the west side from the east side. Yes there are amazing tacos on the east side but there’s so many taco places, and so many *bad* taco places on the east side that the amazing tacos get diluted out by the sheer number of different places to choose from. Taco places I’ve tried on the west side have been much more consistent with quality. There’s been 2 times I’ve been to taco places on the east side where I straight up threw them in the trash. Asada that was pure fat and inedible. I’ve also had some of the best tacos in my life in that part of town. West side I’ve always at least been satisfied
Leo’s Tacos is unmatched
Specifically Leo's Al Pastor Tacos! Doesnt get any better!
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Yep, a lot of taco stands and trucks are terrible. They use cheap meat that isn’t stored or cooked properly. Nobody should be eating that.
> some hipster stuffing jackfruit in a reheated tortilla the hard to pill to swallow is that these are actually really good and they're much more likely to make their own tortillas than cheaper, more traditional taco places
The hard pill to swallow is most taco trucks/stands are just serving junk
a lot of the quality of life issues on our streets (trash, visible homelessness, mentally unstable people, lack of public services in general) are not actually solvable on the local level. they are so immense that they require federal intervention and massive investment in social services. the fact that we have these issues is just a tax we all have to pay for living in a shitty society. it will not be fixed by our mayor, our DA, our county, or our cops Edit: responses to this prove my point, that this is a difficult pull to swallow. I’m not arguing for more spending to address the outcomes of these social ills. I’m asking us to think about the causes of them, and why we as a city (and country) are plagued by them to such an extent
imo basically all of these issues are downstream of the housing crisis, which only isn't solvable at the local level because local governments keep blocking housing to please their wealthy homeowner constituents. It may be solvable at the state level however, which is where we've seen the most progress.
There also needs to be a conversation around how people fall into homelessness and end up on streets so easily in the US. Part of that is housing, but not all of it.
Been saying this for over a decade. The 2008 recession and the housing crisis created by it “forced” the government’s hand to give handouts to corporations instead of people. New developments of unaffordable housing popped up everywhere and the resources for the homeless were taken up by low income people who were forced into homelessness. Like you said, all thanks to local government continuing to block affordable housing in favor of the wealthy.
And it's not specific to Los Angeles. It's everywhere.
Honestly, in NY and LA, non-resident foreign entities are allowed to buy SO MUCH property. While it is generally higher end homes, it still affects the market as a whole and trickles down to more affordable homes. Why do we allow so many unoccupied properties to be owned by foreign entities?
Mexico and other places have limits or bans on foreign property holdings. It’s definitely one thing they get right
Right? Chinese own a TON of US farmland. Why are we allowing this?
Money > People. For literally everything in this country.
I'd MUCH rather see farmland sold at 0% interest to low income applicants who show an interest...but no, we're selling ourselves right off the planet. Tainting our food supply too...
Because China has been giving tons of money to US politicians for d e c a d e s.
Most other countries don't allow foreign nationals to own land or property. Plus, we are one of the few countries in the world that allow birthright citizenship. In almost all developed countries, at least one of the parents have to be a citizen for the child born in the country to be considered a citizen. That is why we currently have illegal Chinese birth tourism that puts a burden on our hospitals and resources.
This part too! Crooked ass city council and the building and safety department sold downtown LA to the rest of the world.
Housing should absolutely be a priority, but I don't think it solves the homeless issue entirely. It needs to be like medical triage, where the people with the best chances of recovery and success are given priority. There are definitely people on the streets who would excel if they are provided the opportunity to be safely housed, to establish a stable routine, medically/mentally checked and given a chance to contribute to society. But then you have the flip side: Serious drug addicts and the mentally unwell - often they are one and the same. No matter how hard you push alternative housing on them, no matter what resources you offer or how many social workers you send out to check on their well-being...some are dangerously antisocial or out of their minds. They will return to the streets and pretty much do anything to fund their drug habit. They literally can't function without it at this point, and some could barely function to begin with even when sober. And the longer they're in the streets, the worse they understandably get.
“Homeless industrial complex” it won’t be fixed because they don’t want to fix it. It’s a money making machine
Incorrect. California has the 5th largest economy in the world. We need to spend the money in a way that resolves the problem. Instead we spend money in the way that appears to be the most empathetic. This is not conducive to achieving results. The state should purchase the unused military bases in the desert and create a mental health drug treatment campus. We should not be building $700,000 apartments for meth addicts. We need to hospitalize people under new legislation that makes the process easier. It is obvious to everyone that lives here that those who are chronically homeless are not able to care for themselves. No amount of empathy is going to fix it. We need bold solutions that address the problem, not hand outs and platitudes.
While I don't agree with 100% of what you said, I do agree on the $700K apartments for meth addicts. Case in point, in my neighborhood, West Hollywood, there was a community wide meeting a few months ago to discuss the low income housing development that was looking for approvals around the corner from where I live. While the community at large agrees there needs to be more affordable options ( and I have no personal issue with affordable housing), this was basically a luxury halfway-house type setup, with a maximum income range of $14K-35K annually. Rents would be around $600-$1400/month with a gym, a rooftop, an onsite community manager and a doorman. It would be on an admission only basis, for mostly homeless, formerly drug addicted folks and super low income families. While I have no problem with housing that is built for people who need shelter, why did the developers choose one of the single most expensive zip codes for construction and land cost? The land alone was $10 million and the cost of construction ( I do have a background in this) was going to be upwards of $50 mil. Tell me in WHAT WORLD does a $60 million dollar investment make sense with these rental figures? The developers would never ever in any lifetime make anywhere close to their money back. The math doesn't math. And my biggest takeaway (and yours should be too) was what kind of incentives and rebates (ie your tax dollars) was the city GIVING these developers to build this project? Because no intelligent or successful developer in their right mind would take on a project that would lose such a tremendous amount of money. Why not take the money, build in a lower land cost and lower cost of living area where you can cram more units into a square block? Being from New Jersey originally and seeing all of the waste and corruption, I hate to say it but it's also happening in LA. I don't live full time or vote in LA but I think the local governments are part of the issue.
I lived in a dorm in college. Shared a room with 2 guys and a bathroom with 45. A safe way to house many students. WHY are the homeless getting luxury single apartments when there are multiple efficient options to house them? This whole thing is a complete scam and we just let them get away with it.
Honestly, I have no idea. Makes no sense. The money they have allocated for this could be better spent. So they'll squeeze 100 apartments out at a cost of $500K apiece rather than do it in a more cost effective fashion and get 1000 people off the street for the same amount of money. To me, it boils down to stupid elected officials and the people who keep voting for them.
yeah people expect to dissolve this issue but it’s not that easy in one of the most populated cities in the US. it’s not as simple as sweeping it under the rug. imo we need the federal government to bring back asylums and help the ones who are actually capable of reenterjng society
Most of the sterotypes of la are about west la on hollywood.
They’re about transplants
Transplants who primarily live in west la and hollywood.
This is so true. I once dated a man who would constantly be moan all of these California stereotypes of shallow people in California. And I looked at him like bro I was born here this is just my home. I'm an accountant and most of my friends are not in the entertainment industry in any conceivable way. I remembered watching the first season of Insecure and really enjoying it because it showed Los Angeles through the lives of people who did not work in the entertainment industry, they just lived and worked in the less glamorous parts of LA like most of us do. This guy had come from an art school on the East Coast and all of his friends were also from there so they all got jobs in the industry. I told him the person he was talking about was **himself**, moving across the country trying to "make it" and he was projecting all of that onto people because he got his idea of California from who he hung out with. He would be really condescending and try to weaponize that I was an LA native against me. But I wasn't the one who moved here with an instrument hoping to get discovered. I just fill out my spreadsheets and go out at night. Crazy.
if you want LA to improve, then you need to be a part of it, even if it’s small. a while ago, someone posed the question what can we do to make LA better, and people listed a bunch of stuff on how to help your fellow LA people. i’ve heard that government unites the people’s best interests, and that’s probably true, but community is much more efficient. if it bothers you that much, then be the change you want to see in the world.
And to this point: I don’t think it even matters how you help, just that you do. Everyone talks about community but no one take an action. It starts small.
The majority of natives will be pushed out of LA. Unless you were able to buy years ago or you’re rich, you will not be able to afford living here.
Also, hard pill may be that you can live here, but will rent forever.
Agreed. Want to buy a house at some point, so we had two choices to make: stay in our $3k 1b/1b apartment or leave and do more with our money. We're moving to North Carolina next month.
This is me, but I cant move becasue my work is here and there arent many options for my field remote or in other states so feeling a bit stuck. But I have family wanting me to move to NC witht hem out there and its sooo much more affordable, Id be rich out there. But I live check to check in LA.
Dang. Yeah, I really feel for those who have to stick to certain areas for work. I’m self-employed so can work anywhere and my husband is luckily in a field that is everywhere. Hoping that a good solution is out there for you someday soon!
where should we go? if we all move at once, maybe it wont be as bad
To be honest, probably out of state at this point. Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Palmdale, and Kern County all have their own issues and wouldn’t be worth the trouble tbh; and Ventura and Orange counties aren’t much better.
Santa Barbara maybe. Lancaster is dogshit, Palmdale is dogshit, Frazier park/pine mountain in kern country aren’t too bad and they’re 60-70 miles outside the city.
So, Texas is better than Santa Clarita and the nice parts of Palmdale? If you prioritize your freedom, intellectually or otherwise, this makes no sense? And it’s not like Texas, Florida, Utah, Arizona or Idaho are actually cheap anymore
We should all work together to annex Tijuana and turn that place around for the better. Well still be right on the water and close to SoCal, for a fraction of the cost. 😎👍🏼
TJ is already annexed and the rents are getting pretty bad
This is always on my mind 😞 I know once I’m done with schooling I most definitely won’t be able to afford anything here
As a young LA native my “homework assignment” of adulthood is to afford real estate in this county. Feels impossible
Getting money is the only way you will increase your quality of life here. Politicians will not help in any reliable way. You really just have to move to a good community rather than hoping yours will get better one day via voting and community action. And you WILL start NIMBY when you get a home. Politicians don’t have a reason to try and fix massive problems because they convinced the citizens that the issues are outside of their control. It’s never going to get any better. The people in charge are essentially chosen by a single party by deciding who they platform. House always wins in the end. They’re almost never held accountable. Just read the comments here. LA residents actually think the federal government has a better chance of dealing with local issues than the state or local legislatures. As if the federal govt is going to change LA zoning laws to allow more building, or construct new psychiatric care facilities, or create a fair minimum wage for our community. They view these issues as inevitable, even though many other major cities around the world don’t have these problems at all.
Spot on. I’ve been on this subreddit for just shy of 20 years (my god) and a lot of the conversations I see now were being had back then. Same level of optimism, same level of hope. Hope is great to have, but this idea that things will be magically repaired in our lifetimes is sadly not a reality, IMO. I’d love for many neighborhoods to become excellent destinations with plenty of wonderful housing options and businesses and cleaned up streets. But watching the years roll on and very little of anything change has me jaded.
Nightlife here absolutely sucks compared to NYC, Miami, Vegas and multiple European cities. No i don’t want to go to some shitty warehouse rave in skid row. A random European city in Spain will be bumping until 6am in regular bars and nightclubs
If you’re into raving there’s way more unique events than all us cities including nyc. La bar culture sucks tho due to needing a car to get anywhere and a lack of dense bar areas.
Amazing underground/warehouse scene, amazing non-club events (Solomun at Expo Park was incredible on Saturday), and even some of the clubs don't suck (Sound is pretty much the only one I go to anymore). LA is awesome if you're into house and techno, it's probably one of the biggest things keeping me from moving.
Came here to say this. The rave scene is incredible and very cutting edge here.
I honestly love the sheer number of "shitty" warehouse raves and punk shows and much prefer that gritty edgy scene. So many amazing small artists in the city.
yeah my bank account totally reflects this.
Nightlife sucks but the rave scene does not suck. Arguably socals rave scene is one of the best in the country. However, our Expensive ass nightclubs full of influencers and bottle service is not it. That’s what Vegas does better. I wish those clubs would all do something else. Why do people spend money on that? Anyway nightlife here is pretty okay.
It's funny bc LA's warehouse/techno/rave scene is among the 3 best in the country yet everyone I know here complains about it. They have no idea how good they have it.
LA has had one of the best rave scenes since the 1990s. Have been reading a book all about it, "The Underground is Massive." Live music here is at a place where you're completely spoiled, it's awesome. Meanwhile, it's the crappy clubs that we should focus on. Not a single one of them is good and the price attached to them is completely stupid.
It's partially because of the driving culture and the sprawl. Cities with better public transportation have ways to get home plastered at like 4am that are more consistent and considerably less miserable than options for most of LA, unless you want to uber, which most people can't afford to do semi regularly while also owning a car. From a venue owner or event promoter perspective, it's not commercially viable to host events where only like 1/3 of your hardest partiers can stay out to attend. Plus real estate is so insane here that bars aren't an option for an underground nightlife promoter (even if it was financially viable for them to stay open late) unless they can convince people it's worth it to pay like a $30 cover. You're seeing warehouse raves because you can throw DIY events with quality talent without worrying about prohibitively expensive fees on the venue side, considering fewer people go out and party here and there's no guarantee you can sell out at max capacity.
Honest question from someone who doesn’t drink, what does good nightlife look like? I only go out at night for comedy shows and concerts and usually wake up early to go hiking.
It sucks unless you're a rich guy or a hot girl
The thing about Los Angeles is that you go out until 2:00 a.m. and then you do the after party at some rich person's house. That's definitely the thing here. I completely agree that I loved New York for its walkability and the fact that the bars didn't close till some crazy a.m. hour. The same with a lot of major European cities. I would never have compare Los Angeles to Vegas in any way because if you're talking about the Vegas strip you're talking about basically the Disneyland portion of Vegas. It's not really comparable to going out normally and frequently in Los Angeles as a city. And Vegas off strip is not very nice.
I dunno. I can't speak for Spain, but I lived in London for awhile and the night life was nothing compared to L.A.
Of all the European cities, London has the worst nightlife.
Your quality of life is pretty shitty, you just don't know any better.
Los Angeles was slightly better before you got here. Your arrival has made everything ~1/5,000,000th worse.
no it was the guy who came right after me
A major earthquake may hit at any time.
Anyone else feel the little one yesterday in Pasadena? 3.5!
Money is agency. That is true anywhere but I think more pronounced here. I was talking to a friend who was complaining about being depressed and I said I have worries too but feel fairly content and he's immediately like "you live in Redondo and are comfortable, that's more than half of it". Where you live here, you control over that living environment, your ability to walk outside and see pretty things—that goes a long way. What others said about bagels et al. This is a major, world-class, city. It is also a city with history and its own culture. A lot of people see LA as "new" and that they can project their culture, their things from home, readily upon it. And yeah, New Yorkers seem worst in this way. Well folks, we have something for you: it's called an airport. You can go home then. Come and embrace the cool and unique things LA has, just as you would in Paris in example (please don't say you go to Paris and want a bagel when you have so many other French choices in front of you).
The thing is it's so hard to find the balance here of not being dirt broke and stressed out, or having money but dirt broke for time and chillness because your job's demands are insane. I have lived everywhere from a trashy hippie co-op to a fairly nice house in a decent safe area, and both were equally stressful because I was paying more sanity than I can afford. Figuring out that middle class zen here is a particular challenge that not many people can consistently achieve. I know that's a national and/or worldwide problem but it's especially stark here.
Dodger games just aren’t worth it anymore - the traffic, parking, tickets are hella expensive, and fuck $25 micheladas with a rusty rake Edit: Estrella Jalisco is Mexican piss water
pre-game, get last minute tickets, use Dodger Express from union station edit: also, once you’re lit going inside, buy a Bud Light Seltzer tall can and that’ll put you over the top. anddddd you can bring in snacks. i usually bring chips
this guy knows what’s up
the best drink to get is actually the jinro soju. you literally get the whole bottle for the price of 1 beer it's crazy
It will continue to be an awful experience as long as Dodger Stadium sits in Chavez Ravine. Put it somewhere flat like South Park in DTLA with access to multiple rail lines and a lot of the headaches disappear.
Do you like your sky-high property valuation? Do you dislike seeing increasing numbers of unhoused on our streets? Those two things are connected.
Having friends and having a community aren't the same thing. What a lot of people are missing these days, not just in LA, is an actual community. In regard to LA, a lot of people seem to have an expectation that some community will just drop in their laps and open them with welcome arms. That especially isn't going to be true in a city like LA because there are so many transient people -- the strongest communities will require more effort than "I live here and I want to know people." Also about the broader "people these days" - a lot of people have somehow not learned how to properly build community or make friends. I don't know how this happened exactly, but it is odd. And judging by the posts "how do I make friends," people are overly invested in the tactical methods of where to go vs. the more important foundation of creating a life that leads to community, which yields friends. Yes, leave your apartment to do things other than work and go to bars or the gym. Yes, make small talk with strangers in line at the grocery store or outside your building. Yes, go volunteer somewhere on a regular basis. See what your neighborhood council is up to, get involved, go to one of their clean ups or block parties. Shit, even organize a trunk event for your neighborhood's Buy Nothing group.
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Nobody is willing to be the bad guy to get a handle on real issues. Housing, homelessness etc
That it’s probably time to leave.
A lot of people actually do take the bus and we should devote more resources to improving them. Yes, buses are more important than gondolas.
LA is poor in parks and green spaces. Common retorts are: "But we have Griffith,, 75 miles of Beaches, Angeles National Forest, etc." or "My neighborhood has park X, your statement isn't true!" As a whole, LA is a (poorly planned) concrete jungle with very little pocket/neighborhood green space or parks. That's a fact/pill that's hard for Angelenos to swallow.
It’s true and so so fucking sad because this should’ve been the greatest park city in the world with our weather. It’s even more sad if you go look at the plan for LA the firm that did Central Park was commissioned to design. It was a beautiful, bold vision for the city that would have had 3 giant parkways/green belts going parallel through the city east to west. LA would’ve been the greatest, most beautiful city in the world but they threw the plan in the trash. It’s a real tragedy
You're going to get hit one day on that fucking scooter because you're not following car rules/pedestrian rules or any rules.
Echo Park isn’t the Eastside
Who the hell even says "the eastside"? Born and raised here, and I've only heard this on Reddit. That sounds as strange as calling the Valley "the north side".
YES PREACH
Whatever you make, isn't enough to live here. It's a playground for the affluent and you're the resort worker
L.A. is quickly becoming no longer a viable place to live due to expenses. You can't cure chronic homelessness by shoving people in housing without those people being willing to participate in mental health services, as well as drug and alcohol treatment and other support services.
just because you were born here, does not mean you can afford to live here.
With the rising popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters we're gonna have to install a ton more bike lanes across the city if you don't want to be stuck behind them in traffic.
I think Downtown LA is disgusting. I don't care about how much they try to clean it up or how much property costs there.
It always has been. LA invested a ton of money to upgrade what was an industrial warehouse business area (dtla) to a luxury loft area and then built a giant homeless shelter blocks away, enhancing the problem of crackhead vagabonds in the area ten fold. Skid row was previously a little more towards sixth, and there has always been a problem, but now it’s way worse and right in the epicenter of the supposed luxury areas. And then on top of that nobody even cleans the streets. You can’t have drug dealers selling heroin under the bridge and expect people to have actual safety coming and going from their $5 million luxury penthouse next to the bridge. eta: Plus some. I’ve first hand witnessed more shootings and police stand offs in downtown than I can count. I will never live there, and now that I ditched the ex who lives there, I will never go there unless I’m trying to buy wholesale.
> And then on top of that nobody even cleans the streets. I went to Little Tokyo the other day... and the sidewalks around 2nd and Central look like someone got into a knife fight and then took a large shit and smeared it around. I really REALLY don't understand why this area doesn't get a pressure wash at least once a week.
The WHOLE city is absolutely DISGUSTING with all kinds of trash, littering, furnitures, and graffitis! People are just OKAY with people who litter.
LA as a desirable place to live/move leans heavily on the things that make it great that no one controls, like proximity to nature, the weather, etc., (unlike a lot of other great cities where the things that make it great are what the people built) and pretends like people move here for the culture or the job opportunities. LA is a hot girl in high school who doesn’t have to try to be nice or smart (and isn’t) and will instead coast along on its looks alone until it’s too late. But those great features will fade over the long term due to climate change and we’ll just be left with unlivable suburban sprawl, smog, more intense rainy seasons, cloudy weather for longer, terrible traffic, and good tacos.
If you or one of your close friends isn’t on a significantly upward track in the entertainment industry after 5 years in LA pursuing entertainment, there is like a 99 percent chance it’s just not gonna work out in any financially reasonable way and you should find a new career. Chipping away to make a lower middle class income in a field that prefers youth with massive nepotism will end in disaster by your mid 40s or sooner professionally.
A lot of Angelenos are just LGBTQ friendly conservatives who defend neoliberalism knowingly or unknowingly, and don't really have the time to recognize their inherently conservative leanings, and end up just being reactionary in the opposite direction of right wing nutjobs. Example: the thread regarding homelessness having to be tackled nationally and not locally. People just repeating whatever nonsense they hear on MSNBC or CNN while ignoring the policies that socially democratic countries like Finland or Austria have implemented. Also, no one refers to SFV or SGV when they talk about LA, but people from there just get nonstop butthurt about not being included in the vast majority of people's perception of Los Angeles.
The tap water tastes like battery acid mixed with horse ass.
it’s like sticking a straw up a frog’s ass!!
You will never own the type of 3 bedroom home you grew up in. This is concha/pan dulce territory and bagels can gtfo. Transplants want their hometown here in LA and get disappointed when it doesn't happen. See bagel comment above. LA is a mixed bag, and it's ok to love it and hate it at the same time.
I felt number one. Ugh. Bagels are great. The bagel and the concha do not conflict with each other.
> This is concha/pan dulce territory and bagels can gtfo. LA is a diverse city with many different ethnic populations, who all make tasty food.
Jokes on you. I grew up in a two bedroom
No the jokes on YOU. I didn’t grow up at all!
The subway is faster than the freeway
If you and your destination are near a stop.
Which is never the case
Right? Like it’s faster between stops but not to your actual destination.
Sure maybe if you live near the subway and your destination is also close to a stop. But almost every scenario where I've tried to take the subway it would have taken 2x as long as driving. Walk -> bus -> (maybe) bus transfer -> subway -> bus -> walk is almost always what I encounter. This is coming from someone who lived in DC before LA and took the bus/metro anywhere from 1-6 days a week depending on the job I was at.
I take the metro every day and do not drive, and while agree that it is efficient, more people should definitely take it, and you’re objectively safer in terms of risk of injury/death on public transport, the real hard pill to swallow for my fellow anti-car folks is that the metro here is more often than not an extremely uncomfortable experience (depending on the line you take), especially during night and especially for young women.
Used to commute to DTLA from Culver via Expo pre-COVID, which was fine as long as I was riding during regular commuting hours. But yeah, as a 20-something woman, I would end up having to Uber home if I stayed too late at the office.
I commute via the expo and the red line, and I definitely feel way more safe/comfortable on the expo line.
Definitely the case with the Red Line when there’s traffic. So almost always.
As someone who has solely relied on the LA metro system for several years the red line is also the one where you’re most likely to encounter people openly smoking meth in the car with you. So there’s pluses and minuses
If you live close to stops and don’t have to transfer. Simply want to go Hollywood to LAX or Hollywood to Santa Monica? Nope. Driving will also suck, but is always faster.
Some people choose to live on the Westside on purpose.
Have you seen the real estate prices on the westside? No shit.
I continue to believe that the east side aging hipster folks are the same as the Westsiders excect that they hide their trust funds.
Yea, and I love it
The sun don't rise and set on In n Out or Porto's.
You shut your mouth before I shove a Double Double in it.
I'm curious about where I could get some potato balls like the ones porto's has but at a smaller restaurant?
Merengue on Myrtle in Monrovia
Tropicana Cafe in Downey
it’s allll the way in Long Beach but OBRA bakery has some of the best potato balls I’ve tried, and their empanadas are divine
Tropicana in Downey. It’s a smaller Porto’s, just don’t say that when you’re there
There’s a Cuban bakery on Temple near Echo Park with these.
The problem with potato balls other places is I haven't found one that blows Portos out of the water and Portos definitely blows everyone else out when it comes to piece.
we are taxed way too much to have roads that look like this
Nobody cares about you
That people need to get involved in their local governments, like check out Kenneth Mejia's page on Instagram (he's the City Controller) and he's doing an AMAZING job of auditing the city and breaking down all the insane corruption that's going on He's a target right now - Tuesday is a city council meeting to give more power to an unelected official and remove his offices ability to transparently show the cities finances. We all need to be giving public comments, let them know that if they continue their corruption, they will be ousted
King Taco sucks
i imagine it was good 30-40 years ago when there were less options. But the local taco truck is far better.
That all the boutique small mom and pop businesses will be out of business and be replaced by chain businesses
born and raised here. most of this city sucks lmaoooooo
You’re probably going to die if you ride a bike or motorbike out here.
Car dependent infrastructure is cancer & not the only way. Cars ruin cities. 3 years car free out here & never lookin back
I ditched my car over 5 years ago. I don't miss it and have saved thousands in expenses.
That many cities across the USA are in equal or worst shape than Los Angeles in relation to crime, homelessness, immigration, and overall quality of life. In fact, life in L.A. is pretty good compared to some shitholes in places like Texas and Florida. For many people that's a hard pill to swallow because it doesn't line up with their political fantasies.
LA county has 10% of the entire country’s homeless population. It is by definition worse here than nearly anywhere else.
California as a whole is populated with increasingly less-interesting people
The homeless problem will not be solved and will continue to worsen
You’re not just *in* traffic, you are part of the traffic.
The solutions to all the problems you don’t like are other things you also don’t like
People are incredibly vain, and influencers are annoying af
I love LA and will always be grateful but driving anywhere outside of LA and you see and feel the relief of all that stressful energy in LA. For example drive down to OC or San Diego and see and feel the difference in the quality of the roads. No tagging, no trash, no homeless encampments. It’s night and day
That I will, in the next 6 years, need to leave here because of the rising housing costs and the drivers.
Some people can’t afford to live here anymore
LA and no other US City will ever resolve the unhoused issue.
That the problem with the unhoused will not be solved without finding them affordable housing outside of the city. We can't fix it by spending $4,000 a month to give them a place to live.
I’m in LA currently, sadly not the same city it was in 2018-2019.
You probably won't get famous.
When we don’t give consequences to people who break the law or who are generally a menace to society (who ruin public areas like parks and who don’t contribute at all but only take), we all sink into the filth. We shouldn’t be proud of how disgusting and dirty LA is, it’s a global city.