Before I came to LA I had a very clear mental picture of the city. I envisioned that iconic scene of the Hollywood freeway at rush hour, bumper to bumper traffic, no-body moving. Cars were overheating and everyone was honking, yelling and screaming in the blistering sun.
I’ve lived here 20 years now and the LA I know and love bears little resemblance to that picture. Not only is the city different but it’s different in several, shocking ways.
Here are 5 shocking things about LA I didn’t discover until I moved here
Note I spent the first third of life in the UK the next third in New York and the last third here on the West Side of LA so obviously my view of the city is colored by those experiences. if you come from a small, mid-western city or a small oversees country (or you live in another part of LA) the things you find shocking about Los Angeles may come from the other end of the spectrum.
1. How quiet it is
Yes you read that correctly, how quiet it is. I remember when I first moved here from New York it took me a while to get used to the silence at night time. Of course if you happen to find yourself on the 101 freeway at rush hour it won’t be that quiet but for the most part, as I go about my day, I’m astounded at how bucolic this city is. It’s not unusual to be walking or driving down a tree-lined avenue and hear only the sound of birds singing and the occasional car go by.
2. How green it is
Look at New York or Chicago from high up and you’ll see an awful lot of concrete and steel. There will be green space of course but in most modern American cities that green is peppered discreetly between the concrete. I was shocked the first time I went up to the Griffith Observatory and looked down on Los Angeles; It was so green! Other cities may have parks and recreational spaces but they tend to be sequestered from the concrete. Think of New York’s Central Park; a huge oblong, smack in the middle of a concrete island. In LA the green is blended into the concrete. Every street near me is lined with either iconic palms or flaky Eucalyptus trees. It makes living here not only delightful but shockingly different from the impression of a sprawling industrial jungle.
3. How normal it is.
In my 20 years here I have gone to my share of Hollywood parties. Rubbed shoulders with the beautiful people and even amassed a collection of outrageous stories concerning entitled celebrities. (buy me a drink and I’ll tell you sometime) For most Angeleno’s that kind of extreme celebrity behavior is the exception rather than the norm. The overwhelming majority of people living in LA are good, decent people who don’t throw tantrums on set, scour the Hollywood reporter for a mention of their name or schmooze on a professional level. I know my neighbors, I go to church and I drive a pretty ordinary car…just like everyone else I know. In many ways LA is just like the midwest…and that comes as a result of;
4. How neighborly it is.
By “neighborly” I mean not only friendly and warm but also composed of small neighborhoods. LA is not really a huge sprawling metropolis it’s a collection of (approximately 260) small, comfortable neighborhoods. This gives you the feeling that you are living in small-town America rather than Metropolis on steroids. I live in Culver City and I have said many times that it is almost indistinguishable from Mayberry. It has a main street, plenty of small local restaurants and quiet, peaceful neighborhoods filled with family homes and normal people going about their normal business.
5. How peaceful it is.
Whenever I have people visiting (especially if they are visiting from overseas) the first question they ask is always “is it safe?” When all you see are news reports of shootings, gangs and drug wars it’s easy to imagine that LA is some lawless outpost where every citizen is armed and ready for action. Nothing could be further from the truth. I maintain that so long as you do not buy or sell drugs and stay out of the neighborhood where people do, you are as safer in Los Angeles than anywhere in the world. That’s right, I feel safer in LA than I did growing up in England (in England the violence is more petty and random; at least in LA you can take steps to avoid it) and certainly safer than I did in New York.
In conclusion
Los Angeles is a fabulous place to live. Most people cite the weather or the breathtaking scenery as the reason they were initially drawn here. After you’ve lived here for a while you start to see many other factors that make you glad you came. And never want to leave.
