Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Learning L.A.: Part II - Transportation

"Heather, the car was not a part of the deal," were the words that came my way after the van, which I had been sharing, came under another somewhat punishing wave of traffic trama. After 14 years and 3 trips across the nation, I might have been able to convince you it had recently returned from Iraq - it was usually covered in dust/dirt/accumulated smog, was missing a hub-cap or two, had some peeling paint here and there, 2 major dents on both sides of the vehicle and now a dented front bumper, smashed headlight, and replaced engine. Occasionally it was loving refered to as "Wayne." But I had always wanted to try out the mass transit in L.A., so I considered it a good thing that there was now a little pressure to get me hiking down to the train stop.

Sadly though, a person who shall not be named (who was also having a bit of a rough summer thus far) accidently left the keys in the van on his way to work. For those of you who haven't lived in Los Angeles I'll make it clearer:

Goodbye Wayne, we'll miss you.



And especially me. A little encouragement to use alternative transportation is nice. Having no option is a little daunting, especially in this city. In fact, I don't even know where to start my rant. Maybe a brief summary is a good starting point.




Los Angeles is a city that has to change, but many of its residents either don't want it to, or believe that it can't. That's probably important to note in a lot of situations involving the city, but of course it comes into play with its traffic dilemas. At this point I forget the actual statistics, but the city is expected to grow immensley in the next 40-50 years (I think somewhere around 62% - in short, millions of people), and it's quite clear that city will reach a state of crisis if something isn't done to change the nature of transportation here.

At this point in time it seems like the future-friendly ideal of mass transit in the US is the NYC subway system. But that particular subway system was started at a time of few other options, around 1900. By the time Los Angeles really began to form the higway was the, "way of the future." As a lot of people around here know, there used to be a pretty extensive streetcar-type rail system here, but in the name of progress it was sold to GM, dismantled, and paved over long ago.

So now there are huge, sometimes beautiful, soaring highways that are great fun to drive (when not clogged to the degree of a parking lot). But the downsides are easy to list:

Increasing and often unpredictable traffic jams. Smog. Considerable environmental impact. Increased numbers of car accidents.

And let me go into detail on that last one - because driving has become the chief and really only effective manner of transportation for nearly everybody here, everyone really needs to drive. This includes the young, the old, the sick, the drunken, and the crack-addicted. And they're driving with and without insurance, licenses, or safely maintained vehicles. Hence car insurance is massively expensive here, not mention the general rising expenses of owning and operating a car.

And Los Angeles is, in many places, a nice city with good weather, why wouldn't you want to get out and walk, right?

Ahh, see, return to statment #1. I do believe the term "NIMBY" (Not In My Back Yard) was coined here. I know there are a lot of people back east who seem to think that all of California is the land of the hippie people. They probably think NIMBY has some kind of environmental preservation concern tied with it. No. NIMBY's are people who will point out even the tiniest possible problem with something and complain their head off about it to keep something related to them from changing. More often than not it's something that would widely benefit most people - they just don't want to see it that way. Like a rail line from the east side of L.A. to the west side (so it's a little easier to get to the beach on a hot day when the traffic is worst). The NIMBY reasoning that has opposed this action? The rail line would potentially bring more poverty, violence, and crime to the west-side areas, as well as disrupting people's lives who live near the proposed railway. Likewise are the arguments against building apartment buildings or high-rises in the highly sought-after west side neighborhoods: they would bring with them increased traffic and change the village-like communities.

Hence, the NIMBY's, who to me seem to be conservatives who like to call themselves deomcrats, don't want the city to change, and their kind of ridiculous stubborness has convinced many others that it can't.

Voilà, the headcase that is L.A.



The actual technicalities of travel here are more interesting though (at least to me). And my memories with and recent adventures without Wayne are next on my blogging to-do list.




Thursday, June 7, 2007

Learning L.A.: Part I

Given that this is my 5th or 6th trip out to Los Angeles for the summer, you'd think I would know a thing or two about the city by now. And I guess I do - but only one or two things.

Los Angeles blows my mind.

And, just like New York- even like State College, to some extent- there's just a lot there to get to know and understand. And given that most of the people I know are east-coast, I thought it might be nice to share. And, you know, I think it might help keep my head from spinning so much. And tonight my head is really spinning.

Somehow, without really specifically knowing how, Warren (my uncle) is on a list where he gets invited to HBO show premiers every so often. Liz (my aunt) wasn't interested in going, so tonight I got the chance to go to the 2nd season premier of HBO's Big Love. Just like so many other well-done HBO programs, Big Love explores a dramatic topic in a cinematic way - in this case, a polygamist, mormon family trying to get by in Utah (it's interesting, check it out).

It wasn't an ultra-glitzy event, but it was definitely my introduction to Hollywood. And thereby, well, weird (I didn't really see it coming).

There was a red carpet.
There were paparazzi.
There was a huge, totally reserved theater.
With a gigantic screen.
And surround sound.
And free popcorn and soda and reserved seats.
And afterward, there was a swanky party in an up-scale location with shuttles, countless tasty hor d'oeuvres, and a woman dressed like a bird in a big, guilded cage.

I'm going to repeat that - there was a woman in a guilded cage. Paid to sit on a swing as an animated decoration all evening.

So I ate all the tasty food, drank my cranberry juice from the free bar, snagged a "Voss" (oo, designer) bottle of water from one of an astounding number of almost over-attentive banquet servers, and sat on the balcony, looking down on the scene: the lady in the cage atop the large food display, and seats reserved for the show's main actors and executive producer, Tom Hanks.

I feel like in L.A. a situation like this one was bound to happen sometime, but it's a little strange after just having graduated, then spending a week in a hostel, and another week with less than $200 to my name. And one way or another, the scene will take some getting used to. The idea of so much wealth, well, I don't know what to do with it. So I'm taking on mentors. The first is Warren, then I'll try to spread out from there. About L.A., he said something along the lines of this:

Los Angeles is like no other city. It is the most international and integrated city in the nation. Everybody, from everywhere imaginable, lives in these pockets. They stick together and have their own communities - but then they go to work. And then all of these different people and different cultures get mixed in together and yet are independent of one another. And the beauty of living here is that there you really can do whatever it is that you want to do. You can drive 2 hours in any direction on every single night of the year and eat at a different restaurant, with authentic food from any part of the world. You can drive a few hours and be able to do any type of recreation you want, all year round: skiing, water sports, desert sports, anything. It is an incredibly diverse, complex city, with endless possibilities.

So there you go, L.A. 101.
Next on the agenda: How to get where you need to go, by highway, rail, and social network.

Month of May Redux



So, all in the month of May I:

  1. Finished classes
  2. Took finals
  3. Finished my job at McLanahan's
  4. Graduated
  5. Went to NYC for a week
  6. Flew to Los Angeles
  7. Started my summer job here
So now I'm staying with my Aunt Liz and Uncle Warren in L.A., working on updating and editing a national internship directory for the arts. The end date is indefinite, and so are my plans for what comes next. I may stay in the city, who knows, I may stay in the house and find other jobs to do. Or I might try to move to NYC, or maybe even do some travel/teaching abroad.

At the moment, though, I'm just enoying the city and the cats which are currently crawling all over me even though I didn't invite them.

I still have the same cell phone number, and if you want my new address or e-mail address, just give me a call or a comment. And make sure to shoot me a line if you're going to be in the area :)

And of course, career ideas and roommate requests are welcome.