LA Musings
October 16th, 2006 at 9:47 am by sarahAs Mike mentioned in his last post, we’re about ready to leave LA. I’ve had a great time meeting Mike’s friends, everyone is so nice and welcoming, and it’s been really fun seeing where he used to work and live. I like LA, it’s pretty; interesting architecture, palm trees, catcti and bougainvillea everywhere, and the ocean is just breathtaking. I’m enjoying the visit, but I don’t think I could deal with living here. Aside from 70 being considered chilly and there not being any snow ever, it’s strange here. I’ve had a hard time putting it into words, but it’s a weird place.
LA is a huge sprawling city, block after block, traffic light after traffic light. The roads go on seemingly forever, in completely straight gridmarked blocks. Then there are these weird little corner strip mall things every so often, and they all look exactly the same. The stores in each may differ, but they all have the same basic architecture. I usually navigate by landmarks, without mike’s help I’d be completely lost here. I’d have to memorize what stores each mall-thing contained, like “left at the one that has the supercuts, right at the one that has the laundromat”. Maybe that’s how it’s done, but it would take me forever to figure out.
Other than being very spread out, LA is odd because it’s mostly shorter buildings. The houses on the side streets are almost all single story, with the occasional two story apartment building like Neal’s thrown in. I love small houses and think they’re very cute, but it makes me homesick for the two and three families I’m used to. Also, absolutely everything is built right on top of the next thing. I know we do that back home, but it seems too weird to squeeze a bunch of one story buildings into a block, with barely a driveway between them, rather than having a couple of several story ones all spaced out. Even in the downtown areas there aren’t many taller buildings, just a handfull of skyscrapers, and a bunch of 4-5 story buildings. There’s got to be some ordinance or something limiting building heights, I can’t understand it. You could climb a palm tree and be able to see for miles.
Also, the main thoroughfares are typically 2-3 lanes wide depending on the time of day. Two lanes if parking is allowed along the curb at that hour, three if there’s no parking and then you drive through the metered spots. These wide main roads are lined with one or two story shops, and they go on straight and flat for as far as the eye can see. (I found a road that didn’t line up properly with an intersection yesterday and was delighted.) Driving here gives me this odd anxious feeling, it’s too open. I think I actually might have urban-agoraphobia. Seriously though, if they made LA more vertical and less horizontal, it probably would fit in the back bay. Okay, maybe not, but someone should really consider importing some brownstones, switch it up a little. I wonder if Boston would make LA people claustrophobic?
Then there’s the near-constant traffic, weird parking rules, and regular drone of low flying helicopters, but I think I’ve ranted enough. I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like LA, and I think it’s important to visit other places and see different things. But I don’t feel too bad pointing out the negatives either, it seems like most people we’re talked to here have the same opinions. Maybe if we stayed longer I could get used to it, but right now I’m just really excited to drive up the coast, see some seals, and explore San Francisco again. We’ll be leaving for “the one” (what we’d call Rt. 1) in about an hour, and the drive up the coast should take a good part of the day. We’ll be back in LA later this week and then it’s off to New Zealand a week from today!
October 16th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Really enjoying this blog so far – I really hope you guys keep it up, even when internet connectivity is sparse. just write stuff in text documents and then post them when you can. Anyhow, sounds like you’re having a blast so far. We’re all very envious!
October 16th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
I loved reading your description of LA, you should do one for SF too (since I haven’t been to either place yet). I’m psyched that you guys are updating so much, it’s fun hearing what your up to. Weirdly the roads in LA sound very similiar to the roads in Richmond, VA. So sprawling, and yeah, I’d be lost with out the landmarks (turn left at the Cheesecake Factory. No, the other Cheesecake Factory). How was Ethiopian?
October 17th, 2006 at 10:20 am
They are also very strict about enforcing parking rules. We were out the other day, parked at a meter, and we missed putting money back in by about 5 minutes. Sure enough we had a ticket -$40! They also do that for street cleaning. They clean the streets every week, doing one side one day, and the other side the next. So around Neal’s house you can’t park on one side of the street on Mondays and the other side on Tuesdays. I believe the punishment is also a $40 ticket.
Oh yeah, we went out to dinner with our friends Glenn and Marianne the other night, and they took us to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was excellent. We had the meat sampler and the veggie sampler. They brought out a big plate covered with a flat bread, and there were little samplings of all these lentils, and lamb, and beef, and spinach. It was delicious. I have no idea what half of what I ate was, but I liked it. I also liked that you eat with your hands, although the texture of the bread you scoop food up with was very strange.
October 17th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
awesome. well, no, the parking tickets suck, but awesome that you guys liked ethiopian food so much. we will totally go when you get back! I heart all the tasty lentil / chickpea stuff, so tasty. and the spongy bread. the wine is good too, not sure if you guys tried either the wine or beer. the place we’ve been to in Boston even has baklava for dessert (joy!).
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