A User’s Guide To Los Angeles
Embracing America’s strangest, loveliest city for all it’s worth.
Welcome to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles area is the center of the global motion picture industry and one of the world’s great urban hubs, known for its pleasant year-round weather… but let’s skip the Wikipedia-style introduction. That part’s boring.
Instead, let’s say this: Los Angeles is a glorious mess of a city. It’s an endlessly fascinating, sometimes infuriating land of opportunity that’s like no other city in the United States (or perhaps the world). Other cities are auto-centric metropolii with no discernable central business district or economic epicenter, and other cities are global hubs of trade, industry, and culture. Very few are both. That can be confusing… but means that the still-too-expensive rent is cheaper than in rival cities, and that interesting things pop up in unlikely corners. Both are good things.
But first things first. The traffic really is that bad, and Los Angeles’ residents really make small talk about shortcuts and long delays on the highway. You’ll find a way to become comfortable in your car during mind-numblingly long commutes (Pro tips: Find some good podcasts, learn a foreign language, realize that audiobooks and satellite radio are your friends), or ruin your mental health anguishing over something that can’t be changed.
Life without owning an automobile is becoming increasingly easy in Los Angeles thanks to a rapidly expanding public transportation system, bike riding, and services like Lyft and Uber… But it’s still much harder than actually having a car. Hence, traffic.
Also, this is just one guide to Los Angeles. It’s written, as all things are, through the filter of the author’s life experiences. I’m a guy in my mid-thirties who’s a NYC transplant (another proud Los Angeles tradition, but one we’ll discuss another day) and has only lived in this city for 2.5 years. That isn’t a lot of time to live in one place, and I know that.
I work as a writer and a consultant for tech-y magazines and companies, and mostly telecommute. The idea of yoga at 6:30 in the morning is morally abhorrent to me, I like expensive single malt whiskies, and I run a small business.
In other words: Your Los Angeles experiences may, and probably will, vary from mine. With that said, I like this damned city. I hope you find this short guide useful.
Los Angeles Basics
Or… what do you mean Beverly Hills is a separate city?
Los Angeles is a massive, sprawling territory whose borders don’t necessarily make sense. Los Angeles County is different from the city of Los Angeles; the city of Los Angeles doesn’t include Santa Monica, West Hollywood or Malibu, places many outsiders identify intimately with Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County includes a lot of far-away places like Pyramid Lake (which you really should visit) along with a huge swath of southern California that is outside of LA’s economic orbit.
Some of the stereotypes are true: As we just discussed, the traffic can be apocalyptic. 11pm traffic jams will pop up on a weeknight, and all you can do is pull out your best Seinfeld “Serenity Now.” If you live in central Los Angeles and belong to a certain economic class, a disproportionate amount of people you meet will work in the entertainment industry. The beaches are amazing and LAX is a miserable, soulless pit of sadness.
Housing costs in Los Angeles are going up, much as they are in other parts of the country, and it’s making it increasingly harder for less well-off Angelenos to pay rent. The consolation, if there is one, is that it’s still somewhat cheaper to live in Los Angeles than in rival cities San Francisco and New York. Even with the cost of car insurance and gas, rents are cheaper or offer much more amenities for the same price paid in those two cities.
Long Beach is a separate city from Los Angeles, but Los Angeles is economically dependent on Long Beach’s massive port. Orange County and Ventura County are separate counties, but their commuters flow into Los Angeles offices, stores, and factories. There are beaches nearby and good skiing nearby, but trying to do both in one day would be somewhat foolish.
Tip Sheet 1: Apps Which Exponentially Improve The Los Angeles Transportation Experience
- Waze: Traffic in Los Angeles stinks, and Waze finds shortcuts that make things a bit easier.
- Uber/Lyft: Los Angeles is an evil city where even strip malls have valet parking. These two ride-sharing apps improve mobility expontentially.
- GoLA: This app automatically compares driving, biking, ride sharing, and public transportation… and let’s you know what’s quickest and cheapest.
Working In Los Angeles
Or… fetishizing Work-Life Balance.
Coming from New York, there’s something surprising about Los Angeles: Many offices shut down at 5 or 6 pm, and stores close early. There also isn’t one central node for work and employment; despite the name and skyscrapers, downtown Los Angeles (which we’ll discuss later) isn’t the city’s economic hub.
But there’s something else that’s funny, culturally, about Los Angeles compared to New York and San Francisco. Both cities, among certain classes, foster a Cult of Overwork where strangers boast to each other and to their Facebook friends about their 70 hour workweeks and lack of free time. The fact that 20 of those hours are spent furtively playing Clash of Clans under the desk never comes into conversation.
By comparison, the words “Work-Life Balance” are sacrosant in many Los Angeles workplaces. Potential employers will boast about their in-office yoga classes, the strict 9–5 hours, and mandatory vacation time. What they won’t discuss is that the in-office yoga is mandatory team-building, and that some poor employee is left to pick up the slack when their supervisor leaves at 4:30pm to avoid rush hour traffic. And we won’t even talk about the workplace hazing that’s kind-of, sort-of endemic in the entertainment industry. That’s a story for another time.
Also, yes, there’s a pretty good chance your barista or supermarket cashier is an aspiring actor or has a underground punk band or Soundcloud project. Odds are they’re pretty good at whatever they’re doing too.
Going Out In Los Angeles
Or: Yes… That amazing restaurant will be in a strip mall.
The geographic distances involved in having a social life in Los Angeles make things kind of, sort of interesting. People often live far away from where they work, and the considerable commute from Point A to Point B eliminates interest in going to a Point C a lot of the time.
That is to say: It’s hard to make plans in Los Angeles. If you’re a transplant, odds are strong that you’ll feel like a summer camp social director a lot of the time when getting friends together. You will be sending Facebook event invitations or bulk text messages to your friends for barbecues, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Then many of your friends will cancel at the last minute because traffic’s bad. Again, we will shrug and get on with it.
There’s also something many visitors and new residents find interesting. Unlike other cities, social life in Los Angeles doesn’t revolve around bars and pubs as much. As a transplant from the New York media world (admittedly as booze-loving a sample group as you can get), it was surprising to see how after-work happy hours or weekend bar hopping weren’t as central here as they are elsewhere.
Expect a lot of invitations to parties in backyards and apartments (awesome), weekends at the beach (even more awesome), and hiking on weekends (ditto). Just be warned: Somewhere along the line, “hiking” in Los Angeles was redefined as “Let’s walk up and down a mountain in very expensive clothing” instead. It’s still a very fun experience, just be aware of the definition.
Also: Dodgers games are dirt cheap and amazingly fun. The visual art scene here in Los Angeles might be the strongest in the United States right now, LA is America’s best restaurant city, and there’s world-class comedy and music in the most unlikely venues here. Embrace that.
Lastly, when it comes to food and drink in Los Angeles, there’s no shortage of fantastically expensive high-end restaurants. But despite some high-end players who are kickass, attentive and wonderful in every way (Bestia, Republique: We’re looking at you), there are plenty of spots which will offer top-notch peoplewatching and boasting rights, while having meh food and truly poor service. The old stereotype about the best food in Los Angeles being found at taco trucks and Thai restaurants in strip malls is 100% true, and kind of awesome.
Tip Sheet 2: The Best Meals You’ll Have Visiting Los Angeles
- Republique: The restaurant’s lunch service might have the city’s best peoplewatching.
- Gjusta: In Los Angeles, high-end, buzzy dining means eating at a intentionally shabby chic bakery with an intentionally confusing order system… and it works.
- Zankou Chicken: This mini-chain has both a horrific true crime backstory and transcendent rotisserie chicken.
- Luv2Eat Thai Bistro: Because there’s nothing better than a Thai restaurant in a strip mall with a wildly ambitious chef.
- Kogi BBQ Taco Truck: If you’re writing about Los Angeles, you have to mention street food, Korean food, and taco trucks… so I’m just going to kill two birds with one stone and mention the Korean taco truck that launched the Roy Choi empire.
Los Angeles’ Neighborhoods And Regions
Or… Embracing the sprawl.
More than other cities, Los Angeles’ sprawling size, diversity of geography, diversity of cultures, and relatively low density means that neighborhoods and suburbs vary from each other much more than you would see in, say, New York or Dallas. Koreatown, Rancho Palos Verdes, and Monterey Park might just be miles from each other as the crow flies; in everyday life, though, they’re a million miles away.
I live in downtown Los Angeles, which is home to the bulk of the city’s skyscrapers. The neighborhood is home to conspicuous wealth and extreme poverty side-by-side, with Skid Row — one of the largest populations of the homeless in the United States — just blocks from multi-million dollar condos and high-end restaurants. Meanwhile, government agencies, private charitable organizations, and the public just can’t seem to get on the same page when it comes to offering resources to a population plagued by drug abuse and mental illness on Skid Row.
Meanwhile, downtown Los Angeles is filling up with boutiques offering $500 bespoke jeans and is transforming into one of America’s top dining destinations. Noone’s quite sure what will happen next, though a recent influx of cash from Chinese real estate developers gives an indication of the future.
Throughout the city, there’s one constant: The sheer physical size of Los Angeles means that neighborhoods and populations can live much more cloistered lives than they would in other cities. This is true just as much for ethnic enclaves such as Koreatown and Mexican-American East LA as it is for enclaves of race or wealth like the very white and wealthy Pacific Palisades or Hollywood Hills — both of which are somewhat isolated in a very non-white, very economically modest city.
Exploring Los Angeles, though? Different than other cities. In most other places, the best bet is walking around different neighborhoods or taking the subway from end to end. However, Los Angeles’ auto-centric nature means that driving around is the best bet to explore the city, find different places to go, and learn about Los Angeles’ neighborhoods. Walk on foot and you’re likely to exhaust yourself on a very slow slog across very long, sun-drenched blocks; although bike riding is becoming much easier in Los Angeles, car drivers still don’t give bikers any quarter and there’s a puzzling local habit of biking on sidewalks rather than in the street (Really).
Oh, and the internet: In this spread out, decentralized city, blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds are the best way to find out about events, store/restaurant openings, parties, and other interesting things. These will typically require advance planning and strategizing to go from Point A to Point B. It’s a little different, but it’s the way it is.
Tip Sheet 3: Resources For Fun Things In Los Angeles
LAist: The Los Angeles iteration of Jake Dobkin’s cityblog empire produces consistently helpful guides to Los Angeles goings-on every weekend.
5 Every Day: Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt of indie band Yacht put together this great daily list of things to do in Los Angeles.
Hidden Los Angeles: This very well-moderated Facebook page is the place to go for anything and everything related to Los Angeles history.
The New, New Los Angeles
Or… What’s coming next.
In 2016 and 2017, Los Angeles is an unbelievably interesting city to live in or visit. Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne is the great popularizer of an idea called The Third Los Angeles. In the first Los Angeles, this small southern California city became a global hub thanks to oil, aerospace, agriculture, and Hollywood. The second Los Angeles is the LA of the imagination — car culture, suburban sprawl, and single-family homes popping up as far as the eye can see. Meanwhile, the third Los Angeles is what happens once you’ve built everywhere you can build. The third Los Angeles is a city that’s embracing high-density development, mass transportation, and lifestyle elements that resemble San Francisco, Chicago, or New York.
Even if you think the idea of a third Los Angeles is bunk, the city is changing — just as it’s changed every decade (and every month) through history. And that’s a good thing.
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Coming Up Soon: The Los Angeles User’s Guide To L.A. Dining
