Los Angeles City Hall. Photo by Jimbolaya

Los Angeles is the future

Two recent competing articles, one (the link above, from the NY Post) from L.A.’s east coast competition (well, competition for cool, anyway) seeming to finally give the city its due, at least in some areas like dining and clubbing, transit, general livability, walkability.

The problem with articles like this one is that they’re most likely written by professional travelers/food writers looking for certain things and then finding what they were looking for, they write about it. In that process, though, they ignore the rest of what’s in front of them. They see the city that they expected to see, and write about it that way. Not from the perspective of a resident, but a tourist. One with a lot of cash, too. I’m happy they found the great places to eat in such varied spots as Downtown, Venice, Hollywood and Mid-City (and I’m happy for the restaurateurs and club owners, that they’re successful, really, that is an accomplishment).

But the overall impression you get from their story/review is of a city rich, laidback and carefree – of course, Los Angeles has that Entourage-y aspect. But that’s not the norm. The norm is that it’s a very difficult city in many respects: financially, socially, employment-wise, ecologically challenged, a diverse place but not without that tension.

There’s an incredible number of homeless people in the enormous city who don’t get to patronize these establishments. And, as it is the city of the car culture, there are many people who live in their cars. I’m not sure if that means they’re homeless or not – as a car is a roof over one’s head, I guess, technically. I come across a surprising number of people sleeping in their cars on my early morning walks. It never fails to startle me.

That’s what I flashed on – the homeless, in cars or on the streets – in the part of the story where they mentioned the daily celebrity sightings downtown –  I mean, OK, really? I’m not sure what celebs they’re seeing down there (though I know “Mad Men” is shot on downtown stages) but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. So if you see an actor or two you don’t see the thousands of desperately poor around you? I’m not sure what kind of person has that lack of filter.

Which leads me to the competing story:

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Unemployment: Workers give up in Los Angeles – all washed up.

Admittedly, not as well put together (and followed by insane right wing comments, don’t ruin your day and read them) but really kind of a downer, right? I mean those other towns, NY, SF, other cities finally coming out of a long, long recession and seeing jobs growing. I know that SF is in its second dotcom boom right now, so there are great jobs there and corresponding humongous rents and real estate.

So, like the article says, it’s not just construction workers and immigrants who can’t find jobs here. It’s people like myself, who are working part-time or not at all, or just sporadically. That swings me back to the question in the title of the post, Is it Time to Leave L.A.? And I guess I meant that personally.

Here’s the reasoning: if I can’t find a job, then really, what is the point? In other words, if this is now forced retirement of sorts, wouldn’t it make sense to live in a place where the cost of living was much lower so the burn rate wouldn’t be as bad? (Other things being more equal, the cost of living, and housing in particular, is in the stratosphere in Los Angeles). Why put up with the traffic, the air, the rudeness, etc. (not to mention the cougar in the park) if there was not the expectation of some kind of payoff down the road?

I’m here now because it’s where my friends are – which, by the way, is a great reason to live anywhere. Every day, that becomes more and more the only reason. But honestly, I have to say, I don’t know where I’d go and I’m pretty tired of moving around. I’ve already lived in San Francisco and Palm Springs in California (and technically, also Sacramento from years 0-2, though I don’t remember it), and decided against both those places for the long term. I have enormous and extensive family connections in Milwaukee, but I haven’t lived there in over 30 years and don’t really know anyone in Brewtown I’m not related to. OK, not really, but almost. Maybe there’s a couple of people. I didn’t like living there when I was a kid, but I’m not. A Kid. Anymore. It’s a tiny bit warmer than what it was (thank you, climate change?) But what would I do there? I do know the cost of living is probably about 40% less – mainly due to rents and housing costs. Other places I’ve thought of living, all with lower costs of living than cities in California, include places like Madison and Tucson – other ideas?

One thing I’ve found that’s really difficult is making new friends in new places the older you get. Or maybe it’s that the effort involved seems like so much of a chore. There’s probably a limit on how often you can pull up stakes and start over yet again.

Irony is: If there was more of an income, I wouldn’t feel this way. I’ve always adored L.A.

Most likely, I won’t be going anywhere, at least not soon. I do get this sense that I’m at some kind of turning point, and that big changes may be on the way, but I don’t know what they are, I can’t see them clearly. I’ve never been one to be terribly patient, though sometimes there’s not much choice.

UPDATE, 10/19/12 – Rest assured, I’m not planning on moving. I wrote this post out of a lot of frustration at what I see is a dearth of job and money-making possibilities, at least on the day I wrote the post. L.A. has always come through for me in the past. I have no doubts this will continue, but I’m getting a little tired of waiting on this Queen of the Angels.