Time flies faster the older you get, so it seems like only yesterday — not a year ago — that I was offered the opportunity to write a Sunday column for the News-Press & Leader and other community newspapers in the Times Community News group.
It has been an eye-opening experience.
The contrast between life in the suburbs and in the big city next door is stark in every way.
I meet a lot of people who live on the Valley floor, in Eagle Rock, and in other middle-class communities across Los Angeles who share a deep discontent over the state of their city, and who fear the long-term trend toward things getting worse is only accelerating.
All the time, they tell me, “If I could, I’d sell out and move to the suburbs — or to another state altogether.”
But I have never met anyone in the tri-city area who says, “You can’t imagine how jealous we are that you get to live in L.A., where you have potholed streets and broken sidewalks and bad schools and big-time crooks for politicians. You are one lucky guy.”
Luck had nothing to do with it. I love big cities — the highs, the lows, the drama — but when the lows so outnumber the highs, and when drama becomes a never-ending story of the triumph of greed and selfishness, well, it becomes a pleasure to come visit towns that have actually gotten better in the 30 years I’ve been here.
We all share the most spectacular climate on earth — this winter being living proof of just how wonderful it is — and we all endure the nation’s worst traffic congestion and worst air.
But from there, our worlds start to look a lot different.
Absolutely, and totally CORRECT RON! These non-L.A. Citys have it like you said, LOCAL CONTROL exists. In L.A. WE ARE SLAVES AND ATM-HOUSEHOLDS for a band of lying, cheating, thieving WHORES who can’t allow a single election to go the way of the common guy getting a win! I was in Ventura County all day LOOKING FOR A HOME! Streets are PAVED, Sidewalks ARE CLEAN AND EVEN, Police ARE ON THE BEAT AND ALERT, traffic MOVES. Most of all interesting—PEOPLE LOOK AND SOUND HEALTHIER AND BETTER than the ones in L.A. on a given weekend. People even drive sanely on the streets.
L.A. City is a lost cause. L.A. County is too. Now two questions present themselves: 1/ How to sell the L.A. property and cash out, and 2/ How to relocate business issues to PARADISE AND AWAY FROM THE L.A. HELLHOLE! Maybe the answer lies in having 1/2 of the City’s population JUST FUCKING MOVE OUT IN ONE DAY!!!!!
LEAVE GARCETTI, TRUTANICH, AND THE REST OF THE DOUCHEBAGS TO FIGURE OUT THE REST OF IT. Rents in L.A. would PLUMMET, PROPERTY VALUES WOULD PLUMMET SO BADLY that the Section 8 folks would be able to live in stately Encino and Woodland Hills. The Tax Base WOULD GO STRAIGHT TO HELL–in 60 days the City and County WOULD BE IN BANKRUPTCY COURT. Then, we ex-Angelinos could all FILE CLAIMS AS CREDITORS to FORCLOSE ON THE SORRY SONS-OF-BITCHES who drove us to having to flee the Corrupt County and City in the First Place. Sort of a Bernie Madoff-Class Action type thing!
I see it and feel it in the air Ron—I see something DRAMATICALLY happening in L.A. in the near future whereby the PEOPLE WHO PAY THE BILLS begin to weigh in on this crap. Funny thing is—the Campaign Donors to Garcetti and Douchebag-Nuch don’t have a clue (yet.)
Wayne, I feel your pain. Been there myself.
It’s encouraging that you see the signs of changes, I just cannot believe anything short of the city declaring bankruptcy will wake people up.
I sold my house last year for a small gain and moved a thousand miles away from the valley. Nice–jobs are plentiful, houses are reasonably priced, people are friendly and helpful, they take pride in their neighborhoods and do their own gardening. there is even public transit! Ok maybe the weather is not as pleasant but I don’t miss LA even for a day.
We absolutely need to organize the next secession effort in Los Angeles. Unlike a few years ago, EVERY part of Los Angeles is unhappy with the direction of the City Government. It is time to break the City of Los Angeles into six or seven separate cities. Then maybe the “sum” of the parts of Los Angeles will look more like the sum of the foothill cities of Pasadena, Glendale Burbank
Give me a break. So Encino, with its 6 figure median income and mansions south of the 101, and Woodland Hills, with its nonstop tract housing located right next to Calabasas are no longer suburban? What planet are you guys living on?
You guys live in privileged white collar communities that are 80-90% white people, the epitomy of suburban living. Yet you want to pretend you’re as poor as people living off the 110 exits.
And the loudest complaining comes some guy in Encino who thinks he’s a slave because the Whole Foods on Ventura and Yolanda won’t stock his favorite brand of organic milk. The median household income in Encino is twice the median household income in Camarillo. You want to move to Ventura County, do it already.