Los Angeles-one month after our move.
Sprawling, earthy, free, diverse, dreams, contradictions, ugly, beautiful, genuine, fake.
Yes it is all true. All that is said about Los Angeles. But then again, forget it all. To understand LA is to understand it is at heart, a city of contradictions. So stereotyped yet so layered it is hard to put a finger on all its diverse elements; the birthplace of myriad pop cultures and counter-cultures. So well-documented yet still so vastly misunderstood. Like many, Los Angeles was the last place on earth we wanted to move to. Yes, I make no bones about it, it was not part of the daydreamer’s plan. And like everyone else who has never stepped foot in LA, I had a vision of it as the last most sinful and dire of human havens.
But just as it embodies all that man have accomplished, some of the greatest architecture, arts and cuisines reside here, it epitomizes all the struggles that many have yet to overcome- poverty, pipe dreams, the painful yearning for a better life, waste, extravagance and human selfishness.
Who knew that Los Angeles has some of the most beautiful, tranquil and cozy neighborhoods in the country? Cozy is not a typical first impression. It was not mine. Who knew riding bicycles on sidewalks and walking and taking the public transportation can be so pleasureable? Yes there are cars, so many cars and all driving like their lives depended on arriving to their destination on time. But the streets are well-planned, the sidewalks, for the most part connected and logical. And the terrain, in many parts flat as the bottom of your bedroom slippers. Yes there many neighborhoods in shambles, broken pavements and shady loiterers, but what sizeable conglomeration of habitats do not?