When in Los Angeles
While New York may be the American city "so nice they named it twice", Los Angeles is the city so frenzied, sprawling and imposing that it has been condensed into a simple "LA". Two letters that, for many people in America and beyond, still manage to encapsulate a city full of promise and ambition, but also grime and disappointment.
From the gold rush to modern Hollywood, LA continues to attract people on the make. Aspiring starlets, musicians and more continue to flock to LA every year, convinced that the city is the place to make it, only to be chewed up and spat out underneath the shadows of the Hollywood sign.
Tourists heading to LA, however, will likely fare much better; expectations about the city are much lower when the weight of ambition on one's back is replaced by a digital camera around the neck, making LA an enjoyable city for those who can resist the urge to take it too seriously. Despite its reputation as an industry powerhouse, LA has much to offer people looking beyond the celluloid and plastic surgery, with a raft of world class museums, restaurants, architecture and more.
LA as a city is an undefined geographical entity, making many people suggest that it exists more in people's imagination than anywhere else. A sprawling, unformed metropolis, even the City of Los Angeles itself has no defined hub, with the downtown area probably being as close as it gets to having any sort of nucleus. In total, 10 million waitresses, movie stars and jaded has-beens and never-weres live in LA, spread between its myriad of neighbourhoods. Hollywood is of course central in many people's minds, while the Hollywood Hills, Brentford and West Hollywood are where the real rich and famous live – making them first stop on most star tours. West Hollywood is LA's more liberal hub, having a vibrant gay and lesbian scene, while Downtown and South Central is where LA starts to get "real", being the site of the city's infamous race riots of the early 1990s. Beyond here, city streets give way to a suburbia littered with faceless strip malls and television and film studios - a must visit for many a tourist. Nearby Disneyland is also popular and its cheery, saccharine, technicolour interpretation of the world can be a welcome respite for anyone overly disillusioned with LA's smog.
July and August is peak season in LA, although many people may find the heat, especially when combined with the pollution, oppressive. The city's Mediterranean climate is tempered by sea breezes, and many people may find the coastal areas more comfortable. This is a town built around money and conspicuous consumption, with prices high all year around but especially so during high summer, meaning that budget travellers may be better advised to visit during the slow seasons of March to May and September to November. The weather is also cooler then, although LA never gets freezing, with winter considered to be unseasonably chilly if the mercury drops to 12 degrees.
|
Introduction
