Even
overrated City of Angels has its moments
Bradley
Zint
I
have a kind of love-hate relationship
with Los Angeles, and by Los Angeles
I mean Greater Los Angeles.
First I’ll describe my pessimism, which for me goes through a typical
series of stages. I start out when I angrily recall endless traffic jams resulting
in thousands of cars spewing off exhaust. Then I don’t feel like going
outside when I also realize that because of those traffic jams and exhaust,
the air down here is smog-ridden, dirty and disgusting.
Then I realize that because of that bad air, when I do go outside I can’t
enjoy seeing the San Gabriel Mountains or views into the L.A. basin because
the smog prevents any good distance visibility.
At the end of my thinking process, I inevitably begin to wonder what could
possibly be so damn great about such an over-glorified place like L.A. It’s
ugly. It’s crowded. It’s dangerous. Overall, it’s not a great
place to live.
I suppose before I moved here I was a bit biased against this place. I came
here from San Diego, a city whose civic pride proudly distinguishes itself
from its northern neighbor, has former Angelenos who don’t want to move
back and whose civic planners love to learn from the mistakes of the L.A. megalopolis.
But then recent rains that doused this place during an otherwise dry winter
season got me thinking sometimes this place isn’t so bad. I became suddenly
optimistic.
I realized after it rains, for once the air is wonderful here. After a night
of showers, the morning is wonderfully chilly and instead of breathing in that
dry, dusty and smog-doused air, your lungs get the ephemeral chance to breathe
in something recently cleansed by the passing clouds.
And maybe it’s just me, but when the rain clears the smog away for a
day or so, I love seeing the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains all the way
from here. I love seeing the Hollywood Sign and downtown L.A. even from the
beginning of the 710. Through such occurrences I’m temporarily reminded
of the things that are all too often hidden but make this place fantastic.
Even though the downsides of this place are too apparent sometimes, I think
those of us who routinely feel discontent must maintain a positive attitude.
There are enough quirky and interesting little things around here to grab our
attention during our time here.
Visit the bowels of Hollywood and eat in a pizza shop where movie star signatures
cover the walls. Drive down Mulholland Drive through the mountains at night
to see a view of the entire basin. Skip Santa Monica and surf with some locals
at Zuma near Malibu.
We can do all of this and more — traffic permitting, of course.
Bradley Zint is a junior journalism and political science major and the opinion
editor of the Daily Forty-Niner.
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