Let me begin this honestly: I don’t love Los Angeles. Not that this is a unique sentiment: The lack of a true city center to unify the metropolis’ seemingly disjointed freeways and neighborhoods fosters a culture of disconnectedness that simply holds a lot of people back from really loving life here. However, my lack of total love for this city is not rooted in the fact that a West Coast Times Square does not exist.
I believe that I have yet to love Los Angeles, the city in which I’ll live for at least another two years, because I don’t really know it.
Of course, I know areas of Los Angeles outside of Westwood superficially. After all, we live in a university with a 310 area code, which places us in L.A. proper, which means all students here are considered Angelenos proper, right? Even if that’s so, I have yet to feel like a full-time Angeleno. However, I’m determined to become one, or at least feel closer to being one.
Sure, the charming, homier parts of the city, untouched by industry, may not seem readily apparent at first glance, but from what I can tell, that’s not what this city is about. Because you have to dig to find the real people, the real experiences and the real neighborhoods beyond the freeways and concrete buildings; this city requires a mind determined to hunt.
More importantly perhaps, to me, this city seems to encourage independence and a desire to find and create a niche within an area where lots of people with different interests coexist.
What this all boils down to is that Los Angeles is my treasure chest for the year, waiting to be excavated and rummaged through for golden nuggets of experiences to recount and share. The city is not an easy place to know: Driving seems impossible, and public transportation is unreliable.
I have memories of my past two years, going on small quests to Hollywood and other outlying areas, spending what seemed like hours waiting for buses only to yell at the backs of passing buses or bang on unopened bus doors or simply curse the heavens for creating buses in the first place. Yet Los Angeles wouldn’t be Los Angeles without the frustrations of sassy bus drivers unwilling to wait for screaming students. Right?
There may not be any particular beauty to the aspects of this city that are most odious to us, but not every part of a city is beautiful, and not all of what makes experiencing a city fulfilling is necessarily beautiful.
I don’t strive to love Los Angeles, but what I strive to do is uncover regions of Los Angeles, both within walking distance from campus or within bus-able distance, that let me understand this wild Western city.
I hope that you’ll join me in my ruminations and perhaps share with me your own favorite spots or moments of living here. It’s easy to get stuck in the campus bubble, but even Westwood and her (or “his”? Hard to say, isn’t it?) neighbors offer potential for moments of adventure.
If you like to chase after passing buses, e-mail Cohn at jcohn@media.ucla.edu.