Having grown up in the Midwest, Southern California seemed like countries away given the distance and differences in climate. Its ubiquity in media painted this faraway land with a dreamy haze—a golden smog of luxury and fame. The City of Angels seemed a befitting name.
It wasn’t until I first visited two years ago that I had begun to develop a fuller interpretation of the greater Los Angeles area. Its scale is one best understood once experienced, as is its unparalleled diversity that weaves through its web of freeways and into its neighborhood pockets. So much is here–more than I experienced back in Michigan, and perhaps more than I normally experience in Seattle. It seems there’s more than enough to sate any palette and curiosity, and enough to keep me coming back with more to see; more to understand.
I often look at social media before I travel to help find things to do and places to see; whether asking people for recommendations or searching for hot spots and local places. It certainly is an imperfect method, with a bias for trends that generate likes, heavily propagated by social media influencers. Los Angeles is quite the contemporary metropolis—an amalgam of diverse scenes that benefits from its rare economy of scale. And it can be fun.
But in the midst of burgeoning creatives, vociferous wealth, flashy trends, and blinding celebrity lies the extant communities that are making a home for themselves; a place established in its longstanding history. And it can be banal. Past the illusory golden smog is the reality of an American metropolis much like many others that bridge the miles between the distant coasts, littered with big box stores and chain restaurants and strip malls and Angelenos pursuing their American dream the best that they can, one day at a time.
Perhaps my impression of this sprawling megalopolis was skewed having grown up in the Midwest with limited exposure to the west coast. It’s a piecemeal impression composed of lucid images of Hollywood, fashion, wealth, and architecture—all within the palm tree-lined streets and fueled by the incessant and omnipotent Californian sunshine. Something about this place made life seem so ethereal—so light.
As I read more, listened more, and learned more, I saw the long history that shaped the area—for better or for worse. Through the dreamy haze of luxury and fame were the less glitzy stories; those of changing neighborhoods, racial unrest, and drug epidemics. This vast urban area is rich with boisterous headlines and tales to be told.
So perhaps that’s why this place has a lasting impression on me. The trends, the lifestyles, the built environment, the growing pains—none of it is going away. These disparate stories and locations stitch together into this mecca of culture: a west coast powerhouse. And whether you enjoy it or find it distasteful, it’s an American metropolis worth knowing.
