[PEN-L:8247] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: California Green PartyAssembly Representive requests help

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

LA, with all its problems, is still my favorite city, although I only lived
there a little more than 4 years and in the late 60's, a period my friends
there now tell me was the golden era for LA, and in fact for much else in the
world.

During that time, anyone arriving LA in the morning would have three jobs to
choose from by afternoon and in three different sectors: defense, media or
real-estate.
LA is a city where one needs to learn how to live in it.  It is totally devoid
of spontaneity.  At first brush, this is agonizing for most Easterners, like
New Yorkers, but once one understands that in LA, because of the car culture,
one has to go to the action, rather than accidentally falling into it, one will
find an incredibly open city.  In LA cocktail parties, either in academia
(where I was), or in the business sector, one is likely to meet people from all
walks of life and in all disciplines: think tanks types, movie types, artist,
traders, counterculture gurus, flower children, real-estate brokers who look
like Jane Fonda, politicians, activities, committed dropouts (which was a
serious profession in the 60s).  It is what one sociology calls community
without propinquity.  No one seemed to care about money because if one was
willing to get up in the morning, one could generally support oneself with a
good life and the cost of good living is low because the range is wide and the
alternatives widely accepted.  Of course, when I returned to the New York in
the early 70's I found out that New York was similar during the same era, but
there was something about the LA sunny climate and physical attribute that
seemed to fit into the open era.  The idea that one can swim and ski in the
same day within a 90 miles radius symbolized a real freedom of choice.  In New
York, one can easily fall into a tight little circle and never be able to break
out, lawyers circulate among lawyers, academics among academics, Wall Streeter
among Wall Streeters, etc.

Henry C.K. Liu

Jim Devine wrote:

> Rod Hay wrote: >My experience is limited to north american so any one in
> Mexico City, >Calcutta or Lagos may correct me, but my impression of LA was
> that it was hell on earth. So Henry's thought is sobering....<
>
> Writing from the west side of it, I wouldn't say that LA is "hell on
> earth." It's obviously not a good place or a place that should be the model
> for the rest of the world, but it's got some good stuff, too. After all, LA
> has a lot of theatre (including a lot of good experimental stuff) and
> first-run movies (including those that never get to the boonies), some nice
> beaches, palm trees, sunshine, and mountains (when you can see them),
> restaurants, and some nice people (such as myself ;-) ). It's much much
> better on the west side than anywhere else. It's a good place if one has
> sufficient income, like most places in the world. Besides, we invented the
> law allowing right turns at red lights... People who come from small towns
> often want to get out of LA as long as they live here, while those from NYC
> typically seem to take it as their new home. It depends on what you compare
> LA to. Oh, and by the way, the smog is slowly getting better.
>
> Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
> http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
> Los Angeles, the city of your future: the city of smog, traffic jams at 2
> a.m., unfinished and very expensive subway systems, earthquakes, modern
> slavery, wildfires, mudslides & sinkholes, civil disturbances (a.k.a. riots
> or rebellions), OJ, the Menendi, and Heidi Fleiss (daughter of our nephew's
> pediatrician).