I lived in LA (West Hollywood mostly) for about 12 years and loved it…but the old joke that LA is 27 suburbs in search of a city is pretty accurate. I loved West Hollywood - not only because I am Gay, but it is a “walkable” city. You can park your car after work on Friday and walk everywhere all weekend - to movie theaters, bars, restaurants, parks, shopping…very nice. A tad expensive, yes, but very nice.
Buy my question about LA to current residents:
Do people there still always say things are “only 15 minutes away”, no matter how far it is?
Used to drive me nuts…“Oh, let’s got to [fill in the blank establishment], it is only 15 minutes from here!” And in reality, it was closer to 45 minutes to an hour’s drive away.
(I lived in West Hollywood and worked in Santa Monica - about 7 miles away - and it would take me 45 minutes to get to work in the morning, and that was on a good day! Godforbid it was raining or there was minor traffic accident - then all bets were off.)
You know, I do this too and am really surprised that it is considered an LA thing. I only want to know how long it will take me to get from my house to point A or B. I really couldn’t care less if point A is 10 miles away and point B is 35 miles away. If it regularly takes me 30 minutes to get to each of them they are the same distance away as far as I am concerned.
Frogtown is a little residential stretch of land in the Silver Lake/Atwater Village area located in between the 2 and 110 freeway, with the 5 freeway to the west and the L.A. river to the east. It gets its name from its close proximity to the L.A. river., with all the frogs and such in there.
Neat. In that case I am sure I have been and didn’t know it. At least driven though.
1.I do not. I used to, but not I use the net on my phone when I get lost.
See answer 3
I know the names of a bunch, but they aren’t super useful anymore. The 110 east is the Harbor Freeway, but the 110 west is the Pasadena Freeway, until it gets to the 210 which then becomes the Pasadena Freeway (I think). The Santa Monica Freeway is the 10, but I think only the 10 between LAX and PCH. The Golden State Freeway is the 5 and The San Diego Freeway is the 405. Things get weirder with stuff like the Glendale Freeway (the 134 and the 2) and Imperial Highway which I think is partially the 60 but covers a couple of other freeways.
I’m the exact opposite; I always answer in a measure of distance, not time. I don’t know the actual mileage either, I just ballpark it.
It actually kind of irks me when I ask someone how far a city/place is and they answer in a measure of time, not distance, because more often than not, they underestimate the time.
If I knew the distance, on the other hand, I pretty much know how long it’s going to take to get there, depending on the time of day. For instance, I know how long it’ll take to travel 30 miles on a Wednesday afternoon as opposed to 30 miles on a Sunday morning.
And I wouldn’t have had a problem with that if it were ever even slightly true…“Come on, we can drive from West Hollywood to that new cafe in Pasadena…it is just 15 minutes from here, over Laurel Canyon and bam, we are almost there…”
50 minutes later, while still tied up in traffic on Laurel Canyon…
Yeah, but the whole 15 minutes thing isn’t real (I hope). In the first place 20 minutes is the minimum amount of time it will take you to get anywhere.
15 minutes from Pasadena to West Hollywood is also clearly insane, but I am guessing that was a hypothetical.
I average 35 min through most canyons and 1 hour at rush hour. I have made itt through Laurel in 15 but I was so surpised that I still remeber the day vividly.
I think I can judge distance in terms of time fairly accuratly too. At least for areas I know well. But if I am not sure I usually default to either 20 or 45 minutes depending.
Actually one of the worst things about living in LA is that it ruins movies and TV shows for you cos one has visited many of the places appearing in the movie/TV show…
Yesterday on Heroes Hiro is supposed to be in a Japanese skyscraper - I can see the US Bank Tower out of his window.
On Knight Rider today, the LA Metro doubled as a DC underground train system.
Downtown LA is made to look like a bustling city in Hollywood films, when in fact it’s a graveyard after 7pm on most days.
Another Angeleno here. Public transit quality depends on where you are and where you want to go; it’s obviously best along the one subway line that goes from North Hollywood to downtown and takes in Hollywood and Koreatown; almost as good where the three light rail lines and one dedicated busway go, and generally terrible elsewhere. However, the buses are fairly good for short trips, especially between UCLA and the beach where Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus system rules. Remember we shouldn’t ask too much of urban transit buses, they are not meant for long trips and great distances. We should also remember that even when we do get more subways, they will not provide instantaneous transit from East L.A. to Santa Monica. Some New Yorkers living in the boroughs have to spend an hour riding the train into Manhattan every day, each way.
