[jetako]

The city does seem to be in constant flux, but there are plenty of landmarks. Griffith Observatory and the Downtown Library come to mind.

The author sounds like she spent most of her life west of Hollywood. I would be bitter too if my outlook was so myopic. She somehow managed to miss the bustling Jewelry District and Gallery Row on her way to Skid Row, and must have turned around before she reached the Arts District.

[mturmon]

"she spent most of her life west of Hollywood"

Yes, this is just not a very well-informed article. It's pitched as kind of a pithy survey of the city, but it works better as some impressions from the viewpoint of a teen who grew up there.

The author appears to have graduated Brown in 2011 and been in Brooklyn since then. In her childhood and teen years here, it's unfortunate she didn't get to visit more of the city. ("All I ever did was drive the familiar loop of surface streets I knew, smoking cigarettes, blasting the heat with the windows down on winter nights.")

That's all ok as far as it goes, but what mars the article to the point of profound irritation is that she seems to have taken on a lot of tired and dated viewpoints. (Hollywood as an over-riding explanation, the freeways, hauling Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht up from their graves for one more anecdote, the remarks about Downtown.) The article sounds like the way stereotypical older Westside residents talk.

[stephengillie]

She does sound a little bitter. But she describes it as a place where she was afraid to explore because she'd be lost forever.

> Nobody knows where to go; it’s not a city designed for accidental social discoveries. You think of a place, you look it up, you go; you look up the way back, you go home.

[jetako]

The city only gives back what you put in. It's an onion with enormous depth, and you have to dig. I guess she wasn't willing to put in the effort. It's definitely not for everyone.

[sprokolopolis]

This is so true and the reason why many people who visit LA have such a distorted, acute view of the city. Most of the touristy sites are lame, but there is so much culture and so many hidden gems all throughout the city. LA is what you make of it.