Yeah, like wearing shorts on New Year's Day because it's 80 degrees outside. Like sking at dawn, visiting a museum by noon, and then surfing the same day by sunset. Choosing between taking in a Lakers game or hiking to a waterfall in Holy Jim Canyon. Picking strawberries or gold mining in the mountains. Firing up the jet ski or exploring old ghost towns in the Mojave desert. A concert under the stars at Irvine Meadows or a rave party on Melrose.
Life really sucks here.
Like watching helplessly while your wife raped and killed while you were walking home, because you can't legally carry a gun to defend yourself. Like being stuck in a neverending traffic jam. Like having to pay taxes so that a constant stream of illegal immigrants can come in and live off the dole. Like paying higher taxes than just about any other state.
Wow, you're right, Kali is a great place to live!
There are some nice things as you correctly point out.
Personally, I find amusing the story about how my son's car broke down beside the freeway and AAA couldn't get to it in time until the Freeway was closed. He then had a friend drive him out there but the CHP turned all the cars around on the freeway because a wildfire was racing toward them. He could see his car, but wasn't sure if it was going to get burned up. It didn't, but it gave him a lot to think about until the freeway was opened again.
When I go down to visit him, at Pepperdine, I usually fly down into LAX and depending on the route I take, I either go through incredibly expensive neighborhoods or real poverty. When I have pulled into gas stations or as I drive along the freeway, I find that I see lots of new Mercedes and BMW's and lots of really old clunkers. I seriously wonder about the middle class and where or if it exists.
I have a friend at Boeing in the military airplane group and he is looking at being transfered down to their S. Cal facilities and he is shocked at housing costs. He has told me that even though he has a very nice large home and lot with a spectacular view up here, that from what he has seen he will need to commute about an hour or so each way so he can go out far enough to afford a house.
Another friend of mine inherited some rental housing in LA, but sold it and has gotten into real estate up here. He told me some stories about what he had to go through to evict people who didn't pay rent from his apartments in LA.
I remember the last big earthquake and what it did to the DC Intertie inverter station. S. Cal was really hurting for electricity for quite a while after that until they got things fixed. Same goes for the freeway bridges that collapsed or were damaged.
Yes, L.A. has a lot of good points and some that aren't so good.
By the year 2050 the whole united states will suck because borders weren't controlled in the southwest states.