Nobody from Los Angeles actually wants to live here, unlike say New Yorkers, who exhibit a strange concept where they all acknowledge the shared experience of being a New Yorker. By living in their city, the diverse mix of cultures form a greater entity, even if the entire city appears to be a giant, icy cesspool to us. Sure, New York is divided into 'burroughs,' which I'm assuming is a smug way of saying 'city,' but for the most part, New Yorkers are New Yorkers.
All the nicer, friendlier parts of the city, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Burbank, Malibu, and Agoura aren’t even part of Los Angeles, their respective governments intelligently succeeding from Los Angeles long ago. Even parts of L.A. that are actually part of the city maintain a delusional facade of independence. This is especially true in the San Fernando Valley, where every amorphous blob of strip malls considers itself a different “city.” Even these fake cities can’t seem to maintain any sort of singularity. “Is this North Hollywood? Heck no! This is Valley Village. See the sign? That’s North Hollywood, that strip mall over there. We succeeded four years ago!”
So the people of Los Angeles aren’t exactly the most unified bunch, but there are a couple of things we all can get behind. Not just the Dodgers or the Lakers, that’s sort of a given. We don’t appreciate when our home is referred to as “La La Land.” Usually, we say “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Poriuncula” or if you must abbreviate it, it’s L.A. We don’t appreciate it when the rest of the world assumes we hate walking, only drive SUV’s and that we all detest public transportation. It’s not that we have an innate distaste for trains, buses and subways, it’s just that we detest our trains, buses and subways.
All the nicer, friendlier parts of the city, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Burbank, Malibu, and Agoura aren’t even part of Los Angeles, their respective governments intelligently succeeding from Los Angeles long ago. Even parts of L.A. that are actually part of the city maintain a delusional facade of independence. This is especially true in the San Fernando Valley, where every amorphous blob of strip malls considers itself a different “city.” Even these fake cities can’t seem to maintain any sort of singularity. “Is this North Hollywood? Heck no! This is Valley Village. See the sign? That’s North Hollywood, that strip mall over there. We succeeded four years ago!”
So the people of Los Angeles aren’t exactly the most unified bunch, but there are a couple of things we all can get behind. Not just the Dodgers or the Lakers, that’s sort of a given. We don’t appreciate when our home is referred to as “La La Land.” Usually, we say “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Poriuncula” or if you must abbreviate it, it’s L.A. We don’t appreciate it when the rest of the world assumes we hate walking, only drive SUV’s and that we all detest public transportation. It’s not that we have an innate distaste for trains, buses and subways, it’s just that we detest our trains, buses and subways.