

Looking Beyond San Francisco - matthtaube
http://www.knormal.com/blog/looking-beyond-san-francisco/

======
maxharris
The cities in Southern California all lack viable downtown areas. There are no
coffee shops in Santa Monica that I'd enjoy hanging out in. San Diego, which
at least has some tall buildings, is a lot worse (I've never smelled such
stale, sticky air in a Starbucks before). Los Angeles itself has a skyline,
but it's barren, and I've never met anyone that has any reason to go there. I
drove there a few months ago at midnight on a Friday just to see what was
there, and there was literally no one there. It's almost as if some awful
people got together and made it illegal to build what what other great cities
offer: a place where you can work, eat, sleep, and relax in a high-density
urban environment. (Perhaps that's not a stretch - I haven't looked yet, but I
have a hunch that zoning laws and city ordinances either caused this
situation, or exacerbated the effects of some very bad choices.)

With a few exceptions (i.e., Pasadena), the greater Los Angeles area is
nothing more than a bunch of ugly boxes, crisscrossed by what seems like
billions of miles of jammed-up freeways, always under construction. So good
luck with whatever you're trying to find out here in SoCal. Hopefully you're
not looking for beauty, nice places other than home or the office to get work
done during the day, a nightlife, or anything else that a real city has to
offer.

~~~
matthtaube
I guess you have never been to Venice! Great offices, great food, beaches, way
more cute girls, coffee shops (yes, even Blue Bottle and Philz, and tons of
independent places). In fact, Abbot Kinney was literally named the coolest
street in America by GQ!

Night life is also great. Main Street is fun, it starts in Venice and
continues all the way down the beach into Santa Monica. Tons of bars and
places to eat.

You're right, downtown sucks. You drove to the wrong place at midnight. That's
why there are no impressive startups there and no one lives there. Traffic
also sucks there in general, so you don't work downtown. I don't have to take
any freeways to get around and actually spent more time in traffic in SF
(driving from Palo Alto). It's in no shape or form a dense city, but there are
more things to see as a result.

Pasadena is one of the worst areas in LA, if you ask me. It's hot, nowhere
near the beach, and boring. So I'm not surprised you don't like LA if you
think that's the best spot!

