Geoff Manaugh, author of BLDGBLOG, recently visited L.A. and came away with his head reeling, sparking a flurry of comments in reaction to his mind-bender of a post on the inane glories of the only major city in the world that can accurately be referred to as "city." Here's an excerpt:
Who cares? Literally no one cares, is the answer. No one cares. You're alone in the world. L.A. is explicit about that. If you can't handle a huge landscape made entirely from concrete, interspersed with 24-hour drugstores stocked with medications you don't need, then don't move there. It's you and a bunch of parking lots.
You'll see Al Pacino in a traffic jam, wearing a stocking cap; you'll see Cameron Diaz in the check-out line at Whole Foods, giggling through a mask of reptilian skin; you'll see Harry Shearer buying bulk shrimp.
The whole thing is ridiculous. It's the most ridiculous city in the world – but everyone who lives there knows that. No one thinks that L.A. "works," or that it's well-designed, or that it's perfectly functional, or even that it makes sense to have put it there in the first place; they just think it's interesting. And they have fun there.
Go check out the rest of the post, and the author's bio here. Thanks, Amit. * Image above from here, by Daniel Reetz, who posted a comment on the BLDGBLOG post.