Los Angeles & San Diego
Posted: Tue May 18, 2004 3:09 pm
Just got back from a business and pleasure trip in southern California. I had never been to either of the aforementioned cities before, so I was looking forward to this trip a lot. You can find the pictures on http://bahua.com/htpics/socal200405 .
LA wasn't at all what I expected. I expected to find a lot of rotten neighborhoods, and a massive sprawl of suburban development within the city limits, surrounding a mostly dead(after 5) downtown, with, like Kansas City, plentiful free parking.
What I found was a crowded city full of young people with lots of disposable income, and vital, urban neighborhoods, all the way from downtown west to the ocean. Traffic was terrible, both on city streets and on the many many freeways, and there is very little reprieve, in the way of parking. It's expensive and sparse.
I understand that there are bad neighborhoods south, east, and a bit north of downtown, and that the SFV is mostly just common, lower middle-class housing. But, what I saw was an expansive area, covering probably 150 square miles. I was very impressed with LA, and I look forward to getting back some time.
I drove down to San Diego(via the crawling 405) on Friday morning, and spent the weekend there, catching the Cubs-Padres series. San Diego could hardly be more different from LA, and still be as cool as it is. the Gaslamp Quarter, where we stayed, was chock-full of things to do and places to go. It looks like downtown San Diego has undergone some serious reinvestment in the last ten years or so, but it definitely looks like a much older, more traditional city than LA, if you take my meaning.
Petco Park was really cool, without a bad seat in the park, but the consessions were expensive, and the seat service was outright bullshit. We were handed menus from the left, from which we could order drinks, and pay taxes, a service charge and a required gratuity, none of which were incurred by getting up and getting a beer yourself.
Also, I gripe that they are card-happy in San Diego. There was one place, called the Yard House, just down the street from where we stayed, that claimed to have the "World's largest draft selection," and didn't. They had 110 drafts, which is definitely a lot, but it was basically the same four or five flavors repeated over and over again, by a bunch of breweries I had heard of. Barley's is more diverse, by far, with 99 drafts. Anyway, they carded us at the door, then again at the bar, and then again at a table. This all happened within the space of about fifteen minutes.
Anyway, the trip was very fun, and I hope to make it back to both cities soon.
LA wasn't at all what I expected. I expected to find a lot of rotten neighborhoods, and a massive sprawl of suburban development within the city limits, surrounding a mostly dead(after 5) downtown, with, like Kansas City, plentiful free parking.
What I found was a crowded city full of young people with lots of disposable income, and vital, urban neighborhoods, all the way from downtown west to the ocean. Traffic was terrible, both on city streets and on the many many freeways, and there is very little reprieve, in the way of parking. It's expensive and sparse.
I understand that there are bad neighborhoods south, east, and a bit north of downtown, and that the SFV is mostly just common, lower middle-class housing. But, what I saw was an expansive area, covering probably 150 square miles. I was very impressed with LA, and I look forward to getting back some time.
I drove down to San Diego(via the crawling 405) on Friday morning, and spent the weekend there, catching the Cubs-Padres series. San Diego could hardly be more different from LA, and still be as cool as it is. the Gaslamp Quarter, where we stayed, was chock-full of things to do and places to go. It looks like downtown San Diego has undergone some serious reinvestment in the last ten years or so, but it definitely looks like a much older, more traditional city than LA, if you take my meaning.
Petco Park was really cool, without a bad seat in the park, but the consessions were expensive, and the seat service was outright bullshit. We were handed menus from the left, from which we could order drinks, and pay taxes, a service charge and a required gratuity, none of which were incurred by getting up and getting a beer yourself.
Also, I gripe that they are card-happy in San Diego. There was one place, called the Yard House, just down the street from where we stayed, that claimed to have the "World's largest draft selection," and didn't. They had 110 drafts, which is definitely a lot, but it was basically the same four or five flavors repeated over and over again, by a bunch of breweries I had heard of. Barley's is more diverse, by far, with 99 drafts. Anyway, they carded us at the door, then again at the bar, and then again at a table. This all happened within the space of about fifteen minutes.
Anyway, the trip was very fun, and I hope to make it back to both cities soon.