That's gorgeous. It was achingly, weepingly beautiful in LA today. Dear rest of the world: Nyah-nyah.

LA? "Weepingly beautiful?" Maybe for Iron-Eyes Cody. At least all that wasn't built in the Everglades, or on some hapless barrier island - and it isn't Manhattan, once an ecological treasure.

Is it just me, or is getting on a subway in the same state with the San Andreas fault a truly bad idea?

No SA fault, no mountains... No mountains, no LA basin... No LA basin, no LA. Remember the Northridge quake, on MLK day in '94? More people died of the cold in Chicago that week than died out here in the quake.

Don't try to kid anyone, Raddy. You want to be here. On a day like this, supermodels and actresses walk around kissing lonely-looking men. Well-dressed children smile and play safe, silent, mutually-nurturing games on the front lawns. Quaint jazz trios form at major intersections to amuse and entertain passersby. Farmers and grocers pass out free samples of the best vegetables, and their finest meats and cheeses are competitively priced. Everybody's in love, and everybody gets laid.

LA is good.

Ah, LA. I remember LA for other things. Beautiful mountains that, from a very few miles away, were totally hidden by the smog. Real estate prices that challenge the capacity of modern calculators. Traffic jams, and generally too many people squished into too small a basis. I'll definitely pass...

Crid is right on all counts.

I love it here.

I'd add this to Crid's list - bottles of champagne pop open as the sun is setting at the Hollywood Bowl (and yes, I know, not in December, but still... a quintessential L.A. experience for sure).

Another thing about LA: When I moved here from NYC, friends sneered at all the shallow people I'd encounter. And sure, there are shallow people here, but not everyone in NYC is sitting around debating the merits of Aristotle over Plato, or Sontag over whomever, or whatever "deep" people are supposed to be doing. I have the most amazing women friends I've ever had. In fact, I used to say I didn't really like a lot of women until I moved here and Cathy Seipp introduced me to her entire set of friends. Now, maybe that's to Cathy's credit, not to LA's, but even apart from Cathy -- and including some of your Angelenos posting here -- I'm pretty thrilled with the people here. You just sometimes have to work a little harder to sit down next to somebody truly interesting at a bar than I did in my old neighborhood in NYC, Tribeca, before the movie stars ruined it.

Sigh. Yet another beautiful picture, Amy. Thanks for posting it. I've been waiting. You are going to keep me in material for my jigsaw puzzle software on my downtime at work until I retire (and probably beyond because if I don't have a home computer by then I'm not retiring until I do).

And before everyone jumps in with it, yes, I know I can google thousands of beautiful images but Amy's and Greg's are gorgeous and right here in this blog I'm going to anyway...

Seriously, Amy, I don't travel much so I absolutely enjoy when you share your travel (or your home) pics.

Thank you so much.

The building on the right is Franklin Towers. I used to date a woman in there. She said Nina Simone used to live there, and that she was indeed kinda whack-azoid, as per her legend. One night I was leaving the underground parking garage and saw Ron Jeremy trying to steer a beat-to-shit Ford Probe through the twisting ramp while clutching a Burger King in its paper wrapper. He may get more tail, but I have a nicer car and eat better. Food.

Weird how the swath of pink (talking about the photo now, people) gives the feeling that we're looking towards the coastal sunset even though that's downtown. Also, I think that's where Seipp's last-favorite blog portrait happened... See link at top left. The LA horizon was tilted and smoggy but she wasn't bothered by that. (Metaphor! Metaphor!)

Downsides...um...aside, there are definitely worse places to live.

The produce you can get here is amazing!

Of COURSE Ron Jeremy drives a Probe!

Eartha Kitt, who I actually got to meet and record in England, told me she used to have chickens in her backyard in Beverly Hills.

Is it just me, or is getting on a subway in the same state with the San Andreas fault a truly bad idea?

It's the S wave that's damaging, not the P wave, so while it's not just you that may think it's a bad idea, you're probably wrong. At least that's what the subway authorities and my physics professors would claim. (San Francisco and Tokyo have both earthquakes and subways.)

Yamashiro! Love that place. Went there one rainy night and it was just beautiful. An eventful night ensued.

LA is good. Until the hot dry Santa Anas come down through the mountain passes...

Don't want to nitpick you on your political philosophy, Amy, but shouldn't you, as a libertarian, be opposed to be expensive public-works project like mass transit? Aren't market solutions the best answer to this problem? And aren't the people of Los Angeles voting with their ignition keys? And given that nearly all big public-transportation projects have huge infusions of federal money, doesn't this conflict with your core beliefs that everyone should pay for themselves? If you're opposed to public support of schools, how do you justify public support of a Los Angeles subway?

Just wonderin'.

Also, just fuckin' witcha. Nice picture, btw. Contrasted with today's flannel-gray skies in the D, it makes me...sigh.

I was wrong, it's the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel

It is an ice shit show today in Boston. As in, walk outside at your own risk; I wore Timberland hiking boots w/ my pantsuit so I wouldn't slip off the Congress Street bridge. Walk to South Station to go home t minus 40 minutes.

I hate all of you.

I dunno. You like people more than critters, you want buildings more than trees? That's what the picture shows. I've been to CA; San Diego to Long Beach is full of (distant) family and their long history. I was stationed in SD in 1979, and I'd walk to Point Loma and Mission Bay, and wonder what it looked like before the automobile became mandatory. Cruise out to Salton City. Check out the ancient shoreline visible on the rocks, miles west and a thousand feet up. Note the ruins of the dreams broken by bad water, relentless summer heat and interesting real-estate scams. Drive the winding Palomar Road on a clear night, and look how much better everything looks when housing is sparse.

Mom once had a house on Hermosa Beach. As in, roll the kids' ball out the front door, go swimming to get it, Beach. Nobody can afford it now. That's the story of humanity. Find a nice place, pack it full of people so it isn't so nice anymore, and new arrivals will still think it's fabulous because it's not where they're from.

It's a mindset kinda thing, I guess. A lot of people look at CSI: Miami's doctored film of rows of condos on the beach and go, "Oooo! I wanta live there!". Being an old marina rat years ago, it reminds me that "Miami" is a native word for "good water" - and that is in no way true any more.

It's natural to tell yourself you have it made. What could be better?

An awful lot of stuff, that's what.

The saddest part of this story is not that you had to endure traffic, but rather that you admitted going to a dreadful tourist trap with outrageously horrific food.

I don't doubt that it is lovely enough for you who live there, but I am perfectly content with the goodness that is Portland. I took a short, twenty minute trainride home, whizzing by the gridlock on the highway. Those who had to drive the run I made home, spent right around forty-five minutes to an hour.

We get a lot of rain in the winter, but I like the rain. Especially when it is light and steady. We also get plenty of sun to fire up the solar panels and the plant life is amazing. We also have the mountains, the gorge and the coast, right close by. While there is virtually no snow in Portland, there is plenty of it just a short drive away.

Oh, and did I mention the nice, quick light rail ride home? It is easier and often times much quicker to get around town on public trans. We have the light rail, we have buses and we have street cars. We are getting another rail line, with still more planned for the future. And they are going to run some more street car lines too.

I'm really not trying to knock LA, it's just not a place that I could begin to stand living. Being one of those freaks that grew up in Michigan and actually loved it, I really can't stand all sun, all the time. I like the warm weather for the months it's around and like the cooler weather when it's around.

Hey DuWayne: We hate you the way Gretchen hates us. Showoff....

If there's a better visiting city than Portland in the United States, I ain't been there yet

I'm not a real big fan of LA so much. It's just a bit too crowded for me, too many barrios. I have some friends in Palos Verdes. I go to the Drags at Pomona and NASCAR in Fontana. One of my friends took me to lunch in the same cafe that Pulp Fiction was filmed in. (Hawthorne Grill). I love cruising the city with a few friends on hogs in the summertime when it's that weird hazy time of night when you still wear shades and have your lights on.

I live in San Diego in Point Loma. My bedroom window opens up to a slough off the river basin. At night, I get Sea Worlds fireworks in my living room window. It's a lot smaller here that LA but its growing fast, too fast. I like rolling up the coast on one of my bikes, (3 harleys) and cruising up the 405 to the 10 west then following the coast hwy up through Malibu to a little crab shack across from a surfing beach called Neptunes Net. I ride up in the canyons north of LA. I also like to continue up to Santa Barbra and party on State St. Then maybe ride up to Big Sur.

I've also made that trip out to the Salton Sea and rode around it to come out the north end to Palm Springs and stay there for a weekend. Man, that Salton area is not even a part of this planet! It just looks like somebodys weird idea of the moon.

You can't beat SOCAL. It's just damn beautiful out here and there are so many places to go and things to see for anyone, regardless of what amuses you.

Amy, do you remeber that song, 'Nobody walks in LA.' It pretty much is true. The reason that mass transit sucks so bad there is that LA is spread out all over the place and you NEED A CAR. It's not like New York City where land is so sparse the only way to build was up and theres no place to park. It's a whole different lifestyle. You can't expect some little old lady to taka a bus to walk two blocks to a bus stop, taka a transfer to get to a grocery store and then haul two or three bags of vittles back. It just isn't practical. In places like NYC, you have many stores right down the street that you can get produce and things like that at. Not so much here. I know, I spent a few years in Japan and you shopped for dinner food daily or went to a restaurant, not twice a month like you do out here. As for the subway, it was actually started, they had a LOT of problems trying to build that, eventually they just threw in the towel and decided to sell sandwiches instead.

Dreadful tourist trap or not, the grounds are beautiful, especially in the rain, and we all bow down to your superior tastes.

On the downside, all the lovely women you get to watch run around in little to nothing, would be wearing many more layers here - or shivering with goose bumps. Not that I mind, but some would object.

The worse thing though, is that Portland had the brilliant notion of hiring your rejected cops. Not sure if they just came cheap enough, or what, but apparently cops that LA fired for racial issues or having a really shitty attitude, just moved up here. I imagine they like it, as they can shoot people and no one seems too interested in investigating much.

That, and just for you Crid, there are kids. Lots of kids. Lots of things for kids to do and intermingle with adults. There are more than a couple of brewpub restaurants, with play areas for the kids. There are few enough venues that don't cater to kids - and the kids aren't usually all that well dressed. While a lot of them are well behaved enough, you would often run across kids who are not disciplined much if at all. Obnoxious, stupid parents who do not believe in "inhibiting" their children's "creativity." (in all honesty, we manage to avoid these obnoxious children without much trouble for the most part. I'm just trying to make you feel better)

The reason that mass transit sucks so bad there is that LA is spread out all over the place and you NEED A CAR. It's not like New York City where land is so sparse the only way to build was up and theres no place to park. It's a whole different lifestyle. You can't expect some little old lady to taka a bus to walk two blocks to a bus stop, taka a transfer to get to a grocery store and then haul two or three bags of vittles back.

I watched people, even elderly little ladies, do just that on a regular basis in Lansing, MI, which is really spread out. In LA there are enough people who would use it, to make subways or above ground rails work. Then you can get to a grocer without having so many transfer issues. You can cover the distance much quicker.

Here in Portland, I can go from the outer end of the line, to downtown (roughly fifteen miles) in thirty minutes at the height of rush hour. The same trip by car would be well over an hour at that time. Even with the lightest traffic you ever run into, that same trip takes twenty-five minutes by car. Even then, you don't get much of a time advantage and you still have to deal with driving.

Light rail is the way to traverse the longer distances in the city. Then you can take a bus to fill in the rest. There are some legitimate arguments that can be made against public trans, a city being too spread out is not one of them. One of the biggest advantages, even if you still choose to drive, is that it gets other cars off the road. Just a few trunk lines would reduce traffic significantly. A comprehensive subway system would dramatically reduce traffic.

Is it just me, or is getting on a subway in the same state with the San Andreas fault a truly bad idea?

Much, much better than elevated rails. And any surface system is going to include some elevated rails. The odds of a collapsing tunnel are actually very low. Even lower are the odds of a cave in actually hitting a train. They put maintenance/evac points periodically along the way, for just such emergencies. But considering the construction methods, rare are the earthquakes that would actually damage a tunnel.

DuWayne, I'm not real sure but I think Lansing Mi is about the size of one or two of the 85 cities that make up LA. And there are a LOT of places you wouldn't think of walking two blocks. Not to mention, there are areas of LA where you have to drive five miles to get to a supermarket. It ain't the same. I used to take the light rail all the time in Japan, it rocked, it was pretty quick and cheap. We have a trolley system in in San Diego. It's not bad, but it doesn't really get you that close to home. Less than two percent of the population uses it and the dollar to use ratio is so low, that it doesn't really pay off financially.

The problem with the subway they tried to build in LA is that the ground was not solid enough, lotta sand out here, and it just caved in time after time. It didn't work out. Maybe a little better engineering would have made a difference, I don't know.

About kids, I love children, taste like chicken.

Incidently, about the girls wearing little to nothing. I go down to the beach area, even in the wintertime, it's still a lot of bikinis and such most of the time, party atmosphere type place. I saw a couple of ladies, one a little older and one early twenties walking down the street in front of the open bar I was at. The older one gave me a little smile so I asked them, Hey ladies, why don't you come in and have a cool drink and take a load off for a while. The younger one lit into me, "I'm out here shopping with my mother, don't be rude!" I told her, "I was talking to your mother." Daughter got her panties in a wad and stormed off, mommy was grinning ear to ear. Later the mom did come in. She was very nice and real funny.

bikerken -

The thing is, Lansing doesn't have a subway, people take the bus vast distances anyways. There are places there, where you go fifteen miles or more on the bus to get groceries. When it is available, people use it.

The more efficient it is, the more people use it. Around here, people use it as a supplement to their cars. Park and rides are very common and they are putting in more of them. Keeps more cars off the highways and inner surface streets. Rail lines running out of city center with park and rides, would relieve immense amounts of congestion.

The lack of profit margin is only in direct financial compensation. Aside from relieving congestion, it is an environmental positive. It also has economic benefits to the community, bringing people into the city center and various segments of the community without the hassle of trying to maneuver through traffic.

Engineering problems are just that, problems. They're there for engineers to solve. Tunneling is an artform and tunnel engineers take a lot of pride in tunneling through everything. Consider this, there are already massive tunnels throughout LA, as there are in any city. You might be surprised how large the tunnels that contain UT infrastructure are.

Your one up on Crid, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even care for the taste.

I actually had the ego boost of being hit on by a young lady in her late teens the other day. I think she would have been horrified to know that I was actually more attracted to her mom, than I was to her.

Americans are a lot like Londoners in this respect.
They all live in the most perfect spot, and you don't!

Duwayne, the transit system in my city is horrible (used to be good but has declined; the one city in the world not concerned about gas or pollution) and, when I went to some transit meetings that were supposed to do something about that, Portland was set up as the example as best city in the US as far as public transit went. When I heard this (keep in mind I'll be 50 in a few months and have never gotten around to getting a driver's license), my first thought was that I should move to Portland.

Don't tell the daughter who assumes I've been forever drafted as immediate babysitter since she decided to have a baby four years ago but I'm doing some looking into other places to retire to, but what's it like living in Portland? How's the cost of living and the weather? People broad-minded or do they hate heathen transplanted New Yorkers? Low rents somewhere old grandmas aren't routinely mugged? I'm gathering from what you said above, it would be a great place for my grandson to visit.

Donna -

Funny you should mention how Portland feels about transplant NY'ers. There has been a rather amusing spate in one of the weekly papers about transplant NY'ers feeling gypped after moving here in search of a more exciting city. I believe one of the biggest complaints was traffic, so public trans users win out on the major one. Portland has stayed steadily behind on the infrastructure for autos.

There is probably about the same amount of precipitation as NY, without the snow. There are very occasional snowstorms, but they average one per winter (at least that has been the case since we moved here.

As far as cost of living, it is really much better than I thought it would be. Rents are a little higher than they were in MI, but not by a lot. I understand they are quite a bit better than NYC. If you go to craigslist Portland, you can get a pretty good idea. If you then click over to my site and email me, I can give you an idea about the neighborhood advertised. Most of Portland is actually pretty good, I just happen to have managed to get into the really shit neighborhood. There are several senior living facilities that are right on top of MAX (light rail line) stops. Those stops routinely get the best security coverage.

The only concern about it being a great place for kids, is that your daughter may well decide to follow. There are a lot of great things for kids to do that are cheap or free. There are issues with the schools, depending on which district they end up in, but all in all Portland is an awesome place to raise kids.

Oh, and one other thing that is really attractive. Portland is one of the friendliest cities I have ever visited. Most times, if you even look like you might be confused about where you are/are going, someone is very likely to ask if they can help you. Unlike Seattle, where like as not if you ask someone for help, they will pretend you weren't actually addressing them. Seriously, Portlanders are rather nuts about the polite and helpful.

Jody -

The only places in the U.S. that even compare to Portland are most any city in MI (where I grew up), sans the shit economy and St.Louis, where I lived and loved for a while. Indeed, Portland is the greatest city in the world, with MI and St.Louis running close behind. Everywhere else just sucks balls, everyone else can only dream of living in these heavenly places...

Actually, as much as I love Portland, there are some issues that really piss me off. Things that really need to change. True of most places, but I think it hits harder when they occur in places one really loves. Thankfully, Portland is one of those places where wealth is not necessarily requisite to entering local politics. Start at the ground floor to be sure, but getting elected to the city council is not hard if your neighbors like you and you have ideas they like.

"...Everywhere else just sucks balls, everyone else can only dream of living in these heavenly places..."

DuWayne,
Seriously, I love this attitude...(and I flat out adored Portland, by the way).

The first rule of travel in the USA when you're a resident alien is to take people at their word when they insist here is the best place to live, because - if they like you - they'll be hell bent on proving why they're right - and you'll have a brilliant visit!

(Probably the only place that's underwhelmed me was Seattle - and mainly because I was in a foul mood that week!)

I like where I am on Long Island Sound, in CT. Far enough away from New York as to be in suburbia, but close enough for an hour and a half train ride to Times Square. I can go horseback riding during the day in some gorgeous woods upstate, and the same night be at BB King's on 61st Street. I had a house here on the beach for about a year, and the house I'm now is about a 5 minute walk away (up a hill, no more flooded basement!) The winters suck sometimes, but sometimes they're mild, with only one or 2 major storms. Spring and summer here are beautiful, and autumn is just awesome. I think I'll stay for a while. o_O

Seattle is wonderful, too. I've been to Portland twice and Seattle once, and none of their children left a mark on the memory, which is perfect. If you're hungry, and it's lunchtime in Portland, try the tofu scramble at Old Wives' Tales on Burnside; it tastes like like seasoned bean curd.

I like where I am on Long Island Sound, in CT.

If I wear a pink jumper and stand on my tiptoes and wave hard, I can probably attract your attention on a clear day, Flynne.

(North Shore, Long Island)

Sweet!! I'll meet you at Port Jefferson for lunch! o_O

Tofu scramble?!? I wouldn't have dreamed your such a fucking hippy Crid:) I love Seattle too, especially Pike's market. I have just found that the people are not nearly so friendly there, as they are in Portland.

I am intrigued, Duwayne. I'm upstate, not NYC (fortunately) but the cost of living here (capital district area) is still pretty bad. To get decent rents, you either have to live out in the suburbs where you don't have bus service that's worth even considering (and I don't drive) or you have to live downtown Albany, Schenectady or Troy and they are overrun with roaches, mice and rats (both two-legged and four-legged; NYC'ers not bad enough to cut it there are moving here where they feel bigger and bader). We were pretty lucky finding the place we're in because it's on a quiet street and no pests but it's small (too small for the three of us) and in pretty poor condition and the landlord's solution is duct tape everything. I plan to move at least myself if not all three of us this spring. My promotion and a raise we have coming should enable something in the one suburb with good schools and bus service. It won't be fancy but I don't care as long as it's decent and has more space. We need a three-bedroom (we're in two tiny bedrooms now and the grandson's getting too big for that at 4).

I wouldn't really mind my daughter following as I don't really want to move away from them. Unfortunately, there's his daddy to be considered and they're probably stuck here and are what will keep me here. I don't know if I can access craiglist from work but I can forrent.com and some newspapers and all and have checked out crime stats and weather on different cities and am now keeping an ear to the ground on where people mention they enjoy living. I've at least five years and maybe 11 (most likely somewhere in between) to research this and at least visit somewhere on vacation that I'm interested in checking out (though that's hardly the same as living there).

Donna -

Per Jodi's notion, I would love to have the opportunity to show you what an awesome place Portland is. If you email me, I will send you some info on some really great apartment communities and contacts for the decent property management companies. There are (as there are everywhere) slumlords who talk an excellent game, but there are also some really dedicated landlords, who really want to take care of their tenants. I work as a handyman and remodeling contractor, so I have the pleasure of knowing quite a few. I also know some decent realtors, if that is your inclination.

It would have taken a while to write this up, cheers