Los Angeles - "A Paper Tears Apart in a City That Never Quite Came Together"
 

NYT calls Los Angeles a “city that never quite came together” that has “not developed the political, cultural and philanthropic institutions that have proved critical in other American cities.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/u...les-times.html

I never really thought about this, but I can kinda see it now. I recall a classmate back in my grad school years that was from Placentia, but never identified with the "LA region". When people would ask where she was from, she would just say "California" and if asked to be more specific she'd toss out Southern California.

orange county is like half it's own thing, it seems like.

KCRW is the new LA Times

Yeah, nobody from New Jersey would ever say they’re from NYC.

I think it's just that these regions are so gigantic and sprawling that they can't really share a unified culture. Natural boundaries or political ones tend to divide even people within an MSA into different subregions that identify differently. I don't think LA is unique in having different subregions and cultures, roughly broken down along county lines.

I feel like a fair bit of this is racial - white outer-suburbanites don't want to self-identify with the majority-minority core cities and first-ring suburbs. But race isn't everything; white New Jerseyans aren't objectively very different from white Long Islanders, but they would never group themselves together.

Of course, these same regions tend to come together over sports, etc so clearly the differences aren't irreconcilable.

Hehe, yet another NYT article that writes about LA with a condescending angle. They're obsessed with LA, it seems.

Here you go, from The Wrap:

If LA Journalists Covered New York Like the New York Times Covers LA
Ross A. Lincoln | Last Updated: February 2, 2018 @ 12:52 AM

[...]

Link: https://www.thewrap.com/la-journalis...mes-covers-la/

The same story could be written about Phoenix, which used LA as its civic template. There are few civic stewards, Fortune 500 companies, old wealth, or philanthropists. Phoenix came of age after WWII, so its urban form is entirely autocentric.The regional name for the metroplex is not Phoenix but "the Valley". Its newspaper is a Gannett Mcpaper with hardly any investigative reporters. In some ways, Phoenix feels like a suburb itself, maybe of LA, or maybe of its own suburbs. Three of its major sports' franchises carry the geographic name of Arizona rather than Phoenix. The lack of energy shows up in a lower-end economy based on homebuilding and back-office operations. LA is extraordinarily vital by comparison.

in chicago we joke that phoenix is chicagoland's westernmost suburb.

it's at least a little true.

Control your inferiority complex. The author of this article is from Los Angeles.

https://twitter.com/Rossalincoln?ref...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Unlike the pathetic LAT, the NYT is the global paper of record and has office and media presence all over the world, including Los Angeles. All Los Angeles articles are written by the Los Angeles division of the New York Times. The New York newsroom has better things to do than write about Los Angeles.

Wow, snarky.

Haha...jeez...I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be tough and not get offended easily. :P

I think that's just a stereotype. I mean come on, I post one tongue-in-cheek article and *pah-JOW!* I'm reduced to an inferiority complex. :haha:

Or maybe the person is not originally from NYC.

I agree with the overall tone that LA and its citzens lack a certain sense of self-identity, owing largely to its geographic vastness and the disconnected communities that are a result of it. Angelenos (relatively speaking) really aren't knowledgeable about the city they live in, how it functions, and how to improve it; New Yorkers do.

On the other hand, I don't think that LA is lacking in cultural and philanthropic institutions. Getty, Huntington, Simon, Broad, Hammer -- all wealthy tycoons who established their own namesake museums. And Disney was instrumental in forming CalArts, which at less than 60 years old, is now a highly regard and selective arts school.

Hahahahahahahaha this is great.

It's a good thing NY ers don't need constant justification, adulation and reassurance that they live in a great city... They Easily have the lowest self esteem of any group of people on earth

"Rah rah! We're number one!"

:haha::koko:

I read the internet, NYC is just one big GAP, Chilis and Starbucks now

IMO, LA is missing large public spaces. It needs more public gathering spaces in general, but could benefit from one or two big meeting places. Even Tokyo has Shibuya and the area near Parliament.

When something major occurs in big cities, there's always an area where you'll find people gathering to protest, party, etc. When you're in an urban setting surrounded by hundreds of thousands to millions of people on the street, it makes you look at your city differently.

Where is that in LA? No, the Academy Awards don't count. What would be a good contender?

:D:cheers: