It felt very good to get home from Los Angeles last week, even though the apartment feels emptier without our son. I took away a rather negative view of LA. IT has taken me a few days of reflection to realise that perhaps I my judgment was not entirely fair.
Even the airlines seemed to line up in favour of New York over LA. On the outbound journey, we were delayed four hours, with barely an acknowledgement and no apology. On the way home, everything went unusually well. The airline allowed us to swap our middle seats for two together. The plane departed right on time and took a short flight path. The journey was improved by reading an Economist end to end (I could not find a seller in LA until the airport), and a wonderful British film called The Duke – Jim Broadbent is a hero of mine. Our luggage was first on the belt, and our taxi delivered us home before the flight had been scheduled to land. Would that air travel always worked out this way!
Our primary negative impression of LA came from the vast number of homeless people lining the streets. We frequented downtown and a neighbouring district, parts of Hollywood, various metro lines (subway and bus) and Santa Monica. Each of these areas were blighted by homeless, seemingly at all hours of day and night. Most of their lives seemed unrecoverable. Many were angry and vocal. Too many were young. Initially it made us feel unsafe, and it affected the hours in which we were willing to be outside. Once we had become more familiar, it just made us very sad.
We have a growing homeless problem in NYC too, but somehow LA’s seemed a lot worse. But after some reflection I reasoned that perhaps the difference was not so great. Firstly, our climate in NYC tends to drive the homeless indoors and into larger settlements. But then I wondered if the main factor was where we happened to be. How often in NYC am I walking the downtown or deprived areas after dark? How often am I frequenting the major hubs like the Port Authority terminal? Yes, I travel the subway in the evening frequently, but the trains are longer and better lit so perhaps the same number of homeless can appear less visible.
Then I wondered if other aspects of my negativity about LA might be equally biased. I considered how the trip was one of high stress that had little to do with its location. Three of us were packed tightly together trying to execute a tough agenda under time pressure in unfamiliar surroundings We had to find Lucas somewhere to live, then sign a lease and then furnish the place. We had to find accommodation and transport options that were somewhat affordable. And we all had to deal with the emotional stress involved in a major change in our lives.
It is no wonder we were somewhat stressed and that we took out our stresses by complaining about our location. We worked remarkably well as a team and achieved a great deal on the trip, but inevitably we had differing opinions, we bickered at times and each of us suffered moments of intolerance. We spent a lot of money, something which is never good for my mood. It is only afterwards that I can perhaps revise some of my opinions of the place where that stressful environment played out.
Then there were the scams. Scams are a part of daily life here in the US. Perhaps 50% of the phone calls I receive are from some bot lying me that my car needs servicing or that I owe the IRS a fortune. I have learned to quickly disconnect and move on without becoming angry. But in LA I was angry already, and then two original scams came along to make me even more angry.
Firstly, we parked our rental car in a regular downtown car park, one that clearly advertised that it only accepted payment by credit card. Trying to exit, my first card was rejected by the reader with an error message about a failed modem connection. With no practical option, I inserted a second card, this time with success. But the following morning came a massage from Chase inquiring about a suspicious use of that second card which had nothing to do with me. Congratulations to Chase for being so alert, and I accept that the hassle involved has been minimal – replacement cards have arrived today. But the experience still leaves a nasty taste, and some of that taste is directed towards the location where the scam happened.
The second scam came while I was walking to the rental car to return it to its garage, so at a time when I was already nervous (would the car have been stolen or damaged overnight? Might the rental company try to charge me for something?). This scam involved a call purporting to come from my electricity supplier, with another supplier connected on the call claiming that I had agreed a contract with them. This was a clever scam because the scenario was quite credible – we are bombarded with offers to change supplier. The purported new supplier tried to charge me $900 to cancel the non-existent contract, and then, the clever part, the person claiming to be from my actual supplier took a sympathetic tone but tried to charge me to rectify the situation. Only then did I twig that both callers were a part of the scam. Cue another bad mood.
We have plenty of scams in New York so it is ridiculous of me to blame LA. Now I am more relaxed, I can review some of my other harsh judgments. True, it is a calumny that the best real estate in oceanside Santa Monica has been used for a highway, but we have our own examples, notably Coney Island and Chinatown. It is sad that concrete and cars work against any sort of community feel and extend the California city far too far, but then we have Staten Island, Westchester and Nassau County doing similar things. Their climate is undoubtedly better; New York is truly horrible in summer. Both have garbage and smells, but we have more rats. Our drivers are less respectful and more reckless, our roads less well-designed and with more potholes. Perhaps our culture is better, but the vanilla musicals playing throughout Broadway to ill-behaved audiences are not really a credit to us, while the beautifully produced Dudamel performance we witnessed at the Hollywood Bowl was a credit to LA. Perhaps the comparison is not so one-sided after all.
Now I am starting to wonder if I am guilty of similar biases in my comparisons between the USA and Europe, during my current spell of negative thoughts about America. It is true that my recent trips to Europe have been in circumstances where my spectacles are likely to be rose-tinted, loaded with singing holidays, friends, family, great food, and relaxation. My comparisons need to be more specific, to check that they don’t just reflect more propitious circumstances.
I have not lived in Europe for ten years, so I don’t know about scams, but I am pretty sure that the legal environment in Europe is more orientated to support the consumer rather than the corporation. Why do these US scammers seem to be beyond the reach of the law? As for homeless, I remember my daily walk from Waterloo Station to Waterloo bridge in London, so perhaps Europe has its problems too. As for culture, there may be advantages on both sides of the Atlantic: in Europe I certainly don’t expect to be able to replicate the oasis of my Sunday mornings. California probably wins for climate, but I don’t recall anywhere in Europe being so horrible s a humid New York summer.
But the cities and towns are surely much more attractive there, with less bad housing, fewer highways (and without potholes), more green space, more courteous and safer driving, better mass transit, and fewer rats and smells. The people of the USA would surely do well to work on some of these eminently fixable unflattering comparisons, instead of the relentless self-promotion of “The greatest city on earth” or the ludicrous “Tinseltown”.
So my conclusion is that I should be kinder to LA, but not necessarily to the USA as a whole. It is certainly a good lesson to temper judgments to take account of circumstances. My recent European experiences could almost have been tailor-made to make me feel positively, very unlike my stressful LA experience.
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