Hiking off Mulholland in Studio City: Fryman Canyon Park
The Wreckoning Is Coming at You: Inside the Trainwreck Studio
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Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley @ Nokia Theater 10/28/09
Found in L.A.: Medical Marijuana Ditched in the Curb
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Simply Wrong Food: IHOP's Holiday Pancakes
As of this past Tuesday, it's official that LA will compete with Chicago for the US Olympic bid. We love LA and we only bring this list in hopes of getting things in motion. To have the 2016 Summer Olympics here and be host for the third time -- that triumphant return would be a dream come true. But there's a city on the third coast that has never had it and wants it bad. Here's why they'll outbid Los Angeles this time around (unless we get our butts in action):
1. The Mayor really really really really wants it. You see, Chicago doesn’t have term limits like LA does and the Daley family has presided over the Mayorship for almost 40 years! Are you thinking royalty? And while Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa is trying to get schools under his wing, it’s old habit in Chicago. So when school district takeovers are not an issue, you focus on the Olympics. Walking around the city this winter break, you can feel the vibe that Mayor Daley has his energies focused on this effort. There's even a website dedicated to getting support for the city's bid: www.chicago2016.org. Where's LA's site?
2. Two airports, complete with rail. Yes, both O’Hare and Midway Airports have CTA trains that run to them and back Downtown. Only if they would stop getting derailed and lighting on fire…
3. O’Hare Airport actually looks nice and has WiFi. We're sorry, but LAX looks like crap on the inside and doesn't have WiFi.
4. Millennium Park. We have to say, it’s pretty damn nice.
5. Grant Park. Right next to Millennium is Grant park which hosts many festivals such as the Taste of Chicago, Blues Festival and more. And the Chicago Park District actually has a decent looking website compared to ours.
6. Cultural Hub. The Art Institute, Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, The Shedd Aquarium and the Planetarium are all right there in the same area. Don’t forget the Chicago Cultural Center and Symphony Hall as well.
7. On the lake with a beach on extremely clean water, even if ecologically disatrous (thanks to the foreign zebra mussels). The aforementioned parks and the “cultural hub” all exist on Lake Michigan's lakefront.
8. Sorry, but Wrigley Field is much better than Dodger Stadium. You can even take the train right to it.
9. Chicago is known but unknown. The 3rd Coast city seems to surprise and excite many after their first visit. NYC and LA are part of everyday visual culture. Chicago is not. It’s just a more interesting pick.
10. LA has had it and had it recently (1984). As much as it would be nice to repeat 32 years later (don't forget, we had it in 1932 as well), if another American city is ready, the Olympic committee might be feeling the need to spread the love.
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but chicago is chicago. boring if you ask me....LA knows how to put on a show, and that's what the olympics needs.
redrabbit: touche!
Have you even been to Chicago??? Most likely not.
What makes you think I've never been to Chicago?
L.A. may be flashy and glam... but I went to Chicago this summer and let me tell you: it was one big suprise. I always saw Chicago as tons of factories and industry, but the city seems to have reinvented itself. It has a sophistication and integrity that Los Angeles will never have.
Honestly... eveything I saw there really put alot of LA to shame. Unbeatably culture, sports, restaurants, musuems, parks, architecture, history, etc... There was nothing boring about it. Chicago may just be one of the best kept secrets in the country.
How can Angelenos push for a third olympics when we cant even hold a football team? Give it to Chicago, they deserve it.
Even though Chicago should probably get it, it doesn't really matter. The chances are very high that USA won't get the bid anyways. There are a lot of other competing countries who are supposedly in much more favor with the IOC then us.
I lived in Chicago for 6 years before moving here in April, and I have to say...Chicago beats L.A. hands down for culture. Chicago has a wide variety of ethnic cuisine and gourmet food. I love L.A. and I'm not going back, but Chicago is just like New York only smaller, cleaner, and the people are real and friendly. I have to agree with the author about the public transportation...it will be much easier to accomodate hundreds of thousands of guests.
I do howevder disagree about Lake Michigan being clean. It's just as cold as the Pacific if not colder in the summer, but it's biggest drawback is the fact that a lot of the beaches around the city would be closed to swimming because of high levels of bacteria from human waste. Gross! I only went swimming in the lake twice - when I thought it was safe.
Chicago has a higher chance of winning the 2016 bid for the Olympics, because it has never once hosted an Olympiad, while L.A. has done so twice.
You know where I want the Olympics to be held, but I'm clearly biased.
But I do want to point out that LA, too, once had a Wrigley Field!
Hey, I want it here too. I'm just not seeing much zeal around town.
And if we get it, we'll kick ass. But we've got to prove that we'll kick it.
Culture is not better in Chicago, I give them gourmet, but when it comes to ethnic food, it's better in LA. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, practically the whole of Asian food. Not to mention Persian, Ethiopian, Armenian. THe diversity of Los Angeles is unbeathable.
It's so funny how some people here comment that Chicago beats LA hands down in culture... it will be nice if such people make an intent to know the city they live in a little better before posting such biased and ignorant comments.
LA has no Culture? Los Angeles has the largest population of 95% of the ethnicities outside their old country.
Chicago has been winning so many winning sports games. If they can win those then they can win the olympics. LA is the most polluted city in America. Thats disfusted. Who would want to risk the lungs of professional athletes. And yea i agree, we have 2 large airports. Which is perfect transportation. Also, because of our big stadiums we can perform a more fantastic performance then LA can. Chicago is one memorable city that no one can resist. Psh. Who ever says that Chicago is boring, get a life because that shows that you haven't even seen the fame that's in Chicago. People who are rooting for LA can get over yourselves because Chicago earns it. La has already had an Olympics. Now is time for Chicago to show our skills.
xoxo-DiRRtaY LaTiNa
Zach still think Chicago will win? I think Chicago will edge out LA this weekend. I wrote a post about it over on Chicagoist.
http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2007/04/12/decision_2016.php
I'm a Chicagoan who used to live in LA so I can tell you from the Chicago perspective:
1- Just because the mayor wants it, doesn't mean the people want it. I'd say about 4/5th's of the people I talk to say they don't want it here. This is either because of traffic and tourists or they think that all that money could be better spent elsewhere. I happen to be in that slim 1/5th margin that wants the Olympics here.
2- They piss and moan ALL DAY about the CTA and it's issues, but if they spent one day trying to get around LA, (by bus, train, or car, or foot) they'd go running back home so fast it wouldn't be funny. Your freeways are hardcore.
3- We had the 1904 World's Fair taken away from us and given to our slower, dumber cousin to the south St. Louis. I'm not a Cubs fan (Go Sox!) and could care less about the Chicago-St. Louis rivalry, but that stings.
4- Sure, I'm a biased booster, but I'm fairly certain we can hold our own in a Chicago-LA culture smackdown. CSO vs. LASO? Art Institute vs. Getty Museum? Second City vs. Groundlings? West Hollywood vs. Boystown and Andersonville? Plus, if you think LA is more diverse than Chicago, you haven't ventured far from the Loop at all. Sure, your Chinatown and Little Tokyo is massive, but we're right behind you in terms of Mexican population, massive influx of Eastern Europeans (we're literally the second largest Polish city on Earth), and Indians on Devon and in the suburbs. And the Irish rule this town. We dye the river green and elect Irish mayors to lifelong terms.
This is fun. Usually we get into these kind of pissing contests with New York.
"Culture is not better in Chicago, I give them gourmet, but when it comes to ethnic food, it's better in LA. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, practically the whole of Asian food. Not to mention Persian, Ethiopian, Armenian. THe diversity of Los Angeles is unbeathable."
And every one of those restaurants/ethnicities are found all over Chicago's neighborhoods. The cultural/ethnic diversity in Chicago is on par with any other large, metropolitan and cosmopolitan city. And every person who has ever come to visit here from another large city is amazed at how clean Chicago is. It may take lots of corruption and payoffs to make sure the streets are clean and the garbage is picked up, but Chicagoans are tolerant of the corruption so those things can happen.
LOL at David... you'd HAVE to live in LA or New York to think Chicago does not have Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Persian, Ethiopian, and Armenian food.
Actually that is insulting to people in those cities. You'd have to be a total moron who lives in either bigger city to think that way -- and also to think that most decent-sized cities do not have at least the Asian food you mentioned. It's not 1980 anymore, buddy.