A Threefold 'Thank You' to Los Angeles
Canter's & Ice Cream Sandwich Could Live in Perfect Harmony
Dear Los Angeles: I'm Thankful For...
-thumb-110x110-213475.jpg)
A Photo Gallery of the Things I am Grateful for This Year
7 Reasons to Love L.A.
Travel + Leisure's November 2007 issue features a fun little ditty called America's Favorite Cities. They've asked people from all over the country to rate 25 well-known cities on everything from culture and nightlife to public transportation and weather.
We're not quite sure who these 60,000 respondents think they are, but they don't have anything nice to say about our fair city. Oh, except for the fact that we have nice shops. Los Angeles was rated the worst (the worst! out of 25 cities!) in Friendliness of People, Intelligence of People, Overall Cityscape, Pedestrian Friendliness and Ease of Getting Around/Public Transportation. 
Los Angeles ranked almost-worst in Affordability, Environmental Awareness, Peace and quiet, Safety, Access to Outdoors, Cleanliness, Public parks/spaces, Skyline/views, Architecture/notable buildings, Historical sites/monuments, the quality of our pizza, and how "fun" our residents are. What element of LA received top scores? Luxury Boutiques, of course!
While we could cry foul all day long (and argue that gross generalizations and obvious clichés about a city aren't true, no matter who you poll), we could just as easily dismiss this as other people in other cities assuming they know what Los Angeles is like, even though they've never been here. A fair assumption, right? Fair, that is, until we dug deeper and saw how LA's own residents ranked us in the same categories...cry foul indeed!
It seems that local readers of Travel + Leisure agree with the other 60,000 LA-haters. We don't know whether to dismiss the whole thing as nonsense or go on an extended LAist Rant, listing examples of LA greatness in every category to highlight our city's finer points. Yes, LA is a work in progress, but to be rated the worst or almost-worst in several key categories (by our very own residents!) makes us seethe. Go take a peek and tell us what you think...
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
we beat out all those east coast cities for least friendly? really?
santa monica continually ranks on the top of environmental/sustainability rankings so it can't be that bad
anyways, theres a reason they subscribe to travel and leisure...they don't get out much and have to read about it from a magazine, what do they know?
i think the readers of travel and leisure don't know shit.
Worst Feature
Ease of getting around/public transportation
But people LOVE driving!
GREAT! We don't need any more transplants.
i read this too and was a bit saddened. we didn't even get best ethnic food and i truly think we trump many cities for ethnic food. i think all the readers who voted must be from san francisco. you know how much norcal folks LOVE LA!
Hey everyone, let's move to hmmmmm, oh I know, Orlando.
What is pedestrian friendliness??? This means people that think we're not friendly really don't have thick skin...because, all you have to do is ask! Otherwise people keep to themselves. Or don't speak English. I guess readers are envious much???
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANKs.
That magazine is garbage! How the hell does LA get a 10 for ethnic???? I wouldn't understand it in terms of eateries or people.
But I guess this will be the long-lasting view of LA from outsiders.
Hmm, I agree with the "ethnic" food lover's claim; there's a lot of good non-whitey eatin' here. But I also agree with T+L on some of the other points. Overall cityscape doesn't apply because LA is so sprawled out. Some areas are beautiful, others aren't so. Intelligence, agreed: this ain't New York. (At least we're prettier.) Friendliness, depends where you are and if you're in a car or not. Public transportation, agreed, unless you're lucky enough to conveniently use the subway.
It's not a stretch to acknowledge that some of the criticism is well founded and to say we could all benefit here from raising our standards. But that takes things like getting involved locally with civic issues and voting in meaningful numbers for change. And when it's a choice between that and going to a gym or a day spa or shopping or the beach or hiking or just plain decompressing from enduring horrendous traffic, for a lot of people guess what wins out?
At least we've got the boutiques.
I agree with thunder's comments on being able to improve LA. LA is definitely a growing city, and there is alot of significant growth that will continue over the decades.
The cityscape of LA is growing significantly. I remember looking west on Pico Boulevard a couple years ago and seeing the open sky. Now on the horizon, Century City is looking like its own downtown.
WHOA WHOA WHOA, thunderboltfan "this ain't New York" when it comes to intelligence?
I mean, there's a lot of dumb bunnies in LA to be sure, but isn't NYC the model-capital of the world? And also HELLO HIPSTERS??? Does the Misshapes culture really represent intellectual superiority??
Also, do you really think NYU and Columbia can compete overall with the amazing number of universities and colleges in the LA area? I would say the combo of UCLA, USC, Cal Tech, Harvey Mudd & the other Scripps schools pretty much dominate NY's schools. Don't underestimate the intellectual life of this city.
i've never quite understood the (lack of) intelligence cliche about LA. as somebody who grew up there and lives in NYC right now, i have to say, new york is full of some pretty stupid people.
people forget that LA has the number 2 best public school in the country (UCLA) one of the best private schools (USC - ranked higher than NYU on almost everything) and the hardest school in the country to get into (Cal Tech).
also ethnic food. really? who voted on this thing?
although I'm an avid lover of LA and everything in it (born and raised, still living here) I'm going to have to say NYC trumps LA in the food/arts/music (at least classical/jazz) scene.
And they have Juilliard/Manhattan/Mannes/New School.
Broadway, the Met, Carnegie Hall/Deli, Central Park. I must say though that our Natural History museum kicks theirs ass (they charge on every single freakin exhibit!). And for underground art/contemporary art i think los angeles is more friendly.
just look at the NYTimes Arts and Leisure and compare it with LA Times Calendar section for events. We are lacking so much :(. It's improved over the years but I'm still envious when I read through the paper.
although I'm an avid lover of LA and everything in it (born and raised, still living here) I'm going to have to say NYC trumps LA in the food/arts/music (at least classical/jazz) scene.
And they have Juilliard/Manhattan/Mannes/New School.
Broadway, the Met, Carnegie Hall/Deli, Central Park. I must say though that our Natural History museum kicks theirs ass (they charge on every single freakin exhibit!). And for underground art/contemporary art i think los angeles is more friendly.
just look at the NYTimes Arts and Leisure and compare it with LA Times Calendar section for events. We are lacking so much :(. It's improved over the years but I'm still envious when I read through the paper.
I'm an LA native, and 90% of the people I know that are FROM LA are kind, compassionate and intelligent. IMHO, the people that are giving LA a bad name are the transplants that assume the LA stereotypes.
Maybe we don't deserve to be in the top 10 in every category (yet), but we are certainly a far cry better than this survey suggests.
CM, I thought "intelligence" in the poll referred to the general perception that visitors had about residents they encountered while visiting, not universities. Maybe we need to get some lecture schedules to the hotel concierges.
samkim- i agree on all points as far as arts but i stand by my ethnic foods claim for LA and i grew up in NY and spent 7 yrs after college in SF. NY is great for fine dining but LA takes the cake for ethnic. there's quite a bit here and i think SF got in the top 3 which leaves a question mark on top of my head. SF is quite limited when it comes to ethnic.
Well, I'd say they hit Boston pretty accurately. #13 in Live Music? #24 in Barbecue and Weather? #17 in Diverse? Sounds about right to me.
It would be nice to see LA do better on these gimmicky city ratings. This current one snubs LA pretty much down the line. Seriously, we should have gotten a higher rating on EVERY SINGLE ENTRY there. Including ethnic food. Including intelligence. Including culture, theater, classical music, architecture, and yes even public transportation. Ok not much higher there, but we do beat out places like Houston for that. Come on people.
Lets face it, this article is no more than a measure of LA stereotypes which are alive and well. Everyone reading this who knows their way around here can say that we are better than what we are rated at, and that is what matters. And the flip side to constant negative stereotypes is that there is a certain allure to living in an underrated city, a well kept secret of sorts.
Samkin said:
"just look at the NYTimes Arts and Leisure and compare it with LA Times Calendar section for events. We are lacking so much :(. It's improved over the years but I'm still envious when I read through the paper."
I beg to differ, at least with the "so much" part. I can't believe you've actually looked at the calendar of the LA times. There really is a lot going on here. I was in New York 2 months back, and while there was ultimately a bit more there, it wasn't significantly more than LA.
On some points, they were very unfair.
But on others, very very fair.
We are very pedestrian-unfriendly. But compared to Vegas we roll out the red carpet. We are one of the most water and energy efficient cities in the country (but still we need to steal water from our neighbors!).
Rudenss? I think people here are friendly. Flakey, yes. Racist, often. But friendly.
The shopping? It blows. It's paradise if you like walmart or best buy. But if you want an independent store, you have to hunt in certain neighborhoods to find them.
Our cultural ratings? Our museums are WAY overrated. Tiny San Francisco has far more world-class institutions, while ours can only boast about the views they offer. Angelenos should be upset about this ranking, but they shouldn't be disputing it.
The pizza is piss-poor here. But giving it it's own category is clearly stacking the deck to NYC. Let's see how the rankings change when we consider the burrito!
And let's be honest: People are dumb here. Notwithstanding the several excellent universities in and around the city, most people are unread and incurious about the world.
I am going to respectfully and STRONGLY disagree about natural history museums. The NHM (in LA) looks like it hasn't been updated in 30 years, whereas AMNH (in NYC) has cutting-edge displays that get updated all the time. I love the Hall of Vertebrate Origins--I've seen no other museum do as good a job at describing evolution for audiences of so many backgrounds.
But at least LA has tarpits!