This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
If you end up leaving New York because you sufficiently hate it, take a new job, or fall hopelessly in love enough to warrant a relocation, your life may take you to Los Angeles. But where, oh, where, in our vast, gaping sprawl will you settle in order to feel most like you were back in the NY Metro area, being your awesome NYer self?
As part of a set of city-to-NYC neighborhood comparisons, the Morning News takes a lookat what L.A. 'hoods and cities align with which 'hoods and cities in New York...or even New Jersey.
Well-appointed trendoids will find Santa Monica like the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill (well, swap the salty ocean breeze for piss stench), while the balls-out eccentricity of Venice smacks of Queens.
If you like neck tats and vintage shops, you're probably somewhat of a hipster, so if in NY you like Greepoint, apparently you'll like Silver Lake...even more! That's because it sounds kinda romantic in comparison, per the author: "The houses are really pretty though, and there are pretty plants everywhere and the whole neighborhood isn’t carcinogenic."
Cool kids with an edge will apparently want to lodge in Echo Park, but gripe about it, which makes it like the comparably edgy Brooklyn area of Bushwick. You know, you have a great place, but you might get shot walking to it from the corner store.
Forget hipsters, the hippies still frolic in Laurel Canyon (provided they have book or record deals or did well with drug deals), so the parallel here is Greenwich Village.
NYC's Hell's Kitchen is akin to L.A.'s Downtown. How about this description of DTLA, folks: "This is where most Los Angelenos go to pretend they live in New York." Sadly, the story doesn't really break Downtown into its finer points on the map, because the DTLA of L.A. Live is more akin to Times Square/Midtown (as would be the Hollywood & Highland part of Hollywood) than anything else. And L.A. Live is nothing like the enclaves of pricy lofts and burgeoning nightlife over in the Arts District.
Stereotypically, the Valley is a little maligned; it's basically seen by the author as not without merit...at a compromise. Here, Studio City is the Hoboken, NJ of the NY area. As in: If you are willing to make the trip, it's worth it, but not the same as, like, being in the city. Hmmm. The thing is, a significant portion of L.A.'s major economic sector (film/TV production) is based in Studio City and neighboring Burbank, so people head here daily from other parts of town to make their money, which doesn't seem very "Hoboken" now, does it?
Lastly, it seems the big win in L.A. (County) is the City of West Hollywood, which is where you'll go here to feel like you're in a plethora of Manhattan neighborhoods: Chelsea, East Village, Upper East Side, West Village. You can shop, get properly sauced at all manner of bars, eat well, look at beautiful people, and live a generally beautiful life.
So if you happen to be from NY, and are feeling ill at ease in the vapid wasteland* of Los Angeles, you can either get the eff out or figure out where you're more likely to feel like you're at home in NY. Of course, if you're stuck on a lease for your one bedroom in Westchester, Mid-City, or Van Nuys, well, buck up and get out and enjoy your 'hood and the rest of the city...there's a lot of it to get to know and love. It's okay that we're L.A. and not NY. We've got plenty going on.
*You do understand, we don't think L.A. is a vapid wasteland, right?
