It’s the 21^st century frontier town. Homesteaders of yester-year looked to the west for fortune and the American Dream. They stopped at the ocean because they couldn’t go any further. Since that time, the city developed and neighborhoods expanded. The physical realm was won. But now, the new frontier is the journey inward. At the dividing line between land and sea, there is the vast Pacific desert. Man sees far across the ocean to the horizon, nothing but the great expanse. This void, like all deserts, promotes introspection. The journey is metaphysical. We found a better world, now we live to better ourselves.

 

LA’s definition far exceeds the city limits. To look at LA, you must look at Los Angeles County. This metropolitan area hosts its changing slew of culture, demography, and standard of living. Your LA is different from my LA. The one constant is the fluidity of movement—change. There are new restaurants, new bands, and new starlets that emerge with each taken breath. The taco restaurant is now a nightclub is now a free health clinic is now a craft brewery.

 

This island of fantasy easily hides its inherently contradictory nature. It is one thing yet another. Los Angeles only exists because of water taken from somewhere else. Without the water from the Sierras up north, Los Angeles would not exist. The film industry promotes the glitz of “Hollywood” but the actual township is run-down and adorned with people of the night. It’s dirty and packed with traffic. The homeless, the Scientologists, the prostitutes, and the drunk and disorderly fill the streets. The ubiquitous palm tree is foreign to this habitat. It was imported to make the scenery more “exotic.” The land itself once belonged to Mexico. In one way or another, the land was taken, built, and manipulated.

 

But the neighborhoods that don’t receive the attention like Beverly Hills or Venice, such as K-town and Inglewood, host vibrant immigrant communities; and seemingly want nothing to do with how LA portrays itself. They’re blue-collar mixed in with family-owned businesses that have been here before Spielberg and Lucas changed Hollywood.

 

LA epitomizes the American Dream. The wealthy create their fantasy with large hedgerows surrounding their property coupled with manicured lawns. The vast industry of service personnel who staff the bars, restaurants, hotels; landscapers, valets, and maids… all are willing to travel great distances to work towards their own dreams as well. Despite what the outside world thinks, Los Angeles is a working person’s town. You have to keep swimming in order to stay afloat.

 

Its inclusion in the Pacific Rim brings in more Eastern influences than its Euro-centric cousins like New York or Chicago. Holistic thinking, spirituality, and care for the environment have influenced the likes of the yoga trend, healthy eating, and energy conservation. The good weather pushes people outdoors. Skate, swim, and surf. World-class skiing is hours away.

 

Los Angeles is the American microcosm. What happens here eventually reverberates out to the rest of the country. Artists reside in Los Angeles. Fashion, food, and lifestyle can be traced to the coast—a cultural ground zero. The entertainment industry merely reinforces these appetites.

 

Broaden your scope and you see Los Angeles as it truly is—a mixture of Americana. LA is undefined and that allows for anyone to write LA’s narrative. Los Angeles is the reflection of the person living there. Exploration provides the soft landing for finding what you want and wish for. When you move here, you become Los Angeles, and Los Angeles becomes you.