Los Angeles, despite the palm trees and the fairly consistent shining sun, is not all warm and fuzzy.  It has a certain rough edge to it that reminds me of what I understand New York of the 1970s to have been like.  Have you ever walked down skid row?  It is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before.  Hundreds of homeless individuals fully living out their lives on those blocks.  They engage in everything from sleeping to shaving to emptying their bowels. Someone asked me what did we have that was similar in New York. I honestly couldn’t answer her.  Considering that Los Angles is home to the Oscars and lots of glamour, how can people be allowed to subsist this way?

There are other rough edges to Los Angeles.

Every day, the local news channels focus on the “sig” alerts. I have no idea what “sig” is short for (I have assumed significant) but it signals an unplanned event that causes the closing of one lane of traffic for 30 minutes or more. By 5am, when I am on my treadmill, there are several sig alerts. By 5am!  That is not zen. That is not palm tree living, folks.

On top of the sig alerts, you have daily reports of car racing accidents as well as just random cars crashing onto poles. A few days after I moved in, traffic was backed up on a wide avenue because a tree was down. When I passed by the situation, the tree was on the road and several cop cars were just hanging about.

The other morning, when I arrived at my office, the security guard alerted me to the fact that a woman had just crashed onto our property.   Our gate was all twisted and unworkable. I cannot imagine what could have lead her to have crashed and done the significant mount of damage that she had done.  That was indeed a rough beginning to the day.  This wasn’t the first time, someone had crashed onto our property.  I have never seen the movie Crash, but just the title alone makes sense for LA.

There are some other nice rough aspects of Los Angeles: the rough ocean waves that draw thousands to the water.

Oh, that is beautiful!

Los Angeles: the beauty and the beast.