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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Apr 25, 2019 - 09:29am PT
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I don't know about all this hate on LA. I just love it here. Of course I live on the edge where the air is really good.
I heard the report on the news that LA air is the worst. More specifically that is in the Port of Long Beach area where they have not yet got a handle on the diesel from ships, trains and trucks.
Evidence of good air can be found in Pasadena. 40 years ago it was the worst with a constant brown haze. It was virtually abandonded. As the air cleaned up it blossomed into a top spot to live and visit and is now thriving.
Crime in LA is on an all time low with homicides plunging to record lows when the city was a quarter the size it is now.
Y'all can go on hating but I'm gonna breath my clean air and eat my street tacos 'til I'm old and gray.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 09:33am PT
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I’ll take LA’s traffic any day compared to Seattle’s. At least you have options in LA.
The only way you have options in Seattle is if you have an amphibious car.
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10b4me
Social climber
Lida Junction
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Apr 25, 2019 - 12:20pm PT
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I don't know about all this hate on LA. I just love it here.
Wait another thirty years.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Apr 25, 2019 - 12:31pm PT
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Ken M has a point.
Here in WV, if you piss off the locals, they chop down trees to block the road to your house, and then they torch your place. There are never any eye witnesses, and nobody knows nuthin'.
This is, after all, MAGA country.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 12:33pm PT
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From a visitor perspective, and first-time drive-in-the-area perspective, LA can be a nightmare. But like most metro areas it has a bit of everything and with some effort and imagination you can find your tribe and carve out a life full of possibilities that are meaningful to you.
There are definitely places I would prefer to live much more than LA. But it is not as bad as I feared before moving here and it makes the jigsaw puzzle of my life possible, unlike almost every other area in the country, so I’m not complaining! A big part of that is probably because I work from home and don’t have to deal with the daily commute. That would definitely sap my soul.
In the last month or two I have been kayaking near Malibu, kayaking in E. Fork of San Gabriel River, skiing at Mt Baldy, and enjoying an expansive view of greenery and mountains (and houses) every day. LA is more convenient for climbing than SF Bay Area, and really anyone who can’t find what they like here isn’t trying. I can’t argue anything in favor of the traffic though. It is manageable if you design your life around minimizing it.
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formerclimber
Boulder climber
CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 12:36pm PT
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The air quality is actually even worse on outskirts of LA where the toxic soup gets pushed by predominant eastward winds and sits against the hills (LA is in a natural bowl).
Anyway, you can smell the stench of LA smog way before you even drive close to it.
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Gorgeous George
Trad climber
Los Angeles, California
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Apr 25, 2019 - 12:47pm PT
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If you think driving in LA is bad, try defending the City when somebody posts an obviously inconvenient fact about life in LA. Suddenly, in two-three days you get 134+ responses.
Everybody loves dinging the City.
But you ever think that maybe our traffic miseries are due to the masses of people who love being here, and continue to come every chance they get?
When I get tired of it, I head east, north, or, my preference, SOUTH. Unfortunately, west is limited.
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formerclimber
Boulder climber
CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 12:52pm PT
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Here in WV, if you piss off the locals, they chop down trees to block the road to your house, and then they torch your place. There are never any eye witnesses, and nobody knows nuthin'. One must do something bad?
I've seen rural folks who had this kind of stuff coming, for sure.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Apr 25, 2019 - 02:54pm PT
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actually, a study just came out that said LA has the worst air in the country, and is getting worse.
Obviously they didn't sample the air on any crosstown street in Manhattan.
I can't say it's science, but on most days I can see Catalina Island from my front porch in Monrovia (east of Pasadena.) That's about 30 miles. I can also see Saddleback Mountain in Orange County, about the same distance. Of course there's always a pocket of smog around Long Beach. But when my visibility is limited it's almost always marine layer moisture. I see zero evidence of L.A. air getting worse.
According to Marketwatch, the 8 worst U.S. cities are:
...eight cities reporting their highest number of days with dangerous ozone and particular pollution level spikes since air quality was first measured 20 years ago. They were:
Fairbanks, Alaska
Salinas, Calif.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, Calif.
Missoula, Mont.
Bismarck, N.D.
Bend-Pineville, Ore.
Spokane-Spokane Valley-Coeur d’Alene, Wash.-Idaho
Yakima, Wash.
The list is from the American Lung Association.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 03:34pm PT
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That's about 30 miles.
Actually closer to 55 miles, but who’s counting? 😉
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formerclimber
Boulder climber
CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 03:38pm PT
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Here're some maps in below found in CA statewide, year 2014 report. They show key metrics (while numerous toxic pollutants never make it into such cumulative reports, would be only seen in per-facility emissions/cleanup reports).
LA metro is shown on separate sub-maps. Not posting screenshots because of copyright.
https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/calenviroscreen/report/ces20publicreview04212014.pdf
Toxic Releases to air: page 47
PM 2.5: page 24
Ozone: page 20
Diesel PM: page 29
Hazardous waste facilities: page 72
Pollution Burden: page 86
 this is a combination indicator but not a simple sum of the above factors
Enough said...
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Apr 25, 2019 - 05:07pm PT
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One must do something bad?
For a MAGA hillbilly, "bad" could be having a darker complexion and surname that a hillybilly cannot pronounce.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Apr 25, 2019 - 05:56pm PT
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Yeah...the proliferation of 'FastTrak' lanes throughout So Cal has always rubbed me the wrong way. Why is it ok for the state gov't to take public lands (or acquire lands for public purposes), and then turn them over to a for-profit operation? Aren't public lands supposed to be...public lands?
The short answer is that it makes traffic move faster. It's not even debatable.
I can (not) understand why you would want to have MORE congestion, MORE pollution, and travel slower.
Here are the facts:
https://la.streetsblog.org/2012/10/02/metro-expresslanes-and-carpooling-the-facts-the-benefits-and-more/
Or, we can just keep building more lanes, I think at about 25 million/mile.
And I can see (not) why you would object to a private firm actually coming up with the money to make it happen. Why be innovative? Why be creative? Why not tear up thousands of units of housing, in a situation where already short several hundred thousand units? Why do something that works??
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formerclimber
Boulder climber
CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 06:12pm PT
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I think this thing described about WV happens all over the South and in some parts of CA or Colorado even and does not have much to do with politics.
I can recall all kinds of situations where I heard some very bad things happened to people who had disputes (yes to people of the same race).
Also, if you move into any ethnically or racially uniform rural area, anywhere in the word, and you're different from locals...things can happen if you have some disagreement or even just stand up for your property rights sometimes. Including some clannish area and you're just not "from here".
Such is rural life, unless you're in the zip code for the wealthy. It's not a bucolic environment unless one is putting out $$$.
But for a moment I thought it was about Californians moving and trying to change things to make it all into LA (and raise taxes)..and getting the axe.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Apr 25, 2019 - 06:15pm PT
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LA traffic has spread to the eastside . Same insanity only on snowy roads ...Drive at your own peril...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 09:31pm PT
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chuck, you forgot bunions.
The good thing is that when the Lord smites us y’all will be unable to resist looking and
will produce untold numbers of salt pillars.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Apr 25, 2019 - 09:35pm PT
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10b, All I can speak to is what I've been seeing from where I live for the last 12 years. I'm up on the shoulder of the San Gabriel's just west of Monrovia Canyon, so I can see out across the San Gabriel Valley, out to Palos Verde and Catalina. From my roof I can see straight across downtown and out to the west side. The views have steadily cleared since we moved in. It's clear more frequently, and it's clearer overall. So from the standpoint of visibility my empirical evidence indicates clearer air. Granted there are probably all kinds of pollutants that don't visibly dirty the air.
edit: If God ever comes back to clean up this corrupt planet, Beijing will be the first place on his list.
Fixed it for ya ;-)
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Apr 25, 2019 - 10:14pm PT
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10b, I heard on NPR the other morning that the recent poor air quality results were due in large part to the soot from the numerous big fires we had recently.
Sewellymon, nice spread. Did you ever think when you were climbing bum sleeping in the dirt that you'd ever have a nice pad of your own? Still blows me away. It's like that Talking Heads song, "well, how did I get here"?
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Republic, WA
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Apr 26, 2019 - 08:26am PT
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When you live and work near thousands and thousands of other drivers you get used to traffic to some degree. When you don't deal with traffic regularly being stuck in it becomes maddening. When I'm feeling at peace with my world, traffic is one of the easiest ways to kill that buzz. It's the old numbers game.
I know that I’m spoiled, the county I live in has one traffic light
Ha! I'm more spoiled than you, we don't have any.
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