We do, in fact, not own our London flat, and yep it’s a leasehold. Feudal! Hopeless!
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This is key.
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Didn’t fancy Orlando?
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Have you looked at prices in Highland Park lately? It’s starting to gentrify over there. A better reference might be Boyle Heights.
Plus, they tend to be affordable, which is a huge reason for many people to live there. I’d put cities like Asheville, NC, to name one, up against most of the large cities in the US. It’s still relatively affordable, it’s beautiful, there are things to do, and it’s a pretty progressive city, with less than 100,000 people:
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It doesn’t sound like you really hate walkable, vibrant cities, just the craziness of the 1% invasion of NYC. The trick is to follow the Gretzky tactic, and move to where the quality of life WILL BE, and buy cheap so you can stay there. I bought in Downtown Jersey City in the late 90’s, and now I could never afford it. But there are people moving now to other still cheap sections of town and making those desirable places to live. In all cases it sucks to be a renter when the gentrification wave comes in.
It sounds like a strong reason Cory & Co went to LA was Biz, there’s plenty of great urban places in the US, particularly in the NE & NW, but not so many centers of publishing & gaming.
Really? Just in this past weekend, there was a free arts/music festival in Chinatown with rock bands from Taiwan totally killing it, a ridiculously awesome movie experience at Hollywood Forever cemetery (“Showgirls” may have limited cultural value, but infinite humor value), a whole load of art shows that have nothing to do with the entertainment industry, Mariachi USA AND Bootsy Collins at the Bowl, etc etc. If you can’t find something interesting to do, you’re really not looking very hard. As for transportation, I took the subway, lightrail, and buses all weekend without a hitch. LA is what you make of it.
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That kind of stuff isn’t going to happen in the USA on autopilot with the status quo in place:
On the udder hand…
Bernie Sanders: It’s Time To End Orwellian Surveillance of Every American
Here’s where we can donate to someone who will actually fight for things we believe in – in order to make those things turn into reality:
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I hear tell most of them have indoor plumbing, even. And lights that run on 'lectricity!
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L.A. huh…
Welcome to SMOG Central!
And why worry about those pesky air quality issues anyway as you will will be running your own Moisture vaporator!
/Service droid not included
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I have to say that even though I complain about San Diego having moved here to the city from Silicon Valley 15 years ago, I don’t know that I could go back. Though I do miss it at times.
Mainly I miss the Santa Cruz mountains.
San Diego somehow has staved off the insanity that has happened in other major metro areas and has been pretty stable.
Plus we have the best beer on planet earth! 
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Los Angeles is one of the few places I prefer as a location in the Fallout series as opposed to real life.
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I assume the motivation to move to LA is related to http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/angryfilms-options-little-brother-novel-21883 . While the author could choose to remain in London, Los Angeles is a natural place to be if he wants to be involved in screenwriting or possibly production, and the decision to move rather than fly back and forth was decided on the bases of considerations presented in his article here.
Congratulations and good luck with the movie.
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I’m not sure how much time you’ve spent in LA lately, but if you think you aren’t about to crash land into a city that is actively pushing out families in exchange for transient young professionals with disposable incomes, you’re in for a rude awakening. Los Angeles, especially the Westside is extremely expensive with regard to housing and education (if you are going private). Rents are spiraling out of control and housing for families is disappearing, unless you can afford to spend a million dollars for a 2 bedroom/1bath 1,000 square foot house. Playa Vista, which blocks out the sun and has destroyed the wetlands, is rapidly filling their “starts in the low 1 millions” enclosed community units and is reshaping the face of the working/middle class neighborhoods. I seriously wish you good luck and hope you do find what you wish for here.
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Here ya go…1100 sq ft, 2 bed / 1 bath for the bargain price of $1.3M
http://www.sevengables.com/real-estate/lg15135612/450-osgood-court-laguna-beach-ca-92651/
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Nah, don’ come here, it’s a horrible place to live and we’re just completely full up.
(looks around suspiciously. “Have they left? Do you think we fooled 'em?”)
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Dude. Los Angeles is the least walkable city. Nobody walks in L.A., dig? I’m a former Orange County denizen, a cultural commuter to L.A. I drove to (then kinda punk) Melrose Ave, and impressed my friends with the ability to find a free parking place. We got a ticket one time, and were almost car-jacked another time. I choose my living situation so I don’t have to own a car. I’ve lived in Boston and Brooklyn. Expensive places both. Yer description of London is all-to-familiar. I tell my wife that I want to move to Milwaukee. She thinks I’m joking. I am not. Detroit seems like a nice option. Kansas City. I used to think Denver would be nice, but I found out that many SoCal folks have already colonized. Cleveland sounds pleasant. Harvey Pekar and all of that. If I had to build a list of the least livable cities, L.A. would be at the top. There’s no fucking water there. John Fante is a great writer, but no matter what he says L.A. is not a pretty town.
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Good luck with the move to LA! It is nice here but property and rent prices are skyrocketing in the good areas- there’s so much interest from China (number 1 destination for Chinese development $$$ in North America now ) and now American migrants from The East Coast too. It’s not at London levels of hyper gentrification yet but give it a 10 years and it will be . Maybe that’ll bring more jobs to city - LA’s job growth over the last decade or so has been worse than Detroit, I kid you not. Perhaps that’s what’s kept it more affordable than NYC, London etc. LA’ s growth is picking up though so that’s exciting
Btw your interpretation of Cameron’s prepared remark in the link you used to support your claim that the UK is considering an arrest-without-breaking-the-law policy actually doesn’t say anything like you imply unless one takes a paranoidly imaginative approach to it. The remark says nothing about arrests- it more likely implies govt attempts to influence (propaganda/education/information intervention or whatever ) and monitor and give official warnings to those it deems extremists as suggested by the rest of the article. It is certainly reasonable to object to all this but arrest policy doesn’t seem to be the issue here.
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Which is exactly the reason why I think the next 50 years are going to be all about the rise of the “tier 2” cities. It’s already happening – I’ve been in Baltimore for about 18 years, and it’s such a hip place these days. Someone else mentioned Seattle. I was just there for the first time last week, and oh man was it nice! These are the types of cities actual people are going to start flocking to. Sure, we’ll trek into the NYCs and San Frans and Londons to do business or, I dunno, participate in cultural events that are actually aimed at real people (which seems to be less and less), but we’ll live in smaller, more affordable, and frankly much more inviting cities.
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i wish you the best @doctorow!! i do really enjoy visiting LA, it has a vibrancy i’ve only really felt in NYC and PDX.
But when you get tired of big cities, let me show you around the Gems of oregon. Oakridge, NW 23 in PDX, Hendricks park in Eugene, Newport, and Sisters.
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