- Patricia Sulbaran Lovera
- BBC News World correspondent in Los Angeles
13 julio 2018
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Los Angeles is the second most populous city in the United States.
How can it be that in the same day I meet Hollywood actor Collin Farrell and meet a butcher who doesn’t eat meat?
I have arrived in Los Angeles.
Within a few weeks of arriving in my new hometown, I bumped into the Irish interpreter in a supermarket parking lot.
I was still in shock when the nice guy who delivered my meat confessed to me that since he became a vegan he is happier.
“And here (in Los Angeles) it’s easier, you know? People understand those things,” he told me.
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“Everyone comes to Hollywood…they want to make it in the neighborhood…” says Madonna’s famous song.
Frequently bumping into internationally famous celebrities in everyday places and meeting people with “alternative” ways of life is common in this city, although it strikes me as a newcomer from Miami.
The city is huge and, at first glance, places that we have seen in the movies stand out: Beverly Hills, the famous Hollywood sign in the hillsthe walk of stars on Hollywood boulevard…
But those who live here say that Los Angeles is “much more than that” and that, in fact, “that” is the least “cool”.
“Trendsetting”
I’ve been told about a metropolis that is a culinary paradise in which, in addition, there are parties everywhere, dozens of green spaces and you can “see your favorite band more times than your wallet was prepared”.
This is how Greta told me, who came from Caracas to this city seven years ago and assures me that this is the place of “trendsetting“, that is, where fashions originate.
He gives me examples that border on the eccentric: pay to have strangers whisper in your ear in a relaxing room, yoga classes with baby goatsmermaid conventions and cafes with components of cannabis.
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Los Angeles is a fertile land of “influencers”, those people who have thousands of followers on social networks.
Con the rise of “influencers” In recent years, those people who accumulate thousands of followers on social networks, Los Angeles has become a fertile land in which they seem to multiply.
Walking through Silver Lake, an expensive neighborhood full of hipsters and decorated cafes vintageI dodged distracted young women on the sidewalks taking selfies and recording videos of their “everyday life” in the city.
Fashion aside, I can understand why this is one of the liberals’ favorite cities.
In the few weeks that I have been here I have seen things that I never found in the almost three years that I spent in Miami, the first city that welcomed me in the United States.
Transgender women walking down the street, people smoking marijuana without hiding at a family concert, professionals bringing their dogs to their offices, Mexican tacos made with Korean barbecue, being asked in almost every restaurant if I have any restrictions on my diet. .
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Some praise Los Angeles for its “more relaxed” lifestyle than other large US cities.
As the vegan butcher explained to me, it seems that in the second most populous city in the country -with almost four million inhabitants-, people usually understands and exalts differences.
It was the impression I got during one of my first walks, in which I came across neighborhoods with names like Koreatown, Little Armenia, Filipinotown y Thai Town.
Also with East Los Angeles, which although its name does not say it, has a Latino population of 97%, according to figures from last year from the United States census.
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The city is full of neighborhoods with diverse populations.
“You’re in a white neighborhood”
But just as I’ve been pleasantly surprised by these features of the city, there are other things that don’t necessarily fit into my personal definition of “cool.”
An example is the little Latino presence I have noticed in some of the more cosmopolitan areas of the city.
Especially since Hispanics represent almost half of the population of the city of Los Angeles.
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The impossible traffic of the city is one of its not so friendly faces.
The ones I’ve met in Hollywood, for example, are service-sector workers who, at the end of their shift, go to other neighborhoods, often far away.
I discussed it with Ricardo, a Mexican technician who grew up here and installs cable services in homes all over Los Angeles.
When he visited mine in Hollywood and I asked him what he thought of the area, he replied: “You’re definitely in a white neighborhood” and continued with a crushing assertion.
“Here (in Los Angeles) there are people from everywhere, but it is very rare that they mix.”
Money money
Perhaps that lack of mixture that Ricardo delimited has to do with the high cost of living, especially housing.
It is common to hear that single professionals with permanent jobs share the rent with more than one person, since their income alone does not allow them to pay it.
“It’s the irony of this place,” a friend who has lived here for two years told me. “You know people with ‘cool’ jobs in technology or entertainment companies, but still They don’t have enough money.”
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The openness towards the LGBTI community is one of the features of the state of California, especially in cities like Los Angeles.
The desired lifestyle for many often involves dabbling in spare time with jobs as waiters, Uber drivers, dog walkers or babysitters. Or all together.
The figures speak for themselves. Renting a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles County costs, on average, just over $2,000, according to the specialized website Rent Cafe.
While the average annual income for a person, according to figures from the 2016 national census, is almost US$30,000.
That is, someone who wishes to live alone in this city must spend almost all of their salary on housing. Not easy.
Alert
The sustained increase in the cost of living has been pointed out by authorities and organizations as one of the causes of a crisis of homelessness, which places Los Angeles as the US city where more people live on the street.
Many of them suffer from mental illness and drug abuse problems.
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Los Angeles is also the city where more people live on the streets.
a reality that makes it hard to walk quietly in some areas of the city.
In less than a month here, two homeless people have yelled at me or tried to physically assault me, which has made me in a constant state of alert.
Even in the building where I live, in a residential area considered safe, I witnessed the arrest of a man wearing a cat-shaped mask whom the police accused of trespassing on private property.
those who love her
Despite this, people I have met in this short time from other cities as far away as Boston or New York, do nothing but speak well of Los Angeles.
Like Cynthia, a yoga teacher who told me that 15 years ago she came from the East Coast to California and never looked back.
“Not having to think about shoveling snow and being cold for months is such a relief,” he told me.
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There are those who move to Los Angeles for its beaches and good weather all year round.
I’m sure many think like her.
Coincidentally, it is those who are not from here or who come from other countries who have told me the best about the city.
“Lots of ambition”
The opposite of Gabe, a chatty Californian who is part of the security staff at the building where I work.
When asked what he thinks of Los Angeles, he tells me: “It’s overwhelming, there’s a lot of traffic, a lot of ambition.”
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The offer of concerts is constant in Los Angeles.
I answer that I don’t think it’s a particular characteristic of here, but of many big cities in the world.
“But here you have that monster that is the movie industry, my dear, and that can eat you alive“, answered.
I smile and tell her that even though I’m not an actress, I’ve been overwhelmed since the first day I landed here.
“It’s strange,” he replies, “you hear a lot of complaints from Los Angeles but in the end no one wants to leave.”
