A bike path along the Pacific Ocean, Santa Monica, Ca.Well, I'm back in California after 3 weeks of Midwestern Suburban America over the holidays with family.
In many ways there are the obvious differences between life in the Midwest and on the West Coast. But many of the similarities of Suburban American life, for better or worse, are still shared. If you think about it, Los Angeles really is a "great big freeway", as Burt Bacharach's song, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, pretty much lays it out.
In many ways there are the obvious differences between life in the Midwest and on the West Coast. But many of the similarities of Suburban American life, for better or worse, are still shared. If you think about it, Los Angeles really is a "great big freeway", as Burt Bacharach's song, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, pretty much lays it out.
If you lived in, say, Decatur, IL or San Rafael just north of San Francisco, it's no different from L.A. You still largely rely on your car for work, errands, and recreation. The drive-in restaurant may have been [arguably] invented by an Englishman, but the very concept of it and its practice exploded in America during the span of the 20th century, a phenomenon no other culture in the world ever truly took part in. The history of the drive-in (whether restaurant, theater, or road trip) is the history of the culture of cars in American life.
Since I live just 15 minutes away by train from downtown L.A. I have some of the benefits of city life intermingling with the comforts of suburban life, although my home is also in what is technically a city. I kind of love that.
But as with living in the suburbs, things here for the most part aren't 24 hours, 7 days a week, like it is in New York City or Chicago or Houston. The light rail train stops operating just before midnight. A cab ride from Union Station downtown to the corner from my building costs about $25 (including tip). I can't be entirely spontaneous here the way I used to be when I lived in my little studio flat by the lake in Chicago. Spontaneity granted me some of the most memorable moments in my life. You really do need to plan things ahead of time when you live in the suburbs, and you plan them around your car, which is virtually impossible if you don't have a car.
It's a trade-off. Suburban living gives immense comfort, at the expense of spontaneity. City life offers incredible spontaneity at the expense of spaciousness and quietude. Having lived in both places and experiencing their pros and cons, it's interesting that I've settled into a compromise between both at this phase in my life.
But I still plan on spending the rest of my life in the city. I love the culture, the spontaneity, the collision, the infusion, and the inclusion of diversity, the menu dripping with an obscene amount of choices and variety in all of life's appointments.
Since I live just 15 minutes away by train from downtown L.A. I have some of the benefits of city life intermingling with the comforts of suburban life, although my home is also in what is technically a city. I kind of love that.
But as with living in the suburbs, things here for the most part aren't 24 hours, 7 days a week, like it is in New York City or Chicago or Houston. The light rail train stops operating just before midnight. A cab ride from Union Station downtown to the corner from my building costs about $25 (including tip). I can't be entirely spontaneous here the way I used to be when I lived in my little studio flat by the lake in Chicago. Spontaneity granted me some of the most memorable moments in my life. You really do need to plan things ahead of time when you live in the suburbs, and you plan them around your car, which is virtually impossible if you don't have a car.
It's a trade-off. Suburban living gives immense comfort, at the expense of spontaneity. City life offers incredible spontaneity at the expense of spaciousness and quietude. Having lived in both places and experiencing their pros and cons, it's interesting that I've settled into a compromise between both at this phase in my life.
But I still plan on spending the rest of my life in the city. I love the culture, the spontaneity, the collision, the infusion, and the inclusion of diversity, the menu dripping with an obscene amount of choices and variety in all of life's appointments.
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