Have you ever been around a New Yorker when someone brings up Los Angeles?
“Ugh. The WORST. You couldn’t pay me enough money to live there. All the fires, earthquakes, fake people, vegan BS? They probably eat gluten-free bagels too”.
The knee-jerk reaction to stereotype Los Angeles almost feels like … we hit a nerve. Is this a sensitive subject for you, New York?
Can you really accuse a whole city of being fake while not looking at the people you’ve chosen to surround yourself with in that city?
Because if you ask someone from LA about New York, they’ll say, “Oh, I love it there! My goal is to be bi-coastal one day”.
So are we just more positive? Or are we simply happier with our day-to-day lives here?
It’s almost like New York has a one-sided competition with Los Angeles, while we’re content doing our own thing.
Maybe it’s the trademark New York aggression. But Los Angeles was never built for sharp edges. There’s a softness to the chaos here. A kind of beauty that seeps into you before you even notice you’ve been here for 10 years now.
We don’t deny the light-hearted foolery of the city. We embrace it.
So yeah, I get an Erewhon smoothie every now and again, and maybe I dated a DJ once, no my friends don’t have office jobs, and so what if I want to spend $40 on a soundbath?
The lifestyle isn’t performative: it’s lived in. There’s a whimsical beauty to Los Angeles that even the most determined New York shit-talker can’t take away.
— Your Friend
