We get the world we deserve.
Ray Velcoro, True Detective
I’ve been to Los Angeles exactly once in my forty-one years of life: October of 2013.
Mrs. Has Thoughts and myself (AKA Kate…whom I love most ardently) were still dating back then, and we were partway through what would be an epic journey to Australia. Part of that adventure had us flying from Northern Virginia to the West Coast; where we were the proud owners of a twelve hour layover at LAX. One of my best friends since high school had been living in L.A. for years (and still does), so our plan was to meet him downtown to explore the city rather than waste away in the airport for an entire half of the Earth’s daily rotation.
Right from the jump I was incredibly annoyed with the place.
We went to hop in a taxi - only to find that the driver and the concierge barely spoke a word of English. After what seemed like an eternity of angry cajoling, I finally managed to make them understand we wanted to go down to Hollywood Boulevard to see the Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater and all that glamorous stuff that Hollywood is so renowned for the world over. The cab ride itself was fairly uneventful, but I couldn’t help noticing the crumbling infrastructure and decaying urban sprawl as we drove into the city proper.
I was even more disgusted once we arrived at our destination.
The Walk of Fame was filthy, dilapidated, and broken apart in more than just a few places. Grauman’s was a pale imitation of the glorious edifice it’s been portrayed as in countless movies and newsreels over the years. The eclectic assortment of Hollywood impersonators that loiter there on the daily were kind of fun and amusing; except for the fact that they relentlessly stalk and harass you into giving them money for playing dress up.
Honestly, now that I think about it, your average movie star these days isn’t really all that different from those amateur cosplayers.
When my friend met us at long last and drove us around the rest of the city, I was even less impressed. The entire place felt like it was in the midst of dying a slow and painful death. And this was back in 2013 - thirteen years ago. If Chris Bray is to be believed (and I have every reason to believe him) the situation has drastically deteriorated even further since then, and Los Angeles’ ultimate demise may finally be on the horizon.
But Josh, you say, you live on the complete opposite side of the country. What do you care if L.A. goes under?
And the honest answer is: I guess it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other if the people out there get what’s coming to them. What does bother me, though, is that Angelenos have been given every opportunity to reverse the situation; yet they keep digging their own graves even deeper down, and I just can’t fathom that mentality.
The mayoral primary from a week and a half ago is a perfect case study of this phenomenon. These imbeciles are so mind-raped that they emphatically voted to re-elect the woman who sat around twiddling her thumbs while a good chunk of their city burned in last year’s wildfire catastrophe - despite the fact they had an excellent alternative in a feisty and irreverent candidate who was personally affected by the aforementioned infernos (and had real, actual ideas on how to bring L.A. back from the brink).
Spencer Pratt makes it abundantly clear that he just wanted a chance to restore the city he loves to its former glory, and slimy pieces of human excrement like Jimmy Kimmel make smarmy and condescending jokes about how living in literal squalor is preferable.
As a famous clown once said: You get what you f***ing deserve.
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Karen Bass did not sit twiddling her thumbs. Cities don't deteriorate like that on their own. It takes real effort, and she was just the one to do it. Hubby and I revisited San Fran in 1999. We had both been there (separately) about a decade earlier. The city was a mess then. Can't even think how bad it is now. California needs help. My Freelan book series shows how they can solve things. Hard at work on it. I doubt it'll ever get published, though, but I'm enjoying seeing that pretend world overcome such destruction and grow up tall and strong.
I frequently wonder how much of the glamor was always mere illusion to cover Satan's armpit...