LOS ANGELES County, California, USA (North America)

October 2019 —The city in which I live in is Los Angeles, California in United States of America. This city is very populated and is very busy during business hours. The city is filled with large buildings with multiple stories. Traffic is really bad in the morning since everyone is trying to get to work. Between the hours of 7 am to 10 am the major freeways would get congested with heavy traffic. Even the carpool lanes or toll lanes are jammed with traffic. It is crazy here to own a car, special since traffic and parking is bad during weekdays. I like this city since is very populous and diverse. We have different culture and people from all over the world living in a common place. Here, you can find ethnic foods from different cultures and learn about them. There are tiny streets dedicated to each culture, such as China town, Korean town and little Tokyo. One thing that did change was the amount of people immigrating to this city. I see more and more diversity around the area in which I live in. I also noticed that there has been more construction lately. There are companies that are starting to built both commercial and residential infrastructures in this area. I guess is a good thing since it will attract more people to this area. The only downside is that the housing cost will be increasing more since demand is higher. Housing prices has been increasing recently and it keeps on escalating.

October 2019 — I live in Los Angeles, California. I’ve lived here for over five years and it took a little while to get used to. I’m from the east coast and the west coast is very different. One thing I love about Los Angeles is the quality of food. I forget how lucky I am to live somewhere where there are so many amazing chefs. It’s not until I visit another city or town that I realize that. And it’s all kinds of food from Thai to Italian to Mediterranean to Mexican. I’m also grateful I live in a place with diversity. There are all kinds of people from all over the United States and the world. I also love that there are so many museums to go to, with constantly changing art exhibits. I love the weather a lot, it’s so sunny here. I love that there are both beaches and mountains, so I can go on a hike or take a relaxing day at the beach. I also love that I live in a politically liberal city/state. One thing I don’t like about Los Angeles is the traffic. It takes an insane amount of time to get anywhere unless its super early in the morning or late at night. I also don’t love that we have a homeless problem that the city isn’t doing a great job addressing. I also don’t love that a lot of the people here are caught up in the film industry and trying to be cool. One major thing that has changed since I’ve moved here is rent has REALLY gone up. I feel like Los Angeles is going to have to deal with the affordable housing crisis soon. It’s driving people out of the city. Overall Los Angeles is very spread out and you need a car to get around because our public transportation isn’t great. But you can find some neighborhoods that are walkable, they are just more expensive to live in. It’s a great city at times but I would definitely not be able to survive if I didn’t have down to earth friends/people in my life.

October 2019 — I currently live in Los Angeles CA. I live near the LAX airport and close to two major freeways. Living in Los Angeles is great if you are looking for a city that has lots of interesting things to do such as different restaurants, for example one of my favorite restaurants is GEN KBBQ buffet located in Torrance. Living in LA has its benefits such as you are close to the beach but also close to tons of tourist attractions. The problems with living in LA is that there is always to much traffic and it can be a hassle to get to one place, at times it has taken up to an hour to go to a location that is no more than 15 miles away, all due to traffic. I usually get around on a bicycle, I have grown to love getting around on a bike because you are able to use the full car lane if you need to, also you don’t have to worry to much about traffic. The streets are not the best in some places there is tons of uneven roads or gravel. If you need to find parking you might need to have change or pay with your card so that you can park your vehicle when visiting a small shop. The whole city is really lively and you can always find something that is open even in the middle of the night. The sun is always shinning and the weather is around the 75 degrees to mid 80s. Los Angeles does have a homeless problem and this can be seen all over the city at times you can see people setting up tents or pushing their belonging in carts. Rent has gotten too expensive, most places run near $1000-15000 a month for 1 bedroom and 1 bath, you are better off living with sharing a place. All in all LA is a place you should visit but unless you love crowds or traffic, you should plan to leave after a couple of years.

February 2019 — I was born in Santa Monica, a beach town located in Los Angeles County in California in 1972. Back then Santa Monica still had a reputation as a rather politically conservative and sleepy little beach town. Obviously things could get crazy on Santa Monica Beach and the Pier during summer but most of the time the town did indeed move at an idyllic, almost glacial pace. Growing up in the seventies was a magical time to be in SM. There were plenty of open spaces like Douglas Park, with its lawn bowling and ponds brimming with tadpoles and koi. There was the Brentwood Twin movie theater where my parents and I would take in double features and where I received my formal education in cinema. Of course, above all was Santa Monica Beach and it’s attendant SM Pier, which was a world class venue for fun. I always felt safe and our esteemed Big Blue Bus system did a more than capable job of shuttling my mom and I before she learned how to drive. I attended McKinley Elementary School, a solidly middle class and diverse K-6th school. Around 1977, a growing coalition of little old ladies and activist hippies helped initiate a policy of rent control throughout the city, which began a gradual shift towards leftist politics that continues to this day. Paradoxically, the economy of SM started to embrace a very commercial, tourist friendly stance that has made SM a Mecca for visitors all over the world. Nowadays we are anything but a sleepy little beach town but SM still occupies a gigantic space in my heart. It’s where I learned almost everything important about life.

August 2018 — I live in Florence, which is a town within the county of LA. This is a quiet neighborhood where most people just keep to themselves. I don’t like how many arrests are made on this block, but I like that nobody is a real threat to anyone. Mostly its just drug problems with people not getting enough crack, so they do stupid things. Im in a very nice building in complete protection from those bad people. The place isn’t somewhere you want to move to. I may live in a nice place, but any other place would put you in cross fire of serious problems that arise often in this area. South Central isn’t for everyone, but the weather is very nice.

July 2018 — Lancaster, Ca. Outskirt of LA county. The time-frame I will be referencing is late 90’s to early 2000’s. It was nice to grow up in this town due to it’s small town feel. Most of the people here (initially) took pride in the city because for generations they had lived here. What I did not like about growing up in this city is as I got older the homelessness started to increase as well as the crime. Due to the fact it is on the outskirts of La county it is an affordable and close option to the people who didn’t make it in LA. The special memories I have in this town include; the poppies, Jet hawks games, the fair, and school events. The landscape is beautiful desert there is definitely opportunity for exploration that was a big memory in growing up here. There are several nature walks and nature preserves that allow you to get a glimpse of what the desert landscape has to offer. I am still living here and it has changed in terms of an increase in development. More business and offices are being constructed constantly. It is a smaller town, with a population of about 150,000. So it is not a “small” town by definition but in comparison to its neighbor of LA which is about 1 hour south.

June 2018 — My hometown is a huge California city that everyone knows, but when I grew up there in the 1950s, it was a rural area on the outside of this big city that was the country to me. We had hills and lots of places for kids to play, though our street was narrow and actually dangerous to play on but we didnt know that as children. My groups of friends played all over this area. We had every nationality conceivable when I was growing up and I wasn’t aware that these people were different than I. I could ride my ride to Dodgers stadium, we were that close to it, but it still felt like a countryside coming home to our little house on a hill. East LA was a cool place to grow up. Pasadena was right around the corner. We lived in an area called Mt Washington, and Glassell Park is where I attended grade school. I walked to school everyday and never really thought about climbing this huge hill to our home, as it seemed an adventure to me, the trees, and homes, nature, all made up this wonderland for me to take in. There were no traffic light on our main street down the hill, only a couple stop signs. After ten years of living there, my father decided to move us to the beach. The “smog” would roll up the valley below us and you couldn’t see the houses across the valley on the other side. I will always miss this area, but in revisiting, it has become a crowded, house packed area like the rest of LA and has NO resemblance to that area in which I grew up. It is now noisy and crowded, and all the places we played as children are gone and filled with homes. Sad to see this change but thats how it goes.

June 2018 — My hometown was Altadena which is a city in Los Angeles county in the United States. I grew up there in the 1980s through the 1990s, and had a lot of fun. The city itself it beautiful, with many trees, bushes, flowers and other greenery. It’s a quiet little place where most neighbors knew one another, at least on the same street and in some cases for several blocks surrounding. The children in the area certainly knew one another as they went to the elementary school there which was situated at the top of a steep hill at the base of the mountain which Altadena was nestled against. There were many things to do for children in Altadena, because, being a small friendly little town, there was not a lot of car traffic on the streets. This meant plenty of opportunity for games of hide and seek or “freeze tag” all over the place. Of course there was also a lot of bicycling, skateboarding, and roller skating as well. One of the many things I liked about growing up in Altadena was that many of the trees had delicious fruit just waiting to be eaten. In my family’s backyard we had a plum tree and peach tree, each having deliciously sweet fruit. At the top of my steeply inclined street there was also a huge pomegranate tree interwoven in a long green bush so big and thick that it completely hid the houses that were laid out on a small cul-de-sac behind it. This tree provided an extra special treat for neighborhood children, because as anyone who has eaten a pomegranate knows, they provide a bit of an adventure. In the first place they are pretty substantial, about twice the size of a regular apple. Part of the challenge, besides choosing a few carefully from the tree they hung from, was penetrating into the center to get at the bright red seeds which were the prize for eating. These seeds had a deliciously tangy taste and were very pleasant to eat while chatting about various things. The seeds were so potent they also left red colored stains on just about anything they came into contact with, such as hands or clothing. So for kids the pomegranates provided endless enjoyment always waiting and within reach. One of two parks located in Altadena was another fun place for kids to hang out. It was a very large size, and included two baseball fields, a tennis court, basketball court, children’s playground area, barbecue area, and even a community building so large it served as the polling place for residents to vote in elections. The park was covered everywhere with welcoming green grass. There were several restroom locations, and the pavement and most park structures were constructed with intermixed stones and cement, giving the park a very natural look. Overall, Altadena made a wonderful place for kids growing up in a traditional American style and setting. There was plenty to do and see and many adventures waiting to be had for energetic children. Being situated at the base of a mountain, everything, from houses to parks to streets connecting everything, rested almost without fail at some steep incline, always providing a natural way to keep busy residents in tip top physical shape.

June 2018 —  My hometown is Covina, Ca in Los Angeles country in the USA. I grew up in the 1980s in Covina. Covina is a small town surrounded by big cities. Since it is a city in Los Angeles county it could never be considered a small town since it is surrounded by cities all relatively similar. The cities run from one to the next and are more distinguished by the high school you were going to go to and the amount of crime that occurred. Covina was a a safe city with moderate incomes and family neighborhoods. It had more houses than apartments and would be considered more so for families than individuals.

May 2018 —A small city near several other well known cities, Artesia. Not much happens here yet the neighborhood is vastly mixed with many different cultures and lifestyles. Artesia falls under the county Los Angeles and like many other neighboring cities it has its attractions here and there. One being Artesia park, which in my opinion is one of the nicest parks around the area. Artesia is filled with several restaurants from fast food to casual night restaurants. I have lived here all my life and I have yet to see all of Artesia. The city is not that big but you’re bound to find nice and welcoming people. Anyone is welcome here and there are a few shopping centers and schools available to choose from. Artesia does have a few churches so for anyone religious they’re bound to find the right church. The city is good for families with young children Day cares, school tutors and places for children to enjoy themselves while the parents take a break as well are all available here. For young adults several apartments are available to choose from although they’re not so great. As for available jobs, it’s somewhat hard finding jobs people are usually looking for. With all that said, Artesia is still growing and the community is always available to help for those in need.

May 2018 — I enjoy living in Redondo Beach because it lies at the southern end of the beautiful Santa Monica Bay. Most of its neighborhoods are within walking or bicycling distance from the ocean and the tide pools and marine sanctuaries are nearby on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. We have wide, clean beaches and nice surf. I like seeing so many active and healthy people out walking; young people, families, and retired folks. Redondo Beach has relatively mild weather with cool breezes off of the ocean and with that brings clear air. The city of Redondo Beach offers many great things for residents including parks, activities, kids and seniors programs, festivals, and events. Redondo Beach has a wide range of age demographics. But, your will not see too much ethnic diversity here. The demographics are predominantly Caucasian and Asian. The cost of living and home prices are very high. I was born in Redondo Beach and grew up here. I moved away for fifteen years and just returned two years ago. There is no way that I could afford to live here if I were not living with my family right now. I am living in the house and neighborhood in which I grew up. Most of the homes were built after WWII and of average size. I believe they would be considered middle class when they were built. Now they cost from $750,000 to 1 million dollars. Many original homes in the area are being bought by developers, torn down, and monstrous modern homes built in their place. The look of my neighborhood is slowly changing (not for the better in my opinion).

May 2018 — Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, United States. LA is infamous. It receives a lot of media attention. Some of what’s reported is true, and some isn’t. It’s a huge, sprawling city full of life and diversity. I love this diversity and all the small cultural hubs I live near – Little Armenia, Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Little Luthuania, etc. Even if there isn’t a name for it, you can meet with a huge variety of people and pass by different languages being spoken every few minutes while simply walking down the street. Also, this impacts the food greatly. There’s so much to choose from! This city’s great if you’re a huge foodie. Luckily I’m in a neighborhood with a relatively high walk score and a suburban feel, so I have so many different activities and cuisines in walking distance to me. Despite this, you can drive 15 minutes south and end up in super urban Downtown, or 15 minutes north and your in the mountains. It’s a wonderful feeling to have so many options, though it’s probably best to avoid driving during rush hour if you can!

May 2018–  Downey, California, located on the West Coast of the United States has been my home for the past ten years of my life. Living there is quaint and filled with experiences, even though it’s located just a few miles from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. Every Sunday morning there’s a farmers’ market in the Downtown area of Downey, colloquially known as third street. Flowers, fresh produce, artisanal crafts and fish are common products there. I typically like to spend my mornings there, being able to explore the third street with my motorcycle. After a long day of buying products and talking to the locals, I head to the movie theatre near by (a block away) with a few of my friends and we all watch the next flick. Living there has always been a positive experience, but lately, there’s been a lot more traffic. It’s not surprising, as Florence Avenue, Firestone Blvd, Downey Avenue, Lakewood Blvd, and Imperial Highway all cut through Downey. It’s a busy town with a lot of crossroads, so traffic has always been an issue, but it’s been getting particularly nasty lately. I enjoy the increased police presence though, it allows me to feel a lot more secure and safe within my town. I’m Hispanic, and that doesn’t bother me since the police are not discriminatory. I have a good relationship with them, and they love my presence. The people there are all incredibly welcoming, and even though it’s a town with over one hundred thousand people, it still feels like a small town.

May 2018– Living in this town is like living in a small town with most big city amenities but with a small town community feel. I like that, in my location, I can walk to most anywhere I need to go. The schools are great and the shopping is not good. (good for my wallet) But if I need anything other than what I can find at the grocery store, I just jump on the freeway and I have anything I need less than ten minutes away. The parks are wonderful! Especially Castaic Lake, which I can also walk to. There are numerous playgrounds and campgrounds, fishing dock and trails for feet or horses! Though when I first moved here I saw lots of people enjoying horseback riding, that sight has been fewer and fewer. But the number of backyard chickens has grown! Since I moved here 10 years ago, hundreds of new houses have been built and the traffic has increased. Its becoming less of a small town but we still have a close knit community!

May 2018 — I live in a city called Downey, in the East side of Los Angeles. This town is on the border of LA and Orange County. I lived here for about 15 years as I went to elementary to high school in Downey. I like Downey because of it’s peaceful neighborhoods hence it’s surrounding cities that are not too safe to be around. People call Downey the Mexican Beverly Hills or an Island between the ghettos. There has been alot of money going into the new malls and renovations in Downey which I like. It is attracting alot of new home owners and residents. Downey is a pretty good size city hosting about 100,000 residences. It is right in the crossing of the 5 and 605 freeway which makes it very convenient for traveling to and from work. What I don’t like about the city is that the majority of people that live here are young adults. Young adults can make some noises at nights, drive obnoxious cars, and are inconsiderate of their litter. One other thing I don’t like about living in an apartment so close to the freeway is that the noise can be annoying at night, especially Friday night. Other than that, it is a very peaceful and friendly city with lots of interesting places to visit. It’s not too hot or too cold in the Summer or Winter. It is always centering around 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

May 2018 — I live in Santa Clarita, California which is in Los Angeles County about 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Unlike many Southern California communities which run one into another, it is somewhat cut off by its topography. It is considered to somewhat high desert. The town has one of the oldest cafes in SoCal and also hosts a well known amusement park. It isn’t a great place for singles as it is primarily a community of families. It has a high safety record and is considered one of the most desirable family communities in Socal, ranking third in size for LA County. Having lived here nearly 24 years the population has double since then and is expected to grow considerably larger as the nation’s largest housing development projects has just been approved and there will be more than 20,000 new homes. The traffic has increased considerably along with the number of lights.

May 2018 — Hawthorne, CA is a thriving community within Los Angeles County in the United States of America! With a diverse population and low renting and mortgage rates, it is a hot target for individuals looking to move to Southern California, and also a hotspot of culture with multiple stores and food options. After 20 years, it has only continually gotten better compared to when I was just a child. Now, as an adult who has stayed, the people here are so wonderful that they make it hard to leave. You get the benefits of being close to the big city, with the hometown feel of a small tight knit community. Within close range of all attractions and hot commodities in Los Angeles, Hawthorne is extremely hard to beat!

May 2018 — The city I live in is a large suburb of Los Angeles. It is about twenty miles from downtown LA. It was made famous by a television show called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which is set in the city. West Covina has about 100,000 people in approximately sixteen square miles. The city has a lot of great things about it. There are community events, parks and shopping opportunities. The schools are great and there is a lot of cultural diversity in the community. We have everything from a Chinese Cherry Blossom Festival to Mexican heritage events to celebrations of Black history. We also have reliable utilities and city services, including our own police and fire departments. I don’t really think there is much that could be improved in the city, except for maybe safety. You can never be too safe, right? I would like to see even more emphasis put on community safety. It would also be nice if we had an opportunity for more artistic endeavors in the community. We do not have a theater for plays and major musical productions. Finally, I’d like to see more children’s activities, like after school programs and competitive sports and art programs.

May 2018 — My city is called Santa Clarita, and it is located within Los Angeles County, California. It is approximately 30 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, which means about 1-2 hours with traffic. The weather here is a desert climate, so it can get very hot (upwards of 100 degrees) in the summer, and very cold with bone-chilling winds in the winter. Living here is very peaceful, but somewhat boring. The schools are some of the best in the state and children are brought up to perform very well academically. School sports are also a big part of the local community, and many people attend high school football games on Friday nights. There is a fun amusement park here called Six Flags Magic Mountain, with a waterpark right next door called Hurricane Harbor. During the summer, going in the lazy river at Hurricane Harbor is one of the best ways to beat the heat. Overall, Santa Clarita is a typical small town, but with a bit more of a snobby, stuck up feel. It’s a great place to raise a family, but many people can’t wait to get out and experience something new.

May 2018– Living in this town is like living in a small town with most big city amenities but with a small town community feel. I like that, in my location, I can walk to most anywhere I need to go. The schools are great and the shopping is not good. (good for my wallet) But if I need anything other than what I can find at the grocery store, I just jump on the freeway and I have anything I need less than ten minutes away. The parks are wonderful! Especially Castaic Lake, which I can also walk to. There are numerous playgrounds and campgrounds, fishing dock and trails for feet or horses! Though when I first moved here I saw lots of people enjoying horseback riding, that sight has been fewer and fewer. But the number of backyard chickens has grown! Since I moved here 10 years ago, hundreds of new houses have been built and the traffic has increased. Its becoming less of a small town but we still have a close knit community!

April 2018 —Claremont is a suburb located about 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It is a located on the edge of Los Angeles county. It is a growing suburb with about four Starbucks in the neighborhood. It’s mostly a middle class neighborhood. But people who live in Claremont like to think they are upper middle class. It’s a quiet town with not much going on. It’s also a college town and home of the Claremont Colleges, which include Harvey Mudd, Pomona College, and CMC. Surrounding the colleges is an “old-town” style area with small shops and restaurants. This area is called the “village.” It’s a popular destination because it has coffee spots, Jamba juice, blaze pizza, and independent eateries. The things I like about Claremont is that it is a safe area, quiet, and a good place to raise kids. However, there is not much to do around Claremont and it’s a decent drive to Pasadena or to LA. Overtime, it has become more populated and has gotten more stores. The village has expanded and now has more places to eat and more stores. A new shopping center is being opened off the 210 freeway, which includes a whole foods 365. Traffic is ok, but the 210 and 10 freeways are jammed up during rush hours.

March 2018 — My Southern California desert city is complex. It was founded in the 1800s when railroad tracks were constructed; at that time it was tied to the Gold Rush and was a stop for travelers and settlers on the way to Los Angeles. It expanded rapidly in the 1980s with an aerospace industry boom; before that it was quiet and suburban, its population relatively small. Our main industries are education, aerospace, health services, and our large, high-security prison. Our city has a beautiful downtown area, a thriving local music and theatre scene, a decent college, and lots of coyotes, birds, and other desert wildlife. We speak a lot of Spanish and there are great family-owned restaurants everywhere.

When I was small, the businesses in our area were limited; since the population boom a lot of new stores have come in. Our freeway makes getting in and out of town very easy, but during morning and evening rush hours it gets very crowded. Traffic on surface streets can be thick during the afternoon, but in the early mornings and late evenings the drive is beautiful and clear. We have really beautiful sunrises and sunsets. A few years ago Los Angeles and Orange County use our town to settle homeless residents; the homeless population doesn’t bother me at all, but the fact that larger cities would just throw people away like that does. Sometimes we have issues with gang violence, but compared to other areas of Southern California we aren’t particularly bad. Our population is wonderfully cosmopolitan and individual economic circumstances vary from extremely wealthy to very impoverished. It’s a very easy place to live, but might be a bit too sleepy and quiet for visitors.

February 2018 — I grew up in Lakewood California. We lived in Lakewood until I was 12 years old, so I consider that where I grew up. We owned a nice home there and it was right across from the elementary school that I went to. We lived there during the 1950s to the early 60s. It was a great neighborhood. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. I always felt safe there. As I child I felt as though I could knock on anybodies door and get help. It seemed like all the kids were in the cub scouts. When somebody had a death in the family everybody would bring food to that family so they wouldn’t have to cook. My grandparents lived just a couple of miles away. It was a real neighborhood where people knew each other and got together to help each other. I remember when my grandfather died and all the people who brought food to our home.

It has changed very much today. To start with the homes there are now so expensive that they would be out of my reach. Also there are now people there from all over the place. It is no longer like a real family neighborhood. People don’t get together, and mostly they don’t know each other. It is now just like most places in the country. You live there, you wave to your neighbors and then go in and close the door. And then of course the crime rate is higher. The one thing that has really changed is the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood. Not that ethnic diversity is bad, for the most part it isn’t. But, it ethnic diverse neighborhoods people are never as close. The different ethnicity’s seem to stick to themselves. That is part of the reason it is not the neighborhood it was before. But, things always change. And as the saying goes, you can never go home.