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PCH in L.A. County is largely another commercial stretch. I work on PCH in Long Beach, where it's mainly offices and stores. Get further up the coast, and it starts to get truly beautiful. Or go much further south towards San Clemente in Orange County.
Did you make it to San Diego? Now THAT is a beautiful city. I-5 runs right by Mission Bay State Park, with crystal blue waters and green grass carpeting the palm treed landscape. It's also much freer of the crass commmercialism of most of the urban coastal areas.
L.A. is what you make of it. I am not much at gawking at mansions, and having spent some time in Hollywood, it is no better or worse than most major city suburbs - aside from the heavy tourist traffic and the self-mythologizing. It has its dreary urban side, and its garish commercial side, but it is largely a myth. I think of it as just another place, and it makes it much saner to deal with.
Southern California is about the vibe and the weather. It's traffic, crime, and other urban ills are the natural byproducts of too many people loving the best weather in the U.S. a little too much for its own good. But it has everything you would expect of a large city - the BEST dining in the U.S., and expectedly, due to being ground zero for the entertainment industry, a massive variety of concerts and theater (only NYC could rank alongside us).
I'll take L.A. anyday over Orange County though - L.A. has much more vibrancy and variety. Orange County is the actual home of plastic surgery, plastic suburbs, and plastic people. L.A. has pockets of that, and they fuel a large nationally known stereotype, but its grittiness and ethnic variety make it much more interesting and alive. There are some sad aspects - the decline of the harbor area, and the ongoing gang strife are two examples - but there are unexpected gems to be found in the rough.
Like the Randy Newman song says - I love L.A. It's not for everybody, or we'd REALLY have a traffic problem. ;-) But goddamn, it's CALIFORNIA, and that speaks for itself. :P
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