Spent last week in South California, visiting family. Flying into LAX made me feel like I was flying into a hell scape. From the air, no green was visible for miles. Compared to my home (London, originally Manchester), I thought it not just odd but barely liveable. You could almost the heat off the concrete by looking at it from the air. Driving around as far south as Orange County for the next week I was happily surprised when I saw any indication of nature at all. Perhaps it’s just me and what I’m used to, but the only spot I visited that felt really relaxing was up around Griffith Observatory.
Next time you visit family get them to rent a house in Santa Barbara. Technically it's "central" California but it's only 90 minutes from LA and it's probably the coolest and most livable place in the whole state.
The change of landscape from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara always gives me prehistoric or jurassic vibes for some reason.
Flying into LA from Europe and seeing slabs of reflecting concrete and buildings strech out for miles into the horizon from the desert really does give you the feeling that you are seeing the future of the climate apocalpyse in the present. As Gibson says, the future is already here it's just unevenly distributed.
And then you drive north and you run into vegetation that wouldn't be out of place in a dinosaur movie.
In that sense, Santa Barbara is nice but what exactly is "cool" sbout it? Americans awkward relationship with class is kind of in full view there frankly. There is almost no normal social interaction between the residents and the Latino blue collar community that prop up everyone's gardens and landscapes.
Have you ever taken a bus around town in Santa Barbara? It's like, "Oh, so this is where the real people are." Don't get me wrong, there's lots of interesting and nice people that live in Santa Barbara but the lack of cross-over is a little depressing. In Europe, you can be living in an nice expensive place in the city and run into the guy that cuts your hair at the corner barbershop at a music festival and hang out together with their friends the rest of the day.
Also with the exception of downtown Santa Barbara, like most of the US, it's incredibly anti-pedestrian. Make the mistake of google mapping a spot 20 min walk away and you'll find yourself on the highway walking for half an hour cause all the residents take short cuts through private property.
I lived in Santa Barbara for 10 years. There's a thriving counterculture and a vibrant art and music community. The richie riches have their Montecito/Hope Ranch/etc supermansions, but the spirit of the place is bohemian.
As for transit, I can tell you from personal experience that it's a biking city. Busses have front and back bike racks and since the whole city is on a slope you can coast from uptown to downtown easily with the expectation that you'll be able to ride a bus back up.
The vibe is uber rich bohemian, sure. Everything is relative -- to most outsiders SB proper is itself richie riches, it is literally 20-30 min walk fron SB coastal road to Montecito. I don't mind taking advantage of the nice "bohemenian" shops when I'm there but have you noticed how many emptied out shops there were on state street the past year? It definately gives me "Let me open my dream antique/clothing store using my family/partner's money and ride it out as far as our budget allows" vibes.
Also, compared to Europe the ocean is objectively garbage for swimming (no shade for the surfing or what not). But there is little alternative in the entire US I guess so there's that.
(not the one that downvoted you by the way)
"only" 90 minutes
Might as well rent a small plane.
Los Angeles is located in semi-arid climate, so there's not going to be a lot of vegetation there.
The Hollywood Hills show that doesn’t have to be the case.
The Hollywood Hills are pretty barren no? There are trees but still very arid and not lush forest.
Griffith Park is full of trees.
What the modern world thinks of as Los Angeles has always been terrible, treeless land. You have to go inland, and up the mountains, to get to the good land.
From the ~1830s:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4277
> Leaving Santa Barbara, we coasted along down, the country appearing level or moderately uneven, and, for the most part, sandy and treeless; until, doubling a high sandy point, we let go our anchor at a distance of three or three and a half miles from shore. It was like a vessel bound to St. John's, Newfoundland, coming to anchor on the Grand Banks; for the shore, being low, appeared to be at a greater distance than it actually was, and we thought we might as well have stayed at Santa Barbara, and sent our boat down for the hides. The land was of a clayey quality, and, as far as the eye could reach, entirely bare of trees and even shrubs; and there was no sign of a town,— not even a house to be seen. What brought us into such a place, we could not conceive.
> Leaving the boat, and picking our way barefooted over these, we came to what is called the landing-place, at high-water mark. The soil was, at it appeared at first, loose and clayey, and, except the stalks of the mustard plant, there was no vegetation. Just in front of the landing, and immediately over it, was a small hill, which, from its being not more than thirty or forty feet high, we had not perceived from our anchorage.
> I also learned, to my surprise, that the desolate-looking place we were in furnished more hides than any port on the coast. It was the only port for a distance of eighty miles, and about thirty miles in the interior was a fine plane country, filled with herds of cattle, in the centre of which was the Pueblo de los Angeles,— the largest town in California,— and several of the wealthiest missions; to all of which San Pedro was the seaport.
There are trees in Griffith Park but it is still a fairly arid terrain compared to other regions. You just have to look at some of the surrounding untouched areas around Hollywood Hills to see how its mostly shrubs with very few trees and grasses.