Beach Towns--Southern California

Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, all towns south of Los Angeles, centered around the fact they are adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. These towns are nondescript, squat--much like all of Southern California, and indistinguishable from one another other than the town markers alerting you to the fact that you have now left Hermosa and are now in Manhattan Beach, that is. With the exception of the grandiose houses built along the waterfront, blocking out the panorama of the Ocean for those who can't afford such beauty, the towns are a string of small store fronts and ugly apartment buildings with names like Windward Court. These names, and the places attached to the names, were places I'd vaguely heard mentioned, but never compelled enough to go visit. That's the irony about Southern California and its beaches.

Despite the azure of the water lapping up to land, this body of water and the towns built around the beaches are uninviting. It might have something to do with the fact that the few truly public beaches are crowded, parking nonexistent, or worse, as expensive as a down payment on a beach property--ha. Or worse, the public beaches are not available to those who weren't lucky enough or crooked enough to have paid off some official to have a home built right on the water's edge, thereby blocking any, and all public access to this public beach. David Geffen being the worst offender of this offensive deed. This division of those with, and those without is a recurrent theme in the culture of California, particularly Southern California. The only silver lining in this inequity is those homes on the water front are subject to all of Mother Nature's fury. And I say, bring that fury on. Let those homes burn, slide, and be crushed with a true Tsunami. Yes, they're worth fantastic sums of money, but again they are built on land that is not rightfully the owners'. Let the homeowners, those complicit souls, deal with this sticky issue with their insurance carriers when trying to collect on their ten million dollar home.

My time back in LA, the city experienced behind the windshield of our compact sedan, only reinforced what I'd always thought and expressed ad nauseum--this city lacks character, and is downright ugly. There is very little real charm to the row upon row of houses, some uglier than others, and strip malls with stores for pet salons--don't get me started--and other businesses that somehow survive the fleeting loyalty of the population. What I'd noticed this time was a film of dust over the sun filled setting. It makes sense that this film of dust would be ever present since this land was once the desert despite the contrary behavior of everyone who lives there. Yes, there are enough trees and flowers, each garden an attempt to replicate regions, gallons and gallons of water wasted to keep the blooms flowering.

Perhaps the offense of the city's ugliness would be tolerable if it didn't also live up to its stereotype of vacuousness culturally, intellectually. Let's start with the Los Angeles Times, the largest paper in the city, a city that is number two in population in the United States. During my five days there, I scoured the paper for real pertinent news. The recent human rights abuses in Myannmar, formerly known as Burma, was never covered. But they did a thorough expose of the uproar of the crazy denizens of Santa Monica, their outrage about ficus trees covered assiduously as one would cover the real life threatening issue of the shortage of health care facilities in this city.

There is some equality among those who have and those who have not in one area. See, if a pandemic were to occur, a highly likely scenario given the city's porous borders, everyone, and I mean everyone, rich, poor, insured, uninsured, will all be f***ed. The dearth of hospitals, a tad bit more relevant than the dearth of public parks, would create a scenario of devastation that no one wants to discuss, other than KPCC. The fifty cent tax hike, which could have offset such a disaster, was voted down by the entire state in the last election. Yes, foresight is what the citizens of that state have in spades. But then, the state's problems, a myriad of them, are a result of its citizenry thinking, deluding themselves into believing they can legislate for the entire population. Prop 13 anyone?

A friend asked me if I missed LA. Hmmm....how can I lie? This question, posed to me on more than one occasion, is answered by a sh*t eating grin on my part, and a gleeful response of, "No!" I know, it is childish and a bit churlish for me to be so happy to have left. Despite the litany of offenses of this place, it was where friends, great friends were made. And yes, I would never go back, but it is a place that is home to some of the dearest in my life. And hence, the conundrum of it all.