Way Out West

Playa Vista isn't quite a New Urbanist's dream, Amanda Lewis reported last week — but at least it's not Orange County (“Howard's End“).

Scottzwartz writes, “One of the huge myths about mixed-use projects is that people who live on the second, third and fourth stories will work on the first floor, or some place within walking distance. … The reality is that L.A. is a megalopolis — what person would give up his car to live on 1/5,000th of Los Angeles?“

Reader Rr2222 responds: “I have never ever read anything that is so misinformed. The point of mixed-use developments is more efficient land use, and that people can have more choice about where to live and work. For example, I can (and did) choose to live in a … neighborhood where there's lots of places to eat and shop within a five-minute walk. My work isn't in my same neighborhood, but I can walk there in 25 minutes, or I can take a 15-minute bus ride, or a 10-minute car drive. People who prefer to live in single-family suburbia and drive everywhere can still do so. Nobody is taking that option away from you.”

True Lies

Dennis Romero's online roundup of New York–based media's flat-out errors about L.A. was a hit (“5 Times the East Coast Media Got L.A. Dead Wrong,” Jan. 23).

Sumiallen writes, “THANK YOU!!! I like knowing that blacks, Koreans and whites co-exist in the same 'hood, that you can sit in class with people from around the world and learn something useful, compare Japanese sushi and Korean bibimbap down the street from a Thai restaurant and a white-collar workforce that consists of Persians/Lebanese/Asians/Caucasians/blacks AT THE SAME TIME. Does that exist back East?”

Danosc agrees. “I just laugh at the East Coast media when they try to figure L.A. out (and usually get it wrong). However, the routine stereotyping [of] Angelenos as vapid, narcissistic, movie-star wannabees hopelessly stuck on a freeway on-ramp is stale. The reality is Angelenos are like people everywhere. We get up in the morning, put on our clothes and go to a job somewhere (but usually in better weather).”

Finally, David Kay writes, “As a native Angeleno married to one of the many New York immigrants to L.A., my hypothesis is that their cynical and satirical expressions toward Los Angeles result from guilt over abandoning all that deep culture, great pizza and bagels for something as shallow as spectacular weather. As Randy Newman wrote, 'Everybody's very happy 'cause the sun is shinin' all the time.' ”

Corrections

Last week's piece about a cat art show (“The Subject Is Cats“) provided the wrong location. The show was held at 101/exhibit's space on Santa Monica Boulevard. Also, our story about Slated (“As TheGlobe Turns“) incorrectly described it as a funding source for The Square. While the film was listed on the site, it did not get its funding that way. We regret the errors.

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