With only limited space between
the desert, the mountains and the
ocean, LA has long since filled in
the gaps between what were once
small and isolated towns. As a
result, it's a massive
conglomeration of interconnected,
amorphous districts, often with
little in common.
If LA has a heart, however,
it's downtown , in the
center of the basin. It offers a
taste of almost everything you'll
find elsewhere around the city,
from upscale avant-garde art along
Bunker Hill to the abject
dereliction of Skid Row in the
Eastside, compressed into an area
of small, easily walkable blocks.
The area around downtown
contains some decaying Victorian
suburbs, 1920s Art Deco buildings
and the center of LA's enormous
and growing Hispanic population.
Heading west from downtown to
the coast, the first major
district you come to, Hollywood
, has streets caked with movie
legend - even if the genuine
glamour is long gone. Adjoining West
LA is home to the city's
newest money, shown off in Beverly
Hills and along the Sunset Strip. Santa
Monica and Venice to the west
are the quintessential seafront LA
of palm trees, white sands and
laid-back living, while the
coastline itself stretches another
twenty miles northwest to
glamorous Malibu , home to
the movieland elite.
Suburban Orange County ,
to the southeast, holds little of
interest apart from Disneyland
and a handful of laid-back beach
towns. On the far side of the
northern hills lie the San
Gabriel and San Fernando valleys
, or simply "the
Valley," seen by mainstream
Los Angeles as nothing more than
depressing tract homes and endless
strip malls - not unlike the
generic LA stereotype viewed by
the rest of America.
