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Los Angeles, California: Like Living on a Different Planet

LOS ANGELES—From glimpses of sun-drenched New Year’s Day Rose Bowl games to shots of Hollywood celebrities parading down the glitzy red carpet at the Academy Awards to the Baywatch lifestyles seen in movies and TV shows, media images have helped to create an idealized vision of Southern California for people all over the world.

"I think there’s a lot to the saying, ‘Southern California is America’s Eden,’" said Chris Garvey, a former Arts & Entertainment associate editor and 1998 graduate who moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 2000.

Of course, residents who recall the days of riots, floods, earthquakes and white Bronco freeway chases might disagree.

"It’s almost disturbing to me how accurate the portrayals in ‘L.A. Story’ and ‘Swingers’ proved to be," noted Jeff Leeds, a 1995 graduate. "The shallow blow-dried TV anchors, the undeserved vanity, the constant need to define things, it’s all here."

But for most former Cavalier Daily staffers who relocated here after graduation, the positives outweigh the negatives.

"The benefit of L.A. is its diversity," offered Leeds, a reporter for the LA Times and former news editor at the CD. "There aren’t many places I know where one can experience such a mix of cultures and opportunities. It’s great to have the beach, the desert, the mountains and Hollywood all within easy reach."

In adjusting from the East Coast to SoCal (as it is sometimes derisively known), the most obvious difference is the weather. Although the area has had its share of visits from El Nino, the weather is sunny and mild almost year-round. There are no really distinct seasons, aside from the few weeks in January or February when you have to bring an umbrella with you every day.

Daryl Lewis, a 1994 graduate who wrote news stories for the CD in addition to serving as president of WUVA, moved out to Los Angeles in the summer of 2000, after living on the East Coast his whole life. Lewis is now an associate producer for Fox Sports Net’s Regional Sports Report.

"I can remember New Year’s Day, growing up in Northern Virginia," said Lewis. "You look outside your window and it’s freezing cold outside, snowing, dark. And then you turn on the TV and there’s sunshine cascading off the top of the Rose Bowl. That made me want to live out here at some point in my life."

"Everyone had said to me before I moved, ‘Oh, you’re going to miss the seasons,’ but I loved that it was perpetual summer," Garvey said. "It was so new to me to actually live near an ocean and huge mountain ranges."

The enormous geographical area that the region encompasses, especially Los Angeles County, means that many Southern Californians spend an inordinate amount of time in their cars.

"Out here, congestion and traffic is something you just have to plan into your life," remarked Lewis, who moved here from Bristol, Conn., where he was working for ESPN. "In Bristol, I could start one song on my CD in the car and it would still be on in the parking lot when I got to work. I have a friend I work with here who lives in Pasadena. It takes him an hour and a half each way" to commute.

But most people find that to be a worthy trade-off.

"It can be expensive to live in certain areas," said Lewis. "But you just have to weigh the quality of life" versus the commute.

Despite the web of freeways, there is a small underground subway system in L.A., but it’s not an everyday part of most commuters’ lives the way it can be in East Coast cities.

"I don’t mind relying on my car more than public transportation," said Leeds.

Another factor for many transplants is the sheer number of activities to pursue in the region.

"You’re in one of the most mass populated areas in the country," said Lewis. "In Charlottesville, there aren’t as many entertainment opportunities. In Bristol, there were even less. It was a work-only environment. Out here you have a lot of diversions. You can go to a movie, club, bar, the beach, a game. And that’s great. You can have more balance in your life."

On the other hand, the size and disparate nature of the city can be isolating. Lewis added, "You don’t feel a part of some close-knit community. I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. But I feel like L.A. dwarfs Washington."

Or, as Garvey put it, "L.A. is like living on a different planet."

The primary reason most SoCal emigres gave for moving here was the better job opportunities. And the industry that dominates the town more than any other is, of course, entertainment.

For Garvey, who moved out to work for the entertainment management company The Firm, "the biz" was the main reason. "Because the whole city revolves around the industry, the entertainment industry permeates everything—which is wonderful. I had always been an entertainment person, but it isn’t taken very seriously on the East Coast. It was a big change moving somewhere where they actually care about what you like to do!"

Shawn Batten, a former Cavalier Daily business manager who graduated in 2002, initially moved out to L.A. to work for an Internet company during the heady days of the high-tech boom. When his company ran out of money and laid off its staffers, he decided to take a break from the corporate world and turned to acting.

"I didn’t have a network of friends out here," said Batten. "But I ran into someone at a Virginia colleges mixer who helped get me some auditions.

"I came out here to do nothing related to entertainment and randomly ended up in the business."

Batten has since found acting work as an extra, including an upcoming appearance on "Six Feet Under" as well as a recent film where he played a partygoer during a scene in which Snoop Doggy Dogg performs at a fraternity party.

Although Batten finds the pluses in L.A. outweigh the minuses, he isn’t sure how long he wants to stay here. "It grows on you after a while," he concluded. "It’s definitely a laid-back place. But everyone here looks out for themselves. It forces you to be independent."

As a reporter for one of the country’s leading daily newspapers, Leeds has had quite a range of assignments, from the Enron meltdown to the advertising war in the 2000 presidential campaign to a 1997 Bank of America shoot-out that won the Times Metro staff a Pulitzer for breaking-news coverage.

"L.A. is a great town for news," Leeds said. "Earthquakes, freeway chases, bank robberies, unimaginable wealth and poverty, police corruption, celebrity and excess. How exactly can you beat that?"

The big city environment has also allowed Lewis to cut his teeth on some major pieces. "I did a behind-the-scenes piece on the Lakers that aired on Fox as a 30-minute special. That justified me moving out from ESPN. I wouldn’t have been able to do something like that out there."

Lewis also produced a one-on-one interview with one very large Laker, Shaquille O’Neal. "Shaq was a clown. We interviewed him at a Jerry’s deli in Encino. He was goofing around with all the customers. He was definitely not afraid of being a celebrity."

While celebrity sightings are not an everyday occurrence, it still happens more often than in other cities. "I saw Matthew Perry twice in one week," said Lewis. "Last night I saw Rob Reiner at a Dodger game."

Of course, Southern California is not just about Los Angeles. Millions of people reside in suburban areas like Orange County and in San Diego, where the weather and variety of activities are just as nice, without some of the problems that plague L.A.

Amy Francis–Dechary, a former Life staff writer, is a ninth-grade English teacher who recently moved to San Diego with her husband after graduating from the Curry School in 2000. "My husband, then fiance, and I were in the position to move anywhere after we finished grad school," she said. "We visited San Diego and loved it."

Paul Thiel, a 1993 Darden graduate who served as the CD’s ombudsman, moved with his wife and young son to Orange County to be vice president of marketing at the Orange County Register.

"The biggest plus has been the weather and the lifestyle," echoed Thiel. "We’re regulars at Disneyland, Legoland, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

"On the downside, the cost of living is crazy," he said. "As far as adjustments, there’s much more public space here, like parks, and much less private space. Our $500,000 house has a yard only big enough for the patio and a strip of grass about 10 feet wide."

Francis-Dechary has found other downsides. "It’s been really difficult to move from an intellectual environment to a place where people rarely talk about ‘substance’ like politics and educational issues," she said.

"Also, it’s been challenging to teach in an under-performing school district after having attended great public schools on the East Coast."

On the other hand, Thiel noted, "We were expecting L.A. glitz and the legendary superficiality. We’re in Orange County, however, which is very conservative and extremely family-oriented. Maybe the L.A. stereotypes are right, but there’s little of that in Orange County. One thing that is true is that people spend a lot of time and money on their cars!"

For his part, Leeds offered the best defense of L.A. "I think the stereotype is nonsense," he said. "The city has plenty of bookstores, one of the best philharmonics in the world, and you can’t look outside without seeing a community theater. Now, it’s not Washington—you don’t find twentysomethings standing on the corner arguing about trade barriers. But would you want it to be?"