INTRODUCTION A maddening collection of freeways and beaches, fast-food joints and theme parks, seedy suburbs and high-gloss neighborhoods, Los Angeles is Californias biggest and most stimulating city though an unconventional one by any standard. Indeed, LAs character is so shifting and elusive understandable "only dimly, and in flashes," according to F. Scott Fitzgerald that the city might be freely dismissed by many outsiders if it werent so central to the worlds mass culture. Its multiple personalities and lack of any unifying design make it seem at first neither approachable, nor perhaps even enjoyable; but once the free-spirited chaos of the place takes hold, youll be hard-pressed to resist. Made up of scores of distinct municipalities, LA is a model for modern city development, having traded urban centralization for suburban sprawl and high-rise corporate towers for strip malls. It gets more than ample opportunity to show off its wares because of its stature as global entertainment center, which paints a picture of a sunny and glamorous place like no other. It is certainly unique, an unpredictable and addictive assault on the senses, where mud-wrestling venues and porn cinemas stand next door to chic boutiques and trendy restaurants, the whole of it under constant threat of the next earthquake, flood, or natural disaster. Despite this uniqueness, LA has much in common with other major US cities. With the largest combined port in the country (and biggest in the world outside of China), LA is a center for transpacific trade and a dominant financial hub in its own right. Meanwhile, LAs social gaps are quite broad, and there appears to be no end in sight for the nasty racial divisions broadcast to the world during the 1992 riots. Not a simple matter of black versus white, LAs unparalleled diversity means that more languages are spoken here than in any other US city, even as some residents especially white suburbanites cordon themselves off from one another in gated communities. Unlike more conventional cities, LA does not reward an attraction-oriented itinerary, going from one museum or official exhibit to the next. While there are world-class institutions here the Getty Center foremost among them the sights that are most worth seeing tend to be separated by vast distances, and youll doubtless spend most of your time on the freeway if you try to see them all. Instead, LA is perhaps best experienced as the locals do, by way of its innovative restaurants and dynamic nightlife, funky shopping strips and colorful boardwalks. Surprisingly for such a huge place, many of these places are concentrated in fairly compact neighborhoods, such as Venice and Old Pasadena, where you can often leave your car in a parking lot or just take public transit to get there. Outside the central city, LA can be surprisingly relaxing as well, whether youre lounging on a deserted beach, taking an island tour of Santa Catalina, or skiing in the eastern mountains.
