Bay Area Bitching

OK I just need to write one really bitchy post about the Bay Area, and then I can move on with my life. Here's what drives me crazy about this place.

First and foremost, number one most annoying thing: everyone who lives here thinks it's God's gift to the world. The general attitude is that nowhere else on earth is worth living in, least of all LA or Southern California. When I tell people where I'm from I usually get a look of pity and then a cheerful, "Aren't you so lucky to live here now?!" No! I'm not! Get over yourself!

Honestly, this place is nice, but have you read your own paper lately? The crime here is miserable! It's not that it's not a lovely place to live on the whole, but there's just such a sense of self-congratulation - like aren't we the best because we're soooo tolerant (except of intolerance, or people who disagree with our style of tolerance, or disagree with us period) and soooo green (nobody drives here except...just about everybody - and they don't know how, and they are rude, and the freeway designs are impenetrable, and the roads are terrible...) and soooo cultured (I can't find a good radio station to save my life and the newspaper sucks).

It would really not be such a bad situation if people just kept their love for this area to themselves, or at least didn't assume that everybody else feels exactly as they do. J was saying today that this is what it feels like to live in a one-party system: there are plenty of people who don't agree with the majority rule, but they can't say anything. Yep.

My favorite thing about LA, now that I don't live there, is that at least half the people really hate it there. It's quite fashionable to hate it there. And you know what? That made it pretty fun and unique to love it there. Yeah, you got weird looks, but there was something about fighting for your scrappy little town - and knowing, in your heart, that you could point out dozens of wonderful things about the city people love to hate - that really made you fall in love with it all over again.

Today in church somebody talked about her recent trip to Southern California and how she met some people (she didn't say how many, nor what part of So Cal she was in) who were homophobic. Then she basically said that all people in LA are homophobic, and wasn't she lucky to get back "home", where people are so accepting and loving and better than everybody else.

OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but she really did say that So Cal is intolerant (based on the few she talked to) and that she was so glad to be home.

And it really bugged me for the rest of the service. I don't get up and talk smack about these people's hometowns. Why do they have to kick around LA? Oh, yeah, because everybody thinks they can. Well I'm here to tell you people: I LOVE LA and ya'll better not be talking smack about my boyfriend (to quote the great Carrie Bradshaw, who was admittedly speaking about NYC, which I must admit is a city I hated, and another one where people seem to think you're nuts if you don't absolutely love it there).

So Bay Area people: get over yourselves. I mean, geez, if LA is so awful and intolerant, what does that say about the rest of the country? San Francisco is a lovely city, but it's not heaven on earth (last I checked, that was Iowa...not in my opinion, but in a movie's at least). There are tons of problems with this area, hot on the list being the HUGE difference between the haves and have-nots, and how the latter (and their problems) are so ignored - also, admittedly, a huge issue for Los Angeles. And probably most major cities.

And you friends in LA - or anywhere else, for that matter, where you're happy - love what you got. You wouldn't believe what it's like elsewhere!