LA Is a Very Diverse

LA is a very diverse city, world-class, and a city that faces a number of challenges for the 21st century. There are so many different ways to see this city. It is fascinating and it is frustrating. It is where dreams are made and where dreams are broken. Los Angeles is the perfect city for this kind of study. The interviews were based on the following questions.

If you had $1 million, how would you spend it?

What's the biggest problem/concern you can think of to describe LA?

What place do you like best in LA?

What's the most important event in LA history?

What will take LA into the future?

Is LA ready to lead in the future?

What are some misconceptions about LA that you want to fix?

What I wanted to do is to get to the heart of what people in Los Angeles think about their city. I wanted the good, the bad and the interesting. I even wanted the boring if that is the kind of city LA is.

For me, I think Los Angeles is a city of opportunity. I think everybody comes here for different reasons, but we all want to improve ourselves. There is a chance to do that here, that in many places is not possible. So we come for this. I came for this. And I hope to find out if others feel the same way I do, not only about why they came to LA but what they think about the city now that they have arrived.

So the following interviews were taken with people of different ages, incomes, occupations, races and even nationalities. This is the diverse group that I found in LA, and I think it does a good job of reflecting the city's diversity. As a result, I think the results are valuable for understanding how people in LA think about the city.

Interviewee #1 -- Meriann Huber, American from Washington, student (journalism). She describes herself as an environmentalist. She's pretty, well-dressed and seems very relaxed. I caught up with her in between classes. She's drinking an organic cappuccino and talking to a friend on her smartphone when I meet her inn the warm afternoon sun. She takes off her designer sunglasses to talk to me and I ask her how she would describe LA and what she would do to make it better.

Meriann:

Growing up, I thought LA was all Hollywood and Compton

And nothing in between.

I wanted to find out more...

There is no better city to have an inquisitive mind.

LA fascinates me -- it is so completely different from what I expected.

It is a unique universe. I find so many interesting stories

I meet so many interesting people

And I've never been to either Hollywood or Compton

To sum up LA: Fascinating and unique

I could not be more glad to be here.

I love the beach.

We have beaches in Washington, but they are cold and grey.

The only life is the seagulls and the starfish.

Here the beach is a place full of life.

It is a meeting place, a place I would always want to have nearby.

The sun, the cool breeze and above all the people

You can see a million stories just watching the people go by.

As for what I might do to improve LA, the environment.

Oh, the environment.

LA has everything else.

People, culture, excitement. And it can be so beautiful.

But the pollution is bad. We need to spend more time thinking about how to make this place stay beautiful forever.

This is a story I want to tell, but if I had the money I would just starting fixing things right away.

Clean it up!

Interview #2 Robbie Romano, Cuban-American from Miami, media. He's tanned and has a balding head and a beer gut. His shirt is plain blue. He looks like he shops at Target. In one hand is a donut, in the other a bottle of water. There is a small stain on his brown shorts. It looks red, like salsa or taco sauce. He is not impressive in appearance, but seems full of confidence when I ask him how he came to be in LA and how he would describe the city to friends back home.

I love the weather. The girls. And business is good here.

I think in that order. I love the climate, especially here at the beach.

I'll never go back, I'm hooked on this place.

And the ladies are lovely, too.

And the food. We don't have Mexican food where I'm from.

No Korean food, either.

And donuts.

I love donuts, but before I came to LA I never ate them.

And burgers. Can you tell I'm hungry?

But I wish I had a jetpack. I think they're pretty close to selling those thing.

I drive to work everyday.

I hate it.

Hate is such a strong word, but I really, really, really hate driving here.

And I'm from Miami.

But I'd still recommend it to my friends.

I mean, what are you waiting for?

Come on over!

Seriously, I have nothing but good things to say about this town.

I can't believe I waited so long to come out here.

And I'm really glad I did.

Interview #3 -- Joyce Ling, Chinese exchange student. She's petit and quiet. Her fashion sense looks quirkly, but probably makes sense to an Asian. Her white t-shirt says "Vancl career questionnaire -- I am a big boss." It is cute, because she does not seem like a big boss. I ask her how she came to LA, what she likes best and what she would do if she had a million dollars to improve LA.

I wanted to study in America.

My father wants me to study in America.

I am smart and clever so they took me.

And I like California.

The people are beautiful, the weather is great.

I like the mountains. I like the beach too.

But the mountains are the best.

Last week I went with some friends to hike on Mt. Baldy.

It was amazing!

The air was clean up there, fresh and cool.

Looking over the city -- like being in an airplane.

The nature so close to such a big city. We don't have that in Beijing.

But I would clean the sky.

In Beijing, the sky is never blue. It is so polluted. Grey, hazy, gross.

In LA, you have blue.

And you have brown.

I would get rid of the brown, that does not belong in the sky.

And then it would be healthy for me to ride my bike.

Interview #4 -- Ron Goldberg, American, IT Tech. He's around sixty years old. He coughs a lot and it is a bad cough. His hair is grey and his clothes are sloppy. He does not seem to want to talk to me, but he does anyway. So I ask him some questions, because he has been in LA longer than any person I have interviewed. I want to know what he thinks of the city and how he thinks it has changed in his life.

LA is a city in trouble. I've lived here for thirty years and I don't like it much anymore.

LA has traffic, smog, crime…all the things I don't like.

There are people from everywhere and I guess I like that.

But that's about all I like these days.

I'm grumpy and old.

I should leave.

Maybe I should go to Hawaii.

That sounds good.

LA's problems are too big to handle just with one person and one million dollars.

There is racial disharmony, too many cars and My favorite taco truck is mobbed with hipsters.

Their jeans look stupid, too skinny. And I don't like their attitudes.

They're terrible.

I'm kidding, though.

I wouldn't leave.

LA is my home.

Interview #5 -- James Carver, African-American, sous chef. He is smoking a cigarette and wearing his white work clothes. Sort of white. Very dirty. He is clean-shaven with a bald head. I think he looks around thirty, but maybe he just works hard and is really younger. He smells like bacon grease. He was born and raised in LA and I want to know what that is like. What does he think is the most important thing in the city's history?

LA is kind of like a big country, and you can't have just one part of it.

You need to take the whole thing as a whole, you know.

I'm a chef. You need good ingredients to make good food

But nobody cares about a single ingredient -- it's the whole meal that counts.

I grew up in South Central, and it was pretty bad, pretty divisive.

Rodney King and all that.

But I woke up one day and realized how great it is that we have a place here for everybody and everything. A dish for every flavor, as I would say.

You ask me what's the most important event in the city's history. I can tell you.

The Watts Riots. I wasn't born, but it was always talked about.

I see that as a sign that everybody wanted a place in this city.

Black, white, yellow, red, brown, we all want a home to call our own.

And we want to be treated equal.

There's parts of town still in that old Watts Riots mentality

That things aren't good and they never will be.

I try to ignore all that.

I think the point of all the troubles we had back in the day was so that we could move forward.

My little boy is going to grow up thinking the most important event in the history of LA was the day Daddy opened his restaurant. It's different now, for some of us anyway.