I like to visit, but I would not want to return.
Rosemead is nice and LA is the place for cultural diversity. No doubt about it. Persian food, Indian, Greek--ate at Nikko's in Old Pas some years ago and used to go to La Petite Greek across from the Beverly Center, real Mexican, real El Savadoream Guatamalan, what ever you want you can find. No one here has heard of pupaserias; just about every corner of Santa Ana has a pupsaserias restaurant. Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Dave and Busters--new D&B opened in the Santa Anita Mall, but not as good as the D&B in Ontario Mills.
But I can live without the crime, the gangs, the congestion, the smog, the traffic, etc. Yes, it gets hot in Sac, record highs of more days over 100 in the summer of 2004, than in the last 10 years, but it's a clean hot. Try 100 degrees while waiting for a bus on Sunset Blvd somewhere in Echo Park or Downtown.....the soot, the diesel, the grime, the dust as the bus lurches past you. You just feel hot, muggy, and dirty. Police helicopters over head everynight, people being shot every night, etc.
We have trees, the Sierras, I look out my office window and look at rolling hillsides of conifers. I drive 25 minutes to work 25 miles away.....not close to 2 hours to make 45 miles from Rosemead to the 60 east to 605 south to 405 south to 55 west to Irvine where I used to work......I don't have a plastic map on my dashboard giving me every major blvd to jump off should a sigalert go off 4 mile ahead. I get to listen to the classsical or jass station on the commute instead of KFWB for constant traffic reports.
Sacramento is a nice city. Yes, peole make fun of it, a cow town, Sacra-tomato, nothing happens etc. Well, it's got decent neighborhoods, nice quiet feeling, and the worse part of Sac is no worse than El Monte. The crappiest schithole in Sac is like Peck Road and Valley, El Monte.
So you're a Valley Boy. Hah. Used to date a girl in UC Santa Barbara from Bell Canyon--real Valley Girl.
