Paradise? LA was a big giant horrible underdeveloped wasteland in Spanish/Mexican times which, at the time in 1849, had 1,600 residents. Most of them had a largely pastoral life and life was brutal there.

LA under US rule is the prime example of what industrialized people can do to a place that lacked nearly everything of what it is at this moment: a world-class city.

Objectively, if it had stayed under Mexican rule, it’d resemble Yuma at best or Tecate at worst. I should know, my family lineage goes back to that era to both sides of the border.

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Hnrobert42 22 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Was it that a big, giant, horrible wasteland because it was undeveloped? That is, was there something bad about it other than being undeveloped? Personally, I love living in the city AND land in its natural state.

Also, GP was quoting a song lyric.

	▲	rustywasm 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I think the best intro to LA is Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner (it's really about the entire West and its relationship to water, but I think the first few chapters explain LA better than many other books.)

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toyg 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

One's "underdeveloped wasteland" is someone else's untouched paradise. Particularly someone like Joni Mitchell.

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thisismyopinion an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Funny. It's concrete hell.