Rich history? Please tell me that was a joke. Try telling that to someone from the east coast with a straight face. It's like THEM telling the Europeans about their own "rich history."
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Expensive cars? For who? Us?
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Interesting people? Yeah, you're right, totally lacking everywhere else.
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Celebrities? Who gives a crap?
Luxurious homes? For who, the mega-filthy-beyond-Doctor-rich?
Lots of big corporate headquarters? It's not even in the Top 10!
http://www.nreionline.com/research/datapoints/real_estate_monthly_meter_industry_3/
General aura of importance?
No offense, but that last one is part of the problem with LA. It's all hype coming from people who are from there and haven't spent a reasonable amount of time in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, or NYC.
How much of what you mentioned is actually AFFORDABLE to the average Joe BTW? And how much of it to you actually have to drive through miserable traffic to to get to? LA is all American-suburban-type sprawl--you can't live an urban, hip, highrise lifestyle there. You need to get out of Cali and explore just how dense and developed other cities are in this country like Boston, Philly, Chicago, DC, New York, etc., are. Heck, LA doesn't even have street lights on the freeways. And you can't live a reasonable lifestyle in LA without a car but you could, and be part of the normal vibe, in these other cities (and of course, just about every European or Canadian city). No hailing cabs. No riding the subway. No huge skyline. No dense pedestrian neighborhoods. No big city lifestyle. No urban energy other than if you are trapped on the 405. It is too much like suburban or Southern America for guys like me--lots of traffic, sprawl, everyone lives in a house and not an apartment or highrise, activities are tied to the automobile, and hardly anyone is walking around on the streets. A lot of people prefer all the above though--so different strokes for different folks. It's very laid back like those places too so that fits a lot of people's personality, just not us urban dwellers I guess.
As far as weather goes: No offense, but it is miserable and depressing for most of us to think about living in a monoclimate where the seasons don't even change, and where it's depressingly brown more than half of the year. Diversity in weather is NOT a bad thing and LA has the least diverse weather in the country. Nothing is "miserable and depressing" for more than a few weeks in most of the country, depending on what you define as "miserable and depressing." If I were in Boston right now, for example, I could enjoy all that snow they got with the ASSURANCE that in a couple weeks it will be gone and temperatures will be different. And in Spring I could look forward to Summer. And when I'm bored of Summer I can look forward to the leaves changing colors in Fall. And when the leaves fall I can look forward to another new season of coziness and white powder. Then when I get sick of that, look at that, Spring is right around the corner again. Changing seasons is anything BUT miserable and depressing. And those nice beaches don't help much if the water is cold as balls compared to places like Florida.