A So Cal Girl in the Desert

In this morning's Arizona Republic, the "Travel & Explore" section featured an article titled "LA's Nature Show" as a "regional getaway." Mr. Richard Nilsen's sub head was "Forget flowers--think tarpits, concrete rivers and oil rigs." It's really interesting to hear what a Zonie reporter thinks of my hometown. So here goes...

"When you think of Los Angeles, the word 'nature' comes to mind about as often as Genghis Khan and the word 'delicate.' LA is one of the world's great cities, and one of the most artificial. It is all pavement and minimal, parking garage and chain store. I will cede LA no quarter when it comes to magnificence, but when it comes to nature, you're barking up the wrong stop sign.

"Or are you?

"There is actually a lot of nature in LA, but like so much else in the sprawling, hazy, energetic city, it is sui generis--in a class of its own. And if you love LA and its artifice and unreality, then you may love its nature, too.

"That includes the La Brea Tar Pits, the stuffed animals at the Natural History Museum, the concrete-lined Los Angeles River.

"This isn't nature all cute and cuddly like the nature films show. It is nature covered with graffiti, smelly with escaping gas, and turned into a simulacrum of itself.

"But if you are in the right spirit, gravid with irony, there is a lot to love. Like the infamous LA River, a 50-mile-long concrete gutter paralleled by railroad yards, high-tension lines and freeways."

My first impression was that Mr. Nilsen was too critical. I realized I was being defensive. He mentions a lot of the reasons why I wanted to leave LA in the first place. Funny how I could be defensive about something I have often criticized myself. Granted, I'm no nature girl. He goes on in the article to describe the Tar Pits, which I often visited on school field trips. My favorite excerpt is "The pond at the entrance to the park, with its bronze elephants, is filled with water covered in a film of petroleum. In places a layer of tarry foam collects, and great bubbles of methane blub up like boiling oatmeal, filling the air with stink." Makes you want to visit, doesn't it?

He goes on to define the kinds of nature he is talking about...

"If you want cute furry animals and fields of wildflowers, you've come to the wrong place. Try Maine, at the opposite corner of the continent.

"But the Bambi vision is only one version of nature, and it is a conventional version, and LA is anything but conventional.

"We should think of nature as anything that reminds us we live on a planet. That includes geology, climate, hydrology. LA is a city inescapably bound up with the real effects of nature. LA is the city of earthquakes, mudslides, ozone and haze, the city of Santa Ana winds and wildfires, of mountain lions attacking joggers.

"Despite its reputation, LA is nature all the time."

Since I have lived in Los Angeles--my whole life, minus the last twelve days--I always heard that it was a place unlike any other. I always felt like every place else was unusual and it was LA that was the norm, which is a pretty egotistical place to be. I guess most people feel that way. Whatever you're used to is the norm. Not better, just expected. I'll always love Los Angeles, even though I'm happy with my decision to move away. Unusual is good. The unexpected is great. I love exploring a new city and meeting a new kind of person. It's been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life so far. I think a departure from "normal" Los Angeles is just what I needed.