Ridgecrest vs Los Angeles

We are just home from a weekend in LA, visiting family, and this led me to think about the pluses and minuses of where they live vs. where we live. I should note that I have always hated Los Angeles. I'm a NORTHERN Californian. We don't like Southern Californians. (Though, as my college roommate pointed out, Southern Californians don't even bother to hate Northern Californians. They barely remember that they exist.)

Except that now I'm a Southern Californian. Sort of. Who knows what we High Desert dwellers really are. You can buy the LA Times in the grocery store here. But our classical music radio station comes from Las Vegas. And the stores in the closest mall (in Palmdale) aren't even California stores -- Dillards, Gottschalks for heaven's sake (except it's closing). Still, we're in the southern half of the state, so I guess we're southlanders. I'm still never going to root for the Dodgers, though, bleah, perish the thought.

OK, so anyway, I've always hated LA because it's crowded and smoggy and ugly and people just go to the mall all the time, unlike Northern California, where it's crowded and less smoggy and more attractive and people just go to the mall all the time. And out here in the High Desert, it's very empty, the air is clear, it's ugly but the mountain ranges are nice, and nobody goes to the mall because there isn't one. Huh.

Getting off the subject, must focus. LA vs R'crest. LA is too big to compare, so I'm thinking of where my relatives live. My niece lives in a truly charming older house in Westwood. I love her house. It cost a LOT of money, and it sits on a lot the size of a Forever stamp, on a busy street with no parking. The neighborhood is delightful, with lots of gorgeous trees and flowers, and very walkable. The sidewalks don't go UP down, UP down. She is, literally, one block from Macy's. She is just a few blocks from 3 different Starbucks, a Barnes & Noble, a bagel store, every kind of restaurant, every other kind of store, and a great elementary school for her kids. The weather at this time of year is cool and foggy, a bit gloomy actually, but very livable. They usually stay in their neighborhood because it's got everything and the traffic in LA is so terrible that it takes forever to get anywhere else.

We, on the other hand, live in a very large rental house in south Ridgecrest, full of cockroaches and other forms of wildlife. It sits on a large lot with a large backyard and room to park several vehicles (in the 2-car garage, on the wide driveway, and in the quiet street). You can buy a decent house in this town for $150,000, a palace for $300,000. Our neighborhood is quiet and crime-free, and the sidewalks go UP down, UP down, etc., and there are very few trees, but people do take care of their (dirt) yards, they have attractive cactus gardens and statuary, such as rockets or tortoises. We are one block from a Baptist church, in case anyone was interested in becoming a Baptist, and several blocks from Walmart and Albertson's. The weather right now is sunny and in the 90's every day (the 100's come later in the summer). We usually go places on the weekend because there's nothing here and it's really easy to go anywhere, it just takes forever because we live far away from everything.

I don't know, what do you think?