So my fellow Angelenos, we've done it this time. Thanks to all of our taunting of less fashionable tourists, over the top cellphone use, and Botox'd expressionless faces, America has rated us as the nation's least friendly, worst traffic, least intelligent city in Travel + Leisure's America's Favorite Cities survey.
Over 600,000 tourists surveyed various cities in the US to rank which cities they loved and which they hated in different categories: culture, people, quality of lifestyle, etc. And we just really left a terrible impression on those tourists. This is funny to me, and I'm not trying to be a defensive Angeleno, because tourists LOVE the ILLUSION we make out here. They are attracted to the rockstars and the skinny rich girls and the hot cars and palm trees they see on TV, but not the actual city? The harsh reality that our city is indeed a dirty lifesized movie set has sunk in.
One true thing is that Los Angeles is a HUGE multi-faceted city with PLENTY of dynamic people. There are pockets of us who embrace art and actually read books and newspapers along with those who don't. Believe it or not, but most of us are from friendlier cities and will probably give you directions if you're lost. We have certain advantages like our resources and overall hopefulness (remember, "city of dreams" cliché?), but our biggest strength is that we're definitely not boring (that's why you have Entourage and the Hills on Tivo). Sure there's plenty of traffic and big city trash that makes us grumpy, but nobody's perfect. We'll see you all later when you want to become a pop icon!
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