I've been enjoying my life in Los Angeles (West Hollywood, not the suburbs). I've been here for three years, after living in Boston for twelve and upstate New York all of my life before that. I think a lot of the LA hatred in San Francisco is a projection. There is an assumption that everyone just left a film set. Why? Because that's what gets shown to you, then you get told that's a part of your state's image. You know it's nearly 400 miles away and another culture, so you resent being clumped. Once I lived here, I realized that's the cover story. It's not the 1980s here. The mass transit changeover is making a new city, and just in time. The food is great, the surface streets bypass the freeway traffic, and the place has fascinating hidey-holes in plain sight. The city unveils another part of itself to you when it feels you are ready. However I can relate to the hometown hatred. That part changes over time, but the reactions never leave you. I feel a horror and a pity for Utica. I cannot bear to be there more than a couple days. People try to steal your life essence because they're stuck in a dead cauldron. I cannot be an adult there -- I'll always be my father's son in Utica, not the adult I have become. I can't even explain what I do without getting "so, why didn't you become a lawyer like your dad?" You can never be truly objective about your home town. You can circle it, but you're really wishing you could drop atom bombs with your eyes. You want the people that hurt you to go away, but they're all there so you had to do the leaving.
Oh buddy you opened the wrong can of worms. Inb4 Meriadoc wakes up and unleashes his hatred of SoCal.