Long Beach

Technically I’m still in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. I moved 40 kms south-east. It feels a little like a different city, but not really.
The part of Long Beach I’ve seen is clearly upper class : bigger, nicer houses, cleaner streets, plus the marina and the commercial piers. It was a strange contrast with the part of LA right on the other side of the LA river : huge industrial plants, manufactures & buildings the size of a whole block…

However, this area is still a good vision of the American dream. Everyone has a house (one level) – close to no apartment building. Everyone has a small front lawn, impeccably maintained (clearly a British heritage). Of course everyone has a car and a garage. Then the difference is on the maintenance of the lawn, a tree, flowers, the type of car… But it feels like a communist dream where all people have the same plot of land and the same possessions 😉

Heaven is a car park at sunset

Something else is striking when moving inside LA : the commercial areas every 3 or 4 kms : same design, same mix of shops with different brands for each. Replace Carl’s Jr with Taco Bell, one bank by another, add a convenience store and a few others, and you have your commercial block. The only other kind of store you can find everywhere revolve around cars : resellers, garages, auto parts… Probably a big part of the economy here.

After this small ride I finished a second map ! Okay it’s a short one, and I’ve done only half of it, but now is the time to go east for real ! 🙂
But before that I took a quick swim in the Pacific Ocean, finally 🙂