New York / LA: A Comparative(ly Foolish) Study

Fellow denizens, I’ve just returned from New York. New York! God damn it. What a city. All these “neighborhoods”… All this “walking”… All this “walking from neighborhood to neighborhood” … All this “riding the subway to get around” … God damn it. I love it. We don’t have it. We drive. So?

New York has working names for all its little areas. We do too. New York has hot dog shacks. Damn it, we have hot dog shacks. New York has a big park. Damn it, we have a big park. It’s uncanny, I tell you. God damn it. I’m going to side-by-side this one. It’s not comprehensive but it’s a start. I said it.

Neighborhoods
They Have…	Which Means…	We Have…	Which Means…
NoLIta	North of Little Italy	NoLIta	No Little Italy (Does Maggiano’s count?)
SoHo	South of Houston	WeHo	West Hollywood
		NoHo	North Hollywood
		BeHo	Beneath the Hollywood Sign (formerly Beachwood. Ask around, it is totally uncool to say Beachwood)
TriBeCa	Triangle Below Canal	Culver City	Culver City
Chinatown	Chinatown	Chinatown	Chinatown
Bowery	Crazy Shit, Pricey Lofts	Venice	Sunny Crazy Shit, Pricey Lofts
Brooklyn	Brooklyn	Van Nuys	Van Nuys (?)
Williamsburg	Silverlake	Silverlake	Williamsburg
World Trade Center	Financial district near Ground Zero	Celebrity Centre	Eighteen-block radius surrounding Celeb Centre. BeHo adjacent.
Parks
They Have…	Which Means…	We Have…	Which Means…
Central Park	Drugs, Bicycles, Ice Skating, Paul Simon concerts, Garth Brooks concerts	Griffith Park	Drugs, Ponies, Batcaves, Gipsy Kings concerts, Jack Johnson concerts
		Elysian Park	Drugs, Dodgers
		MacArthur Park	Drugs, pastrami
Food
They Have…	Which Means…	We Have…	Which Means…
Katz’s	Pastrami, dive bars	Langer’s	Pastrami, fake IDs
Gray’s Papaya	Cheap hangover helper	Oki-Dog	Scares You Sober

It’s getting out of hand. I’m stopping. But think about it. Along with our Towns (China, Korea, Thai, Historic Filipino) we have a scattering of Littles: India, Tokyo, Armenia, Saigon. Then the non-littles come into play: Crenshaw, South Central, Long Beach, Boyle Heights, Highland Park, East LA, LA Proper. SG Valley. Hills Hollywood and Beverly. Suburbank. West Valley. Pasadena, Palms, South Bay. Aw hell, I quit. I’m no expert on either city. I just know how to put together a fancypants chart. Feel free to add categories and I’ll update as needed. Have a time of it.