Downtown San Diego is a paradise compared to Downtown LA. San Diego is right on the ocean. You can stand in the Gas Lamp District and smell the salt of the ocean air. I have done it. Downtown SD has movie theaters, great restaurants, Horton Plaza, Border’s Books, a Ralph’s Supermarket, and a lot of other neat things. It’s a great place to walk around – or at least much better than Downtown LA. Traffic is bad, but not nearly as bad as Downtown LA. If I had to live in a downtown, San Diego would be way higher on my list than Downtown LA.
Downtown LA is a hell-hole of a place. High-rise and concrete hell, and there is no other way to say it. On hot summer days the ocean may as well be 100 miles away, the smog is unbearable, and there are almost no amenities to speak of. The high rises block out almost any breeze, and all the asphalt and concrete reflects the heat back up. They are just now getting a supermarket. It’s no accident that both the men’s and women’s jails are in Downtown LA. It’s an excellent deterent to crime because the only thing criminals fear more than being in jail is being in a jail in Downtown LA.
