Oh, New York Times, where do I even begin? Listen, I'm always in favor of touting Los Angeles, and if L.A. is now winning the perception war vs. New York, I suppose that's fine. And yet, there's something about the "hey, L.A. is suddenly OK" tone in paragraphs like these that grate:
Bearded young New Yorkers can snap up brioche tarts at Proof Bakery in Atwater Village, visit gallery shows at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects in Echo Park, or settle in over barrel-aged rye cocktails at Bar Stella in Silver Lake, and scarcely realize they are more than a stroll away from McCarren Park, except for the 70-degree sunshine tickling their cheeks in February.
The changes are more striking in downtown Los Angeles. Long a gritty urban backwater, Downtown has become a trend factory, brimming with Beaux-Arts loft condos, galleries, groundbreaking restaurants like Baco Mercat and, inevitably, a new Ace Hotel to serve as “Portlandia” south. (GQ magazine called Downtown Los Angeles “America’s next great city” last year.)
The buzz from all this is audible 3,000 miles east, to the point that New Yorkers’ incessant Williamsburg comparisons to Silver Lake, Highland Park, Venice Beach — or wherever — have become a wearying cliché to locals (except Aja Brown, the mayor of Compton, Calif., who has been pitching her economically challenged south-central city as “a new Brooklyn” of late.)
No wonder a new generation of restless New Yorkers is starting to heed the Los Angeles siren call, and not just aspiring actor-waiters, as in years past.
“New York feels like it’s all about ‘making it,’ ” said Julia Price, a musician and former Manhattanite who is in her 20s. “L.A. feels like it’s all about making things.”
Folks from the East Coast have flocked to Los Angeles for over 100 years, drawn by the exact same things you mention in this article -- creative freedom (a little business known colloquially as "Hollywood"), weather, real estate and a lot more. There's so much condescension in the idea that Los Angeles is suddenly OK because it's got hipper restaurants and more people who care about fashion (is that even true?) Remember, In-N-Out Burger has been here since 1948.
L.A. was enough of a lure to East Coasters that the Los Angeles Times even published an annual "Midwinter Edition" and sent it to the East Coast up until the late 1950s:
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