Why Does the Rest of the World want to be in LA?

Let’s say you just won one million frequent flier miles, and you can go to wherever you want on the planet. You put together this far-flung itinerary, including the following:

• Athens
• Hawaii
• Venice
• Naples
• Manhattan
• San Marino

But wait, save your miles! You can visit all of these places in LA! Yes, because clearly government officials long ago could not come up with original names for their cities. I mean, Athens? Athens is an area of the city of Los Angeles near Gardena. Needless to say, there is no Parthenon there, nor a Delphic oracle. (And, to add to the confusion, just west of downtown is the “Byzantine Latino” district, with a huge Greek Orthodox church, and the well-known Greek restaurant Papa Cristo’s- go to http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/10/entertainment/et-neighborhood10 for more information on this interesting area.)

Hawaii refers to Hawaiian Gardens, which does not look like Maui;

Venice refers of course not to Italy but the well-known Venice south of Santa Monica (but still full of canals);

                                                         It's just like being in Italy!

Naples, also not in Italy, but adjacent to Long Beach;

Manhattan Beach, with no skyscrapers;

and San Marino, the wealthy enclave near Pasadena.

We'll talk about Portuguese Bend and the Hollywood Riviera on another post...