Why Stay in L.A.? : Voices . . .
We’re still here because we didn’t want our daughter to grow up in a culturally homogenous area--that’s not the real world. Socially, this is a very laid-back place to live. I like that. I like that anything is acceptable. There are broad rules, but basically, as I’ve said to (my daughter) Lauren: “You can wear your ragamuffin clothes. You don’t always have to be on show in Southern California. You wear what’s comfortable. Your hair doesn’t have to be always right. You can go out without makeup.”
There’s a casualness and an acceptance of casualness . . . You can have a bad-hair day here and it’s all right. You’re not expected to be perfect here. If you try to do your best, that’s OK, that’s good enough.
--Ann Thompson, native Angeleno
*
The zoo! The zoo! I love the zoo and the gardens and the beach and all the beautiful things here. I’m so lucky to live here. I was born here and I’m never going to leave. When I get married and have children, I am going to stay here and live with my mom and my daddy.
--Lauren Thompson, 7
*
The reason to stay in L. A. is that ultimately the challenges we face are the challenges that the whole country is going to face. We either solve them right here, or in the long run there will be no place to move to. (And we’ve got great weather.)
--Susan Estrich, USC law professor and radio talk-show host
*
It is a big city but you can find a small corner to create your niche, to have your family, to be a part of a community within the context of the richness of the second-largest city in the country.
Los Angeles is home because since leaving college I have developed friendships, personal and professional relationships here. These people have given me inspirational strength and a network I need to be more effective. If I left Los Angeles it would be like leaving my family.
--Leticia Quezada, president Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education
*
If you go to Oklahoma City or a Midwestern city, the Indian population is the same. If you go to the Northwest, there are Northwest Indians, maybe Alaskan. But there’s a real richness here among the Indian population that is nowhere else. Other places in the United States just don’t compare.
At this point in life, I have older family members who live elsewhere and (being apart) is troublesome because Los Angeles is very much home to me.
--Glenda Ahhaitty L.A. City-County Native American Indian Commission
*
I would never leave Southern California! Where else can a guy like me who only works a couple of hours a day be able to make great dough, sleep in late, surf my brains out and meet lots of hot celebrity babes? Leave L. A.? NOT!
--Jim (Poorman) Trenton, host KROQ Loveline radio call-in show
*
You can leave anywhere--your home, your street, your neighborhood--because you’re afraid of what might happen if you stay. Some people leave and never find out, and they’ll never know what good might have come from them staying. People may be afraid of earthquakes or bad air or crime; some folks are just afraid. That’s a bad feeling, but leaving doesn’t change anything. Staying does. Stay if you care and see what happens when people don’t run away. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing . . .
--Det. Paul Glascow, Los Angeles Police Department Gang Information Unit
*
I’ve lived here for more than one year. I like it. I get scared sometimes by the violence, but I plan to stay because there is nothing for me in my country. My country has been destroyed by fighting. Here I have built a new life. I have food, a room with a bed and friends. It is a good life, better than what I left. But there is a price to pay. You miss your family most of all. But I’ll stay so I can help bring them here.
--Gerardo Diaz, 25, a Salvadoran immigrant who works as a day laborer
