N.Y. & L.A.: Trading Places
Nightclubs are an easy place to check the zeitgeist of a city, and in New York, the pulse seems to be pretty weak. State law now bans drink promotions--so ladies’ nights are out, and bartenders can’t give a freebie to a good customer. Some clubs have posted “no dancing” signs, so forget about boogieing until dawn.
In L.A., however, the club Cherry is pulling them in with raunchy fashion shows, and the monthly club Make-Up is so outrageous that E! Entertainment Network is confident its second documentary about the club will grab the same stellar ratings as the first.
The dance-floor consensus is that New York has become unbearable, while L.A. isn’t so hopeless anymore.
New Yorkers are moving here for the relatively cheap rent, natural setting and hot economy. And the fabulous things they once would have forfeited by coming to L.A.--street life, fashion and cultural activity beyond film and TV--are improving rapidly here.
In fact, it’s as if the cities traded characteristics and L.A. has come out on top, even if it’s partly because New York has sagged so low.
In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, New York was The City. Wall Street ruled. It was Masters-of-the-Universe time.
But now, “I don’t know that New York is necessarily the edgy place it once was,” said actor Gil Bellows. “It’s become more of a haven for the rich, and it’s harder for people from other places to come and thrive . . . which was always what was so great about it.”
Bellows moved from L.A. to New York but then returned two years ago to star in Fox’s “Ally McBeal.” In L.A., “the restaurants are underrated, and I’ve always thought that the LA Weekly was better than the Village Voice,” he said.
It’s one thing for an actor and former Angeleno such as Bellows to return. But when dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers decide to head for L.A.--people such as Stacy Fine, who doesn’t even drive--that’s when you know a sea change has occurred.
“I hate the direction city politics have taken,” said Fine, a publicist by day and manager of a rock band by night. “There was a crackdown on the dog leash laws and they ticket you. One cop threatened to Mace my dog as I was putting his leash on.
“And then in Central Park, my dog killed a squirrel, and I asked a park ranger what to do with it. He gave me a ticket for $1,000--for killing a park animal!”
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s touted “quality of life” program is credited for changing New York’s reputation from a crime haven to that of the FBI’s safest large city in America. But along the way, the city’s Street Crime Unit (motto: “We own the streets”) has patted down more than 200,000 residents. Giuliani has vowed to cut the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s budget for showing what he called “sick stuff.” And, on a much smaller scale, an out-of-town minister has written in protest to the New York Times. He and his wife, a divinity student, were fined by police for a celebratory champagne picnic at Grant’s Tomb.
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Most grumbling New Yorkers agree Giuliani’s sanitization of the city has harmed its funky vibrancy. There are also annoyances such as the $100 Broadway ticket, the onset of another winter and health workers roaming Manhattan on foot and in the air, spraying malathion to combat a deadly mosquito-borne virus.
So many New Yorkers are discovering that L.A. can groove, if you know where to go, how to live and what to do.
“L.A. right now is like a comfortable version of New York,” said Randy Barbato, who co-directed “Party Monster,” a documentary shown at Sundance last year. “All the fabulous New Yorkers are here, in a more fabulous and comfortable setting. It’s like being in New York without the smell of urine.”
Gigi Stoll, a photographer who came to California earlier this year, had been afraid to leave the media capital, worried her arty stuff wouldn’t be accepted by L.A.’s handful of magazines.
“But it’s open to change and to new artists,” Stoll said. “I’ve gotten great assignments out here. New York sticks to their old formulas and the same photographers. L.A. is just more open.”
“I had always thought of L.A. as corporate, plastic, filled with capped-teeth people,” said Patrick Lehman, director of visual merchandising for Express stores. “But it’s not like that anymore. Whereas New York is.”
Lehman travels to both cities frequently and says L.A. is giving off a vibe that’s desirable in fashion right now.
“The ‘90s are about isolation and disparateness, which is very L.A., as opposed to energy and compression, which are very New York and ‘80s.”
The Village Voice says “L.A. style” is an oxymoron. But Richard Tyler, the L.A.-based designer who has resisted the urge to move East, said L.A. has “gotten more sophisticated.”
Backing up his statement are the life-in-the-Southland features that pack New York-based glossy magazines, such as the October “Town and Country,” which includes novelist Judith Viorst’s tale of how she learned not to hate L.A. And then there are the recent ad campaigns for retailers such as Gucci, Mondi and Calvin Klein Eyewear, all shot in Southern California locations.
And it certainly is all about location, location, location. Cheap ones.
“Who would have thought that sprawl would be the saving grace of L.A.?” Lehman mused. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t find $300 apartments within city limits.”
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Stephen Saban, a writer who chronicled Manhattan night life in its ‘80s heyday, says Manhattan’s ridiculously high rents are in large part to blame for making New York unlivable. Southern California rents recently reached record highs--and aren’t expected to decline soon. Still, Saban pays $515 a month for an apartment that is larger than his $1,350-a-month New York place.
L.A.’s relatively cheap rents extend to offices, rehearsal halls and some small theaters, which has helped to nuture showcase theatre and even independent films--a major addition to the city’s cachet.
Nora Burns, who spends time on both coasts, loves that her comedy group, the Nellie Olesons, can put up a show easily at a cheap theater here--and that L.A. audiences won’t sit on their hands with cynical expressions on their faces. Still, “it’s such a working town. I wish it were less like that,” said Burns, who hates box-office chatter and finding restaurants and clubs closed before midnight.
After some detective work, Burns discovered the city’s secret, non-industry underground flourishing on the East Side. New clubs, theater groups and art galleries have been springing up in record number east of La Brea, fostering a creative atmosphere that Burns says reminds her of the East Village in its best days.
“Every year there’s more to do and more to see,” Burns said. “It feels like there’s a groovy young kid kind of rock ‘n’ roll-y scene going on.”
“As every season passes, pop culture becomes the global Esperanto,” said Fenton Bailey, an L.A.-based film producer. “And it’s all coming from here, whether it’s the porn industry or surfwear.”