Silicon Beach: Los Angeles booms as startup hub(economist.com)
economist.com
Silicon Beach: Los Angeles booms as startup hub
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21709564-cheaper-location-tech-companies-takes-los-angeles-booms-startup-hub
102 comments
I don't understand how one can focus in such an environment.
I need headphones, ideally a lot of screen real estate and for nothing to be moving in my periphery.
I need headphones, ideally a lot of screen real estate and for nothing to be moving in my periphery.
I could see this being really, really great for planning/requirements meetings or code review. For those things, it's really helpful to get out of the normal work space and into a slightly different mindset. For building, I agree with the other repliers: definitely helps to be in a closed off area with minimal distractions.
How do you deal with sun glare on the laptop?
Having lived in LA for over 2 years, I doubt the tech industry there would truly rival the valley some day. I am very happy with the emerging tech scene, but when I was in LA, it was all about "the industry" - which was a reference to Hollywood. Many conversations revolved around what it was like to work in the industry or who knows whom from the industry.
The other issue with the tech industry in LA would be that it will run geeks and nerds out of town. Appearance and looks are far more important in LA than it will be in SF.
The other issue with the tech industry in LA would be that it will run geeks and nerds out of town. Appearance and looks are far more important in LA than it will be in SF.
"The Valley" in LA means the San Fernando Valley, think "Valley Girls."
Can we please stop with the Silicon Beach nonsense? The only people who use it in earnest are the yuppies at networking events. It's like calling Seattle the Silicon Forest.
I've been living in West LA since 2008. It's certainly exploded recently in terms of startups as Google, Snapchat, Riot Games and SpaceX have expanded their presences.
The West LA area has always had a strong tech presence from the gaming, advertising, and defense industries though, going back many decades.
The West LA area has always had a strong tech presence from the gaming, advertising, and defense industries though, going back many decades.
I was kicking around the idea of looking for a tech job in LA a while back. The names you mentioned seemed to be the ONLY ones worth pursuing. It's just not the same as San Francisco.
Yeah, I moved here about two years ago.
The other big difference between LA and SF is like, the penalty for not working close to where you live is absolutely brutal. Taking BART or the subway is moderately annoying, but driving from the Silver Lake to Venice every day is absolutely horrifying.
So in Venice you got Google and Snapchat, although apparently most of Google is getting moved down to Playa Vista, you got a handful of small startups, lots of VR companies led by people with media rather than technical backgrounds (maybe that's fine?), and that's about it.
Nearby you got EA in Playa del Rey (kill me), you got some old companies in Santa Monica and a couple more startups that don't seem interesting necessarily.
Even SpaceX is a pretty far cruise from the Santa Monica/Venice area, but there are a bunch more companies that hire engineers in that El Segundo area, but not necessarily ones that you would want to work at.
It's interesting, certainly, and I think the Snapchat IPO will lead to a lot of rich guys suddenly turning angel and so on. LA has basically never had any real exits until very recently (dollar shave, snapchat), which has limited the development of the ecosystem. Every old guy in LA is like "did you know I founded Myspace?" Based on my time in LA, I would have to estimate the number of founders of Myspace around 3-500. Also stamps dot com.
In summary, I would say LA is pretty much like New York City circa 2005.
The complete secret weapon of LA though is UCLA. The quality of graduates coming out of UCLA computer science is staggering, and from the hiring side, they're not competed for or recruited as heavily as say Stanford kids.
The other big difference between LA and SF is like, the penalty for not working close to where you live is absolutely brutal. Taking BART or the subway is moderately annoying, but driving from the Silver Lake to Venice every day is absolutely horrifying.
So in Venice you got Google and Snapchat, although apparently most of Google is getting moved down to Playa Vista, you got a handful of small startups, lots of VR companies led by people with media rather than technical backgrounds (maybe that's fine?), and that's about it.
Nearby you got EA in Playa del Rey (kill me), you got some old companies in Santa Monica and a couple more startups that don't seem interesting necessarily.
Even SpaceX is a pretty far cruise from the Santa Monica/Venice area, but there are a bunch more companies that hire engineers in that El Segundo area, but not necessarily ones that you would want to work at.
It's interesting, certainly, and I think the Snapchat IPO will lead to a lot of rich guys suddenly turning angel and so on. LA has basically never had any real exits until very recently (dollar shave, snapchat), which has limited the development of the ecosystem. Every old guy in LA is like "did you know I founded Myspace?" Based on my time in LA, I would have to estimate the number of founders of Myspace around 3-500. Also stamps dot com.
In summary, I would say LA is pretty much like New York City circa 2005.
The complete secret weapon of LA though is UCLA. The quality of graduates coming out of UCLA computer science is staggering, and from the hiring side, they're not competed for or recruited as heavily as say Stanford kids.
Worked in Tech in Los Angeles since 2000. Although lesser known as "tech" companies, there are several companies that have large investments in serious technology in LA:
Disney NBCU (specifically Fandango, parts of former M-Go) Ticketmaster/Live Nation eHarmony Edmunds.com The Honest Company
Other Tech companies left off the list: Hulu Yahoo (much smaller than before) AOL Hyperloop One and Faraday Future are coming up
Disney NBCU (specifically Fandango, parts of former M-Go) Ticketmaster/Live Nation eHarmony Edmunds.com The Honest Company
Other Tech companies left off the list: Hulu Yahoo (much smaller than before) AOL Hyperloop One and Faraday Future are coming up
Disney Animation (Burbank) employees a fair number of tech peeps.
glassdoor salary for systems engineer there is real low
I'm not surprised -- they pulled some shady moves with visas and stuff a couple years back too.
Glassdoor salaries always look low
Interesting, they're all media companies.
Perhaps "media" is too broad a term. I think there's a concentration of certain types of industries - entertainment video, gaming, ecommerce, adtech, automotive, some fintech, some social media.
What there isn't a lot of is "engineering", "cloud", "enterprise" technology. The GitHubs, Herokus, AWSs of the world are not yet here in LA. For those of us who are engineering focused, we generally do tech for companies that don't "sell" technology to other engineers, that's focused in SF and Seattle. Not any less valid just a different audience.
What there isn't a lot of is "engineering", "cloud", "enterprise" technology. The GitHubs, Herokus, AWSs of the world are not yet here in LA. For those of us who are engineering focused, we generally do tech for companies that don't "sell" technology to other engineers, that's focused in SF and Seattle. Not any less valid just a different audience.
What the F? What about Qualcomm/Broadcom.
Isn't Qualcomm in San Diego?
I don't think the exasperation is warranted. Grandparent's claim is that "it's like New York City circa 2005" and not comparable to the Bay Area.
Why would adding Qualcomm or Broadcom invalidate that claim?
Why would adding Qualcomm or Broadcom invalidate that claim?
Because you seem to focus on e-commerce/web startups, but there are established engineering companies in the SoCal area too.
Sure, but missing a few in an "sample" list of SoCal doesn't change the fact that the Bay Area has 10x the people working on tech. A list of SoCal might include satellite offices for Google, etc. But Google's campuses in the south bay have tens of thousands of employees.
You can always work at jpl
[deleted]
Curious synergy between this article and the San Jose Mercury story about SF Bay Area commuter traffic now being worse than LA's.
It's nowhere near as bad - I live in the Valley & have a nice 20-30 min commute into the office with otherwise pretty tame traffic around just about every day in my 2 1/2 years in the area. Meanwhile every visit I have had into LA had pretty bad traffic at many times you'd expect it to be normal, including after 10 am on a random Tuesday and ~1 pm on a Sunday.
There is far worse traffic in many of the worst traffic areas in the US than the Bay Area, I'm still confused as to why some try to perpetuate this myth on here.
There is far worse traffic in many of the worst traffic areas in the US than the Bay Area, I'm still confused as to why some try to perpetuate this myth on here.
Visitors say this. I don't buy it...I feel like LA natives avoid these kind of traffic disasters by avoiding peak times and knowing traffic patterns.
If they have to avoid traffic then there's bad traffic.
Is 1 pm on a Sunday a peak time for LA?
My sense is that 1pm Sunday is when lots of people are either a) just getting out of church or b) just waking up with a hangover. They then try to go somewhere they don't normally go to and don't know the directions to. Normal weekday traffic patterns go totally out the window and it's chaos.
Prime time at the beach.
Yep, Sunday afternoon in Venice was one of my peak traffic moments.
After-Brunch Rush Hour, of course.
Depends on where you are, time of year, weather, sporting events.
Rush hour on the bay bridge is hell on earth.
As a Venice OG, I can say they've been ruining what used to make the place unique. Then again, having a Silicon Valley clone has helped my real estate valuation.
Question: if other groups are so proud of rejecting people in tech, why should people in tech be expected to be welcoming towards outsiders. The way I see it, if you get to have your cool hip location for yourself, we should get to have our trillion dollar industry for ourselves.
I enjoy that your newly created account uses the handle farright.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Because your trillion dollar industry requires an ever-increasing number of customers, and their neighborhood does not.
If anyone here wants to grab a $BEVERAGE sometime, hit me up. I just moved here and I'm looking for like minded people. Email is in my profile.
I too have recently moved to the area and I'm hiring a new team. Any Clojure devs in LA?
Me! Shipped one thing in production with clojure but haven't had a chance to do anymore. There were a few startups from LA at Clojure West.
There are several clojure shops and a bunch of clojure devs lurking around, hit me up, email is at gmail, prefixed with hn username.
I'm not a practicing clojure dev, javascript by day, clojure by night.
Silicon Alley[1], Beach[2], Desert[3], Forest[4], Gulf[5], Peach[6], Prairie[7], Taiga[8], Wadi[9].
To paraphrase a Game of Thrones put-down, if you have to call yourself "Silicon" to say you are like the Valley, then you aren't like the Valley.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Alley
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Beach
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Desert
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Forest
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Gulf
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_peach
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Prairie
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Taiga
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi
To paraphrase a Game of Thrones put-down, if you have to call yourself "Silicon" to say you are like the Valley, then you aren't like the Valley.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Alley
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Beach
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Desert
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Forest
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Gulf
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_peach
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Prairie
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Taiga
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi
Don't forget Silicon Slopes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Slopes
Found the whole list on Wikipedia too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_with_%22Silicon...
Found the whole list on Wikipedia too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_with_%22Silicon...
funny Seattle only has "Silicon Canal" for the bit around Fremont where Google, Adobe, Tableau, GeekWire, Facebook, etc. have offices. you'd think between Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, Zillow, Redfin, and the countless other tech companies with headquarters or satellite offices in the area that some nickname would have sprung up for the whole region. "Silicon Isthmus" or something.
maybe we're still riding the "Jet City" thing from when Boeing was here?
maybe we're still riding the "Jet City" thing from when Boeing was here?
Irrelevant, but I laughed really hard at "Silicotton Valley" on that list.
Not only from the coattails point of view but also from the fact that except for maybe TX [TI, AMD, etc], most of those don't work with "Silicon" anything. They should be calling themselves either Bit/Byte/Binary or simply software -Alley/Beach/Desert/Forest... etc.
To be fair, I concede SF was never Silicon anything either and has coopted and wrested the name from the Route 237/golden triangle.
To be fair, I concede SF was never Silicon anything either and has coopted and wrested the name from the Route 237/golden triangle.
sigh Felt special coming out of "Silicon Valley North"[1] before this comment.
[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/ontario-...
[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/ontario-...
Don't forget silicon hills!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas
The city also adopted "Silicon Hills" as a nickname in the 1990s due to a rapid influx of technology and development companies.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas
The city also adopted "Silicon Hills" as a nickname in the 1990s due to a rapid influx of technology and development companies.
To be fair, there actually is a semiconductor industry here, so "Silicon" would be an apt description.
Absolutely. I was surprised to find how big the semi industry is in ATX, we have (off the top of my head):
1) Intel
2) AMD
3) Nvidia
4) NXP
5) Samsung (they even have a fab here!)
6) ARM
7) Qualcom
And several hardware start ups, etc. It is actually a pretty major part of the local economy.
1) Intel
2) AMD
3) Nvidia
4) NXP
5) Samsung (they even have a fab here!)
6) ARM
7) Qualcom
And several hardware start ups, etc. It is actually a pretty major part of the local economy.
Regardless I'm happy for the tech job market to expand beyond the Bay Area.
Honestly everyone is pulling back a tad from the beach itself in Venice/Santa Monica so it's probably better to call it Silicon del Rey.
[deleted]
Something must be going wrong up there if you're finding Santa Monica and environs cheap, haha.
LA and neighbors are somehow becoming the cheap west coast urban area. Seattle is now on par with LA, and Portland is quickly on track to overtake Seattle...
That tells you something about what a clusterf*^k the Bay Area must be at this point if they think LA is attractive.
How unfortunate, hopefully the culture in the city doesn't go stale and homogeneous.
Los Angeles is way too huge and varied in culture to worry about that happening.
My friends who are California natives say LA is what SF was like before tech ruined it. Venice Beach is so chill and laid back, I really loved the culture there. Sad to see it vanishing there, too, and I really empathize with the fact that I'm part of the problem.
Your friends just sound like bitter assholes tbh. LA is a sprawling metropolis that makes absolutely no sense to compare to San Francisco. LA as a whole isn't 'like' anything because it has such wildly diverse areas. Do you think Santa Monica has a similar feel to Compton or Hollywood?
See, we actually do agree here, given that the SF Bay Area has lost its diversity and become so monolithic that you can no longer draw a comparison anymore.
Clearly you have never visited Venice in the 90s... I don't think anyone in their right mind would morn that.
We call that Santa Cruz.
I mod a techLA subreddit in case anyone wants to share news of interest to the community:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TechLA/
Some folks also tweet with the #techLA hashtag. (Keep in mind, if you tweet, the #LATech hashtag is reserved for a university in Ruston, Louisiana.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TechLA/
Some folks also tweet with the #techLA hashtag. (Keep in mind, if you tweet, the #LATech hashtag is reserved for a university in Ruston, Louisiana.)
Just joined thanks for the info!
While many of the established tech companies seem to have clustered around Santa Monica, the younger companies are mostly on the east side (downtown, East Hollywood, Silver Lake, etc), far from "Silicon Beach".
I have been in Los Angeles for 8 years and love it here. When my co-founder and I moved up to Mountain View to attend YC there was no question that we would come back to LA afterwards.
People think of LA as Hollywood/media-driven, but it's also one of the biggest manufacturing towns in the country, the biggest port, an important hub for science/technology (Caltech, JPL, SpaceX, Tesla, etc).
There is a lot of untapped potential for startups here. Not to mention that rent is about half the price.
I have been in Los Angeles for 8 years and love it here. When my co-founder and I moved up to Mountain View to attend YC there was no question that we would come back to LA afterwards.
People think of LA as Hollywood/media-driven, but it's also one of the biggest manufacturing towns in the country, the biggest port, an important hub for science/technology (Caltech, JPL, SpaceX, Tesla, etc).
There is a lot of untapped potential for startups here. Not to mention that rent is about half the price.
I don't understand why these companies flock to that general area. Traffic is impenetrable from 6:00AM until sometimes 9:00PM. If you need the 405/105/10, etc you are hosed. It can take an hour to do ten miles.
It's horrific and it can't be good for recruiting. I know excellent engineers who have been offered jobs in that area and refused due to having to devote 3 to 5 hours a day stuck in traffic.
To me this means they would have access to a much larger talent pool if they strategically moved away from that impenetrable mess. Lived and worked in the area for years, it gets old.
It's horrific and it can't be good for recruiting. I know excellent engineers who have been offered jobs in that area and refused due to having to devote 3 to 5 hours a day stuck in traffic.
To me this means they would have access to a much larger talent pool if they strategically moved away from that impenetrable mess. Lived and worked in the area for years, it gets old.
Traffic is a lifestyle choice. There is indeed a small minority of people that have decided to sit in traffic 3 to 5 hours per day in order to live in a large and/or cheap house in the boonies somewhere. But that's crazy, and most people don't do this. You can also choose to not drive, and walk/bike/bus/train everywhere. LA is a real city and all that.
People love to say this. But it's total mythology.
For the vast majority of people living in LA, the bus is not an option. Your 30 minute commute will turn into a 3 hour slog.
Freedom of location is severely limited once you have a significant other or kids. School districts in LA are total garbage, and having a significant other means at least one of you is going to be commuting across town and sitting in traffic for 2 hours a day.
> most people don't do this
I guess all that traffic on the 10, 101, 110, 5, and 405 is just some collective hallucination. I was shocked when I found a number of people commuting to Irvine from such places as DTLA. That is, until I found people commuting to San Diego. Those are the rare ones (I hope). But there is a large portion of LA that commutes 2-3 hours a day. Anyone that commutes from the westside to east (or vice versa) is hitting 2 hours easy. I did it for a number of years. And by looking at Santa Monica Blvd, Wilshire, Olympic, etc. many more people are doing the same.
I will never take a job in Santa Monica. Unless you live in SM, it's not worth it.
For the vast majority of people living in LA, the bus is not an option. Your 30 minute commute will turn into a 3 hour slog.
Freedom of location is severely limited once you have a significant other or kids. School districts in LA are total garbage, and having a significant other means at least one of you is going to be commuting across town and sitting in traffic for 2 hours a day.
> most people don't do this
I guess all that traffic on the 10, 101, 110, 5, and 405 is just some collective hallucination. I was shocked when I found a number of people commuting to Irvine from such places as DTLA. That is, until I found people commuting to San Diego. Those are the rare ones (I hope). But there is a large portion of LA that commutes 2-3 hours a day. Anyone that commutes from the westside to east (or vice versa) is hitting 2 hours easy. I did it for a number of years. And by looking at Santa Monica Blvd, Wilshire, Olympic, etc. many more people are doing the same.
I will never take a job in Santa Monica. Unless you live in SM, it's not worth it.
> I will never take a job in Santa Monica. Unless you live in SM, it's not worth it.
Precisely. This is a lifestyle choice you choose not to make. But others do.
Precisely. This is a lifestyle choice you choose not to make. But others do.
And rents in SM are comparable to anywhere on the peninsula, which negates any cost advantage anyone thinks they might have going south anyway.
This is why I'm sticking to supporting the startup scene around DC instead.
This is why I'm sticking to supporting the startup scene around DC instead.
Yeah with trains and a bike you can get just about anywhere.
If you take the bus, traffic is 'worse'. Yeah, you aren't steering and using the brake, but the time to get from A to B is longer. I'd say by about 1.2x or 1.5x.
Also, have you actually taken the Santa Monica Big Blue Buses ever? Have you tried to commute on them?
(Friday rant time:) They are the main public transit form on the westside. I rode them to UCLA for ~2 years. I'll never do it again. A bus driver in LA is sick of all the shit that is LA traffic. They use the gas and brake without thought to the transmission or brake-pads. You are jerking back and forth the entire time, a real ab workout for the hour it takes to get under the 405. Also, you have to stop the bus and, you know, pick up passengers. This can take 5 minutes or more per stop, though average is about 1 minute. But you never know how many wheelchairs they are going to try to fit on the bus that day, a 10 minute wait. There are also tons of people just trying to scam their way on. Every morning the bus driver has to spend 3 minutes at some random stop trying to get a person to understand that it is $1.25 to ride, but they always forget to speak english or spanish, go mute, or try to fake sign language and just keep walking on. The driver stops the bus now and turns it off, per union rules, calls dispatch, and then we all have to wait for that jackass to get his butt hauled off the damn bus by some LAPD person or they chicken out and actually get off the bus. But it's ok, right, you are not in traffic! Oh, but wait, you are now spending, on a good day, ~1 hour standing on the bus, because they only run 2 of the #1 buses and everyone on the westside is trying to get under the 405, about 70 people per bus. Some crackhead lady is now ranting at some old man about since she is a woman, he should get up and give her his seat. Now the driver, who for some stupid reason decided to not just skip that stop, like they do for yours every other morning, is screaming at people to 'move to the rear of the bus'. Sometimes there is no room, but most of the time, there is some 'deaf' asian lady that just does not care anymore, some junkie nutto high outta his gourd, some gang banger macho jerk, or just some asshat with the ear-buds turned up too high just standing by the rear door refusing to move. So now you spend 10 mintues with the driver screaming at all of you on the intercom and a line of people outside banging on the windows to get on as they are already late for work. Now you get to sit in stop-n-go traffic just like the rest of the plebs trying to inch under the 405 on Santa Monica Blvd. I have shuffled faster than that bus on that stretch. You sway back and forth as the driver jams on the brakes and horn and some idiot beemer cuts off a fucking bus for the 10th time this ride. But hey! No waiting in traffic!
Oh, and you have to wait for the bus too! It'll never be on time, you can bet on that, but you can't tell when it will come. They tried to get GPS trackers on them for use with an app, but then that would prove that they are stuck in horrible traffic, so they took them off. Now you have to get there 'on time' and just wait. Are you sprinting for the bus to make it and you make eye contact with the driver, thinking that they will maybe pause a second for you and let you on? I have done that and seen them smile at me, give me the finger, and close the door in my face while laughing. No matter, the next bus is scheduled to be there in 30 minutes +/- 30 more minutes. Those meetings you had? Poof! Oh, great now you get to sit at the bus-stop on Santa Monica at rush hour. Horns are blaring for almost no reason, some Porsche is revving his engine for some chick in the passenger seat at 8 am, exhaust is pouring out of some truck 'rollin coal'. You want to take a seat, but you know better than to sit on that thing. Last week you saw the bum (who has claimed that area of sidewalk and is still there every day and night for years) piss and puke all over it at 7:45 am. Who knows what drugs they were coming on or off of. At first you thought they just needed help and you gave them a $10 to get on with their lives. But no, the reason they are there, homeless, is that they are insane assholes. Not just mentally crazy, that disease is just tough. But they are also jackasses too. Like, mug your girlfriend last night, and then get up in her face the very next morning demanding that she give him more money that you can clearly see he just spent on Mickey's 40s now smashed all over the bus-stop and now, oh there he goes, taking a piss all over the bus-stop. You call LAPD, and they say sure, they'll send someone out. The third time this happens, you finally get irate enough and they do send someone out. The bum is not there for a few days, and then due to overcrowding in the county jail, his junkie ass is back on the exact same bus stop within a week, because in the bum society that is 'his' stop.
Oh, and then one of the really messed up bums trys to get on the bus with you all that fine morning. You know what a 'piss-bus' is? That bum goes to the middle of the bus and then takes the most foul smelling deification and urination you have ever experienced. Literally, it smells like death. Who knows what combo of dehydration and methadone did what to their overtaxed kidneys and liver, but it seems only to have made them more efficient at making their excrements so concentrated as to be military weapons. I only made the mistake of getting onto a piss bus once. Everyone else at the stop that morning knew that an empty bus and one bum in the middle meant it was a piss bus, but I had not yet learned. I stepped on, the door closed, and immediately I regretted the decision. My eyes were watering from the ammonia, I was gagging, I got off as soon as I could, and I washed the clothes 3 times with bleach before the smell came off. This is not hyperbole. Why can't you kick them off the bus or not let them on in the first place? Civil rights violations and many lawsuits.
This is not every time that you step on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, maybe a time in 50 are things really bad. But you can expect at least 2 of those lesser types of incidents every week.
But hey, you aren't sitting in traffic!
Also, have you actually taken the Santa Monica Big Blue Buses ever? Have you tried to commute on them?
(Friday rant time:) They are the main public transit form on the westside. I rode them to UCLA for ~2 years. I'll never do it again. A bus driver in LA is sick of all the shit that is LA traffic. They use the gas and brake without thought to the transmission or brake-pads. You are jerking back and forth the entire time, a real ab workout for the hour it takes to get under the 405. Also, you have to stop the bus and, you know, pick up passengers. This can take 5 minutes or more per stop, though average is about 1 minute. But you never know how many wheelchairs they are going to try to fit on the bus that day, a 10 minute wait. There are also tons of people just trying to scam their way on. Every morning the bus driver has to spend 3 minutes at some random stop trying to get a person to understand that it is $1.25 to ride, but they always forget to speak english or spanish, go mute, or try to fake sign language and just keep walking on. The driver stops the bus now and turns it off, per union rules, calls dispatch, and then we all have to wait for that jackass to get his butt hauled off the damn bus by some LAPD person or they chicken out and actually get off the bus. But it's ok, right, you are not in traffic! Oh, but wait, you are now spending, on a good day, ~1 hour standing on the bus, because they only run 2 of the #1 buses and everyone on the westside is trying to get under the 405, about 70 people per bus. Some crackhead lady is now ranting at some old man about since she is a woman, he should get up and give her his seat. Now the driver, who for some stupid reason decided to not just skip that stop, like they do for yours every other morning, is screaming at people to 'move to the rear of the bus'. Sometimes there is no room, but most of the time, there is some 'deaf' asian lady that just does not care anymore, some junkie nutto high outta his gourd, some gang banger macho jerk, or just some asshat with the ear-buds turned up too high just standing by the rear door refusing to move. So now you spend 10 mintues with the driver screaming at all of you on the intercom and a line of people outside banging on the windows to get on as they are already late for work. Now you get to sit in stop-n-go traffic just like the rest of the plebs trying to inch under the 405 on Santa Monica Blvd. I have shuffled faster than that bus on that stretch. You sway back and forth as the driver jams on the brakes and horn and some idiot beemer cuts off a fucking bus for the 10th time this ride. But hey! No waiting in traffic!
Oh, and you have to wait for the bus too! It'll never be on time, you can bet on that, but you can't tell when it will come. They tried to get GPS trackers on them for use with an app, but then that would prove that they are stuck in horrible traffic, so they took them off. Now you have to get there 'on time' and just wait. Are you sprinting for the bus to make it and you make eye contact with the driver, thinking that they will maybe pause a second for you and let you on? I have done that and seen them smile at me, give me the finger, and close the door in my face while laughing. No matter, the next bus is scheduled to be there in 30 minutes +/- 30 more minutes. Those meetings you had? Poof! Oh, great now you get to sit at the bus-stop on Santa Monica at rush hour. Horns are blaring for almost no reason, some Porsche is revving his engine for some chick in the passenger seat at 8 am, exhaust is pouring out of some truck 'rollin coal'. You want to take a seat, but you know better than to sit on that thing. Last week you saw the bum (who has claimed that area of sidewalk and is still there every day and night for years) piss and puke all over it at 7:45 am. Who knows what drugs they were coming on or off of. At first you thought they just needed help and you gave them a $10 to get on with their lives. But no, the reason they are there, homeless, is that they are insane assholes. Not just mentally crazy, that disease is just tough. But they are also jackasses too. Like, mug your girlfriend last night, and then get up in her face the very next morning demanding that she give him more money that you can clearly see he just spent on Mickey's 40s now smashed all over the bus-stop and now, oh there he goes, taking a piss all over the bus-stop. You call LAPD, and they say sure, they'll send someone out. The third time this happens, you finally get irate enough and they do send someone out. The bum is not there for a few days, and then due to overcrowding in the county jail, his junkie ass is back on the exact same bus stop within a week, because in the bum society that is 'his' stop.
Oh, and then one of the really messed up bums trys to get on the bus with you all that fine morning. You know what a 'piss-bus' is? That bum goes to the middle of the bus and then takes the most foul smelling deification and urination you have ever experienced. Literally, it smells like death. Who knows what combo of dehydration and methadone did what to their overtaxed kidneys and liver, but it seems only to have made them more efficient at making their excrements so concentrated as to be military weapons. I only made the mistake of getting onto a piss bus once. Everyone else at the stop that morning knew that an empty bus and one bum in the middle meant it was a piss bus, but I had not yet learned. I stepped on, the door closed, and immediately I regretted the decision. My eyes were watering from the ammonia, I was gagging, I got off as soon as I could, and I washed the clothes 3 times with bleach before the smell came off. This is not hyperbole. Why can't you kick them off the bus or not let them on in the first place? Civil rights violations and many lawsuits.
This is not every time that you step on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, maybe a time in 50 are things really bad. But you can expect at least 2 of those lesser types of incidents every week.
But hey, you aren't sitting in traffic!
Yes, you're exaggerating, but I'd recommend calling an Uber if you have particularly bad luck one morning.
Did not exist at the time. Also, most folk that take the bus can't afford Uber let alone expect that one will get to them, pick them up, and get to work in a shorter time than the crummy bus will.
Many trips are $5 or less in the pool, feasible by just about anyone a couple of times a month. We use it for exactly that purpose, when the metro is inconvenient.
Youre right. And you forgot parking...I gave up driving here when I had to Uber from my parking spot to my destination.
I just take the trains and bike it and its actually really nice.
I just take the trains and bike it and its actually really nice.
During my time in LA I got the impression that most of these companies are situated in a location that makes it convenient for the executives/owners who mostly live in Santa Monica or along the coast and basically don't have to deal with the traffic (possibly with the exception of the PCH).
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Rent may be half the price, but overall compensation seems to be about 25% lower too.
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And some days, which is pretty much whenever we feel like it, we would just take our laptops and work right on the beach with the sun, with some towels spread out, chilling, swimming, and go for a swim and come back, then go back to work. It made me appreciate just how fun work can be and you don't have to sacrifice quality of your life just because you are working for a startup.
To me, working by the beach is seriously a no brainer, I mean more companies should be doing this! It is really hard to go back to working at an office building outside of it once you've experienced the freedom and lifestyle of being by the beach. Also, there is a big difference working close to the beach (like SM) and actually being ON the beach (Venice). I'll take the latter any day.