The view from Copenhagen

Los Angeles native Steve Caplan sold his house in the Valley hills to move to Copenhagen, where his wife is from, to work on the coming United Nations Climate Change Conference. He's blogging about life there as an ex-pat Angeleno, with some observations of L.A. and California from afar. From the latest post at Commuting from COP:

Far from ditching home, I embrace all things LA and Southern California. My friends laugh when I tweet, text, and blog about the Dodgers or Lakers at 4:00 in the morning. Between IPhone apps, live broadcasts online, and the omnipresent ESPN you don’t miss a pitch or even the occasional Adam Morrison sighting. Thankfully, I don’t get the transcripts from the McCourt debacle. But I could if I wanted....

But what touched me in a way that I didn’t expect was the news that the UC regents raised fees by 32 percent.

It freaks me out – a technical term of course – because it speaks to my past as well as and our future. As a product of LAUSD as well as the UC system I owe much to California and the system that was created in the 1960’s. It provided me a top-flight education and tremendous opportunity. The whole idea of the California Plan for Higher Education was that the State has a vested interest in educating its most qualified students with as few financial barriers as possible. It worked, and made our system the envy of most around the world.

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Are things better over here? Basically, yes. I don’t need a car because we get anywhere we need to go by train, bus, bike, or even water taxi. There is universal pre-school and classes are taught by caring dedicated teachers who are paid well. The city is remarkably clean, largely powered by alternative energy, and there is really no such thing as homelessness. But it is way too cold.

He has nice words for being able to keep up on Los Angeles a little through LA Observed — thanks!