NY vs. LA is so...boring

I loved Nancy Rommelmann's blast at NY provincialism in our Native Intelligence section. In case you missed it, she came out here after 24 years as a New Yorker. "I assumed I knew everything: how to cross the street, what pizza is supposed to taste like, the worth of anything worth knowing," she writes, only to later realize that New Yorkers often don't have the slightest notion of the world around them. Anyway, along comes a NY Observer post headlined "L.A., We Love It!" Here's how it opens:

Mocking Los Angeles is a time-honored pastime for New Yorkers. We cling to the L.A. that Woody Allen imagined in Annie Hall: a culturally barren land of liposuction and libidos, a crass, one-industry town full of phonies. Sure, the weather is better on the West Coast, we tell ourselves as we trudge the city’s sidewalks for the ridiculous procession of slushy weeks from Thanksgiving to St. Patrick’s Day. But look at the trade-offs they make in sunny California: traffic, pollution, sub-par museums, second-rate theaters, no seasons.

Oy gevalt. The piece takes a look at why so many young New Yorkers are daring to give up the big city for a move out West (now that's an original story idea). The folks interviewed are all looking for a show biz career, which of course has the writer assuming that L.A. is "a one-industry town." (Psst: It's not.) And of course there’s a lot of chatter about driving. “It’s a crazy town," said Ben Lyons, the E! movie critic. "My second day here I saw Pat Sajak at the dry cleaner, and just yesterday I saw Dylan McKay eating lunch on the Warner Brothers lot. “I am in my car right now. Can you get any more L.A. than that?” Ouch.