Settling in

It's been a while since I wrote, and I want to change that.  'Course, I said that before and look how far it's gotten me.  :-P  Here's an update on all things Los Angeles ...

As of one week from today, it will officially be five months in my new home.  In that time, I've:

• Put 4,000 miles on my car
• Started a new job
• Visited San Francisco 3 times
• Won a prize on a tv game show
• Had a handful of celeb sightings
• Averaged 4 workouts a week
• Celebrated my birthday over putt putt golf and board games in 80 degree sunshine (while struggling with a cold...)

A lot has happened in this short time.  And I'm really enjoying life so far in my new home.  :-)

I wanted to comment on a few things specifically, and how my sense of them is changing in the time I've been here....

Traffic
This is probably one of the least-appealing things about Los Angeles.  As y'all know, I had a lot of difficulty early on in my new job, navigating traffic for the first time ever on my work commute (I always took the train in San Francisco and this is my first time actually being a car owner).  While the commute end of things has improved a LOT since I started working earlier hours (now it's 50 minutes round trip, as opposed to 90), I still get frenetic and upset whenever I find myself in a sea of brake lights, as sometimes happens.  My preference would be to take the train or bike for work, but that's just not a feasible or safe option, and for things like grocery shopping or other more day-to-day tasks, I walk as much as I can, but still I end up needing to get behind the wheel from time to time.

I do not like the fact that my carbon footprint has increased so dramatically, and the daily stress of driving takes its toll.  On the other hand, I have been able to make and receive more phone calls than I used to (try making calls in a subway system and you'll know what I mean by that), and I do feel an increased sense of freedom or access to different places (tempered with the knowledge that the most desirable destinations are likely the most challenging for driving to them).

Smog
Without a doubt, it gets smoggy in LA.  There have been days that I've been near tears over the color of the air and feeling like it's so dirty.  Combine that with my being in my car and knowing that I'm adding some small part in that, and it does bother me quite a bit.  That said, there have been many more clear days where the air is fresh and clean than smoggy days, and the bad rap that LA gets for its air quality, while deserved, is overstated.  I've been to many large cities, and LA's air may be bad at times, but it's not much different than places like Chicago, New York, and Houston.  Even more than that, were it not for typical weather patterns interacting with mountains to literally pin the air in place over the city day in and day out, people might actually laud LA for its efforts to improve its air quality and hold it up as an example of what other cities could do.

Open Space
I love the sense of space that I have here, particularly compared to other urban environments.  In a matter of a ten minute drive, I can be at the base of Bronson Canyon, where I have already hiked up a couple times for over an hour round-trip to the Hollywood Sign (or at least as close as you can get to it without crossing onto private property).  I've gone on a hike with a group that checks out a different hiking location every Saturday, and, with that and other hikes, I've been to a few different parks, all within 10-30 minutes' drive, where you can literally feel like you're no longer in the city and instead surrounded by hills and nature.  While my immediate neighborhood lacks open space (something that local leaders are attempting to change), the accessibility to tremendous open space and hiking opportunities in this city is some of the best I've ever seen.

Sunshine
Y'all know that I wasn't too keen on living in a city where it's pretty much sunny and 70 every day in perpetuity.  And I have had my struggles with it, especially this month of January where we had literally four straight weeks of sunshine and 75-80 degree weather.  By this past weekend, I was feeling like a wrinkled, dried-up sponge pining for moisture.  Thankfully we got a little over the weekend.  Still, I'm finding that it's not so difficult to adjust to perpetually nice weather.  Try as I might, I can't complain too much about weather that more often lends itself to shorts and flip flops than it does to sweaters and scarves.  As I've watched the rest of the country dig itself out from snowstorm after snowstorm, I've found it hard to complain that I'm "socked" with sunshine and shorts weather practically every day.

Friendliness
For the most part, I've found Angelenos to be far more friendly than advertised.  I was amused just the other day to see an article in the LA Times about how LA was ranked by some travel magazine as being the most rude city in America, besting long-time "titleholder" New York City.  Honestly, I can't begin to understand where that sentiment came from, other than people who don't like to drive not wanting to get in a car when they go to visit someplace (which I can totally understand).  Otherwise, short of the sheer self-absorption of a handful of aspiring models and actors, I've found Angelenos to be anything but rude.  Perhaps it's the perpetually good weather or access to the outdoors or who knows what, but nearly everyone I've met so far, through my work, volunteer activities, hiking, and friends of friends have been super friendly to me and fun to be with.  Frankly, I see that as more of a human trait than anything particular to my new home, but so long as random surveys will ascribe rudeness to Los Angeles, I'll just point out that such a survey may be seriously lacking.

Those are just some thoughts on a Monday afternoon between getting done with work and going to the gym.  Feel free to comment however you wish, and thanks for reading!

Make it Work!

The traffic hasn't gotten any better since my last post.  If anything, the consistency of its awfulness was putting me into a funk.  After the first couple days on my job with so little traffic, perhaps my expectations were just out of whack.  Then again, my coworkers were also telling me that the past few days had been particularly bad.

Regardless, my boyfriend made a suggestion that I have been trying and have found so far to be immensely successful.  Like Tim Gunn says, I'm "making it work" with a few tweaks.

Every morning I had been waking up early, going to the gym, coming back home to get ready for work, and then heading into the office.  I was getting up at 6:20am and getting into the office by 9am.  Well, my boyfriend's suggestion was to go to work first thing in the morning and then head to the gym after work.  Basically, I'd go in at 7:30am, and be able to leave at least an hour earlier than I was before.  With the blessing of my boss, I tried it out a few days this week, and voila! it works!

I haven't been missing the traffic altogether.  But the drive home for me has gone down from an average of 70 minutes to 25-30 minutes.  Yay!

And with that extra time, I can do a little more work, spend a little more time at the gym, and take a little more time at home to chill and do other things I care about.  It's a fantastic rearrangement.  :-)

Miserable

I'm just four days into my new job, and already I'm realizing that all that talk about "LA traffic" really is appropriate.  Granted, my commute doesn't exactly skirt the busy roads - in fact, it takes me right through one of the busiest and most congested thoroughfares - but the past couple nights of desperately seeking alternatives to avoid what were terrible traffic jams on the freeways have only made my drive that much worse... and worn me out in the process.

I never cared for the inconsistency of the Muni in San Francisco.  It was always a crapshoot, and more often than not it involved a ride that I could have biked faster.  It was slow, and yet it worked.  I suppose that's why I continued to take it, even as it drove me bonkers on a regular basis.  About the only thing consistent with Muni was its inconsistency.  When I lived out in the Sunset, which was just 6 miles from my workplace downtown, my commute often took an hour each way, on a good day.

Los Angeles traffic is another beast entirely.  Rarely have I seen four- and five-lane-wide stretches of highway with nothing but brake lights as far as the eye can see... until now.  I thought I knew what I was getting into when my commute the first few days took me little more than 25 minutes each way.  Easy peasy, right?  Not so fast - literally.

Last night my drive home took an hour and 20 minutes.  Tonight, an hour.  Now, to be fair, last night there was a major accident on the freeway that I would normally take, which turned a typical nightmare into a collective version of hell on earth for all those with the unfortunate experience of being on the road at the time.  And, what I also didn't plan on was running into traffic for the Lakers-Clippers game as I tried to skirt the freeways by taking sidestreets across downtown.  But tonight there was no accident.  Just normal traffic.  Which apparently means an hour-long drive.  To go 10 miles.

So, yeah, everyone outside LA who says "oh, I hate the traffic," you got me.  Whoop it up.  The traffic can definitely be bad.  Painfully so for this driving neophyte.

And, frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I came home in tears last night and close to it again tonight.  I really am not prepared to spend upwards of two hours a day in my car.  One hour, I can handle, but two?

Oh, and for those of you who know how much of a transit geek I am, don't think I hadn't already tried to figure out what it would take to do my trip on the train/bus.  It's a minimum of 90 minutes each way.  And when I know that I can do it in my car for a possible 25 minutes if traffic permits (which it has a number of times), and 80 minutes in the worst case scenario, well... you get the picture.

So, what now?  I don't know.  I'm just kvetching because I hafta.  This week has been super fun for me at work, and that's been tainted by a drive that has left me really upset on several occasions.

What would you do?

Employed!

Just under two weeks ago, I published this post about being in-between jobs and looking for work.  And I want to say thank you to all of you who connected me with people you know and have been looking out for me.  It means a lot to me - thank you!

I am fortunate to have been offered (and accepted) a job this past weekend.  It's true!  I start in 3 weeks and am very excited both for the work that I'll be doing and for the ability to better support myself financially going forward.  All good things.  :-)  I won't go into the details of the work right now, but suffice to say that it builds on my analytical and policy background and is an excellent place to get started in Los Angeles.

That said, I am definitely still looking for different ways to connect and plug into the LA community, so if you you know if people you think would be good for me to talk to, please let me know!  While my new job did not come through the networking that I've been doing, I do credit that networking for giving me a much better sense of the community and ways to get involved.  Every reference sent my way (so far) has been super, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has been so supportive of me in my journey.

Thank you!

Your home... You're home

This past weekend was a big moment for me.  I had my housewarming, which involved inviting lots of friends over and commiserating over gnoshes and drinks.  I also played host to my mom and her friend, with whom I drove to LA after a quick flight up to San Francisco to surprise my brother for a live jazz recording he was doing.

I was nervous, honestly, to show my mom my place.  It wasn't even just my apartment that I was nervous about sharing as much as showing her my new city.  At the brunch that my mom hosted a couple months ago on the day that I moved here, one of her friends blurted out how awful LA was and how he just loved SF so much more.  Readers of this blog know that I've heard this sentiment a lot, but coming from one of my mom's closest friends, and in the context of my final brunch in San Francisco before I moved to LA, it was more jarring than usual.  I'm certain this is a sentiment that mom has heard time and time again, as have I.

As we made the long slog southward down the 5 toward the grapevine, I began to worry.  What if mom thought LA sucked?  What if the air was horrible and aggravated my mom's friend's breathing issues?  What if our visit would just be a slog from one destination to the next?

As it turned out, not only were my worries unfounded, but my mom and her friend had a great time.  Mom was ecstatic about being in Hollywood and walking along the Hollywood Walk of Stars.  She and her friend loved the view from Griffith Observatory, and mom and I had a lovely walk to my garden and onward to get some herbs and seeds to plant.  While our time together was short, we did make the most of it and saw a few different parts of LA - enough to give my mom a sense of a city she admits she'd never visited before (quite smartly, she doesn't include a three-day trip to Disneyland a few years ago as being a visit to LA).  Mom and her friend enjoyed the warm sunshine, the walkability of my neighborhood, and the overall accessibility of LA that I have been enjoying myself.

What struck me most, however, was our first evening here after finally finishing our long drive, after mom had briefly seen part of my neighborhood and also walked around my new apartment.  She looked up at me and said, "Luke, this is truly your home... Your home."  And the restatement of "your home" was inflected in a way that meant "You are home," which gave me pause for a moment.  It was a recognition from her that I had not anticipated, and it meant so much to me to know that she could see what I have begun to understand in my couple months here, even as I have struggled to find work, and routine, and friends.  That recognition was that I am home.  And I am really happy to be here.

In-between jobs

Perhaps the biggest challenge in moving to a new city has been finding work.  And it's not even just that I don't yet have gainful employment, but that I also have very few elements of a routine - something that I took for granted before moving here.  I have always been very involved, had lots of people to spend time with, and any number of activities on my plate, and now that I'm in a new city a lot of that has changed.

As you probably know from personal experience, being unemployed is tough.  To make matters worse for me, I was told just a couple weeks ago that the job that I'd been promised before I moved here, that I understood would start in late October, has no funding.  So now I am doing everything I can to change that situation for the better.

In keeping with that effort, I'm putting this out there, in case someone is reading this and has any ideas or people they would be willing to connect me with as I continue to get settled in my new home:

I'm looking for work.

I've got my resume and bio up on my fairly barebones website.  Every day I'm applying for a new job.  And although the job market sucks and looking for work is a trying experience, as my boyfriend encourages me to do every day, I'm focusing on the positive.

I've had a number of meetings with different movers and shakers in the Los Angeles area, all of whom have been incredibly friendly and helpful.  I've been looking into consulting opportunities and trying to find opportunities to provide financial, analytical and communications contractual services.  I've already had a preliminary job interview this week for an opportunity about which I'm very very excited.  And I've even been reaching out to organizations that are doing work that I care about so that I can plug into different volunteer opportunities, since those are another way to get involved, create a routine, and meet other people with similar interests.

That said, I am still [very much] in-between jobs.

So...  I'm asking for your help.  If you know of someone in Los Angeles who you think would be good for me to talk to.  If you've heard about an opportunity you think is worth exploring.  If you think there is some organization or two that I ought to check out.  Please tell me.

My resume and bio explain a lot about me.  My passions are building community, empowering people out of power, truly understanding key issues (i.e. knowing the second, third, fourth, etc. layer beneath the public story about any issue), developing sustainable transportation systems and land use patterns, providing high quality education to all people, and providing equal rights to the disenfranchised.  My background is policy and financial analysis, with a focus on local government and nonprofits.  I love working on teams, and thrive in an environment where people are encouraged to speak their minds so that everyone can learn from each other.

My email is lukehklipp [at] gmail [dot] com.  You can find me on Facebook.  You can check out my website.  Please let me know if you have ideas to share.

Thank you!

PS - I will get back to sharing about my experiences in Los Angeles shortly.  Frankly, it was around the time that I learned that I didn't have this previously-promised job opportunity that my blogging petered out, as a lot of my time has since been dedicated to my job search.  That said, I continue to have any number of experiences that I would love to share, and will share... soon.  :-)

VOTE

Tomorrow is a big day for our country.  Every two years it seems like people are saying "this is the biggest election ever;" and this is a year that I wish I could say, "this election isn't as important as elections past."  But I don't think that I can say that, because I'm not sure that would be right.

Take the "tea party," for example.  This is one of the most ginned-up phenomenons I've seen in my lifetime.  The "tea party" is a well-financed grasstops (as opposed to grassroots) cadre of organizations run by people whose primary motivator is cutting taxes for the wealthy and eliminating the social safety net (in other words, the economic self-interests of the few people financing the "tea party").  Contrast statements by "tea party" candidates Sharron Angle (AK) and Joe Miller (AK) who want to gut Social Security and Medicare with all the health care town hall protesters who simultaneously lamented "government-run healthcare" while vigorously defending their own medicare.  In a genuinely grassroots operation, the message being spoken by the people at the "bottom" of the organization is the message of the organization, by definition.  In the case of the "tea party," the message from people at the "bottom" is the opposite of those at the top.

Take social issues.  This election is particularly notable for the level of vitriol being spoken by people who claim to have god on their side.  A candidate for Congress compared LGBT people to alcoholics and another candidate defended his choice to dress up as an SS guard (i.e. Hitler's army), and both of these men continue to have the support of the GOP leadership.  Nearly all the "tea party" candidates for Senate oppose a woman's right to choose, even in the case of incest or rape, which is such an extreme anti-choice position that very few elected officials have been willing to venture that far outside the mainstream until now.

Take anything you care about.  Access to college?  The wealth gap?  Don't Ask, Don't Tell?  A woman's right to choose?  Tax fairness?  You name it.... it appears to be on the line this election with a cohort of some of the most extreme candidates for office we've ever seen.

I am sad, because it appears that Democrats will handily lose the House tomorrow, which will mean that one of the most outspoken and powerful advocates for equality and fairness - Nancy Pelosi - will lose her ability to keep moving the national needle toward equality.  That needle will be left with Barack Obama who, quite frankly, has been disappointing in his willingness to buy into the GOP narrative.  I am sad, because it appears that people like Pat Toomey, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio will dominate DC for at least the next two years, with their primary intent being to undermine this President (even as the President doesn't seem to fully get that this is in fact their primary intent).  I am sad, because Democrats had a unique opportunity to create a sea-change in our national narrative since 2008, and instead they punched a couple times and then crawled back into their collective shells, surrendering to the GOP months before their time was up, and basically handing over the keys to the Capitol without a real fight.

I hope I'm wrong about what appears to be the certain outcome of tomorrow's election.  I sure would like to be.  And one way you can change that is to get out and vote.  There's so much at stake, and it is through our vigilance and commitment to sticking with it, even (and especially) when times are tough, that we shift the narrative and the direction of our country toward increased fairness and equality for all.

Vote.