Croc

Exactly--it's huge by any measure (population, geographic area, etc.). How many places exist where you fly over the entire metro region with no end in sight for the entirety of the final decent? It just goes on seemingly forever...

The traffic isn't that bad...Chicago's is much, MUCH worse, and LA has like 9M+ people in the metro region. You just have to know how to time it, and whether/which surface streets may be faster (hence, the book).

Have fun! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. And if you want to, get this book as a primer for driving in LA: http://www.amazon.com/Survive-Drive-Freewa...8243&sr=1-1

Your avatar of "Galloping Gertie" makes my day.

OK Here's the thing: YOU WANT A CAR IN LA. Some transit between some areas is good, but the overall system is lacking. LA was designed largely for the car, and that's the best way to experience it. As far as safe places to stay are concerned, I would recommend staying either downtown or along the coast in one of the Beach cities. Downtown has alright nightlife now that LA Live opened, and there are some great bars/clubs to be had. Downtown is also a very central location allowing you to go just about everywhere in 20 minutes. If you want something more coastal, I recommend Venice or Santa Monica if you want a lot of shopping opportunities, or Manhattan Beach/Hermosa Beach/Redondo Beach if you want clean beaches and some of the night scene. Hermosa is club central, Redondo has a fantastic pier, and Manhattan is really quiet with a clean beach and great upscale restaurants. As far as things to see, there are too many to even attempt to list. I suggest you get this: City Walks: Los Angeles:50 Adventures on Foot. Great resource, though IMO they could easily have done 100. As far as places to eat...Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles is fantastic, and they have 5 locations. Yelp the closest one to wherever you end up staying. Fred 62's in Los Feliz Village is another awesome place, and it's 24/7. For a good Chinese dinner, go to CBS Seafood in Chinatown. For great dim sum, go to 888 Seafood in Rosemead. If you've never had it before, go to In-N-Out--the best fast food chain--but check out their secret menu before you go, because I think anything animal-style is better. In Manhattan Beach (also in Hermosa, but I haven't been to that location), there's an incredible Italian place called Mama D's. Chosun Galbee is a good Korean place in K-Town, and Ruem Pair is an amazing place in Thai Town. La Dijonaise is a french bistro in Culver City with the best croissants I have had in the US. Just yelp all of these, and use yelp to find other things you might be interested in.

Go back and re-read my post because I never said you haven't travelled anywhere, and I never said you were a simpleton. All I said was that you need to travel to the places you CLEARLY HAVE NOT BEEN TO (otherwise you would not post such outlandish things about them) because maybe your perceptions would change. There is nothing offensive about any of that, and if you CHOOSE to take offense, then I will be forced to write you off as unreasonable, someone with a chip on his shoulder and a massive inferiority complex. It's really difficult to "pin me down" on something when you choose to infer something that I never implied. You do not get to disrespect other posters on here like you do with regional bashing and expect everyone to kowtow to you. You want respect, you have to give it, and lashing out at people while simultaneously playing the victim is not the way to do it. I am truly sorry you are holding a grudge against me from when we were all moderators, but that was 3 years ago. It's time to move on. I hold no animosity toward you, though I would appreciate it if you would stop insulting my part of the country. I have NEVER insulted yours. I also think it's very telling you assume I'm sheltered and have never worked a hard day's work in my life. Both of those are completely false, and I find it extremely laughable that you make these wild assumptions about people, places and things you clearly know nothing about, and then get all snitty when someone calls you on it. I learned a lesson many years ago: "Do not talk about things you know little-to-nothing about because you WILL look like an ass to the people who do know."

I think there's something quite sick in charging people to access a natural resource like a coastline. I didn't know they did that out east...out west, our beaches are actually worth paying for, yet they are free.

Wow, what an..."interesting"-looking stretch of road. I think the overall design of that area with all the loops is highly land-inefficient and likely confusing, but the specific part you dislike doesn't seem too bad to me. Signage could probably be better. As for the drivers, well, it's Jersey.

Yeah, but I mean if it goes to Chevrolet, the bar the front logo floats on will go away, and maybe the taillight lenses will be updated. It really doesn't need anything else to look like a baby Vette.

They already have that in LA. It's incredible how little you have to wait for a light to change, with only a few exceptions. Plus, you don't waste time at signals if there are only 1 or 2 cars waiting to turn left because the green arrows only show up when 3+ cars are queued--those two can turn on the yellow, and it increases overall flow. Or if you're aware of this, like I am, you stop a car-length or two before the stop line to trip the loop detector and get the preemptive green arrow

Wait--this isn't a grade-separated freeway with full access control? Or is it partial? Basically from everything you posted it sounds like there are a lot of unskilled drivers out there who don't give a $h!--very dangerous.

Bingo. Honestly, though, bank nationalization worked wonders in Sweden after their economic crash. The Fed already controls interest rates, so I don't see what the huge problem is on the surface. I'm open to other opinions, though.

Corvette-like rear, front fascia that already mirrors that of the Malibu? Why change anything at all beyond the badge?

Yes, and EVERYTHING posted by the media is unbiased, agenda-free, and 100% factual. Right I love how much you like to play the victim when it comes to regional stereotypes, though I have never once played that card against you. Yet once again, you do that to me. Grow up--you can't have it both ways. Maybe if you travelled to different parts of the country you would see first-hand how ridiculous many of your regional stereotypes are.

OK, I get what you're saying. Spring Hill would be logical, though, since Traverse could be moved to Lansing fairly easily.

Correct, but think about it for a second: if GM could sell off Saturn, and package it with a factory or two, whoever buys it would pay more since there are tangible assets in addition to the rights to the brand. Saturn IS GM, for now at least. But if GM moved the Traverse tooling to Lansing, there would at least be a factory to be sold off that whatever new entity could use for production, and GM would get more money for the sale. GM would also have one less factory to worry about.

Perpetuating this farce serves no purpose other than to stir up $h! on the boards.

93/7 is the way to go.

This is only logical. Since Saturn may be sold off or spun off, the Spring Hill plant would probably go with it, and that would boost what GM could get for such a sale. It's more advantageous to sell plants than to shut them down. And this talk about punishing states that went red...absolutely assinine. Anyone who buys into it is a partisan hack and/or conspiracy theorist.

Yeah, please hurry. When I have multiple firefox tabs, it gets annoying having to highlight the thread title to read what thread I'm reading.

There is nothing wrong with Eli Lilly & Co.

Right here with you for the most part. My 2001 Aurora is the perfect size for me--no compromises on passenger room or trunk volume. The CTS would be my first choice for a replacement. I don't want anything too terribly long.

Give me a stretch of road (a couple examples) so I can look them up on Windows Live Maps. This could be to force a merge to cut down on weaving and may actually increase flow. I'd be interested in seeing this.

OK, so you just outlined that the drivers are careless and uneducated (don't even use signals?!?), and that there is weaving and 93 access points. So you have bad drivers plus an atrocious road design. Let me guess, the on and off ramps consist of short weave lanes instead of forcing merges and allowing diverges at certain points? If those ramps are closer than 1/2 mile apart, there are some serious design issues. When was this built? If built after the 1960s, then the engineers were either reckless or willfully ignorant. The road design and poor driver education are the problem, not speed.

There is no reason. It is simply an impediment to maturity growth and letting cooler heads prevail. The longer the mentality exists that if you have a problem with someone it is OK to just shoot them, the longer this country will be in the $h!ter. That kind of thinking is uneducated and declasse.