As well as being home to the glitzy glamour of Hollywood celebrities in their swanky Beverly Hills’ mansions, LA is also home to many lost souls. Any major city will have its fair share of socially disadvantaged, the mentally ill and people down on their luck. Unfortunately LA seems to have more than most.
American society isn’t a particularly compassionate or caring society. It’s the land of opportunity, self-responsibility, and every man for himself. It’s a sad fact of life that the pace out here is fast and not everyone will keep up. You need a certain income to maintain a nice lifestyle and it’s very easy to fall by the wayside. I’m a relatively sane woman, but I can totally appreciate how easy it is to lose your marbles and unfortunately there are an awful lot of marbles over here that have been lost.
It would appear that most of these poor souls tend to take refuge on LA’s public transport system, which rather than being a viable, safe and sensible alternative to taking your car anywhere, has basically become a last resort.
When I once bemoaned to an American friend that the teenager had to be driven everywhere to meet up with her friends, where as back in the UK she was more than happy to hop on a local train or a bus, my friend replied “have you seen the people who use the bus?” A couple of years ago the Pasadena City Council sent us an information leaflet containing some useful tips for staying safe over the holiday period; one of which began with “if you have to use public transport, try and avoid sitting next to anyone…” Hardly encouraging words to make you want to hop on a train.
Most Americans drive – gas is cheap and towns are spread out. You need to get yourself from A to B and even when your car has 200,000 miles on the clock and bits falling off it, you don’t need any kind of certification to keep it on the road. There's no nice way to say it but sadly the people who use public transport tend to be those who lack the physical or mental means, as well as the financial ability, to run a car.
Knowing that the roads were going to busy on Long Beach Grand Prix day and parking expensive, we didn’t really let the teenager take control, we let the train take the strain. We’ve gone from pleasant posh Pasadena into Union Station before, that’s one commuter train, and it’s been okay. We were travelling to Long Beach in broad daylight. How bad could it be?
LA’s light rail system is cheap – $5 let’s you ride unhindered all day, which is why it has become such a good deal for the homeless seeking shelter. The metro system traverses some of LA’s most deprived and run down areas - abandoned industrial sites, run-down housing units, gang territory. Buildings are covered in graffiti, the streets are strewn with litter. This is when you realize the concrete encased freeway is the scenic route.
Americans do have this habit of always talking to you – this could be seen the sociability gene which we British tend to lack, or alternatively a hyper-activity disorder, but quite often it’s a ploy to convert you to whatever wacky religion they happen to practice. Trust me when you’re sat on an LA Metro train, you don’t want anyone to so much as make eye contact with you, let alone speak to you.
A two hour train journey in the company of America’s great underclass (don’t believe the hype for one minute that this is a classless society) and I’m well and truly converted – back to my car.
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