Santa Barbara from Stearn’s Wharf.

I’ve never met a big city that doesn’t have a great reason for being built. Though the old adage for success in business – “location, location, location” – always plays a role in any city’s importance, the urban density, its excitement and endless opportunity, are only one part of a larger picture.

Los Angeles has a big personality profile. And there are two LA’s. One is the City and the other is the County. The County is vast and makes everyone and everyplace for miles around lay claim to being LA. Los Angeles (the City) is Hollywood, no doubt about it, but it’s also the important port of San Pedro, it’s Abbot Kinney’s Venice Beach, it’s LAX Airport, the major hub between Asia and Latin America, it’s still Vin Scully of the LA Dodgers, it’s Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

But what is the most exciting part of living here is that when all of LA’s environs are  taken together (aka the County), you’re living in the second capitol cities of numerous countries around the globe. China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam (though that is shifting to Louisiana a little), Cambodia, the Philippines, South Korea (Koreatown is in the middle of LA the City), Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, El Salvador, Peru, Armenia, Lebanon, Iran (their nickname for LA is Tehrangeles) and I’ll bet there’s more.

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