Usually LA. Los Angeles is sometimes used by news people if they're talking about something Important. Greater LA is actually made up of dozens of sub-cities, and you often hear their names used: Hollywood, West Hollywood (or WeHo), Burbank, Santa Monica, City of Industry, Culver City, Glendale, Van Nuys, Tarzana, Northridge, Inglewood, Brea, City of Commerce, Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Compton, El Monte, Torrance, Pasadena, and so on and so on ad almost infinitum. I can't remember them all. I live in West Hills, which is on the edge of LA County, but people here still say to strangers that they live in LA. Of course, to locals, we say we live in West Hills, or the San Fernando Valley. We do not willingly admit to having anything to do with the city of Los Angeles itself, because let's face it: LA sucks!
Or, for those who lived there and left (Hornsby, I'm talking to you!) it's known as Hell-A. To those of us who've shed blood, sweat, and clo... uhm, never mind... it's just, LA. And then depending on which distinct part, you might mention any number of smaller neighborhoods. Santa Monica has the amusement park pier everyone sees on the movies and Venice beach where the cop shows seem to love to stick a scene showing beach bods roller skating, shopping, running, soaking up the sun or... well... being chased by cops or whatever. As minstrel pointed out, there are a lot of communities and cities in LA which is, most of the time, actually referencing LA county -- about 90 miles across in any direction -- rather than the city of LA which is a rather small and totally unimpressive community. Yeh, and definitely some black hole suckage.
You poor man. I can't say I knew anyone who actually lived in LA. I grew up in Norwalk then we moved to Walnut, but no one knows where Walnut is so it's easier to say Diamond Bar. My aunt and uncle and cousins lived in Inglewood, I think that was the closest of us to LA, though my mom grew up in what later became Watts.
I called it Billboard when I saw it for the first and only time I can remember. I was leaving my childhood in Hawai'i behind and we landed in LA and drove to Florida. I was 11 I think. Anyway, billboards are a no-no in Hawai'i and it was the only thing I could see in LA.
That's funny. I think of it as the cement city. I moved away to the Northwest. Returning to LA, the lack of green was newly apparent to me.
i've lived in the city proper and in hollywood and usually referred/refer to the city as LA... ofttimes as 'la-la-land' in deference to its 'outre' atmosphere and population...
"Now you're miles away without a net, Your college money is a collage of debt, And your credit cards are all snapped in f*****g half Time to walk a landscape bereft of mercy This is now the back lot of your failed movie" - An excerpt from "The Frozen" by Corey Taylor. Not sure what aspect of L.A your story focuses on, but I thought this is a pretty bleak summing up of the destinies of those who go there pursuing their dreams.
it's been in use since at least back in the mid-50s, when i first 'went west'... and, btw, that snap of spidey in handcuffs is nothin'! i lived on hollywood blvd, just 4 blocks west of grauman's and one cold winter's day, when heading for the legendary bookstore on the blvd, to pick up some screenplays, i came across a barefoot young lad with a fedora perched precariously atop his afro, dressed in nothing but the shortest of red and white-checkered shorts and a tiny vest, happily strumming a toy ukele, as he strutted his stuff along the star-studded sidewalk... being hollywood, of course no one [including me, by then] thought it at all unusual...
That brought this lyric to mind: "L.A. is a great big freeway Put a hundred down and buy a car In a week, maybe two, they'll make you a star Weeks turn into years. How quick they pass And all the stars that never were Are parking cars and pumping gas" Do You Know the Way to San Jose" Burt Bacharach.
I've heard a lot call it LA, tourist call it Los Angeles, and I've heard a few people call it City of Angels
