Celebrate - City Of Ventura: Fill & Download for Free

Lots of good stuff here but I feel compelled to represent:Eagle Rock - largely unknown unless you attended Occidental College (like Barack Obama (politician) before he transferred to Columbia), sandwiched between central Glendale and Pasadena, it's part of the City of Los Angeles, although residents have an independent spirit and resist that identification. Considered by many to be an up-and-coming hip neighborhood for years now, it's finally come into its own with a string of great places popping up along Colorado Ave.North of Colorado are some beautiful tree-lined streets with historic Craftsman homes, a preview of Pasadena to the east. When you're done, head east along an unremarkable stretch of Colorado until it becomes Colorado Blvd. in western Pasadena and crosses the (in)famous "suicide bridge" over Arroyo Seco. Beautiful view of the mountains and the bridge itself is an elegant piece of architecture, plus you'll end up in the heart of Old Pasadena.Studio City - easy to overlook, but there's a little village along Tujunga Ave. with some great shops and restaurants (Aroma Cafe is hugely popular). Less seedy than NoHo, yet more down-to-earth than the ritzier stretches of Ventura Blvd., it runs just a couple blocks south of Moorpark. Classic beautiful neighborhoods on adjoining residential streets. Ventura Blvd. is well known, but in typical LA fashion, attractions are spread out along a couple car-oriented miles. The stretch just west of Laurel Canyon Blvd. is a dense pedestrian-friendly portion. When you get sick of cars and traffic, head a few blocks up the hill on Laurel Canyon and go for a hike in Wilacre Park (usually called Fryman Canyon by locals). The surrounding neighborhood is the choicest part of Studio City with many beautiful (and some estoteric modern) homes.Toluca Lake - just east of Studio City and southeast of NoHo, this primarily residential area is one of the prettiest in the Valley. Popularized by Bob Hope decades ago, it's become trendy again as a place for many young Hollywood celebrities to live because of its combination of large, lavish homes on pretty streets and convenient close proximity to many studios. There are quite a few places worth exploring along the main drag, Riverside Drive, including the historic mid-century Bob's Big Boy.Burbank Rancho - this one is off practically everyone's radar. A small piece of southern Burbank east of the Media District has the unique distinction of being zoned for horses. Beyond the LA Equestrian Center itself, the surrounding blocks are lined with mostly unremarkable suburban homes, but behind many of them are stables instead of pools or garages. Particularly on a nice sunny weekend day, it's fun to wander around this area and "share the road" with people on horseback as well as the usual cars, bikes and motorcycles. The zoning isn't accidental; there are equestrian trails leading directly into Griffith Park, which has something like 50 miles of trails to ride, stretching up and over Mt. Cahuenga and down to Beachwood and Bronson Canyons on the Hollywood side.Wow, there is so much more to write about. Greater LA is both enormous and fascinating.

Italians and Frenchmen have a love-hate relationship with each other, and both countries' histories influenced each other in turn. The modern Italian state owes a lot to the reforms introduced in the Napoleonic era (such as the census, the Civil Code, the military draft, etc.), and the world-famous French cooking style owes a lot to the Florentine cooks brought to Paris by Catherine de' Medici after her marriage with King Henry II of France in 1547.Many French celebrities such as Antoine, Dalida, Yves Montand, Pierre Cardin, Nina Ricci, Nino Ferrer, Lino Ventura, etc. were born in Italy or had Italian ancestry, and for many of them France offered a greater opportunity for their talents than their native land.There have been times in history when events pitted Italians and French against each other, such as in 1849 when the intervention of the French army crushed the fledgling Roman Republic and restored the Pope's rule over Rome, or in 1940 when Mussolini's troops invaded southern France on the heels of the Nazi army (an event forever etched in the French memory as the "stab in the back").Although relations between Italy and France went through some rough patches (such as when a mob lynched 17 Italian immigrants in the city of Aigues Mortes in August 1893, and when the following year the French President Sadi-Carnot was assassinated by the Italian anarchist Sante Caserio), Italy and France often rallied in support of each other in moments of need. Giuseppe Garibaldi's Red Shirts fought alongside the French in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war, and Napoleon III's support was crucial for the King of Sardinia in the war of 1859 against Austria which started the process of Italian unification.During the Fascist years (1922-1943) many Italian dissidents escaped to France, among which there was Sandro Pertini who later was President of the Italian Republic from 1978 to 1985.I'd like to conclude with a couple of quotes, the first from the famous French writer and playwright Jean Cocteau, who once said: "A Frenchman is an Italian in a bad mood", and the other from the former French President François Mitterrand: “Que serait la France, sans les Italiens?” (what would France be, without the Italians?).

Growing up my dad lived in LA for a few years, I have family and friends that live there, and I’ve visited often for work so I’ve spent a decent amount of time there. I’m also looking at a few jobs there and we’re seriously considering moving there, or San Diego. I know LA well enough without having been living there for so long time that I don’t remember what it’s like to live other places.The Los Angeles metro area is massive and there are dozens of downtown areas and cities within what outsiders consider LA. Most people who are not from LA lump it all together so LA County and Orange County are all LA in people’s minds. People who live there do not and LA and Orange County are actually pretty different but you drive from one to the other not noticing it unless you see a road sign. An even wider interpretation of Greater LA would include southern parts of Ventura, and western parts of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, or the Southland. It sprawls out over so much land that you can start at one end and drive for two hours at 65 miles per hour and still not be out of the entire metro area. And other than the mountains it’s pretty well built out. Of course, doing 65 across the entire Greater LA area will happen once a fortnight between 2 and 3 am.It’s simply different than other large metro areas. If we consider the five counties of LA together there are almost 19 million people compared to the Greater New York area’s 20+ million so they’re close enough in population to compare. The New York metro area has multiple cities like Newark, Stamford, and Jersey City, but New York City, and Manhattan in particular, are the focus of the entire region. It’s massive, it’s vertical and it is very dense at 72,000 people per square mile (Manhattan - Wikipedia). The actual City of LA only has a density of about 8,500 per square mile (Los Angeles - Wikipedia) and while there’s a skyline with multiple tall buildings it doesn’t have the same draw as Manhattan does. Most people in both the City of LA and the entire metro area live in single family houses. In Manhattan it’s much more common to live in a 30+ story building and in the other boroughs people live in 4 or 5 story apartment buildings.However, the LA area has dozens of smaller downtown areas, and legal cities, where people live, work and play. There’s Santa Monica, the Beach Cities, Century City, Beverly Hills and Brentwood, the Valley, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Irvine, Anaheim, and many more. The New York area is composed of different states and cities and towns within those states but LA just feels different. It can be scaled up or down comparing it with other cities. Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston are the undisputed hubs of those metro areas and the metro areas fan out from those cities. Tokyo is massive and is the center of that metro area. The city of LA isn’t. Instead of one main hub with many spokes LA is a dozen or more smaller hubs with spokes that connect with other hubs and spokes.Although LA and London are not similar, LA may be more like London in that sense. It’s not vertical. There isn’t one single downtown area that’s the focus of the larger metro areas. Some people may work in the City of London, but not many people go there unless they want to see the Tower or St. Pauls if they don’t work there. Downtown LA has a few things but when you say you’re going out for a night on the town it’s as likely to be in Santa Monica, Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, Newport, Irvine, or any other one of dozens of major areas. In the New York metro area it most likely means that you’re going out in Manhattan.Because of the sprawl cars are a major part of every day LA life and public transportation isn’t extensive or popular and therefore nothing like London in that sense. There’s a subway and if you happen to live and work on it I’ve heard that people like it, but it’s not widespread like New York’s. You drive on highways to get nearly everywhere unless you live and work in nearly the exact same part of town. Traffic is bad.If you’re moving there it’s important to live and work as close to each other as possible. I would not recommend living in one part of LA just because you really want to if your job is far away from there. For example, if you get a job in Pasadena but you’ve always wanted to live in Santa Monica or Manhattan Beach you’ll be spending more than 1.5 hours each way during rush hour commuting and they’re not even that far from each other on a map. Be careful when you put two destinations into a mapping app and it looks like a short line. Do it at 5 pm Pacific and check the travel time.Everyday life will really depend on where you live. Like I said, it’s giant and varied. When most people think of LA they’re thinking about the Westside. It’s the beach towns of Malibu through Venice and other wealthy areas like Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Brentwood in addition to others. You’ll see celebrities and it’s very expensive. Like eye wateringly expensive. Manhattan, Redondo and Hermosa Beach also have the LA beach stereotype and are slightly less expensive, but still no where near affordable without a high income. Pacific Palisades shoots right back up to unaffordable without making seven figures per year.Generally the closer you are to the ocean the more expensive housing will be, although Bel Air isn’t necessarily less expensive than Santa Monica because it’s a few miles west. Check out Zillow.com or Realtor.com and search in a few of those areas. When I say expensive, I don’t mean that you’ll pay $1 million for a 5000 square foot McMansion, I mean that you’ll pay $1.6 million for a two bed 1000 square foot home 2920 10th St, Santa Monica, CA 90405.Pasadena has great tree lined streets that evoke images of settled neighborhoods back east. When you see movies and tv shows with those perfect tree lined streets and well kept older homes there’s a decent chance they were shot in Pasadena. The San Fernando Valley is an entirely different world. I’m not as familiar with LA County as you head East. There are some not so pleasant neighborhoods though and you can quickly go from nice to unsafe.Then there’s Orange County with just as much variety. It’s more conservative as a whole. Even super wealthy areas of LA like Santa Monica are pretty liberal while Orange County is conservative, if that makes a difference. Orange County, at least to me, seems cleaner and newer overall. LA has a bit more grunge to it and large parts of Orange County seem more engineered and planned, mainly because they were.The weather is also more moderate the closer you stay to the ocean. Once you go inland about ten miles or over a set of mountains it can get hot in the summer, but early summer along the ocean is typically overcast and foggy. It’s never cold and if you want four seasons LA is not for you. The temperature only fluctuates about 20f on average from summer to winter.LA’s great for some people. Overall it’s expensive, especially the popular areas, and the taxes are high so it can be much easier if you have a higher income. It’s truly different than anywhere else in the US because it’s a giant city and metro area but so unlike other large US cities. If you’re a New Yorker who wants compact, walkable and subways LA is probably not for you.