Pack it up: Why Los Angeles moving is different than other cities
Nice article written by David Thompson.
It might be the City of Angels, but you’ll need to pray to your guardian angel to move here safely. That’s right, Los Angeles is a mover’s nightmare. The city is, of course, literally moving: the area’s twenty million residents are constantly driving to-and-fro, and all too often the ground ends up moving too. Maybe the only things that don’t move around here are the freeways. But, against all odds, this city of immigrants and migrants makes moving in a challenge. Maybe it’s an admissions test of sorts; those who are strong enough to survive the gauntlet of moving into LA deserve the reward of enjoying the city. The weak are left by the side of the road, wondering what happened.
Trying to self-move into LA was my first mistake. Trying to navigate the maze of freeways (”the five”, “the four-oh-five”, “the one-ten”, and all the rest) is an adventure best left for the professionals. This may be a city built for the automobile, but it doesn’t come with easy directions. It took a couple stops at gas stations to make the intersection of “the” 101 and “the” 110 make sense to a newcomer.
Traffic is a nightmare, and it only gets worse at night. The drivers make the roads even more of an adventure. As I tried to pilot my rented van down the packed freeway system, cars kept dodging in and out of lanes in front of me, each trying to race the others toward a destination unseen ahead in the bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Finally, I arrived at my destination late and tired from the road. Of course, there’s no overnight street parking in many areas. But, having nothing else to do with the truck, I blithely ignored the signs and left it there anyway. What kind of police officer would ticket a rental moving van, especially one that still smelled like hot engine and burning oil? Well, it turns out there is such a cop in L.A. and he happened to be patrolling Pasadena that night. Sure enough, I got a parking ticket on my first night in Los Angeles. Thirty-five dollars and a forty-one cent stamp later, I was back in the city’s good graces, but it was a rude introduction to the parking nightmare that is LA. The odds are that if a spot is big enough for a moving van, it’s probably not a legal spot.
The rest of the move was uneventful; I unloaded my belongings and returned the rental truck without incident. I’ve since enjoyed my time in LA, but I’m certain that I’m not the first to encounter trouble moving in Los Angles. A mobile homeowner became temporarily famous, then infamous, when his moving operation came to an untimely halt in the middle of the Hollywood Freeway. His mobile home was too tall to clear a bridge on the 101 and traffic was too dangerous to back up. So, on September 15, 2007 the mobile home stopped. It was eventually pulled to the side of the road, where it was left for days. Of course, Los Angeles is a city obsessed with both cars and itself; the traffic story became the topic du jour. Well-coiffed news reporters breathlessly reported from the scene, speculating on when the trailer might move as if it were a major political movement. Los Angeles traffic blogs-yes, there are such a thing-spilled thousands of pixels charting the every action of Caltrans workers as the highway workers plotted a strategy to remove the home from the shoulder. Witty pranksters adorned the home with “for sale” signs, and the venerable Los Angeles Times couldn’t resist the headline “Open House Lacks Curb Appeal.” Eventually the problem was solved, the house went on to complete its journey, and one more Los Angeleno managed to complete his moving adventure.
They don’t call this city Lalaland for nothing.
Related Link: California moving company.
