Los Angeles Is Miserable: An Introduction

The second decade of the 21st century might be remembered as a golden age for the city of Los Angeles. In the past five years, America's second largest metropolis has seen record-low crime rates, a slow-and-steady expansion of mass transit options, a rapidly gentrifying urban center that some are calling the "next great American city," and two NBA championships for our beloved Lakers. Yet a large portion of the city is still totally depressed like it's 1992 all over again. All those pretty winter landscapes you see on Instagram are actually a sign that 2013 was California's driest year in recorded history, and that we'll all be brushing our teeth with toilet water if it doesn't rain soon. Sure, crime is down and downtown has a bunch of fancy new hotels, but a few blocks from those hotels is the biggest homeless encampment in the nation—Skid Row.

A private, independent commission endorsed by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called LA2020 recently released a controversial report claiming that almost 40 percent of citizens in Los Angeles currently live in “misery.” What qualifies as misery? The report says that poverty and lack of access to necessary services does the trick. It takes only a cursory glance around in any direction, on any street in this city to see the truth of that statistic. Forty percent is a major chunk of a city that boasts a population of over 4 million people—plus neverending suburban sprawl—but the number of people who live in misery in LA is probably even greater than that.

What the folks behind the LA2020 study didn’t take into account is that plenty of LA residents are miserable for less tangible, more existential reasons. Getting passed over for a promotion, not nailing an audition, and not being able to find a place to get a goddamn alcoholic beverage past 2 AM are all legitimate reasons to be unhappy if you reside in the City of Angels.

In honor of this beautiful, sadsack town and its perennially self-conscious, downtrodden population, we’ve put together a series that delves into what makes Angelinos of all classes, races, and backgrounds miserable and/or consider moving to San Francisco.

Today, we've got an in-depth look at the drought emergency and how the Department of Water & Power is planning to deal with the crisis, plus interviews with locals on what makes them miserable. Tuesday will see the release of a feature story on the pollution harming the residents of Los Angeles's largest public housing project.

The rest of the week, we're going to be talking to the owners of a KISS-themed football team that calls LA home, taking a photographic trip down the notorious 6th Street (which cuts through some of the richest and poorest neighborhoods in the city), and trying to find out why people here hate public transit so much.

It's rough in LA, but I think I'm staying. At least we don't have the Google Bus.

@dave_schilling